Lying in state begins
The ceremony has now concluded, and the three days of lying in state will begin, with Catholic faithful free to pay their final respects to Pope Francis until midnight and then again from 7am, up until 7pm on Friday, the night before the funeral.
Key events
Apple, Meta fines ‘about enforcement, not trade negotiations’ with US, commission spokesperson insists
For what it’s worth, commission deputy chief spokesperson Arianna Podestà insisted the Apple and Meta decisions were “about enforcement, not about trade negotiations” with the US.
She said:
“It’s very distinct matters, completely separate.
We have a regulation. We are applying the regulation. We apply it, of course, in the same way to all companies here.
We had a decision in the making that you have been asking us about for a while. We have concluded the technical work on these decisions. We have said, so, I think, past, in the past couple of weeks, and then we have been drafting the decision.
Of course, there are legal aspects to be taken into account in when drafting a decision, because it has to be sound from a legal perspective. When the decision was ready, we adopted it, and this is where we stand today.”
But she faced strong criticism from journalists for both commissioners responsible for the fine not taking part in the press conference, and leaving it to spokespeople to communicate their decisions.
“We don’t hold back decisions for communication purposes. We need to enforce our regulation now,” Podestà replied.
Apple, Meta fined hundreds of millions of euros for violating EU’s digital rulebook
In other European news elsewhere, the European Commission has just issued massive fines against US tech giants Apple and Meta for breaching its digital regulation, the Digital Markets Act.
The commission found that Apple breached the DMA’s “anti-steering obligation” for developers of apps distributed on App Store and has been fined €500m.
Separately, Meta was fined €200m for “breaching the DMA obligation to give consumers the choice of a service that uses less of their personal data after introducing a Consent or Pay model in 2023.
The full explanation for both decisions is here.
European Commission executive vice-president Teresa Ribera said the decisions “send a strong and clear message,” fining the companies for falling short of compliance with the rulebook.
“As a result, we have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules. All companies operating in the EU must follow our laws and respect European values,” she said.
But the move is likely to trigger an angry reaction from the US, as president Donald Trump repeatedly criticised EU regulations and what he perceived as taking aim at US companies.
Given the already tricky EU-US relations as a result of Trump’s aggressive trade policy, this could see the tensions rise further.
French lawmaker criticises decision to fly flags at half mast for Francis
Angelique Chrisafis
Alexis Corbière, a leftwing French MP in Seine-Saint-Denis, has criticised the French government’s decision to fly flags at halfmast on public buildings in France on Saturday on the day of Pope Francis’ funeral.
Corbière said that France was a secular Republic built on a clear separation of church and state, this meant it had a duty to remain neutral towards all religions and not give special treatment to one religion over another.
He told France Info he was also shocked that the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and two French ministers, would attend the pope’s funeral.
He said French secularism shouldn’t be a “variable principle” that changes according to the religion.
“If tomorrow the Dalai Lama dies, clearly French flags won’t fly at half mast. Clearly the head of state wouldn’t go to a funeral in the same way for a Muslim religious leader or a Jewish religious leader.”
In 2005, when Pope John Paul II died, some French politicians also cited French secularism to question the government’s decision to fly flags at half mast.
Lying in state begins
The ceremony has now concluded, and the three days of lying in state will begin, with Catholic faithful free to pay their final respects to Pope Francis until midnight and then again from 7am, up until 7pm on Friday, the night before the funeral.
Angela Giuffrida
Just heard from Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, the former archbishop of Toronto.
Collins was among the procession. He said: “It was the most profound moment. But from the simple prayers to the incense, it was no different to a funeral that any baptised person would have.”
Collins, 78, will also be part of the conclave to elect the next pope, but declined to give any hint of who he thought might succeed Francis.
Meanwhile, the ceremony inside St Peter’s Basilica is now over, with cardinals lining up to pay their respects at pope’s coffin first.
Jakub Krupa
I will bring you more updates from Angela in Rome later during the day, as she sets off to speak with pilgrims queueing to pay their final respects to Pope Francis.
Open coffin for procession was unexpected
Angela Giuffrida
It’s still hard to digest that Pope Francis is no longer with us, especially as just a few days ago, he was sitting on the balcony, waving to the crowd during the Easter Sunday mass, and he had been out and about a lot in the weeks leading to his death.
And although we were expecting it, because he was getting over a severe illness and was very ill, we didn’t expect it to happen so soon.
The general atmosphere is quite solemn, with hymns being sung in Latin, repeating the call to “pray for us,” which was always the final thing whenever the pope communicated or said anything. He would say, “Please don’t forget to pray for me.”
There are big crowds in the square and people would have been waiting since about 7 am this morning.
As part of the procession, we saw dozens of cardinals walking in front, alongside and behind the coffin, flanked by the Swiss guards solemnly lined up outside the Basilica.
What was unexpected was that the coffin was open. We don’t know who decided that, whether the pope made that decision himself.
I was just talking to a Spanish Vatican reporter – Jordi Barcia Antelo, Vatican correspondent for the Spanish national radio, RNE – and he said it was most likely the pope who made that decision and that it was his final way of showing he was close to the people; he didn’t want to be hidden away. But that’s a surprise this morning.
Let’s briefly turn to our Rome correspondent Angela Giuffrida, watching the ceremony from the rooftop above St Peter’s Square.
The coffin has now entered St Peter’s Basilica.
Crowds break into applause as coffin moves across St Peter’s Square
The crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square break into applause, as the coffin with Pope Francis’s body is carried through the square on its way into the Basilica.
The procession has just entered St Peter’s Square.
