Pope Francis showed slight improvement in lab tests Monday and resumed some work activities, including calling a parish in Gaza City that he has kept in touch with since the war there began, the Vatican said.
The latest update said the 88-year-old Francis, suffering from pneumonia in both lungs, hadn’t had any more respiratory crises.
The slight kidney insufficiency detected on Sunday was of no concern.
He is continuing to receive supplemental oxygen and doctors say his prognosis remains guarded.
He received the Eucharist in the morning and resumed working in the afternoon.
In the evening he called the parish priest of the Gaza parish to express his fatherly closeness, the statement said.
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
Thesun.co.uk is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thesun and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
THE BBC spent £400,000 of licence payers’ cash making a documentary branded a propaganda show for evil terror group Hamas, The Sun can reveal.
Highly placed sources confirmed the huge sum was handed to the production company behind controversial prime-time programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone.
The main narrator of the heart-tugging, supposedly factual exposé – 13-year-old Abdulla Eliyazour – was revealed to be the son of senior Hamas official Dr Ayman Al-Yazouri.
Money spent on the hour-long BBC2 programme was revealed yesterday as Tory leader Kemi Badenoch demanded to know whether any of the cash went to Hamas.
BBC bosses were forced to withdraw the documentary from its iPlayer streaming service last week pending “further due diligence” checks after being accused of pro-Hamas bias.
Anger grew after Beeb bosses initially tried to defend the programme, and blamed London-based production company Hoyo Films for not revealing the boy’s link.
But the contract between the BBC and Hoyo suggests the corporation had direct and regular involvement – and shows action should have taken action.
One section of the contract reads: “We will address editorial compliance issues as they arise by having regular updates and phone calls with the commissioning editor.”
The documentary was made by the BBC’s Current Affair TV arm which paid award-winning Hoyo Films to craft the production.
But it was still unclear last night why the boy’s appearance was allowed by the department’s commissioning editor Gian Quaglieni.
Under-fire corporation chiefs yesterday declined to add to previous comments on the continuing controversy.
But ex-boss Danny Cohen – former director of BBC television – demanded clarity as to who was responsible and whether Hamas were given licence cash on Monday.
Mr Cohen said: “The BBC needs to account for every penny spent on this documentary – £400,000 is a lot of licence-fee payers money.
“They should be transparently told where their money went and whether any of it reached the hands of Hamas.
“The BBC must also launch a wider investigation into systemic bias against Israel after repeated editorial failures since the October 7 massacres.”
In her letter to Director General of the BBC, Tim Davie, Mrs Badenoch said: “It is now clear to me that you should commission a full independent inquiry to consider this and wider allegations of systemic BBC bias against Israel.
ON OCTOBER 7, 2023, Hamas launched a brutal surprise attack on Israel, marking one of the darkest days in the nation’s history.
Terrorists stormed across the border from Gaza, killing over 1,200 people — most of them civilians — and kidnapping 250 others, including women, children, and the elderly.
The coordinated assault saw heavily armed fighters infiltrate Israeli towns, kibbutzim, and military bases, unleashing indiscriminate violence.
Innocent families were slaughtered in their homes, and graphic footage of the atrocities spread across social media, leaving the world in shock.
And as well as attacking people in their homes, they stormed the Nova music peace festival – killing at least 364 people there alone.
The massacre triggered a swift and massive retaliatory response from Israel, escalating into a full-scale war.
The attack not only reignited long-standing tensions in the region but also left deep scars on both sides of the conflict, setting the stage for the 16 months of devastation that followed.
“It is well known that inside Gaza the influence of the proscribed terrorist organisation Hamas is pervasive.
“How could any programme from there be commissioned, without comprehensive work by the BBC to ensure that presenters or participants were – as far as possible – not linked to that appalling regime?
“Would the BBC be this naive if it was commissioning content from North Korea or the Islamic Republic of Iran?”
Mrs Badenoch added that it was “profoundly troubling” that the BBC initially defended the documentary insisting it “remains a powerful child’s eye view of the devastating consequences of the war”.
And she warned the Tory Party would be unable to continue supporting the BBC’s licence fee generated funding unless heads roll.
She said: “Surely it should have been immediately apparent that the programme was fundamentally flawed?
“An investigation must consider allegations of potential collusion with Hamas’ and the possibility of payment to Hamas officials.
“These are not isolated incidents.”
Left-wing bias is alleged to have tainted BBC coverage of the Gaza War ever since October 7 and has sparked numerous calls for a crackdown.
And a BBC reporter who triggered one of the first bias rows of the war was yesterday revealed to have sparked more fury with an inflammatory online post.
On October 17 – ten days after Hamas massacred 1,200 people and grabbed 251 hostages – Jon Donnison told viewers it appeared “an Israeli air strike or several air strikes” had blitzed Gaza’s Al-Ahli Hospital.
It later emerged that a miss-fired Hamas rocket hit the medical centre in an attack reported to have claimed 500 lives.
But Mr Donnison was slammed on X for posting on Saturday: “The propaganda efforts by both Hamas and Israel over the hostage releases are pretty nauseating.”
He took down the post and apologised yesterday after his comment triggered fury.
X user David Collier raged: “He sees Hamas abusing and torturing Israeli hostages on TV.
“Then he sees Israeli families indescribable happiness as their loved ones return.
“And he thinks they are the same – we should not be paying his salary.”
Sarah Deech posted: “BBC Middle East reporter Jon Donnison seems to think Hamas’s grotesque displays of jihadi ideology, glorifying death and violence, are somehow equivalent to Israelis welcoming home emaciated, tortured hostages.”
The BBC said: “Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone features important stories we think should be told – those of the experiences of children in Gaza.
“There have been continuing questions raised about the programme and in the light of these, we are conducting further due diligence with the production company.
“The programme will not be available on iPlayer while this is taking place.”
Questioned about the cost of the show to licence payers yesterday, a BBC spokeswoman told The Sun: “We have nothing further to add to our latest statement.”
IRELAND’s Shane Lowry is the bookies favorite for this week’s Cognizant Classic at PGA National.
The PGA Tour enters its ‘Florida Swing’ and the Offaly star will be chomping a bit ahead of the run in the state he resides in.
World number 19 Lowry is favourite on the The Palm Beach Gardens course which is home of the infamous ‘Bear Trap.’
15, 16 and 17 make up the stretch of holes – a pair of par-3s sandwiching a tough par-4 – they each rank as some of the hardest on tour.
The 37-year-old has finished inside the top-5 during the last three years at this tournament, and has been installed as 20/1 favourite with the majority of book makers.
Sixteen of the top 50 golfers in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) will compete for a share of the $9.2 million purse.
The Irishman has netted $2,242,000 from three tournaments to date on the 2025 FedEx Cup season.
His best finish was as runner-up to Rory McIlroy at the AT&T Pebble Beach PRO-AM last month in California.
The Clara native also finished third at the API at Bay Hill, which takes place next week on stage two of the Florida swing.
But the competition will be fierce with a number of top players in the field for Thursday’s opening round.
Its very much a horses for courses track.
SunSport takes a look of the ones to watch as the PGA Tour hits the Sunshine State.
Shane Lowry @ 19/1 – The Irishman will be looking for his first solo win on the PGA Tour since 2019, and this could be the course he was so agonisingly close to winning on in 2022.
Sepp Straka @ 20/1 – The Austrian claimed the 2022 edition of this tournament over Ryder Cup pal Lowry, he’s already won at The AMEX this season. He missed the cut at The Genesis but has five top 20s on his season, including the win at PGA West.
Min Woo Lee @ 22/1 – The Australian has two top 20 finishes in as many events on the PGA Tour this season, and looks to have found a solid bag man in Shane Lowry’s former Caddie, Brian ‘Bo’ Martin. He finished second here last year to Austin Ekroat.
Jordan Spieth – @40/1 – It’s his first ever appearance at PGA National, the American is three events back from wrist surgery, and has showed flashes of his brilliance. Can’t be ignored for an e-w bet at a big price.
Luke Clanton @ 50/1 – The amateur star, who will earn a PGA Tour card if he makes the cut this week after a sponsor’s invite has solid form when he’s played on tour. The 22-year-old has made 8/11 cuts, along with two runners-up finishes as an amateur on tour.
Matteo Manassero @ 125/1 – Struggles with the driver at times but the former Ryder Cup star will be suited to one of the shorter tracks on the tour. He’s played PGA National twice before, finishing 29th and 12th, and faired well two weeks ago at Torrey Pines.
Rawalpindi, Feb 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) With Michael Bracewell leading with the ball and Rachin Ravindra with the bat, New Zealand produced a clinical performance to beat Bangladesh by five wickets in a thrilling Champions Trophy encounter...
The post Champions Trophy: Ravindra’s valiant 112, Bracewell’s four-fer help NZ win, reach semis (ld) appeared first on Social News XYZ.
The post Dragon Theater Visit – Gallery appeared first on Social News XYZ.
Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday gave a clarion call to all state government officials and asked them to keep away from corrupt practices. He was speaking after inaugurating the...
The post CM Vijayan warns govt officials to keep away from corrupt practices appeared first on Social News XYZ.
Patna, Feb 24 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Nitish Kumar government transferred 83 Block Development Officers (BDOs) of the Rural Development Department on Monday. An official said that the officers who were not posted yet would have to...
The post Bihar: 83 BDOs transferred ahead of Assembly elections appeared first on Social News XYZ.
CHICO, Calif. — Concerns are mounting over fire safety as federal budget cuts lead to significant layoffs within the U.S. Forest Service. Tanya Torst, a former employee from the Mendocino National Forest in Chico, has voiced her worries about how these reductions will impact […]
The post Forest Safety at Risk: Budget Cuts Lead to U.S. Forest Service Layoffs appeared first on SierraDailyNews.com.