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Why The Vatican Cut Phone Signal Ahead Of The Secret Conclave Vote

Published

7 months ago

May 7, 2025

Phone signal in the Vatican will be cut, and signal jammers are in place to prevent any potential leaks during the secretive Papal Conclave.

On Wednesday afternoon, 133 cardinals will file into the Sistine Chapel adorned with frescoes painted by the Renaissance master Michelangelo and have their movements and deliberations shielded from the outside world as they decide who will be the next Catholic pope.

The cardinals will also take a vow of secrecy before beginning deliberations, following a similar vow taken by the 100-odd support staff including cooks and clerics on Monday. The punishment for breaking the oath is excommunication.

But the Vatican has taken other measures to ensure no news of the deliberations inside the chapel leak out before the white smoke signal rises over the Sistine Chapel roof.

On Monday, the office of the governor of Vatican City said that cellphone towers in the world’s smallest sovereign state will be deactivated at 3pm (2pm UK time) on Wednesday.

“The signal will be restored after the announcement of the election of the supreme pontiff,” the governorate said in a statement.

Vatican technicians have prepared for the conclave by transforming the Sistine Chapel into a high-security bunker, installing a new raised floor to create a level platform with the altar, which is several steps higher than the rest of the chapel, to facilitate the cardinals’ procession

Just what may be under that temporary floor, apart from wiring for electricity and sound systems, depends on which Vatican official one talks to.

It may, or may not, be the home to jamming devices. The devices may also be near the upper windows of the chapel, which is about 68 feet (20.1m) high.

Officials have at times contradicted each other. The details, after all, are supposed to be a secret, maybe even to them.

Other security measures to make sure no one is eavesdropping or trying to get information out reportedly include film on the window to block cameras on drones and special tiles to block signals from cellphones, which are banned anyway.

At the last conclave in 2013, it was widely reported that a Faraday cage had been installed. Such devices can enhance communications security by shielding against electromagnetic fields.

The 108-acre city-state, however, is surrounded by Rome, and it was not clear if the Vatican was taking any action to block connections to phone towers just outside its walls.

The cardinals will be voting in the chapel up to four times a day. Vatican workers last week hoisted a chimney onto the chapel, which will be used for burning the ballots.

Black smoke will tell the outside world no decision has been made, white will announce that the 267th pope has been elected.

Protected ‘at all times’
Cardinals will be billeted in the Santa Marta residence, a hotel with about 130 rooms, and an adjacent older residence.

The main Santa Marta residence was cleared of its guests and long-term residents last week so security personnel could electronically sweep the area.

Its main door has been closed, and a sign has been put up telling cardinals to use a side entrance on the left, according to a recent guest who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Wi-Fi signals inside the residence were significantly weaker than normal on Monday, the person said.

Another source, a former Vatican official, said the city-state has its own systems to detect drones and receives regular assistance from Italy.

Vatican gendarmes and plainclothes Swiss Guards will escort buses that will take cardinals between the residence and the chapel. If they wish, the prelates will be allowed to walk the short distance, going around the back of St Peter’s Basilica.

“A protective envelope will be created around the cardinals at all times,” one source familiar with some of the security procedures said. “If they do decide to walk in the gardens or take a smoke outside, no one will be able to get close to them.”

Aides, including priests, cooks, cleaners, drivers and other attendants have already taken an oath “to observe absolute and perpetual secrecy” about whatever they may see or hear.

The penalty for not keeping the secret until death: automatic excommunication from the Church.

Source: Independent UK

Related Topics:Cardinals Conclave Pope Vatican

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FULL LIST: US To Review Green Cards From 19 ‘Countries Of Concern’ After Washington Shooting

Published

9 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it will review the immigration status of all permanent residents, or “Green Card” holders, from Afghanistan and 18 other countries following the attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.

U.S. officials identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked alongside American forces in Afghanistan.

The individual was granted asylum earlier this year, not permanent residency, according to AfghanEvac, an organisation that assists Afghans resettled in the United States after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

“I have directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” said Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on X.

The review follows a June executive order from President Trump classifying 19 countries as “of Identified Concern.”

The order banned entry for nearly all nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The full list of these countries is:

Afghanistan

Myanmar

Chad

Congo-Brazzaville

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Haiti

Iran

Libya

Somalia

Sudan

Yemen

A partial travel ban applies to seven additional countries, though some temporary work visas remain allowed: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Headline

Romanian Defence Minister Quits After Admitting Error In Academic Record

Published

10 hours ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

Romania’s defence minister resigned on Friday after saying he made a “mistake” on his CV about his university education, as controversy swirled over alleged lies on his resume.

Ionut Mosteanu – who has admitted to writing on his CV that he graduated from a university he never attended – said he did not want the row “to distract” the NATO member at a time when it and Europe are “under attack from Russia”.

Romania has repeatedly seen drone fragments fall on its soil since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and reported a number of drone incursions.

On Tuesday, a drone crashed in eastern Romania, which borders Ukraine.

Romania has also accused Moscow of “hybrid attacks”, including meddling in presidential elections last year that were subsequently annulled.

“Today, I resigned from my position as minister of national defence,” Mosteanu said in a Facebook post, adding he wanted the country to be focused on its “difficult mission”.

“Romania and Europe are under attack from Russia. Our national security must be defended at all costs,” he added.

Mosteanu had come under pressure after a media investigation published on Thursday revealed that he wrote in a CV that he graduated from a university which he did not actually attend.

That same day he apologised for what he called “a mistake”.

“In a CV I quickly put together in 2016 using a template I found online, there is a mistake that I admit embarrasses me. I didn’t pay much attention to these details at the time,” he said on Facebook.

Mosteanu was appointed defence minister in June of this year, when a new pro-European government was formed after months of political turmoil.

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said in a press release that he would propose economy and tourism minister Radu Miruta take over the defence portfolio in the interim.

AFP

Headline

Russia Insists Ukraine Must Cede Land Or Face Continued Military Push

Published

2 days ago

November 27, 2025

Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he would end his Ukraine offensive if Kyiv withdrew from territory Moscow claims at its own — otherwise his army would take it by force.

The Russian army has been slowly but steadily grinding through eastern Ukraine in costly battles against outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian forces.

Washington has meanwhile renewed its push to end the nearly four-year war, putting forward a surprise plan that it hopes to finalise through upcoming talks with Moscow and Kyiv.

“If Ukrainian forces leave the territories they hold, then we will stop combat operations,” Putin said during a visit to Kyrgyzstan. “If they don’t, then we will achieve it by military means.”

Russia controls around one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory. The issue of occupied land, which Kyiv has said it will never cede, is among the biggest stumbling blocks in the peace process.

Another important issue in the talks are Western security guarantees for Ukraine, which Kyiv says are needed to prevent Moscow from invading again in the future.

Washington’s original plan — drafted without input from Ukraine’s European allies — would have seen Kyiv withdraw from its eastern Donetsk region and the United States de facto recognise the Donetsk, Crimea and Lugansk regions as Russian.

The US pared back the original plan over the weekend following criticism from Kyiv and Europe, but has not yet released the new version.

Putin, who has seen the new plan, said it could be a negotiation starter.

“Overall, we agree that it could form the basis for future agreements,” he said of the latest draft, which the US is thought to have shortened to about 20 points.

US negotiator Steve Witkoff was expected in Moscow next week to discuss the revised document, Putin said.

US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll is meanwhile due to visit Kyiv later this week, Ukraine’s top presidential aide Andriy Yermak said.

– ‘Little can be done’ –

In his remarks Thursday, Putin repeated the claim that Russia had encircled the Ukrainian army in Pokrovsk and Myrnograd in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region — the most fiercely embattled area and a key target for Moscow’s forces.

“Krasnoarmeysk and Dimitrov are completely surrounded,” he said, using the Russian names for the cities.

Moscow was also advancing in Vovchansk and Siversk, as well as approaching the important logistic hub of Guliaipole, he added.

The Russian offensive “is practically impossible to hold back, so there is little that can be done about it”, Putin said.

Ukraine has denied Pokrovsk and Myrnograd are encircled, insisting its forces continue to hold the enemy along the front line.

Putin also questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy and said signing any agreement with him would be legally “almost impossible” at the moment, a suggestion that has drawn groans from Kyiv and its allies.

According to data analysed by AFP from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian forces have conquered an average of 467 square kilometres (180 square miles) each month in 2025 — a step up from 2024.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the worst armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.