Pope suffers 2 episodes of respiratory failure, Vatican says
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(ROME) — Pope Francis suffered two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, the Vatican said.
The episodes were caused by a “significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm,” the Vatican’s press office said in a brief statement.
Two bronchoscopies were performed on the pontiff, with “the need to aspirate abundant secretions.” Non-invasive mechanical ventilation was resumed on Francis and he continues to be “alert, oriented and cooperative,” the Vatican said.
His prognosis “remains reserved,” the Vatican said.
Earlier Monday, the Vatican said the pope “rested well” overnight, his 17th night in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
“The pope rested well all night,” the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in a brief statement.
The pope’s clinical condition had on Sunday remained “stable,” the church said. Vatican sources told ABC News on Sunday that the pope had eaten breakfast with coffee and continued his treatment. He read the daily newspapers, as usual, the sources said.
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.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(OTTAWA, CA) — Canada selected a new prime minister-elect on Sunday night, as Justin Trudeau’s reign nears a close amid a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau after party members voted in a nominating contest between four candidates.
In his acceptance speech, Carney addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and the threat Trump has posed towards the country, calling the current events the “greatest crisis of our lifetimes.”
“We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win,” Carney said.
Indirectly addressing Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., Carney added, “America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form.”
Carney also criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and said he supports the retaliatory tariffs Canada has imposed on the U.S.
“Donald Trump has put, as we know, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living, he’s attacking Canadian workers, businesses and families… we cannot let him succeed and we won’t,” Carney said. “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect.”
Carney is expected to be sworn in sometime this week by the governor general of Canada, a representative in Canada of Britain’s King Charles III.
The newly elected Liberal Party leader is expected to immediately call for an election as early as late April.
Trudeau, who was first elected prime minister in November 2015, announced on Jan. 6 his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader and prime minister once a new party leader is determined through what he said would be “a robust, nationwide, competitive process.”
The candidates for prime minister included Chrystia Freedman, Canada’s longtime deputy prime minister who, until December, served as Trudeau’s finance minister; Frank Baylis, a businessman and former member of the House of Commons; Karina Gould, a member of Parliment, who served in Trudeau’s Cabinet as minister of International Development and minister of Democratic Institutions; and Mark Carney, an economist who served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
Heading into the vote, Carney, who has never held an elected office, had emerged as a front-runner.
Carney, who as governor of the Bank of Canada, is credited with helping to guide the country through the worst of the 2008 financial crisis as governor of the Bank of Canada. Carney has compared the comments of President Donald Trump, who has also threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, to a villain in the Harry Potter series.
“When you think about what’s at stake in these ridiculous, insulting comments of the president, of what we could be, I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments,” the 59-year-old Carney told supporters at an event in Winnipeg last month.
Trudeau initially said he would serve as prime minister until March 24. He will then be replaced by the new Liberal Party leader.
The Canadian Parliament was supposed to begin its new session of 2025 on Jan. 27, but Trudeau had asked the governor general to extend and not start a new session of Parliament until March 24.
“I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau said when he announced his plans in early January to resign.
At the time, Trudeau said he believed his resignation would “bring the temperature down” and allow Parliament to reset and get back to work “for Canadians.”
“Parliament needs a reset, I think, needs to calm down a bit and needs to get to work for Canadians,” Trudeau said when answering reporters’ questions following his announcement. “Removing me as the leader who will fight the next election for the party should decrease the polarization that we have right now.”
Support for Trudeau’s party has declined steadily for months, with the Liberals falling in early January to their lowest level of support in years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In recent days, Trudeau has emerged as the face of Canada in a trade war that erupted with the United States over 25% tariffs that Trump imposed on products from Canada.
Canada countered by imposing a 25% tariff on goods from the United States, including American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles, and certain pulp and paper products.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said a second wave of retaliatory tariffs would be suspended after Trump announced on Thursday that he is pausing for a month tariffs on some products from Canada and Mexico.
(WASHINGTON) — In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Kirsten Hillman said Canadians are “perplexed” and “disappointed” by President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
White House officials announced Saturday that Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and 10% tariffs on goods from China. Trump had long threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico to ensure their cooperation to stop illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the U.S.
The tariffs are expected to be implemented on Tuesday but Hillman said her government is continuing to discuss the situation with the Trump administration.
“We’re hopeful that they don’t come into effect on Tuesday,” she said. “We’re ready to continue to talk to the Trump administration about that, and in particular about all the work that we’re doing with them and on our own, with respect to the border.”
Hillman said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump discussed Canada’s plan to meet some of his demands, although not recently, and discussions between the two governments are continuing.
“Not in recent days, but they have discussed it, and we’ve discussed it with senior members of the White House as well, and we’ve laid out our plan, and my understanding is that the plan and some of the actual outcomes, results of what we have done, have been presented to the president,” she said.
Trudeau responded to the tariffs on Saturday evening, announcing his country will implement 25% tariffs on $155 billion Canadian dollars (about $107 billion U.S. dollars) of U.S. goods. The prime minister said he has not talked to Trump since his inauguration.
Hillman said the proposed tariff’s are “disrupting an incredibly successful trading relationship.”
“The Canadian people are going to expect that our government stands firm and stands up for itself,” she said. “I don’t think we’re not at all interested in escalating, but I think that there will be a very strong demand on our government to make sure that we stand up for the deal that we have struck with the with the United States.”
“They just don’t understand where this is coming from, and probably there’s a little bit of hurt,” she added.
The U.S. and Canada have always had a “sense of common purpose,” Hillman said, and Trump’s actions constitute a significant heel turn.
“This is not something that Canada wants to do,” she said. “This is not a path that we are interested in going down. We are actually interested in being and continuing to be your best customer.”
