A planned meeting Wednesday between top U.S., British, French and Ukrainian diplomats to push forward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was scrapped at the last minute, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance saying negotiations are reaching a moment of truth.

"We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process," Vance told reporters during a visit Wednesday to Agra, India.

The bells of St. Peter's tolled Wednesday as the body of Pope Francis was transferred from the Vatican hotel where he lived into the basilica, escorted by a procession of solemn cardinals and Swiss Guards through the same piazza where the pontiff had greeted the faithful from his popemobile just days before in what became his final good-bye.

Pallbearers carried the simple wooden coffin on their shoulders through the Vatican's archway gates, out into St. Peter's Square and into the basilica, the cardinals in their scarlet cassocks, bishops in their purple robes and the Swiss Guards in their golden and blue uniforms processing slowly behind.

U.S. presidential envoy Steve Witkoff is expected in Moscow later this week, Russian state media reported Tuesday citing Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

"Yes," Ushakov said in response to a question from a journalist as to whether Witkoff would visit Moscow on what would be his fourth trip since U.S. President Trump took office with promises to bring a swift end to the Ukraine conflict.

Russian drones battered the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and glide bombs hit Zaporizhzhia, local authorities said Tuesday, as the Kremlin again warned that negotiators are unlikely to obtain a swift breakthrough in peace talks on the war.

Ukrainian, British, French and U.S. officials are due to meet in London on Wednesday to discuss the war. Anticipation is building over whether diplomatic efforts can stop more than three years of fighting since Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Hostility has run deep since Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea Peninsula in 2014.

Federal immigration authorities denied Mahmoud Khalil's request for a temporary release from detention to attend the birth of his first child, who was born Monday in New York, according to emails shared with The Associated Press.

Khalil, a Columbia University activist who has been held in a detention center in Jena, Louisiana for six weeks, requested a two-week furlough on Sunday morning, noting that his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, had gone into labor eight days earlier than expected.

Australians began voting Tuesday in general elections as the death of Pope Francis led to a cancellation of campaign events.

Polling stations opened to voters who, for a variety of reasons, will be unable to vote on May 3. Around half the votes are expected to be cast before then.

The infighting and backstabbing that plagued President Donald Trump's first term have returned as a threat to his second, with deepening fissures over trade, national security and questions of personal loyalty.

The latest turmoil threatens to engulf the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has pushed out top advisers and faces fresh controversy over sharing sensitive information about airstrikes in Yemen outside of classified channels. A former Pentagon spokesperson who was ousted last week wrote in Politico that Trump should fire Hegseth for presiding over a "full-blown meltdown."

Negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program will move Wednesday to what's known as the "expert level" — a sign analysts say shows that the talks are moving forward rapidly.

However, experts not involved in the talks who spoke with The Associated Press warn that this doesn't necessarily signal a deal is imminent. Instead, it means that the talks between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff haven't broken down at what likely is the top-level trade — Tehran limiting its atomic program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Cardinals were meeting Tuesday to set the date for Pope Francis's funeral, as world leaders from U.S. President Donald Trump to Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said they would attend to honour the Catholic leader.

The funeral of Pope Francis will take place on Saturday at 10:00am (0800 GMT) in the square in front of St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican announced on Tuesday.

The coffin of the Argentine pontiff, who died on Monday aged 88, will then be taken inside the church and from there taken to the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore for burial.