Pope Francis has died, the Vatican says

Published

3 weeks ago

April 21, 2025

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Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced.

The pontiff, who was Bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church, became pope in 2013 after his predecessor Benedict XVI resigned.

Francis had experienced a string of health worries in recent years and spent 38 days in hospital in February and March this year.

But he recovered enough to leave hospital and just yesterday was greeting crowds on Easter Sunday in St Peter’s Square.

Follow latest: Vatican pays tribute to a life ‘dedicated to service’

The news was announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell in a statement released by the Vatican. He said: “Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis.

“At 7.35am this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church.

“He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage and universal love, especially in favour of the poorest and most marginalised.

“With immense gratitude for his example as a true disciple of the Lord Jesus, we commend the soul of Pope Francis to the infinite merciful love of the One and Triune God.”

The process for choosing a new pope – conclave – generally takes place between 15 and 20 days after the death of a pontiff.

Recent hospital visits

In recent years, his papacy had been marked by several hospital visits and concerns about his health.

On 14 February, the Pope was admitted to hospital for bronchitis treatment.

In the days that followed, the Vatican said he had been diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia and that he had blood transfusions after tests revealed he had low levels of platelets in his blood, which is associated with anaemia.

On 22 February, it said the Pope was in a critical condition after a “prolonged respiratory crisis” that required a high flow of oxygen, and the next day the Vatican said Francis was showing an “initial, mild” kidney failure.

In the following days, thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s Square to pray for his recovery, as others went to the Rome hospital where he was staying to leave flowers and cards.

He remained in hospital for the rest of the month, with doctors saying that his condition remained “complex”.

On 6 March, his voice was heard for the first time since being admitted to hospital in an audio message, in which he thanked well-wishers, before adding: “I am with you from here.”

On Sunday, he greeted crowds at the Easter Sunday Service, a day after meeting US vice president JD Vance.

His 38-day hospital stay ended on 23 March when he made his first public appearance in five weeks on a balcony at Gemelli where he smiled and gave a thumbs up to the crowds gathered outside.

He returned to the Vatican, making a surprise stop at his favourite basilica on the way home, before beginning two months of prescribed rest and recovery.

Doctors said Francis would have access to supplemental oxygen and 24-hour medical care as needed – adding that while the pneumonia infection had been successfully treated, the pontiff would continue to take oral medication for quite some time to treat the fungal infection in his lungs and continue his respiratory and physical physiotherapy.

‘People’s Pope’

Born in 1936, Francis was the first pope from South America. His papacy was marked by his championing of those escaping war and hunger, as well as those in poverty, earning him the moniker the “People’s Pope”.

In 2016, he washed the feet of refugees from different religions at an asylum centre outside Rome in a “gesture of humility and service”.

He also made his views known on a wide range of issues, from climate change to wealth inequality and the role of women in the Catholic Church.

His acceptance of the LGBTQ community was unprecedented – beginning with an unexpected remark to reporters on a flight back from Brazil about gay clergy.

He said: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge them?”

However, in April 2024 he appeared to reiterate the Vatican‘s staunch opposition to gender reassignment, surrogacy, abortion and euthanasia, by signing the text “Dignitas Infinita” (Infinite Dignity).

In the same year, his own liberal credentials were questioned after reports he used a homophobic slur behind closed doors.

Pope’s health in recent years

As a young man in his native Argentina, Francis had part of one lung removed.

In the last few years of his life, Francis needed a wheelchair or a cane to get around and limited his public speaking while struggling with bronchitis and flu.

Francis first spent time in hospital as pope in 2021 for an operation to remove part of his colon.

In June 2023 he was admitted to hospital for an operation on his intestine. At the time, the Vatican said he had been suffering “recurrent, painful and worsening” symptoms caused by an abdominal hernia.

His recent health issues meant he was forced to miss significant events in the Roman Catholic calendar, including the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum last year.

In 2022, he hinted he might step down if his health deteriorated after he was pictured using a wheelchair due to mobility issues caused by a flare-up of sciatica – a nerve condition that causes leg pain.

His predecessor, the late Benedict XVI, became the first pope to resign in more than 600 years in 2013 instead of serving for life, and died in 2022.

The Pope’s original name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio and he previously served as a bishop in Buenos Aires.

An estimated 1.4 billion Catholics across the world will mourn Francis’ passing.

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World

Trump set for truly consequential week for his presidency and his ability to effect change

Published

14 hours ago

May 12, 2025

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Trump set for truly consequential week for his presidency and his ability to effect change

It has been an extraordinary few hours which may well set the tone for a hugely consequential week ahead.

In the time that it took me to fly from London to Saudi Arabia, where President Donald Trump will begin a pivotal Middle East tour this week, a flurry of news has emerged on a range of key global challenges.

• On the Gaza war: The Trump administration has confirmed it’s holding talks with Hamas, which says it will release a hostage amid renewed hopes of a ceasefire.

• On the Ukraine war: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul – this announcement came minutes after Trump urged Zelenskyy to agree to the meeting.

• On the China-US trade war: The White House says the two countries have agreed to a “trade deal”. China said the talks, in Geneva, were “candid, in-depth and constructive”.

All three of these developments represent dramatic shifts in three separate challenges and hint at the remarkable influence the US president is having globally.

This sets the ground for what could be a truly consequential week for Trump’s presidency and his ability to effect change.

Ask Mark Stone a question

With his unique style, Trump is seeking to align numerous stars as he embarks on his first foreign diplomatic trip of his second presidency.

For days, it’s been unclear how the week ahead would unfold and which global challenge would be dominant.

The Saudi government has been instrumental as a broker in the Ukraine-Russia conflict and Qatar has been a mediator in the Gaza war.

Trump will visit both countries this week.

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Putin under pressure?

On Ukraine, Putin held a late-night news conference at the Kremlin on Saturday at which he made the surprise proposal of talks with Zelenskyy in Istanbul this Thursday.

But he rejected European and US calls for an immediate ceasefire.

The move was widely interpreted as a delay tactic.

Trump then issued a social media post urging Zelenskyy to accept the Russian proposal; effectively to call Putin’s bluff.

The American president wrote: “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly! I’m starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin, who’s too busy celebrating the Victory of World War ll, which could not have been won (not even close!) without the United States of America. HAVE THE MEETING, NOW!!!”

Within minutes, Zelenskyy responded, agreeing to the talks.

“We await a full and lasting ceasefire, starting from tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

The prospect of Putin and Zelenskyy together in Istanbul on Thursday is remarkable.

It raises the possibility that Trump would want to be there too.

Israel’s war in Gaza

On Gaza, it’s been announced that US envoy Steve Witkoff will arrive in Israel on Monday to finalise details for the release of Idan Alexander, an Israeli-American hostage being held by Hamas.

The development comes after it was confirmed that Mr Witkoff has been holding discussions with Israel, Qatar and Egypt and, through them, with Hamas.

The talks focused on a possible Gaza hostage deal and larger peace discussions for a ceasefire.

Just days ago, Israel announced a new military plan to move back into Gaza.

When do candid talks become a trade deal?

Meanwhile, officials from the United States and China have been holding talks in Geneva, Switzerland, to resolve their trade war, which was instigated by Trump’s tariffs against China.

Late on Sunday evening, the White House released a statement claiming that a trade deal had been struck.

In a written statement, titled “U.S. Announces China Trade Deal in Geneva”, treasury secretary Scott Bessent said: “I’m happy to report that we made substantial progress between the United States and China in the very important trade talks… We will be giving details tomorrow, but I can tell you that the talks were productive. We had the vice premier, two vice ministers, who were integrally involved, Ambassador Jamieson, and myself. And I spoke to President Trump, as did Ambassador Jamieson, last night, and he is fully informed of what is going on. So, there will be a complete briefing tomorrow morning.”

Beijing Global Times newspaper quoted the Chinese vice premier as saying that the talks were candid, in-depth and constructive.

However, the Chinese fell short of calling it a trade deal.

A Qatari gift

In a separate development, US media reports say that Qatar is preparing to gift Trump a Boeing 747 from its royal fleet, which he would use as a replacement for the existing and aging Air Force One plane.

The Qatari government says no deal has been finalised, but the development is already causing controversy because of the optics of accepting gifts of this value.

World

Why Trump blinked in US-China trade war

Published

14 hours ago

May 12, 2025

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Of all the fronts in Donald Trump’s trade war, none was as dramatic and economically threatening as the sky-high tariffs he imposed on China.

There are a couple of reasons: first, because China is and was the single biggest importer of goods into the US and, second, because of the sheer height of the tariffs imposed by the White House in recent months.

In short, tariffs of over 100% were tantamount to a total embargo on goods coming from the United States’ main trading partner. That would have had enormous economic implications, not just for the US but every other country around the world (these are the world’s biggest and second-biggest economies, after all).

Trump latest: US and China slash tariffs in trade war de-escalation

So the truce announced on Monday by treasury secretary Scott Bessent is undoubtedly a very big deal indeed.

In short, China will still face an extra 30% tariffs (the 20% levies cast as punishment for China’s involvement in fentanyl imports and the 10% “floor” set on “Liberation Day”) on top of the residual 10% average from the Biden era.

But the rest of the extra tariffs will be paused for 90 days. China, in turn, has suspended its own retaliatory tariffs on the US.

The market has responded as you would probably have expected, with share prices leaping in relief. But that raises a question: is the trade war now over? Now that the two sides have blinked, can globalisation continue more or less as it had before?

That, it turns out, is a trickier and more complex question than it might first seem.

For one thing, even if one were to assume this is a permanent truce rather than a suspended one, it still leaves tariffs considerably higher than they were only last year. And China faces tariffs far higher than most other countries (tot up the existing ones and the Trump era ones and China faces average tariffs of around 40%, while the average for most countries is between 8% and 14%, according to Capital Economics).

In other words, the US is still implementing an economic policy designed to increase the cost of doing business with China, even if it no longer attempts to prevent it altogether. The fact that last week’s trade agreement with the UK contains clauses seemingly designed to encourage it to raise trade barriers against China for reasons of “security” only reinforces this suspicion. The trade war is still simmering, even if it’s no longer as hot as it was a few days ago.

And more broadly, the deeper impact of the trade rollercoaster in recent months is unlikely to disappear altogether. Companies remain more nervous about investing in factories and expansions in the face of such deep economic instability. No-one is entirely sure the White House won’t just U-turn once again.

That being said, it’s hard not to escape the conclusion that the US president has blinked in this trade war. In the face of a potential recession, he has pulled back from the scariest and most damaging of his tariffs, earlier and to a greater extent than many had expected.

World

Zelenskyy’s offer to meet Putin raises the stakes in this already high-stakes game of diplomacy

Published

17 hours ago

May 12, 2025

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Zelenskyy's offer to meet Putin raises the stakes in this already high-stakes game of diplomacy

Diplomacy over Ukraine has become even more of a game of high-stakes poker.

In the early hours of Sunday, Vladimir Putin played his hand, rejecting demands for a ceasefire and proposing direct talks in Istanbul instead.

That was in response to the opening gambit made on Saturday by Ukraine and its European allies.

Britain’s Sir Keir Starmer said they were “calling Putin out”, that if he was really serious about peace, he should agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire starting on Monday.

And they thought they had Donald Trump’s backing until he made his move.

Late Sunday, he drove a cart and horses through claims of western unity, coming down on Putin’s side.

Ukraine, he said, should submit to the Russian leader’s suggestion of talks.

“Ukraine should agree to this – immediately”, he posted. Then: “I’m starting to doubt that Ukraine will make a deal with Putin…”

So much for the Coalition of the Willing having Putin where they wanted him.

Trump let him off the hook.

All eyes were then on President Zelenskyy, who has now in turn dramatically raised the stakes.

He will go to Istanbul, he said, and wait there for Vladimir Putin.

Over to you, Vladimir.

The fast-paced diplomacy aside, the last twenty-four hours have brought Europe closer to a moment of truth.

They thought they had Donald Trump’s support, and yet even with 30 nations demanding an unconditional ceasefire, the US president seemed, in the end, to side with the Russian leader.

He has helped Putin get out of a hole.

Yet again, Trump could not be counted on to pressure Vladimir Putin to end this war.

If America is no longer a reliable partner over Ukraine, Europe may need to go it alone, whatever the cost.