(NEXSTAR) — Doctors revealed Sunday that blood tests for Pope Francis, the 88-year-old pontiff who has been hospitalized since Valentine’s Day after a weeklong bout of bronchitis worsened, show early kidney failure.

Every day, roughly 360 people in the U.S. begin treatment (either dialysis or a transplant) for kidney failure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A patient is considered to be experiencing kidney failure if under 15 percent of their kidney is “working normally,” the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases says.

Some of Pope Francis’ blood tests showed “initial, mild, kidney failure,” but doctors said it was under control. The Vatican did not provide any details about Pope Francis’ condition or what treatment, if any, he was receiving for his kidney failure.

There are some early warning signs of kidney failure — fatigue, nausea, vomiting, confusion, difficulty concentrating, swelling, change in urination frequency, cramps, dry skin, and food tasting metallic among them — but they may go unnoticed early on, per the Cleveland Clinic.

During kidney failure, one or both of a person’s kidneys will no longer function well on their own, the Cleveland Clinic explains. In some cases, kidney failure is temporary and develops quickly. In others, it can be a long-term condition that worsens over time.

Should the condition worsen, it can reach end-stage kidney disease, or ESKD. This stage, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is deadly without the proper treatment. With it, however, patients can “have a good quality of life while [they] manage kidney failure.”

While doctors did not indicate what may have caused Francis’ kidney failure, the National Kidney Foundation says diabetes and high blood pressure comprise roughly two-thirds of cases. Other potential causes include various forms of kidney damage and genetic disorders.

Those experiencing kidney failure may be at a higher risk of experiencing heart disease, stroke, and anemia, among other complications. Francis developed anemia and, during blood transfusions on Saturday, was given hematin, a treatment designed to increase the level of hemoglobin in his blood, which in turn helps the blood carry more oxygen. Doctors reported Sunday that the therapy had been beneficial.

The National Kidney Foundation notes that high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke can both cause kidney disease and occur as a result of it.

There is no cure for kidney failure but treatment plans, medications, eating plans, and an active lifestyle can help those living with it, the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases explains.

The life expectancy of someone experiencing kidney failure can vary depending on “many things,” the American Kidney Fund says, including age and treatment plan.

The Vatican described Francis as remaining in critical condition but alert and “well-oriented” on Sunday, adding that he attended Mass. He had also not experienced any more respiratory crises since Saturday night but was still receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen.

“The complexity of the clinical picture, and the necessary wait for drug therapies to provide some feedback, dictate that the prognosis remains guarded,” Francis’ doctors concluded.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump humiliated Poland, showing up 90 minutes late for a meeting with its president and only giving Andrzej Duda an 11-minute “audience” rather than the scheduled hour.

In the German elections, Merz’s conservatives humiliate Sholtz’s socialists and should be strong enough to form a coalition without the far-right.

JERUSALEM—Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas fired his prisoners’ affairs commissioner this week, seemingly demonstrating new seriousness about reforming the system of payments for terrorists that the commissioner oversaw and vocally defended.

But Abbas simultaneously replaced the former commissioner, Qadura Fares, with another convicted terrorist and leading proponent of the payments, Raed Abu al-Humus. The incoming boss quickly confirmed his support for killing Israelis.

Just hours after his appointment, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs published a photograph of Abu al-Humus smiling alongside two arch-terrorists, Ahmed Barghouti and Mohammed Aradeh, whom Israel recently released to Cairo as part of a hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas. Barghouti, 48, was sentenced to 13 life sentences for orchestrating a series of terrorist attacks that killed 12 Israelis and wounded dozens, and Aradeh, 42, was given life in prison for attempted murder and other crimes.

The photo is among a number of early signs that Abbas will once again disappoint international donors who expect him to end “pay for slay,” as critics call the Palestinian Authority’s longstanding payments to security prisoners and the families of terrorists killed while carrying out attacks against Israelis.

“The problem is the Palestinian Authority believes that terrorists are the most honored people, and they still believe they’re the most honored people,” Itamar Marcus, the director of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli watchdog group that has closely tracked the terrorism payments for years, told the Washington Free Beacon. “They are not saying they’ve decided it’s wrong to reward terrorists. They are saying that this [reform] is something we were forced to do because we’re in a financial crisis. That’s why there’s no meaning to this, and that’s why there’s no reason for any optimism.”

In a vaguely worded presidential decree last week, Abbas revoked the Palestinian Authority’s “financial allowances to the families of prisoners, martyrs, and the wounded” and made the recipients “subject to the same standards applied without discrimination to all families benefiting from protection and social welfare programs, in accordance with the standards of comprehensiveness and justice.” Abbas also transferred oversight of the terrorism payments from the prisoners’ affairs commission to the Palestinian National Economic Empowerment Institution, a body controlled by his office. 

International media hailed the move as the “end” of the terrorism payments and a “serious reform.” European Commission officials called the “awaited decree law” a “significant political development” that “signals the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to implement far-reaching reforms that will improve its efficiency and stabilise its fiscal situation.” 

“A reformed and revitalised Palestinian Authority remains at the core of efforts towards a two-state solution,” the officials added in a statement this week. “Therefore the [European Union] stands firm in its support to the Palestinian Authority and calls on international partners to provide the Palestinian Authority with political and financial support to empower the Palestinian government to continue to pursue its ambitious reform agenda.”

A State Department spokesman said last week that Abbas’s decree “appears to be a positive step and a big win for the Trump Administration.” But earlier this week, the Trump administration froze funding for the Palestinian Authority Security Forces.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials have reassured the Arab public that the terrorism payments will continue. Abbas affirmed his commitment to the payments at a meeting of his Fatah political party’s parliamentary body on Friday, using the same uncompromising language that he and other Palestinian leaders have often used in the past.

“We repeat and emphasize that we are proud of the sacrifice of the martyrs,” Abbas said in televised remarks. “Even if we only have one cent left, it will go to the prisoners and martyrs. They must receive everything as in the past, for they are more precious than all of us put together.”

Qatar’s Al-Sharq newspaper quoted unnamed senior Palestinian officials last Wednesday as saying the terrorism payments would continue “without any reduction.” The officials reportedly explained that Abbas’s decree was a response to growing U.S., European, and Israeli financial pressure that has left the Palestinian Authority $3 billion in debt to local banks and unable to borrow more.

Munir al-Jaghoub, a senior Fatah official, told the UAE’s Al-Mashhad TV a day earlier that Abbas “did not stop anyone’s salaries.” According to al-Jaghoub, the president simply “issued a law to transfer these salaries to another entity that is not subject to restrictions” by the European Union. 

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar told international media on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority has continued “with its usual deception and its pay-for-slay strategy.” 

“Based on their statements and intelligence we have, payments to families of terrorists proceed this week as always,” Saar said. “The [authority] continues to finance and encourage terrorism.”

Saar’s remarks echoed a reported assessment by senior Israeli security officials at a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday. According to Israeli media, the officials described Abbas’s purported reform “a deception, a cosmetic move, and a facelift designed to gain legitimacy with the U.S. administration.”

Abbas’s office, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, and the National Economic Empowerment Institution did not respond to requests for comment. 

In 2018, the last year the Palestinian Authority published a budget, the terrorism payments totaled $340 million, or 7 percent of planned spending. 

Abbas’s Palestinian Authority has long used diplomatic and accounting maneuvers to evade international pressure to end the terrorism payments. In 2020, Abbas backed out of negotiations with the Biden administration to reform the system, and in 2014, he attempted to hide the payments by temporarily shifting their distribution to the PLO’s Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs. 

In the early 2000s, Israel brought in three top international accounting firms as part of an effort to block the PLO’s diversion of funding for the second intifada, a yearslong wave of Palestinian terrorism. But according to Yossi Kuperwasser, then the head of Israeli military intelligence’s research division, the accountants found the Palestinians’ bookkeeping impenetrable. 

“It took exactly three months for these elite companies to declare they were leaving because they couldn’t do the job,” Kuperwasser, who went on to become the director general of Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs and now heads the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security think tank, recalled to the Free Beacon. “All through these games and tweaks, the Palestinians kept paying the salaries to terrorists. So I doubt we are going to see a change this time.”

If the Palestinian Authority were to end or significantly reduce the payments, prisoners and their families would undoubtedly lead mass protests that could threaten the authority’s survival, Kuperwasser, Marcus, and other Israeli experts on the Palestinian Authority agreed.

The experts said that many of the Palestinian Authority officials in charge of the terrorism payments have long been convicted terrorists who served time in Israeli prisons, and that is unlikely to change. Marcus pointed to Abu al-Humus as an example. While Abu al-Humus’s prisoners’ affairs committee no longer formally oversees the payments, he is listed online as a board member of the body that does, the National Economic Empowerment Institution. 

“This is the Palestinian Authority,” Marcus said. “And the Palestinian Authority is a terror-supporting entity.”

In 2022, Abu al-Humus, then the head of international relations at the prisoners’ affairs commission, effusively praised Nasser Abu Hamid, a late founder of Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terrorist group who died of cancer in Israeli prison while serving seven life sentences for murdering Israelis. Abu al-Humus, who spent 10 years in prison alongside Abu Hamid for his own involvement in terrorism, remembered his late comrade as a “masked lion” and an “inspiration” to the “Palestinian youth.”

“He was not interested in political work but rather focused greatly on the struggle [against Israel],” Abu al-Humus told the Palestinian Wattan News Agency. “He worked with his colleagues in the resistance to end [Israel] and sweep it from the Palestinian land.”

The post Meet the Terrorist Overseeing Abbas’s ‘Reformed’ Payment System for Terrorists appeared first on .

PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump on Friday said he may put the U.S. Postal Service under the control of the Commerce Department in what would be an executive branch takeover of the agency, which has operated as an independent entity since 1970.

“We want to have a post office that works well and doesn’t lose massive amounts of money,” Trump said. “We’re thinking about doing that. And it’ll be a form of a merger, but it’ll remain the Postal Service, and I think it’ll operate a lot better.”

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

Trump made the remarks at the swearing-in of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. He called the move a way to stop losses at the $78 billion-a-year agency, which has struggled to balance the books with the decline of first-class mail.

“He’s got a great business instinct, which is what we need, and we’re looking at it, and we think we can turn it around,” Trump said of Lutnick. “It’s been just a tremendous loser for this country, tremendous amounts of money that they’ve lost.”

Here are some things to know about U.S. Postal Service operations:

What’s the history of the USPS?

The Post Office was created during the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1775, when Benjamin Franklin became the first postmaster general. In 1872, Congress named it an executive branch department. But that changed after an eight-day postal strike over wages and benefits in 1970, when President Richard Nixon signed the Postal Reorganization Act, which made it an independent, self-financing agency called the U.S. Postal Service.

In recent years, as it’s sometimes struggled to stay afloat, the Postal Service has fought calls from Trump and others that it be privatized.

Who works for the USPS?

The 1970 reorganization gave workers pay raises and the right to collective bargaining, helping generations of Americans, especially Blacks and other minorities, move into the middle class. Today, the USPS employs about 640,000 workers tasked with delivering mail, medicine, election ballots and packages across the country, from inner cities to rural areas and even far-flung islands. They remained on duty during the coronavirus pandemic, when the American Postal Workers Union says more than 200 postal workers died.

Who runs the USPS?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Republican donor who owned a logistics business, was appointed to lead the U.S. Postal Service during Trump’s first term in 2020. He has faced repeated challenges during his tenure, including the pandemic, surges in mail-in election ballots and efforts to stem losses through cost and service cuts. He announced a 10-year turnaround plan last year, but earlier this week said he plans to step down and asked the Postal Service Board of Governors to begin looking for his successor.

Who serves on the U.S. postal board and how are they selected?

The board is made up of up to nine members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. No more than five members can come from the same political party.

The current chair is Amber F. McReynolds, a former election official from Colorado. The vice chair, Derek Kan, worked in the first Trump administration. Both were appointed by President Joe Biden.

Three vacancies on the board remain after the Senate failed to vote on Biden’s nominees to fill those seats. Biden appointed four of the current six governors and Trump two.

The board has the power to hire and fire the postmaster general. Both that person and a deputy postmaster also serve on the board.

How is the USPS funded?

Since the 1970 reorganization, the USPS has been largely self-funded. The bulk of its annual $78.5 billion budget comes from customer fees, according to the Congressional Research Service. Congress provides a relatively small annual appropriation — about $50 million in fiscal year 2023 –- to subsidize free and reduced-cost mail services.

Amid challenges that include the decline in profitable first-class mail and the cost of retiree benefits, the Postal Service accumulated $87 billion in losses from 2007 to 2020.

Last year, DeJoy announced a 10-year plan to modernize operations and stem losses, warning customers to expect “uncomfortable” rate hikes as the Postal Service seeks to stabilize its finances.

Critics, including members of Congress from several states, have said that the first consolidations slowed service and that further consolidations could particularly hurt rural mail delivery.

How does President Trump view the USPS?

Trump has been a critic of the Postal Service since his first term in office. In 2020, he threatened to block it from COVID-19 relief funding unless it quadrupled the package rates it charges large customers like Amazon, owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos. Bezos also owns The Washington Post, whose coverage rankled Trump.

More recently, Trump mused in December about privatizing the service given the competition it faced from Amazon, UPS, FedEx and others.

“It’s an idea a lot of people have had for a long time. We’re looking at it,” the president said.

The 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday night should offer the final clue in an unusually unpredictable Oscar race.

The other major awards — including the BAFTAs, the Producers Guild Awards, the Directors Guild Awards and the Golden Globes — have all had their say. But actors make up the largest piece of the film academy pie, so their picks often correspond strongly with Academy Award winners.

[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]

After wins from the PGA and the DGA — and last night, the Independent Spirit Awards — Sean Baker’s “Anora” is seen as the favorite to win best picture in a week’s time at the Oscars. But Edward Berger’s “Conclave” won last weekend at the BAFTAs, the latest wrench in an award season full of them. That’s included the unlikely rise and precipitous fall of another top contender, “Emilia Pérez.”

So there are plenty of questions heading into the SAG Awards, hosted by Kristen Bell from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. Can “Wicked” make a late push and win the guild’s top award, best ensemble? Can Adrien Brody hold off Timothée Chalamet for best actor? Can Mikey Madison keep the momentum and win best actress over Demi Moore?

How to watch the SAG Awards

The 31st SAG Awards will be streamed live by Netflix beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern. An official pre-show will start an hour earlier, also on Netflix. Last year’s show, the first to air on the streaming platform, drew an audience of 1.8 million, roughly on par with earlier SAG ceremonies broadcast by TNT and TBS.

Who’s nominated by SAG?

“Wicked” comes in the leading film nominee, with five nods, while “Shōgun” heads the TV categories.

Jon M. Chu’s hit musical hasn’t yet had a major awards win, but the Screen Actors Guild has often favored populist contenders. Also up for best ensemble are “Anora,” “The Brutalist,” “Conclave” and “A Complete Unknown.”

The best actor and best actress categories should be nail biters. While Brody (“The Brutalist”) has won a string of awards, Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”) and Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) could easily pull off the upset. Best actress could go to either Moore (“The Substance”) or Madison (“Anora”).

In the supporting categories, Kieran Culkin (“A Real Pain”) and Zoe Saldana (“Emilia Pérez”) are the favorites.

In addition to the competitive categories, Jane Fonda will be given the SAG Life Achievement Award.

How the ceremony plans to address the Los Angeles wildfires

The devastating wildfires that began in early January forced the guild to cancel its in-person nominations announcement and instead issue a press release. The guild has launched a disaster relief fund for SAG-AFTRA members affected by the fires. Producers have said the show will honor those affected.

(NewsNation) — Elon Musk has reiterated the need for federal government employees to explain their weekly tasks as he and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) look to scale back operations.

Musk, who was hand-picked by President Donald Trump to examine and cut federal spending, explained why he believes it is necessary on X on Sunday.

“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” he said.

“In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”

Musk announced on Saturday that civil servants will be asked to send an email explaining what they accomplished last week. Those who don’t comply will be fired, he said.

The message told federal employees to “please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullet points of what you accomplished last week,” copying their manager, by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday.

A growing list of agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department and Intelligence Community, on Sunday had told their employees to hold off.

A source told NewsNation that nonpolitical appointees at one agency are being told by White House liaisons not to respond.

Patel tells FBI employees to pause any responses to DOGE email

Newly-appointed FBI Director Kash Patel sent a message to the FBI workforce on Saturday night telling them not to reply to the emails.

In a memo obtained by NewsNation, Patel said the bureau would handle future responses to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) inquiries.

“FBI personnel may have received an email from OPM requesting information,” Patel wrote in his message. “The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures.”

“When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses,” Patel continued. “For now, please pause any responses.”

Department of Defense tells employees to pause responses

The Department of Defense shared a message to its employees on X, noting that it is responsible for reviewing employee performance.

“When and if required, the Department will coordinate responses to the email you have received from OPM. For now, please pause any response to the OPM email titled ‘What did you do last week,’” Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Darin Selnick said in a statement.

State Department says employees aren’t obligated to respond

NBC News reported that the State Department also instructed its employees not to respond.

“The State Department will respond on behalf of the Department. No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” read a notice from Tibor Nagy, acting under secretary for management at the State Department.

Tulsi Gabbard says National Intelligence employees shouldn’t respond

And the New York Times reported that National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard sent similar guidance to employees of agencies she oversees in the Intelligence Community (I.C.).

“Given the inherently sensitive and classified nature of our work, I.C. employees should not respond to the OPM email,” Gabbard reportedly wrote.

National Treasury Employees Union employees advised not to respond

A screenshot posted online shows an email the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) sent to its members saying employees were “strongly” advised to not respond to OPM’s request.

“We are concerned about the implications of this request and are actively working to protect your rights and interests,” the NTEU said in a statement.

DHS says it will handle responding to OPM

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has informed its employees that it will respond directly to the request, requiring no action from individual offices or staff.

An internal email sent Sunday stated that DHS management would handle the response on behalf of the entire department and its component agencies.

“No reporting action from you is needed at this time,” wrote Deputy Under Secretary for Management R.D. Alles, instructing employees to refrain from responding outside their DHS chain of command.

The directive was also sent to federal air marshals, according to a member of the national council.

Department of Health and Human Services backtracks, tells employees to ‘pause’

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two conflicting emails to employees Sunday, according to a source who shared the messages with NewsNation.

The first email, sent in the morning, confirmed that employees should respond to the “What did you do last week?” email. However, a second email sent in the evening reversed course, instructing employees to “pause” answering the OPM request, with further guidance expected around noon Tuesday.

Another message to National Institutes of Health employees urged employees to hold off.

NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.

Imagine if a reckless driver caused a crash that took the life of a young child. Picture the heartbreak of that child’s family, who now have to live with an unimaginable loss, due to someone else’s fault.

You would think the law would help these families get justice, right? That someone would be held accountable? That someone would have to pay the price for taking an innocent life? Unfortunately, given the current law in New York, you would be wrong.

I’ve cried every day since May 3, 2023. My life was broken that night. My son, Ethan, was just 14 years old when a drunk driver took his life. Ethan was full of kindness, joy, ambition, love, and happiness. His future was stolen in an instant. And yet, under New York’s outdated law, Ethan’s life is considered to have absolutely no value for my family’s grief, and the deep pain my family feels is completely ignored.

New York’s wrongful death law is over 175 years old. Today, if someone is killed due to another person’s wrongdoing, like a drunk driver in our case, their family can seek compensation based on whether the victim was earning money for their family. This means if a child, a stay-at-home parent, or a retired grandparent is killed, the law says their life has basically no value. No exceptions.

Losing a loved one isn’t just about losing their paycheck. It’s about losing their laughter, love, and future moments together. Forty-eight out of 50 states in the United States ensure that grieving families have a path to justice. But not New York.

The New York Legislature recognized this injustice and sought to pass the Grieving Families Act, a law that would finally allow families to seek justice for their pain and suffering. It had overwhelming support from both Democrats and Republicans (how often do we see that these days?!)—proof that this isn’t a partisan issue but a moral one.

Yet, Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed it three times.

The impediment seems to be the risk that insurance premiums would rise largely in the case of wrongful deaths on the part of doctors or hospitals. I’m sure, and I hope and pray, that a compromise can be made to pass this bill.

Can anyone side with a drunk driver responsible for someone else’s death? Seems like Governor Hochul does.

Now is the opportunity for state officials, including Governor Hochul, to fix an unjust law. Imagine losing a child and being told, “Sorry, but accountability only matters when the victim is either alive or was earning a paycheck.” That’s exactly what my family and I are facing.

Ethan’s life mattered. Every life lost matters. It’s time for our State and the Governor to stand with families by updating New York’s wrongful death laws.

Almost every state in the US agrees. New York families agree. Democrats and Republicans agree. If you agree, I am asking you, on behalf of my family, myself, and my son’s memory, to call and email your State Senator and Assemblymembers as well as Governor Hochul, to tell them to pass the Grieving Families Act.

Gary Falkowitz is a personal injury attorney and East Hills Village prosecutor in Nassau County.

U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) adds Microsoft Power Pages vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) added a Microsoft Power Pages vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2025-24989, to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog.

CVE-2025-24989 (CVSS score: 8.2) is an improper access control flaw in Power Pages, an unauthorized attacker could exploit the flaw to elevate privileges over a network potentially bypassing the user registration control.

Raj Kumar with Microsoft reported the vulnerability. This week Microsoft addressed it and confirmed that this vulnerability is actively exploited in the wild.

“Affected customers have been given instructions on reviewing their sites for potential exploitation and clean up methods. If you’ve not been notified this vulnerability does not affect you.” reads the advisory published by Microsoft.

According to Binding Operational Directive (BOD) 22-01: Reducing the Significant Risk of Known Exploited Vulnerabilities, FCEB agencies have to address the identified vulnerabilities by the due date to protect their networks against attacks exploiting the flaws in the catalog.

Experts also recommend private organizations review the Catalog and address the vulnerabilities in their infrastructure.

CISA orders federal agencies to fix this vulnerability by March 21, 2025.

Follow me on Twitter: @securityaffairs and Facebook and Mastodon

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, privilege escalation)

(NewsNation) — Pope Francis had a “peaceful night” Saturday after receiving blood transfusions and high levels of oxygen to treat his double pneumonia, the Vatican said Sunday, but remains in “critical condition.”

Blood tests showed early kidney failure but he remains alert, responsive and attended Mass, the Vatican said, as the 88-year-old pontiff battles a complex lung infection.

Francis took to social media to express his gratitude to supporters, writing, “I’ve recently received many messages of affection, and I’ve been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children. Thank you for your closeness, and for the consoling prayers I have received from all over the world.”

The pontiff, who entered the papacy at age 76 in 2013, is being treated at Gemelli Hospital in Italy where he was initially admitted for bronchitis on Feb.14.

He has missed Sunday Mass in back-to-back weeks after suffering a severe and prolonged respiratory crisis requiring oxygen.  

Though not on a ventilator, Francis is struggling to breathe and is keeping his movement limited, according to officials. Still, he remains alert, sitting upright, working and joking, though a bit more fatigued than the day before. 

The pope also received blood transfusions after tests revealed thrombocytopenia, a condition of abnormally low levels of platelets in the blood. 

Doctors said their biggest concern now is the risk of germs that could enter his bloodstream and cause sepsis, a life-threatening infection. 

His medical team says he’s expected to return to the Vatican, which may be unsurprising, as he has said previously that the position of pope is a lifelong commitment. 

Despite his illness, Francis mentioned the war in Ukraine, saying “Tomorrow (Feb. 23) will be the 3rd anniversary of the large-scale war against Ukraine. A pain. And shameful occasion for the whole of humanity,” going on to call for the “gift of peace in all armed conflicts around the world.” 

Doctors said he will stay hospitalized at least through next weekend. 

A mass for the pope in his native city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is expected at 9:15 a.m. Sunday. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report