Pope Francis advisers say he’ll recover from pneumonia and a ‘new stage’ is opening for him

Pope Francis advisers say he’ll recover from pneumonia and a ‘new stage’ is opening for him
Pope Francis is recovering well from pneumonia and that a “new stage” in his pontificate would open, two of his closest advisers said Friday, offering notes of optimism as the 88-year-old pontiff hit the five-week mark in his hospitalization. (AFP/File)
Short Url
Updated 21 March 2025
Follow

Pope Francis advisers say he’ll recover from pneumonia and a ‘new stage’ is opening for him

Pope Francis advisers say he’ll recover from pneumonia and a ‘new stage’ is opening for him
  • Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra told AP that he had found Francis in good humor
  • “The pope is recovering well. The doctors say that he needs some time, but it’s going well progressively“

ROME: Pope Francis is recovering well from pneumonia and that a “new stage” in his pontificate would open, two of his closest advisers said Friday, offering notes of optimism as the 88-year-old pontiff hit the five-week mark in his hospitalization.

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra told AP that he had found Francis in good humor and serene during the three times he has visited the pope at the Gemelli hospital in Rome.

Peña Parra, who is the Vatican chief of staff, visited Francis on Feb. 24, March 2 and March 9 along with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the lone Vatican officials who have called on him aside from his personal secretaries.

“The pope will recover,” Peña Parra said on the sidelines of a book launch. “The pope is recovering well. The doctors say that he needs some time, but it’s going well progressively.”

“I found him well, serene, in good humor, and — just like him — tough with the desire to go forward,” he said.

The Vatican press office reported Friday that Francis’ overall condition remained stable, with slight improvements as he continues respiratory and physical physiotherapy. He was continuing to reduce his reliance on high-flow supplemental oxygen he has needed to breathe during the day and no longer needs the mechanical ventilation mask at night.

In other comments Friday, another top friend and ally of the pope, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, said that “a new stage” was opening in Francis’ 12-year pontificate and that he expects some surprises from the pontiff when he’s released.

Fernández, the Argentine theologian whom Francis brought in as the Vatican’s doctrine chief, said that he had been in touch with Francis since his Feb. 14 hospitalization and was heartened that he had stabilized. He provided no time frame on when Francis might be released, but ruled out any thought that he might resign.

He said that he understood that Francis was responding well to treatment, but that doctors were keeping him at the hospital “to be 100 percent.” He said that Francis needed rehabilitation therapy to help him regain strength to speak after so many weeks on noninvasive mechanical ventilation and supplemental oxygen.

Fernández revealed that Francis had resisted going to the hospital when his bronchitis worsened, and only agreed to go after people close to him threatened to quit if he didn’t.

“I don’t know what swear words they used (to tell him) you have to go there, otherwise we go home and end our relationship here,” he said.

As a result, he said he knew that the hospitalization had been hard on Francis and had surely made him reflect.

“I think a new stage is opening for him. He is a man of surprises, who will surely have learned so many things in this month and he’ll pull who knows what out of the hat,” he said. “So even knowing that this has been a very heavy effort for him, a difficult time, I know it will be fruitful for the church and for the world.”

Francis hit the five-week mark in his hospitalization Friday. He was admitted Feb. 14 with a bad case of bronchitis that developed into a complex lung infection and double pneumonia. He has long battled respiratory illnesses and had part of one lung removed when he was a young man. He has admitted to being a bad patient and is a known workaholic.

“He wants to spend what little time he has left and says ‘I want to use it and not to take care of myself,’” Fernández said. “And then what happens? He comes back here and it’s not easy for him to follow the advice” of doctors.

That might change after this experience, he said.

“He has to certainly change, but I can’t say what those details might be,” he said.


Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara

Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
JAKARTA: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province on Thursday, with a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) depth and no tsunami potential, the country’s geophysics agency said.

There were no immediate reports of damage.

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak
Updated 24 min 1 sec ago
Follow

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak

Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak
  • The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan

KABUL: The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan after a data breach was revealed this week.

Thousands of Afghans who worked with the UK were brought to Britain with their families in a secret program after a 2022 data breach put their lives at risk, the British government revealed on Tuesday.

The scheme was only revealed after the UK High Court on Tuesday lifted a super-gag order banning any reports of the events.

UK Defense Minister John Healey said the leak was not revealed because of the risk that the Taliban authorities would obtain the data set and the lives of Afghans would be put at risk.

“Nobody has been arrested for their past actions, nobody has been killed and nobody is being monitored for that,” said the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, in a voice message to reporters on Thursday.

“Reports of investigation and monitoring of a few people whose data has been leaked are false.”

After the Taliban swept back to power in 2021, their Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announced an amnesty for Afghans who worked for NATO forces or the ousted foreign-backed government during the two-decade conflict.

“We don’t need to use the leaked documents from Britain. Regarding the general amnesty, nobody is investigated or monitored,” Fitrat added.

“The rumors being spread are just to scare these people and create fear and worry among their families, which we deny.”


France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison
Updated 51 min 44 sec ago
Follow

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison

PARIS: A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.

Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest serving prisoners in France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.

He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed his leaving prison.

Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.

He has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal.”

The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France next week, on Friday, July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.

Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Paris and then to Beirut.

Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would organize his return home.

The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon told AFP he was overjoyed.

“We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release,” he said.

“For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressures,” he added.

Prosecutors can file an appeal with France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but it is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week.

Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision.

“It’s both a judicial victory and a political scandal that he was not released earlier,” he said.

In November last year, a French court ordered his release conditional on Abdallah leaving France.

But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was consequently suspended.

A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris appeals court postponed, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.

The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.

During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah’s lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed on the prisoner’s bank account and were at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States.

Abdallah still enjoys some support from several public figures in France, including left-wing members of parliament and Nobel prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, but has mostly been forgotten by the general public.


US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts

 US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts
Updated 17 July 2025
Follow

US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts

 US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts
  • US Senate approves package of spending cuts proposed by Trump cancelling more than $9 blln in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting

WASHINGTON: The US Senate approved early Thursday a package of spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump that would cancel more than $9 billion in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.

The upper chamber of Congress green-lit the measure in what was seen as the first test of how easily lawmakers could usher into law savings sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in the aftermath of the tech mogul’s acrimonious exit from the government.

Despite the cutbacks’ unpopularity in some sections of both parties, the Republican-led Senate passed the measure with 51 votes for and 48 against in a session that went more than two hours past midnight.

The version of the text passed in June by the House of Representatives sought to eliminate $400 million in funding allocated to health programs, including the PEPFAR global AIDS relief fund created by then-president George W. Bush.

But defunding PEPFAR — which has saved an estimated 26 million lives — was seen as a nonstarter among a handful of moderate Republican senators, and the proposal was dropped.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told AFP the bill was consistent with Trump’s promises to cut spending.

“I’ve been a big fan of the foreign aid accounts... I’m a big hawkish guy, but you need foreign aid. You need soft power,” he said.

“But when you start spending money on a bunch of junk, and liberal programs disconnected from the purpose of the aid package, it makes it difficult on a guy like me.”

The bill now goes back to the House for final approval, with lawmakers up against the clock. Congress, which had already allocated the money, has to approve the cuts by Friday or the White House must spend the cash as originally intended.

Legislation to claw back money already approved by Congress — known as a “rescissions package” — is extremely rare, and no such measure has passed in decades.

Around a dozen Republicans had voiced concerns about allowing the White House to dictate spending cuts, placing them in the crosshairs of Trump, who last week threatened to withhold his endorsements from any rebels.

The vote was the first in what Republicans have touted as a potential series of packages codifying the spending cuts made by DOGE.

Musk was tapped by Trump to lead the task force after the tech billionaire spent $290 million helping him get elected. The SpaceX and Tesla boss boasted that he would be able to save $2 trillion in federal spending — but left the White House under a cloud in late May as he feuded with Trump over deficits and spending.

DOGE acknowledges that it has saved taxpayers just $190 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.

The rescissions package slashes around $8 billion in foreign aid, with much of that approved for humanitarian organization USAID, one of DOGE’s first targets. 

Around $1 billion is to be taken back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), as well as more than 1,500 local radio and television stations.

Conservatives often accuse PBS and NPR of bias, and Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks. Democrats say cutting the funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but instead dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans.

“It is yet another example of the spirit and ideals of our Constitution being undermined in a terrible way. We are a nation that believes that (Congress) has a real role,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told AFP.

“And this is a bunch of my colleagues in thrall of the president, surrendering the powers of us, and the urgency for us to work together and do it in a bipartisan way to improve budgets.”


Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?
Updated 17 July 2025
Follow

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?

Who were the two pilots who flew the Air India jet that crashed?
  • Veteran captain and young co-pilot named in Air India crash investigation
  • Cockpit recording suggests fuel supply was manually cut before Boeing 787 went down

A cockpit recording of dialogue between the two pilots of the Air India flight that crashed last month indicates the captain cut the flow of fuel to the Boeing 787 jet’s engines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Below is a brief profile of the two pilots based on the preliminary investigation report and media reports:

CAPTAIN SUMEET SABHARWAL

The 56-year-old had an airline transport pilot’s license that was valid until May 14, 2026.

He had obtained clearances to fly as pilot-in-command on several aircraft including the Boeing 787 and 777 and the Airbus A310.

He had total flying experience of 15,638 hours, of which 8,596 hours were on a Boeing 787.

Sabharwal had called his family from the airport, assuring them he would ring again after landing in London, according to a Times of India report. A pilot who had briefly interacted with him told Reuters he was a “gentleman.”

FIRST OFFICER CLIVE KUNDER

The 32-year-old had a commercial pilot license that was issued in 2020 and valid until September 26, 2025.

He had obtained clearances to fly Cessna 172 and Piper PA-34 Seneca aircraft as pilot-in-command and as co-pilot on Airbus A320 and Boeing 787 jets.

He had total flying experience of 3,403 hours. Of that, 1,128 hours of experience were as a 787 co-pilot.

Since his school-going days Kunder was passionate about flying, and in 2012, began serving as a pilot, Indian media reported, citing his relatives. He joined Air India in 2017.