Pope has ‘peaceful night’ after his prognosis improves and is lifted
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(LONDON and ROME) — The pope rested peacefully overnight after his prognosis was “lifted” on Monday as he begins his 26th straight day in the hospital, the Vatican said.
Vatican sources told ABC News that Francis’ prognosis being lifted means he’s no longer in imminent danger, but the clinical picture still remains complex.
The 88-year-old pontiff will continue “for additional days, the pharmacological medical therapy in a hospital environment” due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the significant infectious picture presented at hospitalization,” the Vatican said.
“The improvements recorded in previous days have further consolidated, as confirmed by both blood tests and clinical objectivity and the good response to pharmacological therapy. For these reasons, the doctors decided to lift the prognosis,” the Holy See, the Vatican’s press office, said in a statement Monday.
The pope will move back to noninvasive mechanical ventilation and will continue an antibiotic treatment, the Vatican sources said.
Francis’ doctors said there are positive signs of the pontiff’s recovery, but caution remains, according to the Vatican sources.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.
Thursday will mark the 12th anniversary of when Pope Francis was voted to succeed Pope Benedict XVI, who previously resigned.
ABC News’ Megan Forrester contributed to this report.
(LONDON and ROME) — Pope Francis “remained stationary” on Wednesday, “without showing any episodes of respiratory failure,” according to the Vatican.
The pope received “high-flow oxygen therapy during the day, and noninvasive mechanical ventilation will be resumed during the night,” the Vatican said in its evening update.
Pope Francis spent the day in an armchair, participated in the “ritual blessing of the Holy Ashes that were imposed on him by the celebrant” and received the Eucharist, the Vatican said.
“During the morning he also called Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family in Gaza. In the afternoon he alternated rest with work,” the Vatican said.
The pope “rested well during the night” and woke shortly after 8 a.m. Wednesday morning, his 20th day in hospital, as his condition remains stable and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.
The pontiff had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.
The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has remained “alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented,” the Vatican’s press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent “high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy” on Tuesday, the Vatican said.
He resumed noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight into Wednesday morning “as planned,” according to the Vatican.
The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.
Wednesday marks Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, which is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting and giving. It concludes with Holy Week, which leads to Easter Sunday, the most important day in the Christian calendar.
The Vatican said last week that Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, major penitentiary and delegate of the pope, will replace Pope Francis at Wednesday’s liturgical celebration for Ash Wednesday in Rome.
The Cardinal will read the Homily prepared by the Pope and the text will be released later today, the Vatican said.
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.
(LONDON) — Ukraine and key European nations demanded a role in any negotiations to end Russia’s war on the country, after President Donald Trump unilaterally announced an immediate start to direct peace talks with President Vladimir Putin after speaking with the Russian leader by phone.
Trump said in a post to social media on Wednesday that he spoke with Putin, adding the two leaders “agreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately” to end the fighting in Ukraine after nearly three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Moscow launched its attack in February 2022 with the aim of toppling Zelenskyy’s government in Kyiv and annexing swaths of the country. The “special military operation” — as the Kremlin termed the invasion — expanded on Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and its fomentation of, and active military support for, separatist rebellion in parts of eastern Ukraine in 2014.
“I think we’re on the way to getting peace,” Trump said. The president did not clarify whether Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be directly involved in any peace talks. Excluding Kyiv would align with Putin’s repeated demand that Ukraine be sidelined, the Russian leader having dismissed Zelenskyy as “illegitimate.”
Kyiv’s omission from negotiations would represent a striking break from years of U.S. and allied policy, which under former President Joe Biden was guided by the “nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine” principle, with the former president also refusing to speak directly with Putin while the war continued.
Trump spoke with Zelenskyy after his phone call with Putin. The Ukrainian leader said in a post to social media that the two discussed “opportunities to achieve peace, discussed our readiness to work together at the team level, and Ukraine’s technological capabilities — including drones and other advanced industries.”
Trump also said he would meet with Putin in Saudi Arabia, though did not set a date.
Addressing the conversation, Trump said on Truth Social that Zelensky,”like President Putin, wants to make PEACE.”
Trump separately hinted at the expiry of Zelenskyy’s presidential term. Ukraine was due to hold presidential elections last year, but the vote was delayed as the country is still under martial law as a result of Russia’s invasion. At “some point you’re going to have an election,” Trump said.
Ukraine and American allies in Europe were quick to call for a unified negotiating front.
“We are looking forward to discussing the way ahead together with our American allies,” said a joint statement from the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Ukraine, the European Union’s European External Action Service and the European Commission.
“Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength,” the statement added. “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.”
Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said on X, “Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity are unconditional.”
Trump said a meeting between Zelenskyy, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio was scheduled during the weekend Munich Security Conference event in Germany.
The State Department said that Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg will begin a 10-day visit to Germany, Belgium and Ukraine on Thursday.
Trump’s announcement of direct D.C.-Moscow talks came shortly after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told allies in Belgium that Ukraine cannot liberate all territory occupied by Russian forces and will not be given NATO security protection as part of any peace deal.
“The bloodshed must stop and this war must end,” Hegseth said. His address was the most detailed delineation of the Trump administration’s desired peace deal since the president returned to the Oval Office.
Pro-talk signals from the U.S. raised concerns in Ukraine and abroad that Kyiv will be forced into territorial and political concessions in exchange for an end to the fighting.
John Bolton — Trump’s former national security adviser — for example, said on X that the president’s approach is tantamount to a “sell out” of Ukraine. “Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin on Ukraine.”
“It’s a bad sign that he has talked first to Putin, not to Zelenskyy,” Oleksandr Merezhko — a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee — told ABC News.
“Such a phone call is in itself a reward for Putin,” he added. “It’s sort of a break in his political isolation.”
Still, Merezhko said Trump’s approach does “not quite” mean a total exclusion of Ukraine. “The principle ‘nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine’ is more about not taking decisions without Ukraine which have influence upon Ukraine,” he said.
Pressure for peace is building within and without. A Gallup poll published in November indicated that most Ukrainians favored a rapid end to the devastating war. Zelenskyy’s public rhetoric largely reflects this sentiment, though the president has warned that no peace deal is sustainable without concrete U.S. security guarantees.
“This war of attrition is only going to make us weaker,” Iuliia Mendel — Zelenskyy’s former press secretary — told ABC News. “For a long time, Ukraine has been at the stage when negotiations are urgent to save the nation.”
The Kremlin confirmed that Trump had spoken with Putin.
“The topic of a settlement in Ukraine was discussed,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters after the call on Wednesday.
“President Trump spoke in favor of an early end to hostilities and a peaceful solution to the problem,” he added. “President Putin, for his part, mentioned the need to eliminate the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term settlement can be achieved through peaceful negotiations.”
On Thursday, Peskov told reporters that Moscow had begun preparing a negotiating group to organize a meeting between Trump and Putin. “Definitely started. And as the president makes the appropriate decisions, we will inform you,” Peskov said.
When asked if a visit by U.S. representatives to Moscow is expected in the near future, Peskov said: “Not yet. So far, there are no specific agreements in this regard.”
Both Moscow and Kyiv are maneuvering for leverage in preparation for revived talks. This week, Russia and the U.S. concluded a prisoner swap described by Trump as a goodwill gesture that could help advance peace talks.
Zelenskyy, meanwhile, met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv to discuss a potential deal to secure U.S. access to hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Ukrainian minerals.
Russian and Ukrainian leaders have both expressed readiness to resume negotiations, though neither side has indicated willingness to make significant concessions.
This week, Zelenskyy suggested Ukraine would be ready to give up territory it seized in Russia’s western Kursk region in exchange for the liberation of some Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow’s troops.
Peskov dismissed the idea as “impossible” at a Wednesday briefing with journalists. “Russia has never discussed an exchange of its territories and never will,” Peskov said.
“Naturally, Ukrainian units will be ousted from this territory. Everyone who is not eliminated will be ousted,” Peskov added.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Anastasia Bagaeva, Nataliia Popova, Zoe Magee and Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.
(SANTIAGO, CHILE) — Three luxury watches, including a Rolex worth about $9,000, that were stolen from actor Keanu Reeves’ Los Angeles home have been discovered in Chile, police confirmed to ABC News.
Authorities in Chile said a man was arrested in Santiago on Saturday in connection with the robbery, and that his arrest was part of a larger, local operation.
The unnamed suspect is currently in custody, police said.
One of the three watches discovered was a Rolex Submariner that had the “John Wick” star’s name engraved on it.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed in Dec. 2023 to ABC News’ Los Angeles station that a group of burglars were at large after breaking into Reeves’ house in Hollywood Hills.
It was unclear at the time whether any property was stolen, and it was not immediately clear whether the stolen property recovered in Chile was related to that break-in.
The break-in was reported by a caller who reported observing four suspects who were also recorded by a surveillance camera entering the home through a window at the rear of the hillside residence, an LAPD spokesperson said at the time.
