Headline

Pope Waves, Says ‘Thank You’ After Returning Home From Hospital

Published

3 months ago

March 23, 2025

Pope Francis returned to the Vatican on Sunday after being discharged from the hospital where he spent more than five weeks being treated for breathing difficulties, but took time before leaving to thank well-wishers for their support.

Looking tired and worn, the pontiff sat in a wheelchair on one of the hospital balconies to say goodbye, waving softly to hundreds of people who had gathered below to wish the head of the Catholic Church a full recovery.

Pilgrims chanted his name at the first public sighting of Francis since February 14, when he was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital with breathing difficulties and a respiratory illness which developed into pneumonia.

“Thank you, everyone,” a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone, as he waved his hands from his lap, doing an occasional thumbs-up sign.

“I can see that woman with yellow flowers, well done,” he said with a small smile, to laughter from the crowd.

Francis, who had bags under his eyes, was on the balcony for two minutes before being discharged from the hospital immediately afterwards.

He left by car wearing a cannula — a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen.

– ‘Joy’ –
Seeing Francis “just filled me and I think many of the people who are here with a great sense of joy,” Larry James Kulick, a bishop from Pennsylvania in the United States, told AFP.

“It was just a wonderful opportunity to see him and I think he responded so much to the people’s prayers and to all of the chanting,” he said at the Gemelli.

“I hope it lifted his spirits, I think it did.”

Domenico Papisca Marra, a 69-year-old Catholic from Reggio Calabria in southern Italy, said he had come as soon as he heard Francis would be appearing.

“I am really happy to have seen him… I am in really love with Pope Francis,” he said.

The pope, in a white Fiat 500 L, was driven past the Vatican and on to Santa Maria Maggiore, the Rome church where he stops to pray before and after trips.

He was then seen arriving back at the Vatican.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on X, formerly Twitter, that she was “happy” that Francis had returned home. She expressed her “affection and gratitude for his tireless commitment and his precious guidance”.

This was the pope’s fourth and longest hospital stay since his 2013 election.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man and lost weight in hospital, still faces a long recovery of at least two months.

READ: ‘A Priest Cannot Look At Such Things’ – Pope Francis Imposed TV Ban On Himself

The increasingly fragile state of Francis’s health has spurred speculation as to whether he could opt to step down and make way for a successor, as his predecessor Benedict XVI had done.

– ‘A period of rest’ –
The pope suffered repeat respiratory crises during his stay, leading doctors to perform bronchoscopies to remove secretions from his lungs and carry out a blood transfusion.

The seriousness of his condition was underlined by the release on March 6 of an audio recording of the pope in which — speaking in a weak and very breathless voice — he thanked the faithful praying for him.

Francis continued to do bits of work in hospital when possible, but his medical team has made it clear he will not be mingling with crowds or kissing babies soon.

“Further progress will take place at his home, because a hospital — even if this seems strange — is the worst place to recover because it’s where you can contract more infections,” one of his doctors, Sergio Alfieri, told reporters on Saturday.

“During the convalescence period he will not be able to take on his usual daily appointments,” he said.

– Questions over Easter –
Such restrictions are not expected to be easily borne by the Argentine pope, who previously carried out a packed schedule and took evident pleasure interacting with his flock.

Questions also remain over who might lead the busy schedule of religious events leading up to Easter — the holiest period in the Christian calendar.

Asked by reporters on Monday about speculation the pope could resign, Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin replied: “No, no, no. Absolutely not.”

At the most concerning stage of the pope’s hospitalisation, Francis spent several weeks on assisted breathing, with nasal tubes and an oxygen mask.

He twice suffered “very critical” moments during which his life was in danger but he remained conscious, his doctors said.

He was only declared out of danger after a month of treatment in Gemelli Hospital.

The pneumonia he suffered means that Francis will require physiotherapy to recover use of his voice.

“When you suffer bilateral pneumonia, your lungs are damaged and your respiratory muscles are also strained,” Alfieri said.

“It takes time for the voice to get back to normal.”

Headline

US Says Strikes ‘Devastated’ Iran’s Nuclear Program

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Unprecedented US strikes have wrecked Iran’s nuclear program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Sunday as Washington sought to assess what remained of the three targeted sites.

The surprise strikes threaten to deepen conflict in the Middle East after Israel launched a bombing campaign against Iran, with Tehran vowing to retaliate against US involvement.

But the United States said President Donald Trump wanted peace and urged Iran to end the conflict after strikes on a key underground uranium enrichment site at Fordo, along with nuclear facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.

“We devastated the Iranian nuclear program,” Hegseth told a Pentagon press briefing, adding that the operation “did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people.”

Trump “seeks peace, and Iran should take that path”, Hegseth said. “This mission was not, and has not been, about regime change.”

Standing beside Hegseth, top US general Dan Caine said that “it would be way too early for me to comment on what may or may not still be there.”

“Initial battle damage assessments indicate that all three sites sustained extremely severe damage and destruction,” he told reporters.

– Protests in Tehran –

People gathered in the center of Tehran to protest against US and Israeli attacks, waving flags and chanting slogans, state TV showed.

Trump claimed total success for the operation in an address to the nation hours after the attack, and Vice President JD Vance followed up on Sunday morning.

“We know that we set the Iranian nuclear program back substantially last night, whether it’s years or beyond,” he told ABC.

“We’re not at war with Iran — we’re at war with Iran’s nuclear program,” he added. “The president took decisive action to destroy that program last night.”

In Tehran, AFP journalists said the roar of aircraft flying over the city was heard repeatedly for the first time since Israel’s initial attacks.

The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said it had not detected any increase in radiation levels at the nuclear sites and Tehran said Sunday there were no signs of contamination.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters in Istanbul the United States and Israel had “crossed a very big red line,” asserting Iran would continue to defend itself “by all means necessary.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the US strikes, saying Trump’s decision to “target Iran’s nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history.”

The Israeli military was also checking the results of the US raid on the deeply buried nuclear facility in Fordo, with a spokesman saying it was “too soon” to know if Iran had removed enriched uranium from the site.

The main US strike group was seven B-2 Spirit bombers flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings, Caine said.

– Global concern –

In response to the US attack, Iran’s armed forces said they targeted multiple sites in Israel including Ben Gurion airport, the country’s main international gateway near Tel Aviv.

Israeli rescuers said at least 23 people were wounded.

In Jerusalem, Claudio Hazan, a 62-year-old software engineer, said he hoped the US intervention would hasten an end to the Iran-Israel war.

“Israel by itself would not stop… and it would take longer,” he said.

Israel said it had launched fresh strikes on western Iran and in Qom, south of Tehran. Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported four Revolutionary Guard members were killed in strikes on a military base in the city’s north.

The Israeli military said it had “struck missile launchers ready to launch toward Israeli territory, soldiers in the Iranian Armed Forces, and swiftly neutralized the launchers that launched missiles toward Israeli territory.”

Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported that a “massive explosion was heard” Sunday in Bushehr province, home to Iran’s only nuclear power plant.

Iranian news agencies also reported strikes in Yazd province.

The United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman, which had been mediating Iran-US nuclear talks, criticized the US move and urged de-escalation.

The European Union called on all sides “to step back,” while stressing Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.

The Iranian foreign minister said he would travel to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

Following his address, Trump warned Iran against retaliation. Iran and its proxies have previously attacked US military bases in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.

Iran’s Huthi allies in Yemen on Sunday repeated their threat to resume attacks in the Red Sea if Washington joined the war, saying they were ready to target US ships and warships.

The US president had stepped up his rhetoric against Iran since Israel first struck the country on June 13, repeating his insistence it could never have nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies seeking an atomic bomb. On Saturday, President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear program “cannot be taken away… by threats or war.”

Headline

US Struck Iran With B-2 Bombers, Submarine-launched Missiles – Top US General

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Seven stealth bombers were used in the US attack against Iranian nuclear sites, which apparently saw little response by Iran’s military, top general Dan Caine said Sunday.

Describing the complex operation, dubbed “Midnight Hammer,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine said the “main strike package comprised of 7 B-2 Spirit bombers” flying 18 hours from the US mainland to Iran with multiple aerial refuelings.

“Iran’s fighters did not fly, and it appears that Iran’s surface to air missile systems did not see us throughout the mission. We retained the element of surprise,” Caine added.

Headline

UK ‘Was Informed Of US Strikes’ On Iran, Plans Evacuating Briton Out of Israel

Published

1 hour ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

Britain was notified in advance of the US airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, though it played no part in the military action, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds confirmed today.

“We were informed, as you might expect, by a key ally,” Reynolds told Sky News, adding, “We were not and have not been involved in these attacks.”

The strikes—launched overnight by US B2 stealth bombers and submarines—targeted Iran’s Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump hailed it as “a spectacular military success,” a claim Tehran swiftly denied.

The UK government is now working to evacuate British nationals trapped in Israel, after Iran launched a wave of retaliatory missiles. Reynolds said it would take “hours, not days” to evacuate them, citing airspace closures as the main delay.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the US operation, describing Tehran’s nuclear programme as “a grave threat to international security.” He noted that the US acted to “alleviate that threat,” despite previously urging Trump to avoid military escalation.

Reynolds acknowledged public anxiety about the developments and warned of a possible rise in terrorism threats at home: “It would be naïve to say that that wouldn’t potentially increase.”

Opposition figures supported the strikes. Kemi Badenoch said the US had acted “decisively against a regime that fuels global terror.” Reform UK leader Nigel Farage posted: “Iran must not be allowed to have nuclear weapons. The future of Israel depends on it.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, condemned the US operation as “lawless and criminal behavior,” warning of “everlasting consequences.”