CNN
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Ukraine’s Western allies including the US are threatening to slap Russia with more sanctions if Moscow fails to sign up to the 30-day truce in Ukraine proposed by the United States.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday added the threat of additional sanctions from the US and “its partners” to his latest call for an “unconditional ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine that Moscow has repeatedly rejected. A key meeting of leaders of Ukraine’s European allies is expected in Kyiv on Saturday in a further sign of growing pressure on Russia.

Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of his priorities and he has invested much effort into trying to get Russian President Vladimir Putin on board. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff went to Russia four times to meet with Putin and there have been several other high-level meetings between US and Russian officials since Trump returned to the White House in January.

But despite offering some previously unthinkable concessions to Russia, the Trump administration has not been able to get Russia to agree to the limited ceasefire proposal, intended as opening a path towards a permanent truce.

Now it seems that Trump is rapidly losing his patience with Putin over this stalling. And the latest move by Trump marks another shift in US stance on the conflict, which had at times been sympathetic to Kremlin.

Just days ago, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened the US would walk away from the talks if there is no progress. Instead, the US is now leading Ukraine’s other Western allies in trying to put more pressure on Russia.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted on Friday that an announcement outlining details of the ceasefire proposal is expected as early as on Saturday.

He said that leaders of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” – a group of Western nations that have pledged to help defend Ukraine against Russia – will meet in Kyiv on Saturday, without giving any details of who would be attending the summit.

Trump spoke to Zelensky and a number of European leaders about the ceasefire proposal and sanctions on Thursday.

The French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with Trump “several times” on Thursday, “commending his strong call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.”

“We must all work towards this goal without delay, false pretenses, or dilatory tactics. Ukraine has already expressed its support for such a ceasefire nearly two months ago. I now expect Russia to do the same,” Macron said on X.

Macron added that if Russia fails to accept the proposal, France was “ready to respond firmly, together with all Europeans and in close coordination with the United States.”

Speaking on Friday alongside the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Macron confirmed there would be “a meeting, partly virtual and partly in-person” in Kyiv on Saturday.

Trump also spoke to the leaders of 10 countries northern European countries that form the security alliance known as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) on Thursday. The leaders of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland called both Trump and Zelensky during their dinner at a summit in Oslo, according to statements from the governments of several of the countries represented at the meeting.

“Our message to both presidents was that we are committed to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. We also conveyed our full support for the proposal for a 30 days ceasefire and continued European and US commitment to the peace process,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement on X.

On Friday, just as Putin hosted number of Kremlin-friendly world leaders, including the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, at a pompous military parade in Moscow, Ukraine’s European allies showed their support for Kyiv by sending top level delegations to a meeting in Ukraine.

Dozens of foreign delegations were in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday to endorse the ceasefire proposal and the establishment of a special tribunal to investigate crimes of aggression against Ukraine.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and dozens of top diplomats from other European countries were among those attending.

London
CNN
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A pair of gently curved bridges, a bronze oak tree and a lily pad-inspired walkway are among the standout features of five shortlisted designs for Queen Elizabeth II’s official memorial site in central London.

The national memorial will be built in St. James’s Park, near Buckingham Palace in the heart of the British capital.

The finalists, unveiled Wednesday, include some of the UK’s most prominent architecture firms, including Foster + Partners, which designed London’s City Hall and 30 St. Mary Axe (known as The Gherkin), and Heatherwick Studios, the firm behind New York City’s Vessel structure.

A panel from The Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, which was jointly established by the British government and Royal Household, will announce a winning proposal this summer, according to a press release. The memorial is expected to be unveiled in 2026, marking what would have been the late Queen’s centenary.

The design brief asked for “an emotionally powerful place” that celebrates Elizabeth II’s “extraordinary life of service,” while providing the public with a space for reflection.

“She was part of our national identity and helped to define our values, she gave us a sense of continuity through times of great change, she was integral to recognizing achievement and she exemplified service and duty, strengthened by faith and leavened by pragmatism, optimism and humor,” said committee chair Lord Janvrin, the late Queen’s former private secretary, in the press release.

“The masterplan design needs to seek inspiration from all this,” he added. “The memorial must be — simply — a beautiful place, a place to visit with friends, a place to gather, to enjoy, and to reflect on an extraordinary life.”

The public can view the finalists’ designs as part of an online exhibition and can provide feedback until May 19.

To honor Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Heatherwick Studio proposed an entry with a lily-themed bridge at its heart (pictured top). In a video introducing the design, the firm’s founder Thomas Heatherwick said Elizabeth II’s values of “togetherness and unity” led his team to conceptualize a “Bridge of Togetherness” that would serve as a gathering place in the park.

The design features a sculpture of the late monarch protected by a canopy of “sculptural lilies” at the center of a limestone bridge. The proposal also includes a pathway of 70 limestone “lily pads” signifying the Queen’s 70-year reign, as well as plants that held significance for her.

“Like her legacy, it is quietly monumental,” reads the firm’s entry. “A memorial grown from the landscape, open to people throughout the world from every walk of life.”

Another design looking to themes of harmony was proposed by Foster + Partners, which was inspired by British architect John Nash’s 1820s remodeling of St. James’s Park.

The design consists of gardens connected by a network of meandering paths and linked by a “Unity Bridge” symbolizing the Queen as “a powerful force for bringing together people, nations, charities, the Commonwealth, and the Armed Forces,” the firm’s founder, architect Norman Foster, said in a video entry. The pathways will feature Elizabeth II’s words, both as audio installations and inscriptions on the path, including a quote from her 1953 coronation speech: “Throughout all my life and with all my heart I shall strive to be worthy of your trust.”

Proposed sculptures include new figurative statues of the Queen and Prince Philip, as well as a “Wind Sculpture” designed by the British artist Yinka Shonibare, intended to serve as a place of “reflection and shared experience.”

The proposal from landscape architecture studio J&L Gibbons centers on a vision of the late Queen as “the nation’s bedrock” by incorporating a bridge made of literal bedrock. Its layout also “invites forest bathing” in a series of glades surrounded by trees. In its proposal video, the firm said its design represents a quote from the Queen’s 1966 Christmas broadcast, in which she spoke to breathing “gentleness and care into the harsh progress of mankind.”

Also borrowing from nature is landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith, whose proposal incorporates a replica of a centuries-old oak tree from Windsor Great Park, once the private hunting grounds of the late Queen’s former residence, Windsor Castle.

Stuart-Smith’s team would digitally scan the tree before casting it as a full-size bronze sculpture. Called “The Queen’s Oak” and situated beside a gently curved bridge, the sculpture would be the centerpiece of the site, its lacquered leaves appearing like a “golden mirage reflected in the lake” at night, according to the firm’s entry.

Other features include bronze casts of flowers from various Commonwealth countries, as well as a “sonic soundscape” playing recorded memories from people whose lives were impacted by Elizabeth II.

To create a contemplative experience, architecture firm WilkinsonEyre, which recently restored London’s Battersea Power Station, proposed pathways with “threads” symbolizing the Queen’s life. Visitors can follow each of the threads, which are built around seven themes, including family, nature and the Commonwealth, representing her seven decades of service.

A pair of bridges, set on two different levels, would give visitors views of the park, royal palaces and the London skyline.

Six weeks before American Cardinal Robert Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, the activist group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) filed a complaint against him, along with other church leaders, to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

The group alleged Prevost “harmed the vulnerable and caused scandal” by mishandling two situations – in Chicago in 2000, and in Peru in 2022 – involving priests accused of sexual abuse.

The group said that as provincial supervisor in Chicago for the Augustinian order in 2000, Prevost allowed a priest accused of abusing at least 13 minors to live at the Augustinian order’s St. John Stone Friary in Hyde Park, half a block from St. Thomas the Apostle Elementary School. The priest, Father James Ray, had been barred since 1991 from performing parish work or being alone with minors – restrictions the Archdiocese of Chicago noted when it asked Prevost to allow Ray to live at the friary, the complaint said.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Prevost served as a parish pastor and diocesan official in Peru. He returned there in 2015, when Pope Francis appointed him as Bishop of the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru. In 2022, three women filed a complaint to Prevost accusing two priests there of sexual abuse beginning in 2007, when they were minors, as reported by The Pillar, a Catholic investigative journalism project.

The women filed civil complaints, saying the diocese had failed to act or inform civil authorities about their allegations. But prosecutors closed the case a month later, saying the statute of limitations had expired, according to SNAP’s complaint.

The diocese denied the women’s allegations, saying that Prevost met with them personally when they filed their initial complaint. The diocese said it suspended one priest after the complaint, and that the other was no longer in ministry because of his age and poor health. It also said it forwarded their complaint to higher-ups in Rome, to an office known as the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. But the dicastery closed that case in 2023.

SNAP’s complaint alleges that Prevost, as bishop, failed to open an investigation, properly inform civil prosecutors, or restrict the priests involved. The women also said church investigators never talked to them, SNAP’s Pearson told CNN.

Prevost’s successor as Bishop of Chiclayo, Guillermo Cornejo, reopened the case in 2023 and called for a new investigation, after one of the three women went public with her accusations, as reported by The Pillar.

Rodolfo Soriano Nuñez, a sociologist in Mexico City who has written extensively about the Roman Catholic church and its handling of clerical sexual abuse, said that Prevost was one of the few bishops in Peru who tried to address sexual abuse by priests, setting up a commission to deal with such cases.

While he served as Bishop of Chiclayo, Prevost told newspaper La Republica in 2019 that, “We reject cover-ups and secrecy” about sexual abuse cases. He urged people to come forward if they’re aware of abuse against minors by a priest.