Funeral to begin at 10am local time in St Peter’s Square and will be presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re

At least 130 foreign delegations, including about “50 heads of state and 10 reigning monarchs”, would attend Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday, the Vatican said on Thursday.

Heads of state and government who have confirmed their attendance at the funeral include Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump, Keir Starmer and Javier Milei, the president of Pope Francis’s native Argentina. Francis had a delicate relationship with politics in his home country, but Milei hailed his “goodness and wisdom”.

We will be present at the pope’s funeral, as is only right.

At least 130 foreign delegations and an estimated 200,000 pilgrims to descend on St Peter’s Square on Saturday

• Pope Francis funeral: latest updates

An extraordinary array of invitees, spanning heads of state and royals from around the world, as well as refugees, prisoners, transgender people and those who are homeless will descend on St Peter’s Square on Saturday for the funeral of Pope Francis, the groundbreaking liberal pontiff who led the Catholic church for 12 years.

Francis died at the age of 88 on Monday at his home in Casa Santa Marta after a stroke and subsequent heart failure. He had been recovering from double pneumonia that had kept him in hospital for five weeks.

Italian PM and pontiff could not have been further apart on issues such as migration, climate crisis and economy

• Pope Francis funeral: latest updates

It is an awkward weekend for Giorgia Meloni. The Italian leader will host a gathering of world leaders to say goodbye to a much-revered pope whose public views – from the treatment of people fleeing war to the climate crisis – were diametrically opposed to hers.

While Pope Francis was a staunch advocate for asylum seekers, and blessed the vessels that saved refugees at sea, Meloni once said Italy should “repatriate migrants back to their countries and then sink the boats that rescued them”.

Giuffre’s family issue statement confirming she killed herself at her farm in Western Australia

Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent victims of the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein who also alleged she was sexually trafficked to Prince Andrew, has died aged 41.

Her family issued a statement on Saturday confirming she took her own life at her farm in Western Australia, where she had lived for several years.

Exhausted residents point out latest drone strike came hours after Donald Trump’s rare rebuke to Vladimir Putin

About 1am on Friday, Yuliia Verbytska woke to the sound of an air raid siren. She grabbed her teenage children – Dmitry, 17, and Olexiy, 12 – and sat in the corridor, checking her phone. In the sky above came an ominous whine. Minutes later, a Russian drone crashed into the disused soap factory down the road in Polyova Street. There was an enormous explosion.

“We don’t have a shelter in our building, so we hide behind two concrete walls. All the neighbours sit together. You wonder if this is your last moment,” she said. Friday’s raid followed a massive attack on Thursday on Verbytska’s home, Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, and on the capital, Kyiv, where 12 people were killed. “I haven’t slept for two days,” she said wearily.

• Premier League and FA Cup: 10 things to look out for
• Today’s fixtures | Latest tables | And mail us or post BTL

Here at Guardian Towers, we like to please. Away from the glitz and glamour of the top leagues around Europe, the National League South has made headlines this week, where as many as six teams can still win the title. The league has confirmed that the trophy will have to be presented at a later date because, well, where the hell would they have it on standby? I’m not sure they could afford to rent a helicopter to fly the silverware in. The league table really is a sight to behold.

Here’s how Simon Burnton teed up the six-way title tussle:

The final day dawns for National League South with fully 25% of its teams capable of winning it. Truro City go into it above Torquay at the top because their goal difference is better by two (they have scored one more goal), Eastbourne Borough and Worthing are a further point back, and Boreham Wood and Dorking Wanderers are two behind them (with the division’s best and second-best goal difference respectively). Disappointingly none of the teams play any of the others on the last day, with the pick of the fixtures Truro’s against St Albans City, who need to do better than Salisbury (the two are level on points but Salisbury’s goal difference is better by one) to stay up. A few weeks ago it looked as if the title was Worthing’s to win: on 15 March they had won their past five, led the league by four and had a game in hand on every other side in the top 10. “We’re very hard to play against at the moment and I think we’re improving, we’re getting better,” their manager, Chris Agutter, said after they beat Hemel Hempstead Town that day. “We’re becoming more ruthless as well. We just need to keep working hard, and the results touch wood should keep going in the right direction.” Since then: two wins, two draws, three defeats. They end their season at Enfield, who could go down if Salisbury and St Albans win.

Inadequate record keeping means councils do not know whether former waste sites contain toxic substances

More than 100 old landfills in England that may be contaminated with toxic substances have flooded since 2000, potentially posing a serious safety risk, it can be revealed.

Some of these former dumps containing possibly hazardous materials sit directly next to public parks and housing estates with hundreds of households, the analysis by the Greenpeace-funded journalism website Unearthed , in partnership with the Guardian, found.

Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, who died on 4 April 2024, was the son of top-ranking US spy Juliane Gallina

An American man identified as the son of a deputy director of the CIA was killed in eastern Ukraine in 2024 while fighting under contract for the Russian military, according to an investigation by independent Russian media.

Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on 4 April 2024 in “Eastern Europe”, according to an obituary published by his family. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, who was appointed the deputy director for digital innovation at the Central Intelligence Agency in February 2024.

Ebow Graham died after falling out of a third-storey window in east London in April 2020 following a psychotic episode

An ambulance service and an NHS trust have admitted breaching their duty of care over the death of Ebow Graham, a founding member of the hip-hop group Foreign Beggars.

Graham, 40, died after falling out of a third-storey window in Clapton, east London in April 2020 following a psychotic episode. Hours earlier London ambulance paramedics had dismissed his friends’ concerns about his behaviour. And a crisis call handler from East London NHS trust also failed to properly assess his risk or arrange an urgent mental health assessment within the recommended time.

Hannah Dugan apprehended in courthouse where she works after agency says she helped man evade authorities

The FBI on Friday arrested a judge whom the agency accused of obstruction after it said she helped a man evade US immigration authorities as they were seeking to arrest him at her courthouse.

The county circuit judge, Hannah Dugan, was apprehended in the courthouse where she works in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at 8.30am local time on Friday on charges of obstruction, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service confirmed to the Guardian.