WASHINGTON — Japanese Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato on Wednesday urged Group of 20 (G20) counterparts to cooperate in stabilizing markets, warning that US tariffs and countermeasures taken by some countries were hurting global growth and destabilizing financial markets.

Mr. Kato also said he would hold bilateral talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday, though he did not comment on what Japan hoped to discuss in the meeting.

“Geopolitical problems such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as US tariff measures and countermeasures taken by some countries, have heightened uncertainty, destabilized markets including currency rates, and hurt growth,” Mr. Kato said.

“The G20 must monitor developments carefully, exchange information, and coordinate in responding nimbly to maintain economic and market stability,” Kato told a news conference after attending the Group of Seven (G7) and G20 finance leaders’ meetings in Washington.

Mr. Kato said he also raised China’s excess production capacity in his meeting with G7 counterparts, and urged the group of advanced nations to jointly urge China to resolve “domestic imbalances” and help the global economy achieve more balanced growth.

Finance ministers and central bank governors of the G7 advanced nations and the broader G20 major economies are meeting in Washington on the sidelines of the annual spring International Monetary Fund and World Bank gatherings. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is ending the work of a US aid agency launched by Republican former President George W. Bush to reduce poverty and promote economic growth around the world, according to a recording of a staff meeting and an e-mail to staff seen by Reuters.

The move to shut down the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) comes as part of an unprecedented push by President Donald J. Trump and his billionaire adviser Mr. Musk to shrink the federal government, saying US taxpayer money is misspent.

MCC staff were told in a meeting on Wednesday that all of the agency’s programs will be closed and staff numbers would be minimized, according to a recording of the meeting.

“Foreign aid is not a priority for the administration and so MCC’s work needs to wind down,” Kyeh Kim, a senior MCC official, told staff.

Officials from DOGE arrived at the agency early last week and entered talks with leadership, who were attempting to save the agency, Kim said.

The MCC did not respond to an e-mail requesting comment.

Trump’s administration has already dismantled Washington’s main aid agency, USAID, which administered about $40 billion in aid annually.

The MCC, which was created by the US Congress with support from Republicans and Democrats in 2004, has an annual budget of about $900 million. It partners with developing countries on projects like improving electricity supply for businesses and improving roads for farmers to get their goods to market, according to its website.

An MCC employee told Reuters all the agency’s work had been ordered halted apart from a small number of active construction projects, including a wastewater treatment plant in Mongolia, electrical power grids in Senegal and Nepal, and schools in Ivory Coast.

“This is very much a business- and infrastructure-focused way of doing development. It’s very much in America’s interest,” said the employee, who requested anonymity.

Politico first reported the move, citing an e-mail sent to staff at the agency on Tuesday, which Reuters has also reviewed. The e-mail gives the agency’s 300 or so staff until April 29 to decide whether to take voluntary early retirement or a deferred resignation under which they will receive pay until the end of September, or face being placed on administrative leave.

“I would encourage you to think very hard of what makes sense for you and your family at this time, and that is more important than your commitment to this organization,” Kim said in the meeting on Wednesday, warning that the organization’s future “looks very stark.” — Reuters

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis died quickly on Monday morning from an unexpected stroke without suffering undue pain, and there was nothing that doctors could have done to save his life, the head of the pontiff’s medical team said in interviews published on Thursday.

Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, oversaw the pope’s treatment there during a five-week stay when Francis was fighting double pneumonia earlier this year.

Alfieri said he got a phone call at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Monday morning to come quickly to the Vatican and arrived about 20 minutes later.

“I entered his rooms and he (Francis) had his eyes open,” the doctor told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “I ascertained that there were no respiratory problems. And then I tried to call his name, but he did not respond to me.”

“In that moment I knew there was nothing more to do,” said Alfieri. “He was in a coma.”

In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Alfieri said some officials who were present with the pope suggested moving him immediately back to the hospital.

“He would have died on the way,” said the doctor. “Doing a CT scan we would have had a more exact diagnosis, but nothing more. It was one of those strokes that, in an hour, carries you away.”

Francis was 88 and had nearly died while fighting pneumonia, but his death came as a shock. Just the previous day he appeared in St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday, suggesting his convalescence was going well.

POPE KEPT WORKING
After Francis returned to the Vatican on March 23 after a 38-day hospital stay, Alfieri and the pope’s other doctors had prescribed him a two month period of rest to allow his ageing body to heal.

Francis, known to push himself hard, kept working. He met briefly with US Vice President JD Vance on Easter Sunday, and had visited a prison in Rome on April 17, Holy Thursday, to offer well wishes to the inmates.

Alfieri said the pope listened to his doctors’ advice and didn’t push himself too hard. “He (was) the pope,” the doctor told Corriere. “Going back to work was part of his treatment and he was never exposed to danger.”

The doctor said he last saw Francis on Saturday afternoon. “He was very well,” said Alfieri, who said he gifted the pope some pie, in a flavour he knew the pontiff liked.

He recounted the pope saying, “I am very well, I have started working again, and I like it.”

“We knew that he wanted to go home to be pope up until the last moment,” said the doctor. “He didn’t let us down.”

In the Repubblica interview, Alfieri said Francis had shared one final regret with him. While he was happy to have visited the prisoners on April 17, he wished he had been able to perform a foot-washing ritual for the Church’s celebration of Holy Thursday.

“He regretted he could not wash the feet of the prisoners,” said the doctor. “’This time I couldn’t do it’ was the last thing he said to me.” — Reuters