Pope Francis to be discharged from hospital on Sunday, Vatican says
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(ROME) — Pope Francis will be discharged from the hospital on Sunday and return to his residence at the Vatican, his doctors announced at a press conference Saturday. The pope was in the hospital for 37 days.
The pope, 88, has been in stable condition for the past two weeks, according to the Vatican.
The pope will appear at 12 p.m. local time, 7 a.m. ET, from the window of the hospital on Sunday, to greet and bless the people before leaving the hospital, the Vatican said.
“Pope Francis intends to appear from the Policlinico Agostino Gemelli in Rome for a greeting and a blessing at the end of tomorrow’s Angelus [noontime prayer]. Papal text will be distributed in written form as in recent weeks,” the Vatican said.
The pope will be recovering for two months at his Vatican residence, according to a spokesperson for the Vatican.
Pope Francis will have to continue his physiotherapy from his residence.
“The pope is getting better so that in brief time he can resume his normal activities. He has always continued to work but we recommend that he takes the adequate time to rest and convalescence. So he cant meet large groups of people,” Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
It will take some time for the pope’s voice to return to normal as he continues to recover, Bruni said.
“When you have a bilateral pneumonia … and your lungs have been damaged, … muscles affected … one of the first thing that happens is you lose your voice and like for all patients, young and old … it will take some time for his voice to return to normal. We have already seen important improvements,” Bruni said.
The pope will need oxygen at his residence and the Vatican has 24-hour health support
On Friday, the Vatican said the pope’s condition remained stable as he continued to have small improvements in terms of breathing and motor skills.
“At night he no longer uses mechanical ventilation with a mask but high-flow oxygenation with nasal cannulas and during the day he uses less high-flow oxygenation,” the Vatican said Friday.
“The Pope’s days are spent doing physiotherapy, prayer and a little work,” the Vatican said Saturday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — The United States is preparing to return cybercrime kingpin Alexander Vinnik to Russian custody as part of an exchange for American Marc Fogel, a U.S. official said Wednesday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to identify Vinnik but acknowledged earlier Wednesday that a Russian citizen was freed in exchange for Fogel, who had been held in Russian since his arrest in 2021.
“This citizen of the Russian Federation will also be returned to Russia in the coming days,” Peskov said Wednesday.
Fogel was returned to the United States on Tuesday.
The owner and operator of one of the world’s largest currency exchanges, Vinnik was allegedly instrumental in facilitating the transfer of billions of dollars for criminals across the globe, supporting drug trafficking rings, ransomware attacks and the corruption of public officials.
Last year, Vinnik pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder billions of dollars through cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e. The Department of Justice alleged under Vinnik’s operation, BTC-e facilitated over $9 billion in worldwide transactions, serving as one of the main ways for cyber criminals to launder and move their criminal proceeds.
BTC-e has been implicated in multiple wide-ranging crimes, according to the Department of Justice, which alleges Vinnik himself was responsible for more than $120 million in losses.
As part of the deal, Vinnik is forfeiting $100 million of his criminal proceeds, an official said.
Vinnik was arrested in Greece in July 2017 after he was charged in a 21-count indictment that implicated the Russian cryptocurrency operator in the infamous 2014 hack of Mt. Gox, which at one point handled more than 70% of the world’s bitcoin transaction. The DOJ alleges Vinnik laundered money he received as a result of the hack to conceal his involvement in the subsequent investigation of Mt. Gox’s collapse.
Vinnik and his lawyers have been outspoken about their interest in a potential prisoner swap, making the unusual request in 2023 to be released from a protective order so they could lobby for an exchange.
“Mr. Vinnik’s case is unquestionably one of significant public interest. He has been the subject of political negotiations over a prisoner swap with Russia at the highest levels of the government,” his lawyers wrote in a court filing.
Vinnik’s sentencing in California was scheduled to take place in June, though a federal judge held an abruptly scheduled status conference in the case Tuesday. Ahead of his sentencing, Vinnik was housed at Alameda County Jail in California and was transferred Tuesday, ABC News has learned.
President Donald Trump didn’t disclose on Tuesday the negotiations that led to Fogel’s release or say whether there had been any conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I can only say this: We got a man home whose mother and family wanted him desperately,” Trump said.
Mike Waltz, the White House national security adviser, said in a statement on Tuesday that Washington had “negotiated an exchange that serves as a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine.” His statement did not include details on the exchange.
Trump earlier on Tuesday had been asked if Russia had given the United States anything in return.
“Not much, no,” Trump said. “They were very nice. We were treated very nicely by Russia, actually.”
Peskov on Wednesday declined to say whether additional prisoner exchanges were expected in the future, but said that “contacts between the relevant departments have intensified in the last few days.”
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in October 2024 that Fogel, an American teacher, had been “wrongfully detained,” the State Department confirmed to ABC News.
The U.S. tried but was unable to include Fogel in the large prisoner swap in August 2024 that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, a State Department spokesperson said last year.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Michelle Stoddart, Nathan Luna and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said overnight missile and drone attacks launched by Russia showed that Moscow’s claimed support for a ceasefire in Ukraine is not “real.”
Ukrainian authorities reported airstrikes in several regions of the country, including a drone attack on a hospital in the northeastern city of Sumy. The barrage came hours after Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to a halt in attacks on energy infrastructure as part of the White House’s peace efforts.
“Now in many regions you can literally hear what Russia really needs,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “About 40 Shaheds in our sky, air defense is working,” the president added, referring to the Iranian-designed strike drone used by Russia.
“Unfortunately, there are hits, and precisely in civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy continued. “It is precisely such night attacks by Russia that destroy our energy, our infrastructure, the normal life of Ukrainians. And the fact that this night was no exception shows that we must continue to put pressure on Russia for the sake of peace.”
Ukraine’s air force reported a total of six missiles and 145 drones fired into the country overnight. Seventy-two drones were shot down, the air force said, with another 56 lost in flight without causing damage. The Sumy, Odesa, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Kyiv and Chernihiv regions were affected by the attack, the air force wrote on Telegram.
“Today, Putin actually rejected the proposal for a complete ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said. “It would be right for the world to reject any attempts by Putin to drag out the war in response.”
“Sanctions against Russia. Aid to Ukraine. Strengthening allies in the free world and working towards security guarantees,” the president added. “And only a real cessation by Russia of attacks on civilian infrastructure as evidence of a desire to end this war can bring peace closer.”
Russia’s military claimed to have neutralized seven of its own drones after receiving Putin’s partial ceasefire order. The Defense Ministry said the drones were destroyed while in the air having been aimed at “Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities related to the military-industrial complex” in the Mykolaiv region.
The Kremlin said Tuesday that the call between Trump and Putin was a “detailed and frank exchange of views.” Putin did not agree to the full 30-day ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and Ukraine, the Kremlin statement said, with the Russian leader again framing any pause in the fighting as beneficial to Ukraine’s armed forces.
The two sides did agree to a ceasefire on energy infrastructure attacks, the Kremlin said, after which Putin “immediately gave the relevant order to the Russian troops.”
Hours later, Russian authorities reported a drone attack on an oil depot facility in the southern Krasnodar Krai region’s Kavkazsky district.
“Due to falling debris there was a fire at the oil depot,” the local administration said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The pipeline between the tanks was damaged.”
Local authorities reported no casualties, though added that 30 workers were evacuated from the area and operations suspended.
The region’s Operational Headquarters Telegram channel said the fire at the depot spread to more than 18,000 square feet in size via a leak in a tank. “Emergency services are keeping the situation under control,” it said, noting that “179 people and 54 units of equipment are involved in extinguishing the fire.”
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 57 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry said the attack in Krasnodar Krai represented “another provocation specially prepared by the Kyiv regime aimed at disrupting the peace initiatives of the U.S. president.”
The Russian federal air transport agency Rosaviatsia said operations were temporarily suspended at airports in the cities of Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Nizhnekamsk, though did not specify the reason. Flights at Russian airports are regularly disrupted during drone attacks.
The White House said on Tuesday after the call between Trump and Putin that the two leaders “agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace. These negotiations will begin immediately in the Middle East.”
Trump, in his own social media post later Tuesday, called the hourslong conversation “very good and productive.”
“We agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure, with an understanding that we will be working quickly to have a Complete Ceasefire and, ultimately, an END to this very horrible War between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote.
Trump also said securing the 30-day ceasefire sought by Ukraine “would have been tough,” in a released clip of a pre-taped interview on Fox News.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Tanya Stukalova and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(AUSTRALIA) — The discovery of a massive crater formed by the impact of a meteorite more than three billion years ago is changing the way scientists view the history of Earth and the planet’s stages of evolution.
Researchers in Australia found the crater in Western Australia’s Pilbara region and believe it’s the oldest impact crater in the world, at about 3.5 billion years old. That surpasses the previous record-holding impact crater by more than 1.25 billion years, according to a paper published in Nature Communications on Thursday.
A distinctive rock formation helped the research team locate the Pilbara crater. “Exceptionally preserved” shatter cones – that is, cone-shaped fractures found in rocks that have been subjected to extreme pressure from a shock wave – were located near the impact site, a 62-mile-wide area now called North Pole Dome, the scientists said.
The shatter cones offer “unequivocal evidence” of a very high-speed impact about 3.47 billion years ago, the researchers said. The meteorite likely struck Earth at more than 22,370 miles per hour, according to the paper.
The “major planetary event” would have resulted in a crater more than 60 miles wide, the researchers said.
In addition, the Pilbara crater sheds new light on how meteorites shaped the Earth’s early environment, said Chris Kirkland, a geologist at Curtin University in Australia and co-lead author of the study, in a statement.
The meteorite strike may have even contributed to the formation of cratons, which are large, stable landmasses that became the foundation of continents, Kirkland said.
The impact could have kicked up rock deep beneath the earth that eventually spread globally as the meteorite strike sent debris flying. The age of the impact is “statistically indistinguishable” from old rock beds in South Africa, according to the study.
“[T]he tremendous amount of energy from this impact could have played a role in shaping early Earth’s crust by pushing one part of the Earth’s crust under another, or by forcing magma to rise from deep within the Earth’s mantle toward the surface,” Kirkland said.
Previous research indicates that large impacts were common in the early solar system, said Tim Johnson, a geologist at Curtin University and a co-author of the paper, in a statement. The moon itself, with more than a million craters exceeding one kilometer (.62 miles) in diameter, is evidence of “intense bombardment,” according to the paper.
Impact craters also create friendly environments for microbial life, such as hot water pools, Kirkland said. The East Pilbara Terrain, which is part of the Pilbara Craton, contains an approximately 125-mile-diameter landmass containing mostly Paleoarchaean cratonic crust, estimated to be about 3.48 billion years old, according to the paper.
The second-oldest impact crater, estimated to have been created about 2.2 billion years ago, is also located in Western Australia, southwest of Pilbara, in Yarrabubba.
The discovery of the Pilbara crater challenges previous assumptions about the planet’s ancient history and provides a “crucial piece of the puzzle of Earth’s impact,” Johnson said.
The findings also suggest there could be other ancient craters on Earth waiting to be discovered, according to Johnson.
“Until now, the absence of any truly ancient craters means they are largely ignored by geologists,” he said.
