Ukraine peace talks in London – Pope Francis funeral set for Saturday- IMF cuts global growth

Wednesday’s headlines reflect the busyness of the world with stories from Europe, the US and the Middle East flooding into the UK headlines. 

A little closer to home and there’s some rumblings about the prime minister saying trans women are not real women – a u-turn after the Supreme Court ruled that legally the term “woman” means a biological woman. The right wing are suggesting the prime minister should issue an apology after only coming to this conclusion after the ruling, the left wing are disappointed the prime minister has not stood by his original belief that trans women are women. 

Ukraine peace talks in London have been downgraded after Mario Rubio pulled out of the talks. Instead, London will host diplomats from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine and the US aimed at securing a ceasefire in the three-year war between Ukraine and Russia. 

IMF cuts global growth prediction due to the global fallout from the US trade tariffs, the UK is set to be amongst the hardest hit. The Bank of England could cut interest rates three more times this year despite the UK dealing with higher-than-expected inflation, the IMF has said.

Pope Francis funeral set for Saturday as his body is set to be moved to St Peter’s Basilica for a period of public mourning. The Pope died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 due to a stroke and heart disease. 

In Asia, Kashmir is in shock after gunmen killed 26 tourists. There’s no offocial confirmation yet on who carried out the attack but some media reports say a shadowy outfit may have claimed responsibility. 

Lots is happening in North America this morning too. Tesla boss Elon Musk has said he will cut back his role in the Trump administration after his car company’s profits plunged 71% in the first three months of the year.

The Trump administration is set to overhaul the US State Department, cutting offices and bureaus, the forecast for US economic growth has been given a huge downgrade by the IMF, and Trump has confirmed he won’t be firing the head of the Federal Resevere despite calling him a “loser” – causing a selloff of stocks, bonds and the US dollar, but financial markets have since been recovering from those losses.

In Canada, more than 7 million people have cast their ballots early, setting a new record for early voter turnout. On the top of Canadian worries is Donald Trump, who has heavily tariffed their northern neighbour and threatened to turn the country into the 51st state. 

Ukraine peace talks in London

• The Daily Telegraph reports Donald Trump will allow Putin to keep almost all the territory he seized from Ukraine under the terms of a proposed peace deal. The seven-point proposal, which would see the US formally recognise Russian sovereignty over Crimea and freeze the current front line, would also reportedly leave Ukraine with no clear US security guarantee.
• Sky News the talks in London today have been ‘downgraded’ as neither the UK foreign Secretary David Lammy or the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now attend the summit as had previously been planned. 
• The FT says the Russian president has offered to bring an end to the Ukraine war across the current front line. “There is a lot of pressure on Kyiv right now to give up on things so Trump can claim victory,” one unnamed European official told the newspaper.
• The Guardian says it had been hoped that Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, would attend the talks, but the state department said on Tuesday that would no longer be possible and that Keith Kellogg, the White House’s Ukraine envoy, would be present instead.
• The Independent says Lammy will no longer host a crucial peace summit after Rubio pilled out and counterparts from France, Germany and Ukraine are also not expected to attend. The downgradede meeting will now take place among senior officials of the five nations, while Lammy will hold bilateral talks instead. 

Pope Francis funeral set for Saturday

• Sky News says the body of Pope Francis is being moved to St Peter’s Basilica, where tens of thousands of mourners will queue to file past his open casket over the three days. 
• BBC News says Pope Francis was a “real game-changer” when it came to the Catholic Church’s treatment of gay people, a London LGBT+ faith group has said.
• The Telegraph reports whilst the late Pope famously adopted a more liberal stance there is now growing support for a successor with a traditional conservative approach.
• The Guardian says one of the Pope’s last acts was to simplify papal rites, stripping away elaborate rituals and scaling back procession. 

IMF cuts global growth amid tariff war 

• The Guardian leads with the IMF’s verdict that the world economy will be impacted by the trade measures. The IMF says Trump’s tariffs had unleashed a “major negative shock” to the world economy and forecasts for the US, UK and global growth were cut, with the uncertainty expected to lead to a “significant slowdown in global growth in the near term”.
• BBC News reports the US economic growth forecast for the year has received the biggest downgrade among advanced economies due to the uncertainty caused by trade tariffs. 
• The FT reports the IMF has cut the UK’s growth forecasts in the wake of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and said that the Bank of England could afford to lower interest rates three more times this year.
• CNBC says in its new projections, the IMF now calls for a U.S. growth outlook of 1.8% in 2025, down 0.9 percentage point from its January forecast.
• The Daily Telegraph reports Tesla’s profits have plummeted to a five year low as the car company deals with the cost of boss Elon Musk’s involvement in politics – and Trump’s trade war.