CNN
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he is open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine for the first time in years, as pressure from the United States builds on both sides to agree to a quick peace deal.

US, European and Ukrainian officials are set to meet this week in London after Washington warned that it could abandon its efforts on ending the conflict if there were no signs of progress.

Speaking to reporters, Putin said it could be possible to discuss the halting of strikes against civilian infrastructure directly with Kyiv.

“We have a positive attitude towards a ceasefire,” Putin also said, referencing Russia’s decision to implement a surprise 30-hour Easter truce – which both sides accused each other of violating.

“That is why we have always said that we take a positive attitude to any peace initiatives,” Putin said. “We hope that the representatives of the Kyiv regime will feel the same way.”

Ukraine, which called for the extension of the truce before it expired Sunday, has repeatedly accused Russia of deliberately targeting civilians with air and drone strikes, and President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for Moscow to halt such attacks.

Putin acknowledged that recent Russian strikes had hit civilian facilities in Ukraine, but claimed that they were being used for military purposes.

“That’s what we need to look into,” he said. “It’s all a subject to be thoroughly investigated. Maybe bilaterally, as a result of dialogue. We don’t rule that out.”

“So we will analyze all of this and make appropriate decisions for the future,” he said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed Putin’s remarks to journalists, Reuters reported citing Russia’s Interfax news agency.

“When the president said that it was possible to discuss the issue of not striking civilian targets, including bilaterally, the president had in mind negotiations and discussions with the Ukrainian side,” the news agency quoted Peskov as saying.

Ukraine and Russia have not held direct talks since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

Last Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that the US could walk away from its efforts to end the Ukrainian conflict within “days” if there were no signs of progress. Trump later confirmed the sentiment, but did not provide a timeline.

Asked what progress he would need to see to continue negotiations, Trump said he would “have to see an enthusiasm to want to end it” from both sides, predicting he would know “soon.”

The remarks came after a broad framework was presented by the US to both sides, Rubio and the State Department have said, to determine whether differences between Kyiv and Moscow can be narrowed.

The proposal would see Washington ready to recognize Russian control of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, an official familiar with the framework told CNN. The proposal would also put a ceasefire in place along the frontlines of the war, the official said.

There are still pieces of the framework to be filled out and the US plans to work with the Europeans and the Ukrainians during talks this week in London, the person said. The Trump administration is simultaneously planning another meeting between Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia to get Moscow on board with the framework, the source said.

Moscow has previously stalled on negotiations and rejected an earlier US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire agreed to by Kyiv.

Zelensky has not publicly commented on the latest US proposal. On Tuesday, he said Ukraine will send a delegation to the follow up talks in London.

“Ukraine, the United Kingdom, France, and the United States — we are ready to move forward as constructively as possible… to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” he wrote in a statement on X.

“An unconditional ceasefire must be the first step toward peace,” he said.

Zelensky has expressed willingness to agree to a peace deal with Moscow but said last month that his government would not recognize any occupied territories as Russian, calling that a “red line.”

Trump has declined to say whether he is prepared to walk away completely from the talks or whether the US would support Ukraine militarily if talks fall through.

Kosta Gak and Kylie Atwood contributed reporting

These words, delivered by Pope Francis to Canadian Indigenous leaders during their historic visit to Rome in 2022, were decades in the making.

Francis apologized for the Catholic Church’s role in what he said were “deplorable” abuses at Canada’s residential schools, which forcibly assimilated Indigenous children into Canadian society, stripping them of their language and culture.

More than 4,000 Indigenous children died from either neglect or abuse in residential schools, most of which were run by the church, according to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The last residential school closed in 1998.

The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools in British Columbia and Saskatchewan in 2021 further laid bare the extent of the horrors.

Indigenous leaders had fought for decades for a papal apology for the harm inflicted on First Nations, Inuit and Métis children.

Francis will be remembered in Canada as the pope who finally delivered that apology — first at the Vatican, then again during an emotional six-day “pilgrimage of penance” in Alberta, Quebec and Nunavut.

The pontiff’s visit was bittersweet for survivors, some of whom said it triggered more pain.

But Francis’ public recognition of the Church’s wrongdoing — abuses for which he said he felt “sorrow and shame” — were a crucial step toward reconciliation, according to many Indigenous leaders.

“We’ve lost an ally,” Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, told CNN affiliate CBC News. “He wanted to right the wrongs of the past.

Rome
CNN
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Following the death of Pope Francis, a cardinal from the United States has become acting head of the Vatican until a new pontiff is elected.

He is Cardinal Kevin Farrell, a Dublin-born cleric who became a naturalized American citizen after spending many years ministering in the United States. Farrell, a former Bishop of Dallas, holds the position of “camerlengo” (or chamberlain) which tasks him with “overseeing and administering the temporal goods and rights of the Apostolic See” following the death or resignation of a pope.

It is the camerlengo’s job to “officially ascertain the Pope’s death,” place seals on the pope’s bedroom and study and make funeral preparations. The camerlengo is also tasked with making practical arrangements for the conclave, to ensure the confidentiality of proceedings and orderly voting.

Wearing white choir dress and a red stole (a vestment), he presides over the ceremonial service of the certification of death, “a first moment of prayer” following the death of the pope, and the placing of the body into a wooden and zinc coffin, according to a liturgical book for papal funeral rites which Francis had updated last year. He draws up “the authentic act of death” which is then attached to the death certificate that has been drawn up by the Vatican’s Director of the Department of Health and Hygiene. On Monday evening, the Vatican press office said Francis died of a stroke and heart failure.

The camerlengo’s powers are limited to the day-to-day administration of the Vatican and he chairs a committee of three other cardinals as he carries out his duties. When serious matters arise, he must consult with the wider body of cardinals.

Nevertheless, during the papal interregnum – the period between the death of one pope and the election of another – the camerlengo can request financial information from Vatican departments including details of any “extraordinary business” taking place. He can also demand “the budget and consolidated financial statement of the Holy See for the previous year, as well as the budget for the following year,” according to the constitution of the church’s central administration. During a papal interregnum, all leaders of the Vatican offices cease to carry out their work aside from the camerlengo and two others.

Farrell is a well-qualified camerlengo. The 77-year-old is unusual for a high-ranking church leader in holding a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA), from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. Farrell is the highest-ranking US bishop in the church’s central administration and known as a strong decision maker and organizer who has the advantage of being a fluent English and Spanish speaker, the two most widely spoken languages in the global church. He is also known to speak Italian and Irish Gaelic.

Farrell’s expertise caught the attention of Pope Francis who made him one of his most trusted collaborators. In 2016, Francis appointed the then Bishop of Dallas to be the leader of the Vatican’s family life, later making him a cardinal and then, three years later, choosing him for the important and sensitive position of camerlengo.

But they weren’t the only responsibilities Francis gave the cardinal. In 2023, the pope appointed Farrell as President of the Vatican City state supreme court while naming him president of both the Vatican’s “Commission for Confidential Matters” and “Committee for Investments,” the latter designed to guarantee to the ethical nature of the Holy See’s financial investments. Farrell was also chosen to sit on the boards overseeing the Holy See’s property portfolio and the administration of Vatican City State.

Born in 1947, he left Ireland as a teenager and joined the Legionaries of Christ, a religious order founded in Mexico in 1941 which would later be plagued by the revelations of abuse by its founder, Marcial Maciel. Farrell, however, left the group decades before Maciel was revealed to have sexually abused dozens of minors.

The future cardinal studied in Spain and Rome and then worked in Mexico and the US. In 1984 he became a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington DC and went on to hold senior positions in the capitol’s local church. He would later face questions about what he knew regarding the case of former cardinal and Archbishop of Washington, Theodore McCarrick, found guilty by a church trial of abusing minors and of sexual misconduct against adult trainee priests. Farrell denied any knowledge of McCarrick’s behavior. “Did I ever know? No. Did I ever suspect? No. Did he ever abuse any seminarian in Washington? No,” he said.

While leading the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, the cardinal appointed two women to senior positions in his department and has said that his successor could be a non-cleric. “My expertise is getting people to do the job, people who are qualified to do the job,” he has said. Service at high-level in the church seems to be in the family blood with one of Farrell’s brothers, Brian, also a priest and a bishop and has spent many years working in the Vatican.

He backed the pope’s merciful approach to divorced and remarried Catholics, with Francis opening the door to them receiving communion. “Fundamentally, this is about meeting people where they are,” Farrell explained. The cardinal described opposition to the late pope as “vicious” and “unprecedented” but insisted Francis had bought the church closer to the fundamentals of Christianity.

As the church prepares for a new pontiff, Farrell will seek to ensure the transition is as smooth and seamless as possible.