Pope Francis has ‘quiet’ night in hospital, Vatican says
ABC News
ROME and LONDON — Pope Francis in a prayer published on Sunday thanked Gemelli Hospital’s doctors and medical staff “for the attention with which they are taking care of me.”
The prayer — the pope’s weekly Angelus — was dispatched from the hospital in Rome, where the pope was resting early Sunday after a “quiet” night, the Vatican said in a brief statement.
“The night was quiet, the pope is still resting,” the Vatican’s press office said.
Francis in his prayer to followers said he felt “all your affection and closeness,” adding that he felt “as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people.”
“I feel in my heart the ‘blessing’ that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord,” he said in the prayer.
He added, “At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people.”
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pontiff had been in stable condition on Saturday, church officials said, following a bronchospasm attack on Friday.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s administration made a calculated decision to ignore a judge’s directive to turn around two flights containing hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The verbal order from the chief judge of the Washington, D.C., District Court, James Boasberg, explicitly told the government to turn around any aircraft that had already departed the country if it was still in the air.
“You shall inform your clients of this immediately any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said during a hearing on Saturday. “However that’s accomplished, turning around the plane, or not embarking anyone on the plane. … This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”
Finding the deportations would cause irreparable harm, Boasberg barred the Trump administration from deporting “all non-citizens who are subject to the AEA proclamation” for at least 14 days, imposing a temporary restraining order or TRO.
During that time, while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is meant to keep the noncitizens in its custody.
However, top lawyers and officials in the administration made the determination that since the flights were over international waters, Boasberg’s order did not apply.
The administration said that the planes needed to land because of “operational” and “national security” reasons, sources told ABC News.
It was during the hearing that the two planes took off.
Sources said that the administration wanted to get these planes in the air and over international waters prior to any ruling from the judge.
However, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Sunday evening that the administration “did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.”
She said the order was issued after the alleged gang members “had already been removed from U.S. territory,” arguing that “the written order and the administration’s actions do not conflict.”
“Federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Also on Sunday, the Trump administration asked the D.C. Circuit Court for a stay of Boasberg’s ruling.
Administration officials contend that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction to enter the TRO, which the administration describes in a filing to the appellate court as “unprecedented.”
“This Court should halt this massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove people that Defendants had determined to be members of TdA, a group the President and the Secretary of State have found to be a threat to national security. This Court should halt this unprecedented intrusion upon the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people,” wrote a Justice Department attorney in an emergency motion for a stay, referring to the passengers aboard the flight, whom the administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
Trump announced on Saturday that he had signed a proclamation declaring that the Tren de Aragua gang was “conducting irregular warfare” against the U.S. and therefore would deport its members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The stay argued that Trump’s actions in invoking the AEA “are not subject to judicial review” and that there was “no lawful basis” for the court to enjoin the implementation of the president’s proclamation.
“If this TRO allowed to stand,” the DOJ wrote in the filing, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action upon bare receipt of a complaint.”
The D.C. Circuit Court ordered a response to be filed by Tuesday at 5 p.m. by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the underlying case.
Steve Witkoff, special envoy to the Middle East. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff landed in Moscow on Thursday morning for discussions on a proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine — a step leaders in Kyiv and Washington, D.C., hope will facilitate a larger peace deal to end Russia’s 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor.
Witkoff’s trip is “part of our continued efforts to press Russia to agree to a ceasefire and stop its brutal war against Ukraine,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a Wednesday briefing.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that American negotiators were traveling to Moscow on Thursday. “Contacts are planned,” Peskov told a press briefing, adding of the potential outcomes, “We will not prejudge, we will tell you later.” Peskov did not say whether Witkoff would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials agreed to a total 30-day ceasefire during talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, earlier this week. The ball is now “truly in their court,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said of Russia following the talks in Jeddah.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram of the ceasefire plan, “Ukraine accepts this proposal, we consider it positive, we are ready to take this step. The United States of America needs to convince Russia to do so.”
“We agree, and if the Russians agree, the silence will take effect at that very moment,” he added. “An important element in today’s discussions is America’s readiness to restore defense assistance to Ukraine and intelligence support.”
“Ukraine is ready for peace,” Zelenskyy wrote. “Russia must also show whether it is ready to end the war — or continue it. The time has come for the whole truth. I thank everyone who helps Ukraine.”
Speaking in Kyiv on Wednesday, Zelenskyy said he is “very serious” about a ceasefire. “For me it is important to end the war,” he added.
“I want the president of the United States to see it, I want Americans to see and feel it,” Zelenskyy said. “I want Europe and all to be in alliance in order to do everything to force Russia to end this war.”
The Kremlin has so far been non-committal on the U.S.-Ukrainian proposal. Officials were “scrutinizing” the publicly released statements, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Russia, he added, “doesn’t want to get ahead of itself” on the potential ceasefire.
Putin foreign policy aide Yuriy Ushakov — who took part in last month’s meeting with U.S. negotiators in Saudi Arabia — described the proposed ceasefire as “a hasty document.”
“It should be worked on, and our position should also be considered and taken into account,” he told journalists. “For now, only the Ukrainian approach is outlined there,” Ushakov added, suggesting the 30-day pause in fighting would be an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to regroup.
“We believe that our goal is a long-term peaceful settlement, we are striving for it, a peaceful settlement that takes into account the legitimate interests of our country, our known concerns,” Ushakov said. “Some steps that imitate peaceful actions, it seems to me, no one needs in this situation.”
Ushakov said he outline Russia’s position to national security advisor Mike Waltz. “I myself have recently been in fairly regular telephone contact with Mike Waltz,” he said. “Yesterday he called me and informed me about the main results of the talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah.”
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Joe Simonetti and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Russia has carried out a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, targeting energy and gas infrastructure in various regions, Ukrainian officials said Friday morning.
A total of 261 missiles and drones were launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which said it used Mirage-2000 fighter jets for the first time alongside F-16s to repel the attack.
The latest attack is one of the largest air attacks of the war to date as Russia, in recent months, has dramatically increased the number of drones it can launch every night against Ukrainian cities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there can be “no pause” in pressure on Russia earlier this week just the day after the U.S. confirmed it had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
President Donald Trump’s decision to pause all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing has raised concerns that Ukraine’s air defenses will become less effective in the days, weeks and months to come.
The pause followed last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump. White House officials have suggested the freeze may be lifted if Ukraine takes concrete steps towards a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion.
It now appears likely that Russia will try to increase these attacks at a critical time as the end of U.S. intelligence sharing and supplies of anti-aircraft missiles could weaken Ukraine’s ability to defend against them.
Russian missiles and drone attacks are a nightly occurrence in Ukraine. The country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.
U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.
A Ukrainian intelligence official told ABC News on Wednesday that the intelligence sharing pause included a halt in sharing U.S. satellite imagery through the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia while seeking to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president. The White House is pushing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the fighting and to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
