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There are the three things that have come to illuminate the night sky in Nanterre – blue lights, orange flames and the starburst of fireworks.

For the first couple of nights, it was the fireworks and flames that seemed to dominate here. The police, already wildly unpopular among many in the district, were outnumbered, pelted with rocks and seemingly unable to take control.

That’s why the number of officers being on patrol went through the roof, rising from 9,000 to 40,000 in the space of 24 hours. It was an effort to wrestle back control but, from what we saw, it didn’t work.

You could certainly see a difference. Specialised SWAT teams were brought in along with armoured vehicles. Above Nanterre, a police helicopter looked down, training its searchlight.

But do they really control the streets? It doesn’t really feel like it.

We came to one junction last night and walked no more than a dozen paces down a road before being confronted by a group of young men. One of them, looking down at us from above, threatened us with rocks; another simply told us, in the most blunt terms possible, that we weren’t welcome and should get out straight away.

These are not idle threats. We know of four journalists who were attacked in Nanterre last night, and there may have been more.

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Rioters in Paris following the fatal police shooting of a teenager
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Rioters in Paris following the fatal police shooting of a teenager

Read more: Tear gas and stun grenades won’t stop riots and protests as long as fear persists in Paris

The simple fact is that there is a central area that is effectively guarded by groups of men, with lookouts stationed at each access point. It’s no easy matter to get in and out, unscathed.

The police know that, too. Just a few minutes after we had been threatened, they arrived in numbers – dozens of officers in full riot kit, along with an armoured vehicle and the clatter of the helicopter overhead.

But their role wasn’t so much to arrest as to clear the area – to remove barricades and clear the way for firefighters to put out the blazes.

Read more: Why is there a history of rioting in France’s suburbs?

So, for all the manpower they had, the unit we saw was effectively acting as bodyguards for the firefighters. When the blazes were extinguished, so the firefighters moved on to the next call, and the police went with them.

And what happened next was that the same groups of young men returned to the same corners and took up their positions as lookouts and guards. The wave had passed and they were back in charge.

It is a curious game of cat and mouse, where the cat has all the equipment and power, but the mouse is nimble, remorseless and unafraid.

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March for teenager killed by French police

Across France, what we are seeing is disorder and violence that is rooted in an utter lack of respect, or fear, of the police, or of the normal symbols of authority.

We see snapshots that linger in the mind. A teenager unloading hockey sticks from the back of a car; a fire burning in the middle of a busy road, forcing cars to turn back; a man in a balaclava walking round with a long length of wood in his hand.

Police vans speeding in all directions; the remnants of tear gas canisters that litter streets scorched by fires.

The smell of burning seems to linger over so much of this district at the moment. The fire of anger and discontent that was lit by the killing of 17-year-old Nahel has grown rather than dying away.

Curfews may be the next step, but, in an atmosphere of such disregard for the law, how many will abide by them? More police? A state of emergency? Frankly, nobody knows.

Nanterre has had three nights of violence and conflict, and already this district is scarred. It’s easy to say that the disorder can’t just go on, but so far that’s exactly what has happened.

What France needs is a solution, a balm for the pain. But right now, it doesn’t seem to have one.

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Pope Francis’s final moments reveal how quickly he deteriorated before death

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Pope Francis's final moments reveal how quickly he deteriorated before death

Pope Francis died little more than half an hour after being taken ill, Vatican sources have told Sky News.

Pope Francis woke at 6am on Monday, and was fine for at least an hour, sources said, as they revealed details of the pontiff’s final moments.

Around 7am, the Vatican’s medical unit received an emergency call from his Casa Santa Marta apartment.

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Where will Pope Francis be buried?

Pope latest – Prince William to attend funeral

An urgent transfer to the Gemelli hospital, where he was treated for pneumonia earlier this year, was among the options considered.

A request for an urgent escort from the Vatican was received by Rome police after 7am, sources there said, but, given how quickly his condition worsened, it was cancelled by Vatican officials before 7.35am.

Francis died at the age of 88, a day after making his final public appearance at St Peter’s Square, where he greeted crowds on Easter Sunday, one of the most important days of the Christian calendar.

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First images of pope’s casket

The Vatican said he died from a stroke that led to a coma and irreversible heart failure.

He is currently lying in state in the Santa Marta Domus in a private viewing for Vatican residents and the papal household.

Francis will be laid to rest Saturday, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects.

The funeral will take place outside, in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica, and will start with a procession led by a priest carrying a cross, followed by the coffin and ordained clergy.

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‘Many were in tears, I was in tears’

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the dean of the College of Cardinals, will lead the service. Nine days of mourning begin afterwards.

Unlike his predecessors, Francis will be buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (St Mary Major), as per his final burial wishes, announced on Monday.

The basilica is dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God, and is where Francis traditionally went to pray before and after foreign trips.

He will be the first pope to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century.

In another change from tradition, he will be buried in a simple wooden casket, forgoing the centuries-old practice of burying the late pope in three interlocking caskets made of cypress, lead, and oak.

Prince William will attend the funeral on behalf of King Charles, Kensington Palace has said.

Cardinals will gather in a conclave to choose his successor afterwards.

Read more:
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Pope Francis: A life in pictures
Francis was a champion of the deprived
Inside Vatican City at moment of high tension

Francis, the first Jesuit and Latin American pontiff, had suffered from a chronic lung disease and had part of a lung removed as a young man.

Health issues plagued him throughout his later life, and he was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on 14 February for a respiratory crisis that developed into double pneumonia. He stayed at the hospital for 38 days before being released.

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Kristi Noem: Top Trump official’s handbag – containing $3,000 in cash and security pass – stolen in burger restaurant

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Kristi Noem: Top Trump official's handbag - containing ,000 in cash and security pass - stolen in burger restaurant

A bag belonging to the US Homeland Security Secretary was stolen on Sunday night – containing thousands of dollars in cash and an ID card that gives access to secure agency buildings.

Kristi Noem was eating at a Washington DC burger restaurant with family when a man in a face covering sat near her table and stole her purse, according to two people familiar with the theft.

Officials confirmed the theft to Sky News’ US partner NBC News on Monday.

The cabinet secretary was carrying $3,000 (£2,243) in cash because “her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren”, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told NBC.

“She was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities and Easter gifts.”

US Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem visited CECOT in March. Pic: Reuters
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The purse contained her ID card. Reuters file pic

Just before 8pm, a man wearing an N-95 mask walked into the restaurant and up a few stairs to where Ms Noem was eating dinner.

He sat near her table and moved his chair close to hers before sliding her purse toward him with his foot, according to surveillance footage viewed by law enforcement, the sources said.

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Within minutes, the man had Ms Noem’s purse under his jacket and walked out of the restaurant.

At least two on-duty members of the US Secret Service were in the restaurant – between Ms Noem and the front doors – according to a source who witnessed the meal.

They said the restaurant wasn’t very busy at the time.

The purse also contained credit cards, blank cheques, her passport, driver’s licence and a set of keys.

It’s unclear whether Ms Noem was specifically targeted – and investigators are looking into whether the man knew who the purse belonged to.

When asked about the incident, Ms Noem said: “I don’t think I can comment on it yet. It’s not resolved yet.”

She said the Secret Service was aware but said she hadn’t spoken to agency personnel about what happened.

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Godfather-style gang war gripping two major cities

Ms Noem is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s policies of deporting undocumented immigrants and fortifying the US-Mexico border to slow illegal migration.

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Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia’s ‘brutal war’ – as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

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Starmer and Zelenskyy discuss ending Russia's 'brutal war' - as Putin says says he is open to bilateral talks on longer ceasefire

Sir Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about ending Russia’s “brutal war” on Ukraine in their latest phone call on Easter Monday, as Vladimir Putin said he was open to bilateral talks.

The prime minister and Ukrainian president spoke on Monday afternoon, when Sir Keir “reiterated his iron-clad support for Ukraine“.

A Downing Street spokesperson added that the prime minister “said that the UK supports Ukraine’s calls for Russia to commit to a full ceasefire and that now is the time for Putin to show he is serious about ending his brutal war”.

“They discussed the latest developments on the Coalition of the Willing, and looked forward to further progress towards a just and lasting peace,” the spokesperson added.

Mr Zelenskyy later said on social media that he had a “good and detailed conversation” with the prime minister, and added Ukrainian officials will be in London for talks on ending the war with Russia on Wednesday.

“We are ready to move forward as constructively as possible, just as we have done before, to achieve an unconditional ceasefire, followed by the establishment of a real and lasting peace,” he added.

The Ukrainian president added that the 30-hour Easter truce, which both Kyiv and Moscow accuse the other of violating, showed that Russia “are prolonging the war”.

It comes as Mr Putin proposed bilateral talks with Ukraine on a longer ceasefire, which would mark the first time Russia held such talks since a failed peace deal soon after the invasion in 2022.

Speaking to a state TV reporter, the Russian president said: “We always have a positive attitude towards a truce, which is why we came up with such an initiative (the Easter truce), especially since we are talking about the bright Easter days.”

When asked about Mr Zelenskyy’s calls to extend the 30-hour ceasefire into a 30-day pause on civilian targets, he added: “This is all a subject for careful study, perhaps even bilaterally. We do not rule this out.”

The Ukrainian president said on Sunday evening that the Russian army had “violated Putin’s ceasefire more than 2,000 times” during the day, and accused Russia of “failing” to “uphold its own promise of a ceasefire”.

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From Saturday: Why Putin offered an Easter truce?

It also comes after Donald Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine “will make a deal this week,” after he and his secretary of state Marco Rubio warned that the US will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon.

The US president said on his Truth Social platform that both countries would “start to do big business” with the US after ending the war.

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Last month, Ukraine accepted Mr Trump’s proposal for a 30-day truce, but Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire, saying crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out.

He then said he would agree not to target Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. However, both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea.

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