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At midday on Monday, church bells across Italy began to toll. Pope Francis was dead.

Not even 24 hours had passed since he had made a surprise appearance on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square, blessing the 35,000 people gathered to celebrate Easter at the Vatican.

The Pope was breathing on his own, without oxygen tubes, despite being told by his doctors to spend two months convalescing after 38 days in hospital with double pneumonia.

Over the past two weeks Francis had done what he had always done, received visitors and met people from every walk of life.

When he appeared on Easter Sunday, the crowd below erupted in cheers as he appeared; then it fell silent.

“Dear brothers and sisters, I wish you a happy Easter,” he said, his voice heavy with effort.

They were to be his final words in public.

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“I think people could feel something – as if they could tell it was the last time they’d see him,” said Mauro, a Rome resident who was in St Peter’s Square for Easter Mass and had now returned to pay his respects.

“Usually everyone shouts ‘Long live the Pope!’… this time it was much quieter than usual, there was maybe more respect for his suffering.”

“He blessed us but his voice was a husk,” a man called Alberto told the BBC. “I think he was giving us his last goodbye.”

Doctors who treated Francis at Rome’s Gemelli hospital had prescribed a regimen of complete rest – but it was never likely that a typically active Pope who spent much of his papacy meeting people would keep to that.

Francis had already made it clear he wanted to be back in the Vatican in time for Easter, as soon as the specialists treating him explained that his health issues would not be resolved quickly.

For Christians, Easter is even more important than Christmas as it symbolises a core tenet of their faith – the resurrection of Christ, three days after his nailing to the cross.

Before he was discharged on 23 March, Francis waved to crowds from the hospital too, and then headed back to his quarters in the Casa Santa Marta guest house he had made his home.

His medical team said all he needed was oxygen, and convalescing there was better than hospital with all its infections.

Easter was just three weeks away and, as it approached, the Pope’s schedule became increasingly busy.

He met King Charles and Queen Camilla at the Casa San Marta and then appeared on the Vatican balcony for Palm Sunday four days later on 13 April, mingling with a crowd of 20,000 people in St Peter’s Square, against doctors’ advice.

But for the Pope, Easter was most important time of all.

Last Thursday, as he had done many times previously and as he used to do in his native Argentina before becoming Pope, he made a visit to the Regina Coeli jail in Rome where he spent half an hour meeting prisoners and he was greeted by applause from staff and guards as he arrived in a wheelchair.

In previous years he had washed inmates’ feet, mirroring what Jesus is said to have done with his disciples the night before his death.

“This year I’m unable to do that, but I can and want to still be near you,” he said in a feeble voice to the dozens of prisoners who had come to see him, and who cheered him on as he toured the jail.

“We are so lucky. Those on the outside don’t get to see him and we do,” one man told Italian media.

As he was leaving the prison, Francis was asked by a journalist how he would experience Easter this year.

“Whichever way I can,” he replied.

And, on Sunday, he kept his promise.

He held a short meeting with US Vice-President JD Vance before appearing before the crowds in St Peter’s Square as the crowd below erupted in cheers.

He made his final blessing – the Urbi et Orbi address in Latin, meaning “to the city and to the world”. Then, Archbishop Diego Ravelli read out a speech written by the Pope as Francis sat silently beside him.

Then, to everyone’s surprise, he descended down to St Peter’s Square, where he was driven around in an open-top popemobile – the distinctive little white Mercedes-Benz used by popes to meet crowds.

A camera followed him around as he raised his arm to bless the faithful lining the sunny square, and a few babies were brought up closer to him. It was the last time the world saw him alive.

Watching Francis’s blessing on Sunday, Alberto from Rome felt he would not last much longer, although the Pope’s death still came as a shock.

“I didn’t feel happy seeing him, I could tell he was in pain,” he said. “But it was an honour to see him one last time.”

Francis died early on Monday in his beloved Casa Santa Marta – a residenceof 100-odd simple rooms, run by nuns and open to pilgrims and visitors.

A little over two hours later, the cardinal chamberlain, or camerlengo, stood in the Casa Santa Marta and made the news public.

The Vatican said on Monday evening he had died of a stroke and irreversible heart failure.

The Pope’s rooms were a far cry from the opulence of the Vatican quarters typically destined to pontiffs, which Francis had turned down at the start of his papacy saying he felt the need to “live among people”.

“If I lived by myself, maybe even a bit in isolation, it would be of no use to me,” he said back then.

In the coming days, cardinals from across the world will be staying at Casa Santa Marta as they gather in Rome for the conclave that will choose Francis’ successor.

Outside, in the bright sunshine in St Peter’s Square, people mingled with priests and friars under the imposing basilica.

A group of nuns clad in grey and white glared at a man who, headphones in, was dancing around the square. “No respect,” they tutted.

The same large screens that broadcast the Pope’s blessing for Easter now displayed a photo of Francis smiling and a notice that a special rosary was being held for him 12 hours after his death.

It would allow Catholics near and far to pray for their Pope – and thank him for celebrating one last Easter with them.

Boy meets girl. Girl falls for boy. Girl fends off love rivals and boy – finally – declares his affection for her.

If you are a fan of reality TV dating shows, you will have seen several variations of this plot – it is a well-worn storyline that has played out on the likes of Love Island, Love is Blind and The Bachelor.

But in Ethiopia, this romantic scenario has broken convention.

Content creator Bethel Getahun won over insurance agent Messiah Hailemeskel in Latey: Looking for Love – a reality TV show that ignited debates about dating norms in the conservative East African country.

Latey’s premise mirrored that of the aforementioned hit US show, The Bachelor (in fact, Latey is Amharic for bachelor/bachelorette).

Ten women had to compete for the affection of Mr Messiah, a 38-year-old Ethiopian-American who grew up and lives in Dallas.

Throughout the series, the women battled it out in boxing matches, basketball contests and even a bizarre task where they had to devise a TV advert for a mattress, à la The Apprentice.

Broadcast on YouTube, Latey is a rare dating programme in a country where courtship is traditionally a private affair.

Winning such a ground-breaking show felt “surreal”, 25-year-old Ms Bethel told the BBC’s Focus on Africa podcast. Weeks on from the finale, which racked up more than 620,000 views, her victory still “feels like a badge of honour”.

Of course, not everyone feels the same way.

“The concept of a dating show is entirely [a] Western idea,” says Ethiopian vlogger Semere Kassaye.

“Dating in Ethiopia has always been a private matter, something that is nurtured carefully and only brought to the attention of family or society when it reaches a level of maturity.”

Mr Semere, 41, also feels that the show devalues women, treating them as objects to be acquired.

Several viewers voiced the same opinion – one commenter on YouTube wrote: “Ladies, you are not an object that the one with money can easily pick you up.”

Another asked: “Lots of creativity on the production but if it is against the culture, what is the point?”

Ms Bethel agrees that the concept of women openly competing for a man clashes with Ethiopian traditions, but insists that the show is more than its central premise.

“The whole point of the show is to represent different kinds of women,” she says.

“If you have seen the episodes, you can see every woman in that episode has a lot of different struggles, backgrounds, and all different kinds of stuff that hasn’t really been expressed or represented in media in Ethiopia.”

Arguably, Latey succeeds in this respect. The women – who include hotel managers, flight attendants and accountants – swiftly bond, sharing their personal stories with each other and the viewers.

In one of the more heart-breaking scenes, actress Vivian divulges that she fled to Ethiopia from Eritrea, a neighbouring country that enforces indefinite military conscription for all able-bodied citizens. It has also been widely accused of human rights violations.

Vivian travelled alone to Ethiopia and has not seen her mother in five years.

“I miss her so much,” she says tearfully.

Elsewhere, Rahel, a model, explains that she dropped out of school to take on multiple jobs and provide for her siblings, while other women have emotional conversations about grief and their reverence for those who raised them.

By baring these women’s realities – and their romantic desires – Latey cemented its place as the “content of its times”, producer Metasebia Yoseph tells the BBC.

Ms Metasebia, co-founder of D!nkTV, Latey’s production company, says the show “rocked the boat”, but is far from an affront to Ethiopian culture.

“Number one – it is not hyper-sexualised,” she says.

“We leave it on the more innocent, get-to-know-you, stages of dating.”

She says the show also asks its viewers to interrogate the concept of culture, “sparking dialogue about ‘What is our culture? Are we a monolith?’”

Adapting a universal reality TV formula to Ethiopia has delighted many, with one fan commenting: “I totally love the risk-taking, considering how reserved we are as a society… I have always wanted to see other shows in Ethiopian version. This is a ground-breaking moment.”

A second viewer wrote: “I never imagined watching The Bachelor in Ethiopia, but you have done an excellent job bringing it to life.”

Off the back of this success, D!nk TV is planning a second series.

This time, Ms Metasebia says, a single woman could be the one picking her match from 10 male hopefuls.

“We’re getting a lot of feedback from the audience, people want to see the roles reversed,” she explains.

As for Ms Bethel and Mr Messiah? Sadly, their love story has come to a halt.

“It is long distance because he’s in America right now with his son. So it’s really difficult… I don’t know where it’s going to go, basically,” she says.

But Ms Bethel is still close to some of her fellow contestants, who she fondly refers to as her “sorority”.

She is proud that Latey showcased “the romantic side of Ethiopia” and believes the show will lead to better representations of women in Ethiopian media.

“It is a new way of showcasing women and how they express themselves,” she says.

“It is a new way of seeing.”

Two years ago, Dan Somers started to experience a series of strange and unexplained symptoms. He had severe chest pain, was unable to keep food or even water down and kept “chucking up bile”.

Though he had a sense that something might be wrong, Dan was reluctant to seek medical help. “I’m really stubborn when it comes down to going to the doctors,” the 43-year-old from Ipswich tells the BBC. “I didn’t want to be a burden.”

Dan’s pain continued to get worse, until he was “near enough screaming on the floor in pain” and had to take time off work. It was the worst pain he’s ever experienced, he says upon reflection.

But “I honestly thought I could try and fix it,” Dan recalls.

It was his wife who finally managed to push Dan to see the doctor.

His GP sent him straight to hospital, where he was diagnosed with a gallbladder infection and spent a week recovering. He was told he had been close to getting sepsis.

Dan’s story mirrors those of other men who’ve told the BBC they’ve also put off seeking medical treatment – often until their symptoms became unbearable or until a loved one pushed them to get help.

It’s well known that men go to the doctors less than women, and data backs this up.

The NHS told the BBC it doesn’t release demographic data about GP appointments. But according to the ONS Health Insight Survey from February, commissioned by NHS England, 45.8% of women compared to just 33.5% of men had attempted to make contact with their GP practice for themselves or someone else in their household in the last 28 days.

Men were more likely to say they weren’t registered at a dental practice and “rarely or never” used a pharmacy, too.

They also make up considerably fewer hospital outpatient appointments than women, even when pregnancy-related appointments are discounted.

Men are “less likely to attend routine appointments and more likely to delay help-seeking until symptoms interfere with daily function,” says Paul Galdas, professor of men’s health at the University of York.

This all affects men’s health outcomes.

Experts say there’s a long list of reasons why men might put off seeking medical help, and new survey data from the NHS suggests that concerns about how they are perceived come into play.

In the survey, 48% of male respondents agreed they felt a degree of pressure to “tough it out” when it came to potential health issues, while a third agreed they felt talking about potential health concerns might make others see them as weak. The poll heard from almost 1,000 men in England in November and December 2024.

Society associates masculinity with traits like self-reliance, independence and not showing vulnerability, says social psychologist Prof Brendan Gough of Leeds Beckett University. “Men are traditionally supposed to sort things out themselves”.

“It’s worrying to see just how many men still feel unable to talk about their health concerns,” says Dr Claire Fuller, NHS medical director for primary care. She notes that men can be reluctant to seek medical support for mental health and for changes in their bodies that could be signs of cancer.

“GPs are often the best way to access the help they need,” she adds.

Kevin McMullan says he’s learned from working for men’s mental health charity ManHealth that men want to solve their own problems. He says he struggled with his mental health for years before he finally got help.

“You want to fix it yourself. Men are inherent problem-solvers and how you are feeling is a problem in the same way that having a flat tyre is a problem,” says Kevin, 44, from Sedgefield in County Durham.

This is something that the Health Insights Survey indicates, too. The data suggests that when people were unable to contact their GP practice, men were significantly more likely than women to report “self-managing” their condition, while women were more likely than men to go to a pharmacy or call 111.

“Many men feel that help-seeking threatens their sense of independence or competence,” Prof Galdas says.

Prof Galdas points to other factors deterring men from going to the doctors, like appointment systems that don’t fit around their working patterns.

Services also rely on talking openly about problems, he suggests, which doesn’t reflect how men speak about health concerns – and there are no fixed check-ups targeting younger men.

Women, in contrast, are “sort of forced to engage in the health system” because they might seek appointments related to menstruation, contraception, cervical screenings or pregnancy, says Seb Pillon, a GP in Bolton.

And they’re largely in control of organising their family’s healthcare, too. For example, roughly 90% of the people who contacted the children’s sleep charity Sleep Action for help in the last six months were mums, grandmothers and other women in the children’s lives, its head of service Alyson O’Brien says.

Because women are more integrated in the healthcare system – through seeking support for both themselves and their children – they’re more health-literate and are often the driving force behind their partners seeking medical help, according to Prof Galdas.

And men just have a different attitude towards healthcare, Dr Pillon says. He believes many see it solely as treatment – solving their problems – rather than preventative. Men are, for example, less likely to take part in the NHS’s bowel cancer screening programme. As Prof Galdas says: “men often seek help when symptoms disrupt their ability to function.”

For Jonathan Anstee, 54, from Surrey, it took his symptoms getting drastically worse for him to book a doctors appointment, after months of stomach aches and blood in his stool.

“The pain got a lot worse and the blood got a lot worse,” Jonathan says. “But even when I went to the doctors, I was sat in the waiting room thinking ‘this is a massive waste of time’.”

He was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2022.

Throughout his life he’d generally avoided doctors appointments, Jonathan says. And as a father, “you’re used to worrying about your kids and not yourself,” he says. Going to the doctors for himself, not his children, seemed “a bit sort of indulgent”, he says.

Last year, Jonathan was told his bowel cancer was stage four.

Having blood in his stool had felt too embarrassing to talk to his friends and family about at the time. Jonathan’s advice to other men is: “There is absolutely no need to be embarrassed. The alternative could kill you – literally.”

In recent years, support groups for men with cancer and mental health conditions have sprung up.

Matthew Wiltshire started the men’s charity the Cancer Club after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2015. He died in 2023.

Matthew felt there wasn’t a space “where men were openly talking about what it’s like to go through cancer,” his son, Oliver Wiltshire, says. “He also noticed how much of the emotional load was being carried by the women around him.”

Through the Cancer Club, men can message online and attend sports events together.

“Whether it’s practical advice, honest chat or just knowing someone else gets it, that connection can make a big difference,” Oliver adds.

Experts say that while men’s attitudes towards healthcare are gradually changing for the better, more work still needs to be done.

Prof Galdas believes men will engage more if services are redesigned to meet their needs – proactively offering support, having flexible access and focusing on practical action to improve mental health issues.

“There’s good evidence from gender-responsive programmes in mental health, cancer care, and health checks showing this consistently,” he says.

For Dr Pillon, it’s adding general health checks for men in their 20s to get them more used to accessing medical care.

They’re already available through the NHS for people aged 40 to 74, but introducing them for younger men who might not otherwise go to the doctors would “embed the idea that you can come and use health services”, he says.

If you have been affected by some of the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC’s Action Line.

Three men have been charged with manslaughter after a woman was killed in a crash on a golf course.

Suzanne Cherry, 62, from Aldridge, near Walsall, died in hospital on 15 April, four days after she was struck at Aston Wood Golf Club, in Little Aston, by a grey Nissan van which had been involved in a police pursuit.

Her husband has described how he “watched in helpless horror” as his wife was killed at the club on Blake Street in Lichfield, Staffordshire.

John McDonald, 51, of Bloxwich, Johnny McDonald, 22, of Dudley and Brett Delaney, 34, of Darlaston, Walsall, were charged and are due to appear at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre later.

Two patrol cars had started following the van in Kingstanding in Birmingham after receiving reports of suspicious activity.

They stopped chasing it when it came off the road and went up an embankment at Aston Wood Golf Club, where it hit Ms Cherry.

Her husband said his wife had an “amazing and infectious zest for life” but their “future together was snatched away in an instant”.

“She was unselfish, always ready to encourage with love and support those around her to achieve more than they themselves thought possible,” he said.

He added that she had left “a legacy and an unfillable void” in the lives of her mother, her three adult children, two step-children and “countless others from her work, her sporting activities and social circle”.

John McDonald was also charged with assault by beating and failing to stop a vehicle when directed by a constable.

Three other men who were arrested in connection with the investigation have been bailed with conditions, Staffordshire Police said.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said it was continuing to investigate the circumstances prior to the crash.

West Midlands Police said specialist officers were continuing to support Ms Cherry’s family.

Trading cryptocurrency was just a bit of fun for Tzoni Raykov, but losing $1,500 worth to an administrative error has left him with serious concerns about his treatment by the industry.

The oil engineer has held an account with Revolut for several years – using its app to split bills with friends after going out for dinner or drinks. They would pay each other using traditional currency, like the pound sterling or US dollar.

But after seeing the e-money firm advertise its cryptocurrency services, he decided to give it a try.

What Tzoni thought would be a straightforward transfer of cryptocurrency coins has left the Bulgarian national angry and out of pocket.

His experience highlights some of the frustrations people have had using cryptocurrency where many of the customer safeguards which underpin standard online banking transactions, some mandated by law, do not apply.

“When they treat you like this, it makes you feel like you can’t do anything,” he told BBC News. “Like you are powerless.”

While the cryptocurrency market is dominated by Bitcoin, there is a plethora of other digital currencies, including USDC – which Tzoni had already amassed in a separate crypto account.

His frustrations began in February when he decided to transfer some of his USDC coins to his Revolut account.

As a precaution – which Revolut suggests doing – he first sent 10 of the coins, worth $10. It was a success and the funds were credited to his Revolut account.

Days later he tried to make a larger transfer of what he thought was 1,500 USDC. The transfer was completed but, this time, the funds were not credited to his account.

Tzoni says the problem occurred because Revolut’s deposit instructions were unclear.

When you transfer cryptocurrency from one account to another, you have to select a network to send it through – like choosing which courier service to use when sending a parcel.

Revolut’s deposit instructions say to transfer USDC to it, you have to use a network called Polygon. In his first, successful, deposit Tzoni selected one called “Polygon PoS”.

In the second deposit, when he tried to transfer 1,500 USDC, he selected a different network – “Polygon (bridged)”.

He thought it would work just as well but says instead it caused the coins to be converted into USDC.e – a different cryptocurrency.

This is what Revolut received. The company does not handle USDC.e coins.

After seeing his Revolut account had not been credited with the 1,500 coins, Tzoni contacted the Revolut support team.

In messages seen by BBC News, they told him the issue seemed to be with “the specific type of Polygon network used, which led to the conversion”.

In another, he was told: “The app currently specifies ‘Polygon’ without differentiating between standard and bridged options. I’ll note your feedback for future improvements.”

Tzoni thinks if Revolut’s deposit instructions had been more specific, his problem would have been avoided.

When approached by BBC News about this case, Revolut gave a different answer.

The firm said the problem was not because Tzoni had used the wrong Polygon network – which he claimed turned his coins into USDC.e.

The deposit failure was “not because the network itself had ‘converted’ the token”, it said, without explaining why its support team had suggested to Tzoni that it was.

Revolut told us the deposit ultimately failed because the USDC.e coins it received were not supported by the company’s technology.

It said: “As is standard industry practice due to the significant technical challenges involved in supporting every combination of token and chain, the recovery of these unsupported assets does not sit within Revolut’s scope.”

It means the 1,500 USDC.e coins have not been credited to Tzoni’s account or sent back to him.

To Tzoni’s mind, this isn’t acceptable treatment from a company of Revolut’s size and reputation, which handles normal banking deposits as well as cryptocurrency, stocks and commodities.

Revolut says it has 10 million users in the UK while last year it was granted a provisional banking licence, paving the way for it to become a fully fledged UK bank.

When using a High Street bank, a mistaken transfer of traditional currency would usually be resolved with the money being reverted back to the customer.

This was established in 2014 in a voluntary code of practice that most UK banks signed up to. There is no such equivalent in the cryptocurrency industry.

After contacting Revolut several times in recent weeks, Tzoni has been told the coins are effectively lost.

“They are waiting for me to get bored and give up, to accept the money is gone. But I won’t,” Tzoni said, pointing out the coins are in the Revolut system. “It is ridiculous that they can behave like this.”

While Tzoni’s loss of cryptocurrency is significant to him, the sum is tiny compared with the size of the industry, which has risen sharply in value over the past 18 months.

The global market peaked in value at $3.9tn last December, following the re-election of Donald Trump. Since then it has fallen by $1.1tn, according to tracking website CoinGecko.

Government policies in the US and other countries are also changing to favour the cryptocurrency industry, even though it has suffered several scandals.

FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency firms, went bankrupt in 2022. Sam Bankman-Fried, its chief executive, was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year for defrauding customers of billions of dollars.

Investigators also found FTX was using QuickBooks, a popular accounting software designed for individuals and small businesses, to manage the money.

John Ray III, a lawyer tasked with recovering funds from FTX for defrauded customers, told a bankruptcy court: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

He later told a congressional hearing: “Nothing against QuickBooks. It’s a very nice tool, just not for a multibillion-dollar company.”

A couple of months ago Bybit, the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange by some estimates, was tricked out of $1.5bn worth of coins by hackers thought to be working for North Korea.

The firm had been using Safe, a free digital storage software popular with individuals who want to store cryptocurrency on their own devices, as part of their business operations.

Following the theft, Bybit’s chief executive said they “should have upgraded and moved away from Safe” earlier.

One of the problems with cryptocurrency firms, says Prof Mark Button, who researches cybercrime, is they can grow very quickly, which means they don’t always keep up with the accounting and security challenges of managing so much money.

“For me it illustrates that if we are going to be serious about cryptocurrencies in the future… there needs to be some kind of regulation.”

In Tzoni’s case, it might have been easier for him to get his cryptocurrency back or be compensated if there were laws stating what firms need to do if they are sent a coin they don’t handle.

Higher industry standards might also have prevented him making such a transaction in the first place.

Mykhailo Tiutin is chief technology officer at AMLBot, a company that analyses how risky cryptocurrency transactions are.

Their service runs checks similar to those supported by banks, where details for a transfer, such as the account holder’s name, sort code and account number, are verified.

He says cryptocurrency is safe enough for the average person to use but that they should be careful about which products and services they choose. He says he has also lost cryptocurrency after making an administrative mistake.

“You have to do your own research,” he told us. “The successes and the losses are ultimately at your own risk.”

Perched on top of Santorini’s sheer cliffs is a world-famous tourist industry worth millions. Underneath is the fizzing risk of an almighty explosion.

A huge ancient eruption created the dreamy Greek island, leaving a vast crater and a horse-shoe shaped rim.

Now scientists are investigating for the first time how dangerous the next big one could be.

BBC News spent a day on board the British royal research ship the Discovery as they searched for clues.

Just weeks before, nearly half of Santorini’s 11,000 residents had fled for safety when the island shut down in a series of earthquakes.

It was a harsh reminder that under the idyllic white villages dotted with gyros restaurants, hot tubs in AirBnB rentals, and vineyards on rich volcanic soil, two tectonic plates grind in the Earth’s crust.

Prof Isobel Yeo, an expert on highly dangerous submarine volcanoes with Britain’s National Oceanography Centre, is leading the mission. Around two-thirds of the world’s volcanoes are underwater, but they are hardly monitored.

“It’s a bit like ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in terms of understanding their danger, compared to more famous ones like Vesuvius,” she says on deck, as we watch two engineers winching a robot the size of a car off the ship’s side.

This work, coming so soon after the earthquakes, will help scientists understand what type of seismic unrest could indicate a volcanic eruption is imminent.

Santorini’s last eruption was in 1950, but as recently as 2012 there was a “period of unrest”, says Isobel. Magma flowed into the volcanoes’ chambers and the islands “swelled up”.

“Underwater volcanoes are capable of really big, really destructive eruptions,” she says.

“We are lulled into a sense of false security if you’re used to small eruptions and the volcano acting safe. You assume the next will be the same – but it might not,” she says.

The Hunga Tunga eruption in 2022 in the Pacific produced the largest underwater explosion ever recorded, and created a tsunami in the Atlantic with shockwaves felt in the UK. Some islands in Tonga, near the volcano, were so devastated that their people have never returned.

Beneath our feet on the ship, 300m (984ft) down, are bubbling hot vents. These cracks in the Earth turn the seafloor into a bright orange world of protruding rocks and gas clouds.

“We know more about the surface of some planets than what’s down there,” Isobel says.

The robot descends to the seabed to collect fluids, gases and snap off chunks of rock.

Those vents are hydrothermal, meaning hot water pours out from cracks, and they often form near volcanoes.

They are why Isobel and 22 scientists from around the world are on this ship for a month.

So far, no-one has been able to work out if a volcano becomes more or less explosive when sea water in these vents mixes with magma.

“We are trying to map the hydrothermal system,” Isobel explains. It’s not like making a map on land. “We have to look inside the earth,” she says.

The Discovery is investigating Santorini’s caldera and sailing out to Kolombo, the other major volcano in this area, about 7km (4.3 miles) north-east of the island.

The two volcanoes are not expected to erupt imminently, but it is only a matter of time.

The expedition will create data sets and geohazard maps for Greece’s Civil Protection Agency, explains Prof Paraskevi Nomikou, a member of the government emergency group that met daily during the earthquake crisis.

She is from Santorini, and grew up hearing about past earthquakes and eruptions from her grandfather. The volcano inspired her to become a geologist.

“This research is very important because it will inform local people how active the volcanoes are, and it will map the area that will be forbidden to access during an eruption,” she says.

It will reveal which parts of the Santorini sea floor are the most hazardous, she adds.

These missions are incredibly expensive, so Isobel crams in experiments night and day as the scientists work in 12-hour shifts.

John Jamieson, a professor at Canada’s Memorial University in Newfoundland, shows us volcanic rocks extracted from the vents.

“Don’t pick that one up,” he warns. “It’s full of arsenic.”

Pointing to another that looks like a black and orange meringue with gold dusting, he explains: “This is a real mystery – we don’t even know what it is made of.”

These rocks tell the history of the fluid, temperature and material inside the volcano. “This is a geological environment different to most others – it’s really exciting,” he says.

But the mission’s beating heart is a dark shipping container on deck where four people stare at screens mounted on a wall.

Using a joystick that wouldn’t look out of a place on a gaming console, two engineers drive the underwater robot. Isobel and Paraskevi trade theories about what is in a pool of fluid that the robot has found.

They have recorded very small earthquakes around the volcano, caused by fluid moving through the system and causing fractures. Isobel plays us an audio recording of the fractures reverberating. It sounds like the bass in a nightclub being amped up and down.

They identify how fluid moves through rocks by pulsing an electromagnetic field into the earth.

This is creating a 3D map that shows how the hydrothermal system is connected to the volcano’s magma chamber where an eruption is generated.

“We are doing science for the people, not science for the scientists. We are here to make people feel safe,” Paraskevi says.

The recent earthquake crisis in Santorini highlighted how exposed the island’s residents are to the seismic threats and how reliant they are on tourism.

Back on dry land, photographer Eva Rendl meets me in her favourite location for wedding shoots. When the so-called swarm of earthquakes hit in February, she left the island with her daughter.

“It was really scary, as it got more and more intense,” she says.

She’s back now but business is slower. “People have cancelled bookings. Normally I start shoots in April but my first job isn’t until May,” Eva says.

In the main square of Santorini’s upmarket town Oia, British-Canadian tourist Janet tells us six of her group of 10 cancelled their holiday.

She believes more accurate scientific information about the likelihood of earthquakes and volcanoes would help others feel more reassured about visiting.

“I get the Google alerts, I get the scientists’ alerts, and it helps me feel safe,” she said.

But Santorini will always be a dream destination. In Imerovigli, we see two people climbing onto the curved rooftops to get the perfect shot.

The couple – married for just 15 minutes – travelled from Latvia and were not put off by the island’s underwater risks.

“Actually we wanted to get married by a volcano,” Tom says, his bride Kristina by his side.

His ascension to the papacy heralded many firsts.

Francis was the first Pope from the Americas or the Southern Hemisphere. Not since Syrian-born Gregory III died in 741 had there been a non-European Bishop of Rome.

He was also the first Jesuit to be elected to the throne of St Peter – Jesuits were historically looked on with suspicion by Rome.

His predecessor, Benedict XVI, was the first Pope to retire voluntarily in almost 600 years and for almost a decade the Vatican Gardens hosted two popes.

Many Catholics had assumed the new pontiff would be a younger man – but Cardinal Bergoglio of Argentina was already in his seventies when he became Pope in 2013.

He had presented himself as a compromise candidate: appealing to conservatives with orthodox views on sexual matters while attracting the reformers with his liberal stance on social justice.

It was hoped his unorthodox background would help rejuvenate the Vatican and reinvigorate its holy mission.

But within the Vatican bureaucracy some of Francis’s attempts at reform met with resistance and his predecessor, who died in 2022, remained popular among traditionalists.

From the moment of his election, Francis indicated he would do things differently. He received his cardinals informally and standing – rather than seated on the papal throne.

On 13 March 2013, Pope Francis emerged on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square.

Clad simply in white, he bore a new name which paid homage to St Francis of Assisi, the 13th Century preacher and animal lover.

He was determined to favour humility over pomp and grandeur. He shunned the papal limousine and insisted on sharing the bus taking other cardinals home.

The new Pope set a moral mission for the 1.2 billion-strong flock. “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and for the poor,” he remarked.

His last act as head of the Catholic Church was to appear on Easter Sunday on the balcony of St Peter’s Square, waving at thousands of worshippers after weeks in hospital with double pneumonia.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 17 December 1936 – the eldest of five children. His parents had fled their native Italy to escape the evils of fascism.

He enjoyed tango dancing and became a supporter of his local football club, San Lorenzo.

He was lucky to escape with his life after an initial and serious bout of pneumonia, undergoing an operation to remove part of a lung. It would leave him susceptible to infection throughout his life.

As an elderly man he also suffered from pain in his right knee, which he described as a “physical humiliation”.

The young Bergoglio worked as a nightclub bouncer and floor sweeper, before graduating as a chemist.

At a local factory, he worked closely with Esther Ballestrino, who campaigned against Argentina’s military dictatorship. She was tortured, her body never found.

He became a Jesuit, studied philosophy and taught literature and psychology. Ordained a decade later, he won swift promotion, becoming provincial superior for Argentina in 1973.

Some felt he failed to do enough to oppose the generals of Argentina’s brutal military regime.

He was accused of involvement in the military kidnapping of two priests during Argentina’s Dirty War, a period when thousands of people were tortured or killed, or disappeared, from 1976 to 1983.

The two priests were tortured but eventually found alive – heavily sedated and semi-naked.

Bergoglio faced charges of failing to inform the authorities that their work in poor neighbourhoods had been endorsed by the Church. This, if true, had abandoned them to the death squads. It was an accusation he flatly denied, insisting he had worked behind the scenes to free them.

Asked why he did not speak out, he reportedly said it was too difficult. In truth – at 36 years old – he found himself in a chaos that would have tried the most seasoned leader. He certainly helped many who tried to flee the country.

He also had differences with fellow Jesuits who believed Bergoglio lacked interest in liberation theology – that synthesis of Christian thought and Marxist sociology which sought to overthrow injustice. He, by contrast, preferred a gentler form of pastoral support.

At times, the relationship bordered on estrangement. When he sought initially to become Pope in 2005 some Jesuits breathed a sigh of relief.

He was named Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992 and then became Archbishop.

Pope John Paul II made him a cardinal in 2001 and he took up posts in the Church’s civil service, the Curia.

He cultivated a reputation as a man of simple tastes, eschewing many of the trappings of a senior cleric. He usually flew economy and preferred to wear the black gown of a priest – rather than the red and purple of his new position.

In his sermons, he called for social inclusion and criticised governments that failed to pay attention to the poorest in society.

“We live in the most unequal part of the world,” he said, “which has grown the most, yet reduced misery the least.”

As Pope, he made great efforts to heal the thousand-year rift with the Eastern Orthodox Church. In recognition, for the first time since the Great Schism of 1054, the Patriarch of Constantinople attended the installation of a new Bishop of Rome.

Francis worked with Anglicans, Lutherans and Methodists and persuaded the Israeli and Palestinian presidents to join him to pray for peace.

After attacks by Muslim militants, he said it was not right to identify Islam with violence. “If I speak of Islamic violence, then I have to speak of Catholic violence too,” he declared.

Politically, he allied himself with the Argentine government’s claim on the Falklands, telling a service: “We come to pray for those who have fallen, sons of the homeland who set out to defend their mother, the homeland, to claim the country that is theirs.”

And, as a Spanish-speaking Latin American, he provided a crucial service as mediator when the US government edged towards historic rapprochement with Cuba. It is difficult to imagine a European Pope playing such a critical diplomatic role.

On many of the Church’s teachings, Pope Francis was a traditionalist.

He was “as uncompromising as Pope John Paul II… on euthanasia, the death penalty, abortion, the right to life, human rights and the celibacy of priests”, according to Monsignor Osvaldo Musto, who was at seminary with him.

He said the Church should welcome people regardless of their sexual orientation, but insisted gay adoption was a form of discrimination against children.

There were warm words in favour of some kind of same-sex unions for gay couples, but Francis did not favour calling it marriage. This, he said, would be “an attempt to destroy God’s plan”.

Shortly after becoming Pope in 2013, he took part in an anti-abortion march in Rome – calling for rights of the unborn “from the moment of conception”.

He called on gynaecologists to invoke their consciences and sent a message to Ireland – as it held a referendum on the subject – begging people there to protect the vulnerable.

He resisted the ordination of women, declaring that Pope John Paul II had once and for all ruled out the possibility.

And, although he seemed at first to allow that contraception might be used to prevent disease, he praised Paul VI’s teaching on the subject – which warned it might reduce women to instruments of male satisfaction.

In 2015, Pope Francis told an audience in the Philippines that contraception involved “the destruction of the family through the privation of children”. It was not the absence of children itself that he saw as so damaging, but the wilful decision to avoid them.

The greatest challenge to his papacy, however, came on two fronts: from those who accused him of failing to tackle child abuse and from conservative critics who felt that he was diluting the faith. In particular, they had in mind his moves to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to take Communion.

Conservatives also adopted the issue of child abuse as a weapon in their long-running campaign.

In August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a former Apostolic Nuncio to the US, published an 11-page declaration of war. He released a letter describing a series of warnings made to the Vatican about the behaviour of a former cardinal, Thomas McCarrick.

It was alleged that McCarrick had been a serial abuser who attacked both adults and minors. The Pope, Archbishop Viganò said, had made him a “trusted councillor” despite knowing he was deeply corrupted. The solution was clear, he said: Pope Francis should resign.

“These homosexual networks,” the archbishop claimed, “act under the concealment of secrecy and lie with the power of octopus tentacles… and are strangling the entire Church.”

The ensuing row threatened to engulf the Church. McCarrick was eventually defrocked in February 2019, after an investigation by the Vatican.

During the Covid pandemic, Francis cancelled his regular appearances in St Peter’s Square – to prevent the virus circulating. In an important example of moral leadership, he also declared that being vaccinated was a universal obligation.

In 2022, he became the first Pope for more than a century to bury his predecessor – after Benedict’s death at the age of 95.

By now, he had his own health problems – with several hospitalisations. But Francis was determined to continue with his efforts to promote global peace and inter-religious dialogue.

In 2023, he made a pilgrimage to South Sudan, pleading with the country’s leaders to end conflict.

He appealed for an end to the “absurd and cruel war” in Ukraine, although he disappointed Ukrainians by appearing to swallow Russia’s propaganda message of having been provoked into its invasion.

And a year later, he embarked on an ambitious four-country, two-continent odyssey; with stops in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Singapore.

In recent months, Francis had struggled with his health. In March 2025, he spent five weeks in hospital with pneumonia in both lungs.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio came to the throne of St Peter determined to change it.

There will be some who would have preferred a more liberal leader, and critics will point to his perceived weakness in confronting the institution’s legacy of clerical sexual abuse.

But change it, he did.

He appointed more than 140 cardinals from non-European countries and bequeaths his successor a Church that is far more global in outlook than the one he inherited.

And, to set an example, he was the no-frills Pope who elected not to live in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace – complete with Sistine Chapel – but in the modern block next door (which Pope John Paul II had built as a guest house).

He believed anything else would be vanity. “Look at the peacock,” he said, “it’s beautiful if you look at it from the front. But if you look at it from behind, you discover the truth.”

He also hoped he could shake up the institution itself, enhancing the Church’s historic mission by cutting through internal strife, focusing on the poor and returning the Church to the people.

“We need to avoid the spiritual sickness of a Church that is wrapped up in its own world,” he said shortly after his election.

“If I had to choose between a wounded Church that goes out on to the streets and a sick, withdrawn Church, I would choose the first.”

A spokesperson for Donald Trump says the president “stands strongly behind Pete Hegseth” after reports that military attack details were shared in a group chat that included the US defence secretary’s wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

The controversy comes a month after a journalist was added to a Signal group chat in which US cabinet officials, including Hegseth, discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.

In the second Signal chat, Hegseth shared information about air strikes against Yemen, the BBC’s US news partner CBS confirmed, citing sources familiar with the messages.

While not denying the reports, Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the president still backs Hegseth.

Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that Hegseth “is doing phenomenal leading the Pentagon” and appeared to pin the latest reports on internal dissent.

“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement,” she said.

When questioned by reporters on Monday, Hegseth claimed the media was “full of hoaxsters” who “try to slash and burn people” but did not directly respond to the story about the second Signal chat, which was initially reported by the New York Times.

In a statement to the newspaper, the White House said no classified information was shared.

The messages in the second chat, sent on 15 March, included flight schedules for American F/A-18 Hornets carrying out strikes on Houthi targets.

Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, is a former Fox News producer and holds no official position within the Pentagon. Hegseth has previously been criticised for reportedly including his wife in meetings with foreign leaders.

His brother, Phil, and personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, both hold positions at the Department of Defense. But it is not clear why any of the three would require advanced warnings of sensitive US strike plans.

Unlike the first Signal group, the second one – called “Defense | Team Huddle” – was created by Hegseth, according to the New York Times.

The existence of the earlier Signal group was revealed by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, who was accidentally included in it by Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser.

Officials used the group to discuss information relating to upcoming strikes in Yemen. Goldberg left the original chat after the first attacks on 14 March, but the two group chats appeared to discuss the same military operation that took place over several weeks.

The White House has also denied that classified information was discussed in the first group, although critics of Hegseth – including former US defence officials – question that. They say discussing such information in Signal groups could jeopardise US personnel carrying out military operations.

Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender of the message and its recipients can view its contents.

This is considered a high level of security for a messaging app. But it offers no protection if someone’s phone is viewed by another person or falls into the wrong hands, or if the wrong person is added to a group chat.

Experts say this is why classified communications normally take place in secure, government-controlled locations rather than on officials’ private devices.

The existence of the second Signal group is the latest controversy surrounding the head of the Pentagon, who this year is controlling a budget of $892bn (£670bn).

Hegseth last week fired three top officials for an “unauthorised disclosure” – an accusation the officials said was “baseless”.

In a testy exchange outside the White House ahead of an annual Easter event, Hegseth appeared to attribute the latest story to the officials he fired.

“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out,” he said.

Hegseth denounced the reporters, and said he has spoken to the president and that they were “on the same page all the way” before turning away from the cameras.

In an op-ed for Politico magazine published on Sunday, John Ullyot, a former top Pentagon spokesperson who resigned last week, wrote that the department was in “total chaos”.

He added: “The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president – who deserves better from his senior leadership.”

Ullyot said it was not true that the three fired officials were leaking information and wrote: “Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”

However, in a statement on X, Sean Parnell, current chief spokesman for the Pentagon, accused the “Trump-hating media” of “destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda”.

He echoed the White House by saying that “there was no classified information in any Signal chat”.

Washington says its strikes in Yemen are punishment for Houthi attacks on cargo vessels transiting through the Red Sea, a critical waterway for international trade.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.

The Houthis have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.

US air strikes on an oil terminal in north-western Yemen this week killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, according to the Houthi-run health ministry. The Houthi-led government said the attack constituted a “war crime”.

Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, after 12 years as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

His death has triggered a mourning period which involves centuries-old rites.

It has also set into motion the process for electing a new pontiff. A conclave can be expected to be held between 15 and 20 days after Francis’s death.

This is what we can expect now.

The official duties are carried out by the Pope’s camerlengo or chamberlain, currently Irish-American Cardinal Kevin Farrell.

He is the one who officially confirms the death, with a doctor and death certificate. No autopsy is performed.

The Vatican said on Easter Monday, hours after announcing his death, that Francis’s body would be laid in a coffin in a chapel at his Saint Martha residence at 20:00 local time (18:00 GMT). Farrell would preside over those rites, the Vatican said.

It will also fall upon the camerlengo to lock and seal the Pope’s personal residence.

Francis had not taken up apartments in the grand Apostolic Palace but smaller quarters in the form of a suite in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse.

Farrell also has the responsibility to destroy the Pope’s ring and lead seal, which is used to authenticate official documents, so they cannot be used by anyone else.

He and a team of three assisting cardinals will then set out the mourning schedule for Pope Francis – including the date of the funeral and burial.

The period of mourning rites typically lasts nine days, and church rules say those events should begin between the fourth and sixth day after the Pope’s death.

Farrell and his team will also decide when the Pope’s body will be moved into St Peter’s Basilica before burial so the public can pay their respects. On Monday afternoon, the Vatican said this transfer could happen as early as Wednesday morning but that cardinals would decide on Tuesday.

Pope Francis shunned much of the Church’s pomp and ceremony – so in keeping with that style he requested his body not be put on a raised platform, the traditional catafalque, in the middle of St Peter’s Basilica for public viewing.

Instead the faithful coming to mourn will simply be able to look upon his body inside his coffin which will have the lid removed.

His funeral, according to Church custom, should typically be held within four to six days after his death, with the funeral mass taking place in St Peter’s Square.

Papal funerals have traditionally been elaborate affairs, but Pope Francis acted last year to simplify his arrangements.

He will be the first Pope in more than a century not to be buried in the Vatican, in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica – opting instead to be laid to rest in Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major, near his favourite icon of the Madonna.

Francis also requested to be buried in a simple wooden casket – unlike his predecessors who were buried in the traditional three nesting coffins made of cypress, lead and oak.

Pope Francis’s death sets into motion the political process for the Church to select a new leader.

Cardinals from around the world will descend on the Vatican for the election, known as a conclave.

Traditionally, the 15-day mourning period is observed before the conclave begins. However Francis’s predecessor Benedict changed the rules in 2013 to allow it to begin earlier if the cardinals wished. The vote typically takes place 15-20 days after the Pope’s death.

The new Pope is voted on by the College of Cardinals – a group of the Church’s most senior officials, who are all men, all appointed by the Pope and who are usually all ordained bishops.

There are currently 252 Catholic cardinals, but only 135 are eligible to cast ballots as those over the age of 80 can take part in debate but cannot vote.

Meanwhile, between the Pope’s death and the election of his successor, the College of Cardinals governs the Church.

They run the day-to-day business of the church but have limited power as much of the Church’s central administration stops work and typically, Vatican department heads resign from their positions until they are confirmed or replaced by the new Pope.

The voting cardinals are locked into a period of pontiff selection where they are cut off from communication with the outside world – denied phones, the internet and newspapers – while in discussions and lobbying among themselves to decide the Church’s new leader.

The conclave, or election, is held in strict secrecy inside the Sistine Chapel, famously painted by Michelangelo.

A majority of two thirds plus one of the gathering is needed to agree on a new Pope, so multiple rounds of voting are often needed to get a result. After the first day, a secret ballot takes place twice a day and the process can often stretch to several days.

In previous centuries, voting has gone on for weeks or months. Some cardinals have even died during conclaves.

To the outside world, the only clue as to how it is progressing is the smoke that emerges from the chapel’s chimney, the product of the cardinals’ ballot papers being burned.

Black smoke signals failure. White smoke means a new Pope has been chosen.

After the white smoke goes up, the new Pope normally appears within an hour on the balcony overlooking St Peter’s Square.

The senior cardinal participating in the conclave will announce the decision with the words “Habemus Papam” – Latin for “we have a Pope”.

He will then introduce the new Pope by his chosen papal name, which may or may not be his original given name.

For example, Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, but he chose a different name for his papacy in honour of St Francis of Assisi.

In theory, any Roman Catholic man who has been baptised can be considered for election to become Pope.

In practice, however, the cardinals prefer to select one of their own.

In 2013, the Argentine-born Francis became the first pontiff to hail from South America – a region that accounts for around 28% of the world’s Catholics – and the southern hemisphere.

Historical precedent suggests the cardinals are far more likely to pick a European – and especially an Italian. Of the 266 popes chosen to date, 217 have been from Italy.

Several Vatican analysts have suggested it is possible Francis’s successor could come from outside Europe – not least because the late Pope appointed more than 140 cardinals from beyond the continent during his tenure.

The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church. Roman Catholics believe he represents a direct line back to Jesus Christ. He is considered a living successor to St Peter, who was chief among Christ’s initial disciples, the Apostles.

That gives him full and unhindered power over the entire Catholic Church and makes him an important source of authority for the world’s roughly 1.4 billion Catholics.

While many Catholics often consult the Bible for guidance, they can also turn to the teachings of the Pope, which govern the Church’s beliefs and practices.

About half of all Christians worldwide are Roman Catholics. Other denominations, including Protestants and Orthodox Christians, do not recognise the Pope’s authority.

The Pope lives in Vatican City, the smallest independent state in the world. It is surrounded by the Italian capital, Rome.

The Pope does not receive a salary, but all his travel costs and living expenses are paid for by the Vatican.