Pope Francis remained in stable condition and didnt need any mechanical ventilation on Sunday, the Vatican said. It was a sign that his respiratory function was improving as he continues his recovery from double pneumonia and a respiratory crisis.

The 88-year-old pope did continue to receive high flow supplemental oxygen after Fridays coughing episode, which sparked fears of a new infection. Doctors again said his prognosis remained guarded, meaning he wasnt out of danger.

Francis, who earlier Sunday had a visit from the Vatican No. 2 and No. 3 officials, also attended Mass, rested and prayed, the Vatican said in its evening bulletin.

Francis continued his recovery from double pneumonia, but again skipped his weekly noon blessing to avoid even a brief public appearance from the hospital.

Instead, the Vatican distributed a message from the pope in which he thanked his doctors for their care and well-wishers for their prayers, and prayed again for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere.

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From here, war appears even more absurd, Francis said in the message, which he drafted in recent days from the Gemelli hospital, the Vatican said. Francis said he was living his hospitalization as an experience of profound solidarity with people who are sick and suffering everywhere.

I feel in my heart the blessing that is hidden within frailty, because it is precisely in these moments that we learn even more to trust in the Lord, Francis said in the text. At the same time, I thank God for giving me the opportunity to share in body and spirit the condition of so many sick and suffering people.

Signs point to a recovery

It marked the third weekend in a row that Francis has canceled the Sunday appointment delivering the Angelus prayer in person. He could have done so from his 10th floor hospital suite at the Gemelli hospital if he were well enough.

But many signs indicated he was improving, especially after a respiratory crisis on Friday afternoon that resulted in him inhaling vomit during a coughing fit and raising the possibility of new infection.

The night was quiet, the pope is still resting, the Vatican said in its Sunday update. Francis was up, read the Sunday papers and had coffee and breakfast while continuing with his therapy.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin and his chief of staff, Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, also called on the pope Sunday morning, their second visit since Francis' Feb. 14 hospitalization, according to the Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni. There were no details of what was discussed, but the mere visit suggested Francis' condition was stabilizing.

Doctors on Saturday reported that Francis was in stable condition, with no mention of him being critical, and managed to take long periods of time off the noninvasive mechanical ventilation he needed to recover after Friday's respiratory crisis.

The 88-year-old pope had a good response in his gas exchange levels even while off the ventilator mask Saturday and only using high-flow supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said.

He had no fever or signs of elevated white blood cells, which would signal his body was fighting a new infection.

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The fact that Francis was able to use just high-flow oxygen for long periods, without any significant effect on the levels of oxygen in his blood, was a sign his respiratory function was improving.

Doctors were cautious however and kept his prognosis as guarded, meaning he wasnt out of danger. He was eating and drinking and continued his respiratory physiotherapy, and spent 20 minutes in his private chapel down the hall on Saturday, the Vatican said.

The pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has lung disease and was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 after a bout of bronchitis worsened and turned into a complex pneumonia in both lungs.

Prayers continued to pour in

Francis hospitalization has come as the Vatican is marking its Holy Year, drawing pilgrims to Rome from all over. Many have added a pilgrimage destination to their itineraries so they can pray for Francis at the Gemelli hospital, which is around a 20-minute drive from the Vatican, longer in rush hour or on public transport.

The Rev. Riccardo Fumagalli had accompanied a group of young people from Milan to Rome for the Jubilee and would have attended Francis' Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square on Sunday if he had delivered it as usual. Instead, they went to Gemelli.

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It seemed good to us to come here to express our closeness, especially of these teenagers, to be close to the Holy Father to pray for him, to pray for this moment of illness, he said.

Cancer patient Antonino Cacace was also arriving Sunday at Gemelli from Milan for his own treatment, saying he has to undergo surgery in the coming days and was counting on Francis' prayers.

I am glad the pope is giving me help," he said. "I am on the ninth (floor) and he is on the 10th (floor). I hope to meet him and see him, he said.

Israel stopped the entry of all goods and supplies into the Gaza Strip on Sunday and warned of additional consequences if Hamas doesnt accept a new proposal to extend a fragile ceasefire, while key mediator Egypt accused Israel of using starvation as a weapon.

Hamas accused Israel of trying to derail the ceasefire agreement hours after its first phase ended. It called the decision to cut off aid cheap extortion, a war crime and a blatant attack on the truce, which took hold in January after over a year of negotiations. Both sides stopped short of saying the ceasefire had ended.

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The first phase, which included a surge in humanitarian assistance after months of growing hunger in the territory, expired on Saturday. The two sides have yet to negotiate the second phase, in which Hamas was to release dozens of remaining hostages in return for an Israeli pullout from Gaza and a lasting ceasefire. Talks should have begun a month ago.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty condemned Israels decision as a flagrant and clear violation of humanitarian law, and called for the immediate implementation of the second phase.

The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has facilitated the releases of hostages and Palestinian prisoners, said the ceasefire has saved countless lives, and any unraveling of the forward momentum created over the last six weeks risks plunging people back into despair.

Israel described the new proposal as a U.S. one. There was no immediate comment from the United States, and it was not clear when U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, expected to visit the region last week, would arrive.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that under the existing agreements Israel could resume fighting after the first phase if it believes negotiations are ineffective. He said the ceasefire would only continue if Hamas keeps releasing hostages, telling his Cabinet there will be no free lunches. He said Israel was full coordinated with President Donald Trumps administration.

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The war has left most of Gazas population of over 2 million dependent on international aid. Hundreds of aid trucks had entered Gaza daily since the ceasefire began on Jan. 19, easing fears of famine raised by international experts.

But residents said prices doubled as word of the closure spread.

Everyone is worried, said Sayed al-Dairi in Gaza City. This is not a life.

Fayza Nassar in the heavily destroyed urban Jabaliya refugee camp said the closure would worsen already dire conditions.

There will be famine and chaos, she said.

After a topsy-turvy Oscar season in which frontrunners were constantly shuffled, old tweets hobbled a top contender and space was held for Wicked, the 97th Academy Awards get underway Sunday.

Sundays Academy Awards, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, will bring to a close one of the most unpredictable Oscar races in recent memory.

The ceremony kicks off 7 p.m. EST and will be broadcast by ABC and streamed on Hulu. Conan OBrien is hosting for the first time. The official red carpet preshow on ABC and Hulu starts at 6:30 p.m. Unofficial E! red carpet coverage begins at 4 p.m. EST and The Associated Press will livestream arrivals beginning at 3 p.m.

Light rain was in the forecast for Sunday morning in Los Angeles, which is still recovering from wildfires that devastated the Pacific Palisades and Altadena neighborhoods earlier this year.

The fires affected many throughout the film industry and within the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Some even called for the cancellation of Hollywoods awards season. While his Pacific Palisades house was spared, OBrien has been living out of a hotel the last two months. Oscar producers have said the show will celebrate the citys resilience.

Is there an Oscar favorite?

The lead nominee is Netflixs Emilia Prez, with 13 nominations, but that film has seen its chances crater following uproar over years-old offensive tweets by its star, Karla Sofa Gascn, the first openly trans actor nominated for best actress.

The favorite is Sean Bakers Anora, about a sex worker who weds the son of a Russian oligarch. The Neon release, the Cannes Palme dOr winner, won with the producers, directors and writers guild. The only movie with the same resume to not win best picture is Brokeback Mountain.

Its closest competition is Conclave, the papal thriller starring Ralph Fiennes. It won at the BAFTAs and the SAG Awards, wins that came just as Pope Francis was hospitalized for double pneumonia. Oscar voting concluded before the pope fell ill.

Also in the mix are The Brutalist, nominated for 10 awards, and the musical hit Wicked, also with 10 nominations. Several of the early craft Oscars could be shared between Wicked and Dune: Part Two.

Will politics play a starring role?

For the first time, an actor is nominated for playing the sitting U.S. president. Sebastian Stan is nominated for best actor for his performance as a young Donald Trump in The Apprentice, as is his co-star, Jeremy Strong, for playing Roy Cohn. Trump has called those involved with the film human scum.

The political tenor of this years ceremony could be volatile, with the Oscars coming weeks into the second Trump administration and falling two days after the presidents dramatic rupture with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House.

Speaking earlier this week, OBrien said he'll strive to strike a delicate balance.

I cannot ignore the moment were in, he said. But I also have to remember its threading a needle. I also have to remember what were here to celebrate and infuse the show with positivity.

Will Timothe Chalamet win his first Oscar?

While the supporting acting categories feature overwhelming favorites in Zoe Saldana (Emilia Prez) and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain), both best actor and best actress are close contests.

In best actress, Demi Moore (The Substance) is most likely to win, but Mikey Madison (Anora) or Fernanda Torres (Im Still Here) could pull off the upset.

Adrien Brody is favored in best actor for his performance in The Brutalist. But Timothe Chalamet stands a decent chance of beating him, for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown. The 29-year-old Chalamet, who won at the Screen Actors Guild, would become the youngest best actor winner ever, edging Brodys record, set in 2003 in his win for The Pianist.

Can the show lift a battered Hollywood?

This year's Oscars are unspooling after a turbulent year for the film industry. Ticket sales were down 3% from the previous year and more significantly from pre-pandemic times. The strikes of 2023 played havoc with release schedules in 2024. Many studios pulled back on production, leaving many out of work. The fires, in January, only added to the pain.

Last years telecast, propelled by the twin blockbusters of Oppenheimer and Barbie, led the Oscars to a four-year viewership high, with 19.5 million viewers. This year, with smaller independent films favored in the most prominent awards, the academy will be tested to draw as large of an audience.

With a not particularly starry array of best song nominees, the academy has done away with performances of original songs this year. But there will be music, including a performance by Wicked stars Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and a tribute to the late Quincy Jones, with Queen Latifah.

Last years acting winners Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, DaVine Joy Randolph will also take part in the ceremony. Though the academy initially said it would bring back the fab five style of presenting the acting awards, with five previous winners per category, organizers have reportedly abandoned those plans.

The ceremony will be taking place days following the death of Gene Hackman. The 95-year-old two-time Oscar winner and his wife, Betsy Arakawa, were found dead Wednesday at their New Mexico home.

A private lunar lander carrying a drill, vacuum and other experiments for NASA touched down on the moon Sunday, the latest in a string of companies looking to kickstart business on Earth's celestial neighbor ahead of astronaut missions.

Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost lander descended from lunar orbit on autopilot, aiming for the slopes of an ancient volcanic dome in an impact basin on the moons northeastern edge of the near side.

Confirmation of successful touchdown came from the company's Mission Control outside Austin, Texas, following the action some 225,000 miles (360,000 kilometers) away.

You all stuck the landing. Were on the moon, Fireflys Will Coogan, chief engineer for the lander, reported.

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An upright and stable landing makes Firefly a startup founded a decade ago the first private outfit to put a spacecraft on the moon without crashing or falling over. Even countries have faltered, with only five claiming success: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan.

A half hour after landing, Blue Ghost started to send back pictures from the surface, the first one a selfie somewhat obscured by the sun's glare. The second shot included the home planet, a blue dot glimmering in the blackness of space.

Two other companies landers are hot on Blue Ghosts heels, with the next one expected to join it on the moon later this week.

Blue Ghost named after a rare U.S. species of fireflies had its size and shape going for it. The squat four-legged lander stands 6-foot-6 tall and 11 feet wide, providing extra stability, according to the company.

Launched in mid-January from Florida, the lander carried 10 experiments to the moon for NASA. The space agency paid $101 million for the delivery, plus $44 million for the science and tech on board. Its the third mission under NASAs commercial lunar delivery program, intended to ignite a lunar economy of competing private businesses while scouting around before astronauts show up later this decade.

Fireflys Ray Allensworth said the lander skipped over hazards including boulders to land safely. Allensworth said the team continued to analyze the data to figure out the lander's exact position, but all indications suggest it landed within the 328-foot target zone in Mare Crisium.

The demos should get two weeks of run time, before lunar daytime ends and the lander shuts down.

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It carried a vacuum to suck up moon dirt for analysis and a drill to measure temperature as deep as 10 feet below the surface. Also on board: a device for eliminating abrasive lunar dust a scourge for NASAs long-ago Apollo moonwalkers, who got it caked all over their spacesuits and equipment.

On its way to the moon, Blue Ghost beamed back exquisite pictures of the home planet. The lander continued to stun once in orbit around the moon, with detailed shots of the moon's gray pockmarked surface. At the same time, an on-board receiver tracked and acquired signals from the U.S. GPS and European Galileo constellations, an encouraging step forward in navigation for future explorers.

The landing set the stage for a fresh crush of visitors angling for a piece of lunar business.

Another lander a tall and skinny 15-footer built and operated by Houston-based Intuitive Machines is due to land on the moon Thursday. Its aiming for the bottom of the moon, just 100 miles from the south pole. Thats closer to the pole than the company got last year with its first lander, which broke a leg and tipped over.

Despite the tumble, Intuitive Machines' lander put the U.S. back on the moon for the first time since NASA astronauts closed out the Apollo program in 1972.

A third lander from the Japanese company ispace is still three months from landing. It shared a rocket ride with Blue Ghost from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 15, taking a longer, windier route. Like Intuitive Machines, ispace is also attempting to land on the moon for the second time. Its first lander crashed in 2023.

The moon is littered with wreckage not only from ispace, but dozens of other failed attempts over the decades.

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NASA wants to keep up a pace of two private lunar landers a year, realizing some missions will fail, said the space agency's top science officer Nicky Fox.

It really does open up a whole new way for us to get more science to space and to the moon," Fox said.

Unlike NASAs successful Apollo moon landings that had billions of dollars behind them and ace astronauts at the helm, private companies operate on a limited budget with robotic craft that must land on their own, said Firefly CEO Jason Kim.

Kim said everything went like clockwork.

We got some moon dust on our boots," Kim said.

After devastating wildfires tore through Los Angeles, the 97th Academy Awards are going forward.

Like the Grammys and other awards shows this year, the ceremony will be transformed by the fires and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has pledged to help its members and the broader film community recover.

Heres everything you need to know about this years show:

When are the Oscars?

The Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The show, to be broadcast live by ABC, is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific.

Are the Oscars streaming?

In a first, the Oscars will be streamed live on Hulu. You can also watch via Hulu Live TV, YouTubeTV, AT&T TV and FuboTV. With authentication from your provider, you can watch on ABC.com and the ABC app.

Who's hosting the Oscars?

Conan OBrien is hosting the Academy Awards for the first time.

"I never have been invited to the Oscars," the late night host-turned podcaster and occasional movie star said at a news conference Wednesday. I only hosted so that I could be invited.

O'Brien said he would not hesitate to talk about the nation's fraught political situation.

I cannot ignore the moment were in," he said. "But I also have to remember its threading a needle. I also have to remember what were here to celebrate and infuse the show with positivity.

He said compared to all the other things he's done, hosting the Oscars is like for the first time getting to drive a Ferrari.

Id like to keep the tuxedo, he said. They made me an absolutely beautiful tuxedo. Its the nicest thing Ive ever put on in my life.

How have the wildfires altered the show?

The wildfires that consumed large parts of Los Angeles in early January led some to call for the cancellation of the Academy Awards. The academy twice postponed the announcement of nominations but never pushed the March 2 date of the ceremony. Academy leaders have argued the show must go ahead, for their economic impact on Los Angeles and as a symbol of resilience.

The fires will be addressed during the show both directly and in its themes, and viewers will be able to make donations.

Theres been so many people that have been touched by this devastation, Raj Kapoor, the show's executive producer and showrunner, said Wednesday. Theres been so much outreach, and we really wanted to create some really beautiful moments on stage that celebrate this amazing city that we live in.

For many involved in the Oscars, the fires have been felt acutely. O'Brien's Pacific Palisades home survived but his family has been unable to go back to it. O'Brien's assistant and podcast co-host Sona Movsesian lost her home.

I know so many people who lost their homes and Im just, was ridiculously lucky, OBrien told The Associated Press. So we want to make sure that that show reflects whats happening and that we put a light on the right people in the right way.

Who's presenting at the Oscars?

The academy on Wednesday added to its extensive lineup of presenters. Dave Bautista, Harrison Ford, Gal Gadot, Andrew Garfield, Samuel L. Jackson, Margaret Qualley, Alba Rohrwacher, Zoe Saldaa and Rachel Zegler will all present.

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They join a roster of previously announced presenters including Selena Gomez, Oprah Winfrey, Joe Alwyn, Ana de Armas, Halle Berry, Scarlett Johansson, Bowen Yang, Lily-Rose Depp and Sterling K. Brown.

Last year's acting winners Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr., Cillian Murphy, DaVine Joy Randolph will also take part in the ceremony. Though the academy initially said it would bring back the fab five style of presenting the acting awards, with five previous winners per category, organizers have reportedly abandoned those plans for Sunday's ceremony. Nick Offerman will serve as the show's announcer.

Will there be any performances?

The academy has announced that, unlike previous years, the original song nominees will not be performed this time. That doesn't mean there won't be music, though.

Producers said Wednesday that Queen Latifah will be part of a musical tribute to the late Quincy Jones, who was honored in November with one of the academy's Governor's Awards just weeks after his death.

Doja Cat, LISA of Blackpink, Queen Latifah and RAYE will also perform, as will Wicked's Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. (The songs from Wicked weren't eligible for best song since, hailing from the Broadway musical, they aren't original to the movie.) The Los Angeles Master Chorale will also appear.

What's nominated for best picture?

The 10 nominees for best picture are: Anora; The Brutalist; A Complete Unknown; Conclave; Dune: Part 2; Emilia Prez; Im Still Here; Nickel Boys; The Substance; Wicked

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How can I watch the Oscar-nominated films?

Some of the nominees are still in theaters, but many of this years Oscar nominees are streaming on various platforms. The AP has this handy guide to help with Oscar cramming.

Who are the favorites?

More than most years, thats a tricky question, but a front-runner had emerged after Anora took the top awards at the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Independent Spirit Awards. The best picture race had been seen as unusually wide open, with Anora, Conclave, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown and Emilia Prez all having legitimate hopes of winning the hopes of Conclave further boosted by its Screen Actors Guild ensemble win.

In the acting categories, Demi Moore (The Substance) is favored for best actress, although Mikey Madison's BAFTA and Independent Spirit wins for Anora makes it more of a race. Adrien Brody (The Brutalist) is most likely in best actor though SAG winner Timothe Chalamet could threaten while Zoe Saldaa (Emilia Prez) is the supporting actress front-runner and Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) is the favorite for best supporting actor.

What's the deal withEmilia Prez?

Jacques Audiards Emilia Prez, a narco-musical about a Mexican drug lord who undergoes gender affirming surgery, comes in with a leading 13 nominations. The film, at one point, seemed like Netflixs best chance yet to land the streamer its first best picture win. Its star, Karla Sofa Gascn, made history by becoming the first openly trans actor nominated for an Oscar.

But no nominee has had a rockier post-nominations Oscar campaign. After old offensive tweets by Gascn were uncovered, the actress issued an apology. The fallout, though, has badly damaged a movie that was already a divisive contender, and led Netflix to radically refocus its flagging campaign.

President Donald Trumps plan to pull federal funding from institutions that provide gender-affirming care for transgender youth will remain blocked on a long-term basis under a federal judge's ruling in Seattle late Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King previously granted a two-week restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration Colorado has since joined the case.

King's temporary order expired Friday, and she held arguments that day before issuing a preliminary injunction blocking most of Trump's plan pending a final decision on the merits of the case. She rejected a portion of the states' challenge regarding the order's protections against female genital mutilation, on grounds that no credible threat of prosecution exists in such cases.

Two of Trump's executive orders are at issue in the case.

One, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism, calls for stripping federal money from programs that promote gender ideology.

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The other, Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, calls for the federal government to cut off research and educational grants for institutions, including medical schools and hospitals, that provide gender-affirming care to people under age 19. Several hospitals around the country ceased providing care, including puberty blockers and hormone treatments, following the order.

Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care, and Trumps "Protecting Children order suggests that practice could end. It also raises the prospect that medical professionals could be criminally charged for providing gender-affirming care under a law that bans medically unnecessary genital mutilation of underage females a notion that the states suing Trump call repugnant and legally unsupportable.

Young people who persistently identify as a gender that differs from their sex assigned at birth a condition called gender dysphoria are far more likely to suffer from severe depression and to kill themselves if they do not receive treatment, which can include evaluation by a team of medical professionals; a social transition, such as changing a hairstyle or pronouns; and eventually puberty blockers or hormones. Surgery is extremely rare for minors.

In her ruling Friday, the judge said the order was not limited to children or to irreversible treatments and that it doesn't target medical interventions performed on cisgender children.

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In fact, its inadequate means-end fit would prevent federally funded medical providers from providing necessary medical treatments to transgender youth that are completely unrelated to gender identity, she wrote. For example, a cisgender teen could obtain puberty blockers from such a provider as a component of cancer treatment, but a transgender teen with the same cancer care plan could not.

In his arguments Friday, Washington Assistant Attorney General William McGinty stressed the urgency of the issue.

There are going to be young people who are going to take their lives if they can no longer receive this care, he said.

The executive order uses derisive terminology words such as maiming, sterilizing and mutilation that contradicts what is typical for gender-affirming care in the United States. Such care is widely endorsed by the medical community, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians.

King, the judge in Seattle, grilled Justice Department attorney Vinita Andrapalliyal in court about the meaning and effect of Trumps executive orders.

What is gender dysphoria? she asked.

Your honor, I am not a medical provider, Andrapalliyal responded.

Its a thing, correct? King asked. Its a medically recognizable diagnosis?

I don't have an official position on that, Andrapalliyal said.

The judge continued to press, saying she was looking for a legitimate government interest that would justify Trump's orders.

The four Democratic attorneys general suing in Seattle argued that the orders violate equal rights protections, the separation of powers and the states' right to regulate issues not delegated to the federal government.

The Trump administration disputed those claims in court filings. The Presidents authority to direct subordinate agencies to implement his agenda, subject to those agencies own statutory authorities, is well established, Justice Department attorneys wrote.

In addition to the orders on health care access and defining the sexes as unchangeable, Trump has also signed orders that open the door to banning transgender people from military service; set up new rules about how schools can teach about gender; and would ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and womens sports.

Many legal challenges have been filed.

Pope Francis had coffee and was reading newspapers Saturday after an alarming setback in his two-week recovery from double pneumonia. Doctors had to put him on noninvasive mechanical ventilation following a coughing fit in which he inhaled vomit that needed to then be extracted.

Doctors said it would take a day or two to evaluate how and if the Friday afternoon episode impacted Francis overall clinical condition. His prognosis remained guarded, meaning he wasnt out of danger.

In its morning update Saturday, the Vatican said the 88-year-old pope didn't have any further respiratory crises overnight: The night has passed quietly, the pope is resting." He had coffee in the morning for breakfast, suggesting that he was not dependent on a ventilation mask to breathe and was still eating on his own.

In the late Friday update, the Vatican said Francis suffered an isolated crisis of bronchial spasm, a coughing fit in which Francis inhaled vomit, that resulted in a sudden worsening of the respiratory picture. Doctors aspirated the vomit and placed Francis on noninvasive mechanical ventilation.

RELATED STORY | Pope had a bronchial spasm and his prognosis remains guarded, Vatican says

The pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover. He responded well, with a good level of oxygen exchange and was continuing to wear a mask to receive supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said.

The episode, which occurred in the early afternoon, marked a setback in what had been two successive days of increasingly upbeat reports from doctors treating Francis at Romes Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14. The pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has lung disease and was admitted after a bout of bronchitis worsened and turned into pneumonia in both lungs.

Doctors say the episode is alarming

The Vatican said the episode was different from the prolonged respiratory crisis on Feb. 22, that was said to have caused Francis discomfort.

Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the isolated episode Friday, as relayed by the Vatican, was nevertheless alarming and underscored Francis fragility and that his condition can turn very quickly.

I think this is extremely concerning, given the fact that the pope has been in the hospital now for over two weeks, and now hes continuing to have these respiratory events and now had this aspiration event that is requiring even higher levels of support, he told The Associated Press.

So given his age and his fragile state and his previous lung resection, this is very concerning, added Coleman, who is not involved in Francis care.

Dr. William Feldman, a pulmonary specialist at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, said it was a good sign that the pope remained alert and oriented during the episode, but concurred that it marked a worrying turn.

Often we will use noninvasive ventilation as a way of trying to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation, Feldman said.

Types of noninvasive ventilation include a BiPAP machine, which helps people breathe by pushing air into their lungs. Doctors will often try such a machine for a while to see if the patients blood gas levels improve so they can eventually go back to using oxygen alone. Friday's statement said Francis showed a good response to the gas exchange using the ventilation.

RELATED STORY | Pope Francis continues to improve as 'kidney insufficiency' subsides, Vatican says

Doctors did not resume referring to Francis being in critical condition, which has been absent from their statements for three days now. But they say he isnt out of danger, given the complexity of his case.

Prayers continued to pour in

Francis' hospitalization has come as the Vatican is marking its Holy Year that is drawing pilgrims to Rome from all over. They are walking through the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica and also making pilgrimages to the hilltop Umbrian town of Assisi, to pray at the home of Francis' namesake, St. Francis.

Every day were praying for the pope," said the Rev. Jacinto Bento, a priest visiting Assisi on Saturday with a group of 30 Jubilee pilgrims from the Azores Islands. Were very sad for his situation.

Veronica Abraham, a catechist and Argentine native, came to Assisi on Saturday with her two children and other kids from her parish on Lake Garda and said the group had prayed for the pope at every church they'd visited.

Im sure that hes hearing our prayers, that he feels our closeness, she said.

Serena Barbon, visiting Assisi from Treviso on Saturday with her husband and three children, said she hoped that if Francis doesn't make it, the next pope will be just like him.

Hes been very charismatic and we pray for him and that any new pope might also be someone who puts the poor in the center. Because were all a bit the poor, she said.

A federal judge in San Francisco on Thursday found that the mass firings of probationary employees were likely unlawful, granting some temporary relief to a coalition of labor unions and organizations that has sued to stop the Trump administrations massive trimming of the federal workforce.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup ordered the Office of Personnel Management to inform certain federal agencies that it had no authority to order the firings of probationary employees, including the Department of Defense.

OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire or fire any employees but its own, he said.

Alsup handed down the order on a temporary restraining order sought by labor unions and nonprofits in a lawsuit filed by the coalition filed last week.

The complaint filed by five labor unions and five nonprofit organizations is among multiple lawsuits pushing back on the administrations efforts to vastly shrink the federal workforce, which Trump has called bloated and sloppy. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired and his administration is now aiming at career officials with civil service protection.

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The plaintiffs say the Office of Personnel Management had no authority to terminate the jobs of probationary workers who generally have less than a year on the job. They also say the firings were predicated on a lie of poor performance by the workers.

Lawyers for the government say the Office of Personnel Management did not direct the firings, but asked agencies to review and determine whether employees on probation were fit for continued employment. They also say that probationary employees are not guaranteed employment and that only the highest performing and mission-critical employees should be hired.

There are an estimated 200,000 probationary workers generally employees who have less than a year on the job across federal agencies. About 15,000 are employed in California, providing services ranging from fire prevention to veterans care, the complaint says.

Unions have recently struck out with two other federal judges in similar lawsuits attempting to stop the Trump administrations goal of vastly reducing the federal workforce.

Alsup, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, has presided over many high-profile cases and is known for his blunt talk. He oversaw the criminal probation of Pacific Gas & Electric and has called the nations largest utility a continuing menace to California.

Attorney General Pam Bondi teased the public release of government documents related to wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein during a Fox News appearance Wednesday, declaring, Breaking news right now, you're going to see some Epstein information released."

The Justice Department later acknowledged the files expected to be released Thursday have largely already been circulating in the public domain and are unlikely to include any new bombshells about the sex trafficking case that has been a favorite subject of conspiracy theorists.

The Justice Department said it was making the documents public to show its commitment to transparency. But the rollout of the files which were given to political commentators in binders that read The Epstein Files: Phase I at the White House Thursday afternoon showed the administration's preference for conservative influencers with large social media followings.

By Thursday evening, the files had not been provided to Justice Department reporters or posted publicly online.

RELATED STORY | Thousands of Epstein documents were released, questions remain

The documents are unlikely to satisfy online sleuths eager for fresh details about Epsteins crimes and connections to famous people that have long been the subject of intense media scrutiny. The lack of new information drew criticism even from some conservatives. GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR! Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., wrote on social media, calling the rollout a complete disappointment.

Bondi suggested in a Thursday letter to FBI Director Kash Patel that more records were recently discovered. She ordered the FBI to hand over the full and complete Epstein files to her by Friday morning, and directed Patel to conduct an immediate investigation into why her order to the FBI to turn over all documents was not followed.

President Donald Trump, who was in office when Epstein was arrested, suggested while campaigning last year that he'd seek to open up the government's files.

Epstein was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls in the early 2000s, but wound up serving just 13 months in jail. He was indicted on federal charges in New York in 2019, more than a decade after he secretly struck a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of similar charges of sex trafficking.

RELATED STORY | Trump orders declassification of JFK, RFK and MLK Jr. records

The case has drawn widespread attention because of Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwells links to royals, presidents and billionaires. Maxwell herself is the daughter of the late British media tycoon Robert Maxwell, who once owned the New York Daily News.

Over the years, thousands of pages of records have been released through lawsuits, Epsteins criminal dockets, public disclosures and Freedom of Information Act requests. In January 2024, a court unsealed a trove of documents that had been collected as evidence in a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre.

Much of the material, including transcripts of victim interviews and old police reports, had already been publicly known. They included mentions of Trump, former President Bill Clinton, Britain's Prince Andrew and magician David Copperfield, as well as testimony from one victim who said she met Michael Jackson at Epsteins Florida home but nothing untoward happened with him.

The previously released files included a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted spending several hours with Epstein at Trumps Atlantic City casino but didnt say if she actually met Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. Trump has also said that he once thought Epstein was a terrific guy, but that they later had a falling out.

RELATED STORY | Jeffrey Epstein's 'little black book' just went up for auction. Here's whose names are listed in it

In 2023, The Associated Press obtained thousands of pages of records shedding light on the final days of Epsteins life at a now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan. They included emails between jail officials, psychological evaluations, internal agency reports, memos and other records.

The Justice Departments Inspector General later issued a report finding that a combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and jail workers enabled Epstein to take his own life in August 2019. The watchdog report found no evidence of foul play.

Iowa lawmakers voted to remove gender identity protections from the states civil rights code Thursday despite massive protests by opponents who say it could expose transgender people to discrimination in numerous areas of life.

The measure raced through the legislative process after first being introduced last week. The state Senate was first to approve the bill on Thursday, followed by the House less than an hour later.

RELATED STORY | Trump clashes with Maine's governor over transgender women in sports

Hundreds of LGBTQ+ advocates streamed into the Capitol rotunda on Thursday waving signs reading Trans rights are human rights and chanting slogans including No hate in our state! There was a heavy police presence, with state troopers stationed around the rotunda. Of the 167 people who signed up to testify at a 90-minute public hearing before a House committee, all but 24 were opposed to the bill.

Protesters that watched the vote from the House gallery loudly booed and shouted Shame! as the chamber adjourned. Many admonished Iowa state Rep. Steven Holt, who floor managed the bill and delivered a fierce defense of it before it passed.

The bill would remove gender identity as a protected class from the states civil rights law and explicitly define female and male, as well as gender, which would be considered a synonym for sex and shall not be considered a synonym or shorthand expression for gender identity, experienced gender, gender expression, or gender role.

RELATED STORY | Biological sex defined: Kennedy Jr. strips away transgender recognition in new HHS guidelines

The measure would be the first legislative action removing nondiscrimination protections based on gender identity, said Logan Casey, director of policy research at the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank.

Supporters of the change say the current law incorrectly codified the idea that people can transition to another gender and granted transgender women access to spaces such as bathrooms, locker rooms and sports teams that should be protected for people who were assigned female at birth.

The legislature of Iowa for the future of our children and our culture has a vested interest and solemn responsibility to stand up for immutable truth, Holt said.

The legislation now goes to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has been supportive of efforts to limit gender identity protections.

Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, arrived Thursday in the U.S. after authorities lifted travel restrictions on the siblings, who have millions of online followers.

The brothers landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, around midday.

The Tates who are dual U.S.-British citizens were arrested in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They deny the allegations.

In December, a court ruled that the case could not go to trial because of multiple legal and procedural irregularities on the part of the prosecutors. The case, however, remained open, and there is also another ongoing investigation against them in Romania.

Romanias anti-organized crime agency, DIICOT, said in a statement Thursday that prosecutors approved a request to change the travel restrictions on the Tates, but it did not say who made the request.

The brothers are still required to appear before judicial authorities when summoned.

The defendants have been warned that deliberately violating these obligations may result in judicial control being replaced with a stricter deprivation-of-liberty measure, the statement said.

After the brothers arrived in Florida, state Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a social media post that his office would conduct a preliminary inquiry into them.

Florida has zero tolerance for human trafficking and violence against women. If any of these alleged crimes trigger Florida jurisdiction, we will hold them accountable, said Uthmeier, an appointee of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, Andrew Tate repeated his insistence that the siblings had done nothing wrong.

We live in a democratic society where its innocent until proven guilty. And I think my brother and I are largely misunderstood. Theres a lot of opinions about us, things that go around about us on the internet, he said.

In other developments Thursday, a court ruled in favor of an appeal by the Tates to lift the seizure of multiple assets, according to Tate spokesperson Mateea Petrescu. The assets include six luxury vehicles, land and properties, and company shares. All previously frozen bank accounts have been unfrozen, she said.

While some assets remain under precautionary seizure, this ruling marks a significant step toward justice, she said.

Andrew Tate, 38, a former professional kickboxer and self-described misogynist who has amassed more than 10 million followers on X, has repeatedly claimed that prosecutors in Romania have no evidence against him and that there is a political conspiracy to silence him. He and Tristan Tate, 36, are vocal supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Just weeks ago, Andrew Tate posted on X: The Tates will be free, Trump is the president. The good old days are back. And they will be better than ever. Hold on.

The Tates' departure came after Foreign Minister Emil Hurezeanu said this month that a Trump administration official expressed interest in the brothers case at the recent Munich Security Conference. The minister insisted no pressure was applied to lift restrictions on the Tates after a Financial Times report on the meeting caused a stir in Romania.

Asked if his administration pressured the Romanian government to release the Tates, Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office that he did not know anything about the circumstances: I just know nothing about it. Well check it out. Well let you know.

The Bucharest Court of Appeal's decision that the Tate case could not proceed was a huge setback for DIICOT, but it did not mean the defendants could walk free, and the case has not been closed.

Last August, DIICOT also launched a second case against the brothers, investigating allegations of human trafficking, the trafficking of minors, sexual intercourse with a minor, influencing statements and money laundering. They have denied those charges as well.

After the Tate brothers were arrested in 2022, they were held for three months in detention before being moved to house arrest. They were later restricted to the Bucharest municipality and nearby Ilfov County, and then to Romania. Andrew Tate was placed back under house arrest last year in the second case, but that measure was lifted last month.

The Tate brothers' legal battles are not limited to Romania.

Four British women who accused Andrew Tate of sexual violence and physical abuse are suing him in the U.K., after the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to prosecute him.

The women said Thursday in a joint statement that they are in disbelief and feel re-traumatized by news that the travel restrictions were lifted.

Matthew Jury, a lawyer with McCue Jury & Partners, which is representing the women, called the decision to lift the travel ban disgusting and dismaying.

In March, the Tate brothers appeared at the Bucharest Court of Appeal in a separate case after U.K. authorities issued arrest warrants over allegations of sexual aggression in a case dating back to the period from 2012 to 2015.

The appeals court granted the U.K. request to extradite the Tates, but only after legal proceedings in Romania have concluded.

Late last year, a U.K. court ruled that police can seize more than 2.6 million pounds ($3.3 million) to cover years of unpaid taxes from the pair and freeze some of their accounts. Andrew Tate called it outright theft and said it was a coordinated attack on anyone who dares to challenge the system.

Israel will not withdraw from a strategic corridor in the Gaza Strip as called for by the ceasefire, an official said Thursday. Israels refusal could spark a crisis with Hamas and key mediator Egypt at a sensitive moment for the fragile truce.

Hours earlier, Hamas released the remains of four hostages in exchange for over 600 Palestinian prisoners, the last planned swap of the ceasefires first phase, which ends this weekend. Talks over the second and more difficult stage have yet to begin.

Much could hinge on a visit by U.S. President Donald Trumps Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is expected in the region in the coming days.

RELATED STORY | Hamas frees all 6 hostages in the latest exchange with Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said in a brief statement that he was sending negotiators to Cairo, without providing further details.

Blatant violation

The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said the army needed to remain in the so-called Philadelphi corridor, on the Gaza side of the border with Egypt, to prevent weapons smuggling.

Separately, Defense Minister Israel Katz said at a meeting with local leaders that he had seen tunnels penetrating the border on a recent visit to the corridor, without providing evidence or elaborating on Israel's plans. Egypt says it destroyed the smuggling tunnels from its side years ago and set up a military buffer zone to halt smuggling.

Hamas said any Israeli attempt to maintain a buffer zone in the corridor would be a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement. The militant group says that sticking to the agreement is the only way for Israel to secure the release of dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.

Israel is supposed to begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor on Saturday, the last day of the first phase, and complete it within eight days. There was no immediate comment from Egypt, which is opposed to any Israeli presence on the Gaza side of its border.

Remains of 4 hostages identified

The remains released Thursday were confirmed to be those of Ohad Yahalomi, Itzhak Elgarat, Shlomo Mantzur and Tsachi Idan, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents families of the captives.

Mantzur, 85, was killed in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war, and his body was taken into the territory. Israel said the other three were killed in captivity, without elaborating.

RELATED STORY | Israel says child hostages identified but other released body is not their mother

Our hearts ache upon receiving the bitter news, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said. In this painful moment, there is some solace in knowing that they will be laid to rest in dignity in Israel.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he shared the immense pain of the family and loved ones of Yahalomi, who had French citizenship.

Hamas confirmed that over 600 prisoners had been released overnight. Most were detainees returned to Gaza, where they had been rounded up after the Oct. 7 attack and held without charge on security suspicions.

Joyful return for released prisoners

Some of the released prisoners fell to their knees in gratitude after disembarking from buses in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. In the West Bank town of Beitunia, dozens of prisoners were welcomed by crowds of relatives and well-wishers.

The released prisoners wore shirts issued by the Israeli prison service bearing a message in Arabic about pursuing one's enemies. Some of the prisoners threw the shirts on the ground or set them on fire.

Israel delayed the release of the prisoners on Saturday over Hamas' practice of parading hostages before crowds and cameras during their release. Israel, along with the Red Cross and U.N. officials, have called the ceremonies humiliating for the hostages.

Hamas released the four bodies to the Red Cross in Gaza overnight without a public ceremony.

The prisoners released Thursday included 445 men, 21 teenagers and one woman, according to lists shared by Palestinian officials that did not specify their ages. Only around 50 Palestinians were released into the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem in this round, while dozens sentenced to life over deadly attacks against Israelis were exiled.

Truce in peril

The latest handover was the final one planned under the ceasefires first six-week phase, which expires this weekend. Hamas has returned 33 hostages, including eight bodies, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners.

Trump's envoy, Witkoff, has said he wants the sides to move into negotiations on the second phase. Those talks were supposed to begin the first week of February.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to return all the hostages and destroy the military and governing capabilities of Hamas, which remains in control of Gaza. The Trump administration has endorsed both goals.

But it's unclear how Israel would destroy Hamas without resuming the war, and Hamas is unlikely to release the remaining hostages its main bargaining chips without a lasting ceasefire.

The ceasefire, brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar, ended 15 months of war that erupted after Hamas 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. About 250 people were taken hostage.

If the identities of the four bodies are confirmed, then 59 captives will remain in Gaza, 32 of whom are believed to be dead. Nearly 150 have been released in ceasefire agreements or other deals, while dozens of bodies have been recovered by Israeli forces and eight captives have been rescued alive.

Israels military offensive has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health officials, who don't differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths but say over half the dead have been women and children.

The fighting displaced an estimated 90% of Gazas population and decimated the territorys infrastructure and health system.

Oscar-winner Gene Hackman, his wife and their dog were found dead in different rooms of their Santa Fe home, and they had apparently been dead for some time, according to investigators.

Hackman, 95, was found dead Wednesday in a mudroom and his 63-year-old wife, Betsy Arakawa, was found dead in a bathroom next to a space heater, Santa Fe County Sheriffs Office detectives wrote in a search warrant. There was an open prescription bottle and pills scattered on a countertop near Arakawa.

Denise Avila, a sheriff's office spokesperson, said there was no indication that any of them had been shot or had other types of wounds.

The New Mexico Gas Co. is working with the Santa Fe County Sheriffs Department in the investigation, spokesperson Tim Korte told The Associated Press.

The utility tested the gas lines in and around the home after the bodies were discovered, according to the warrant. At the time, it didn't find any signs of problems. A detective noted that people exposed to gas leaks or carbon monoxide may not show signs of poisoning.

Chris Ramirez, spokesperson for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, which runs the states medical examiner operations, declined to comment on whether any conclusions had been reached on the cause and manner of deaths of Hackman and Arakawa.

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The gruff-but-beloved Hackman was among the best actors of his generation, appearing as villains, heroes and antiheroes in dozens of dramas, comedies and action films from the 1960s until his retirement in the early 2000s.

He routinely showed up on Hollywood list of greatest American actors of the 20th century. He could play virtually any kind of role, from comic book villain Lex Luthor in Superman to a coach finding redemption in the sentimental favorite Hoosiers.

Hackman was a five-time Oscar nominee who won for The French Connection in 1972 and Unforgiven two decades later. His death comes just four days before this years ceremony.

Tributes quickly poured in from Hollywood.

The loss of a great artist, always cause for both mourning and celebration: Gene Hackman a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity," director Francis Ford Coppola wrote on Instagram.

Hackman met Arakawa, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Hawaii, when she was working part-time at a California gym in the mid-1980s, the New York Times reported in 1989. They soon moved in together, and by the end of the decade had decamped to Santa Fe.

Their Southwestern-style ranch on Old Sunset Trail sits on a hill in a gated community with views of the Rocky Mountains.

The 2,300 square-foot home on one acre (0.4 hectares) was built in 2000 and had an estimated market value of a little over $1 million, according to Santa Fe County property tax records. It is modest compared to the sprawling estate next door, which was valued at $7.9 million.

RELATED STORY | Roberta Flack, Grammy-winning singer with an intimate style, dies at 88

Hackman also co-wrote three novels, starting with the swashbuckler, Wake of the Perdido Star, with Daniel Lenihan in 1999, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. He then penned two by himself, concluding with Pursuit" in 2013, about a female police officer on the tail of a predator.

In his first couple decades in New Mexico, Hackman was often seen around the historic state capital, which known as an artist enclave, tourism destination and retreat for celebrities.

He served as a board member of the Georgia OKeeffe Museum in the 1990s, according to the local paper, The New Mexican.

In recent years, he was far less visible, though even the most mundane outings caught the attention of the press. The Independent wrote about him attending a show at the Lensic Performing Arts Center in 2018. The New York Post reported on him pumping gas, doing yard work and getting a chicken sandwich at Wendy's in 2023.

Aside from appearances at awards shows, he was rarely seen in the Hollywood social circuit and retired from acting about 20 years ago. His was the rare Hollywood retirement that actually lasted.

Hackman had three children from a previous marriage. He and Arakawa had no children together but were known for having German shepherds.

Hackman told the film magazine Empire in 2020 that he and Arakawa liked to watch DVDs she rented.

"We like simple stories that some of the little low-budget films manage to produce, he said.

An email sent to his publicist was not immediately returned early Thursday.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily blocked a judges order giving the Trump administration a midnight deadline to release billions of dollars in U.S. foreign aid.

Chief Justice John Roberts said the order issued by U.S. District Judge Amir H. Ali will remain on hold until the high court has a chance to weigh in more fully.

Ali had ordered the federal government to comply with his decision temporarily blocking a freeze on foreign aid, ruling in a lawsuit filed by nonprofit groups and businesses. An appellate panel refused the administrations request to intervene.

The federal government froze foreign assistance after an executive order from President Donald Trump targeting what he called wasteful programs that do not correspond to his foreign policy goals.

RELATED STORY | Judge clears way for Trump administration to pull USAID staffers off the job

Separately, the Trump administration said Wednesday it is eliminating more than 90% of the U.S. Agency for International Developments foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall U.S. assistance around the world, putting numbers on its plans to eliminate the majority of U.S. development and humanitarian help abroad.

The cuts detailed by the administration would leave few surviving USAID projects for advocates to try to save in what are ongoing court battles with the administration.

The Trump administration outlined its plans in both an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press and filings in one of those federal lawsuits Wednesday.

Wednesday's disclosures also give an idea of the scale of the administration's retreat from U.S. aid and development assistance overseas, and from decades of U.S. policy that foreign aid helps U.S. interests by stabilizing other countries and economies and building alliances.

The memo said officials were clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift. More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said.

President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk have hit foreign aid harder and faster than almost any other target in their push to cut the size of the federal government. Both men say USAID projects advance a liberal agenda and are a waste of money.

RELATED STORY | Trump admin lays off 1,600 USAID employees, places thousands more on leave

Trump on Jan. 20 ordered what he said would be a 90-day program-by-program review of which foreign assistance programs deserved to continue, and cut off all foreign assistance funds almost overnight.

The funding freeze has stopped thousands of U.S.-funded programs abroad, and the administration and Musk's Department of Government Efficiency teams have pulled the majority of USAID staff off the job through forced leave and firings.

In the federal court filings Wednesday, nonprofits owed money on contracts with USAID describe both Trump political appointees and members of Musk's teams terminating USAID's contracts around the world at breakneck speed, without time for any meaningful review, they say.

"'There are MANY more terminations coming, so please gear up!''' a USAID official wrote staff Monday, in an email quoted by lawyers for the nonprofits in the filings.

The nonprofits, among thousands of contractors, owed billions of dollars in payment since the freeze began, called the en masse contract terminations a maneuver to get around complying with the order to lift the funding freeze temporarily.

So did a Democratic lawmaker.

The administration is brazenly attempting to blow through Congress and the courts by announcing the completion of their sham review of foreign aid and the immediate termination of thousands of aid programs all over the world, said Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The State Department said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had reviewed the terminations.

In all, the Trump administration said it will eliminate 5,800 of 6,200 multiyear USAID contract awards, for a cut of $54 billion. Another 4,100 of 9,100 State Department grants were being eliminated, for a cut of $4.4 billion.

The State Department memo, which was first reported by the Washington Free Beacon, described the administration as spurred by a federal court order that gave officials until the end of the day Wednesday to lift the Trump administrations monthlong block on foreign aid funding.

In response, State and USAID moved rapidly, targeting USAID and State Department foreign aid programs in vast numbers for contract terminations, the memo said.

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to intervene Wednesday night as an appeals court refused to lift the midnight deadline.

Trump administration officials after repeated warnings from the federal judge in the case also said Wednesday they were finally beginning to send out their first or any payments after more than a month with no known spending. Officials were processing a few million dollars of back payments, officials said, of billions of dollars owed to U.S. and international organizations and companies.

An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, health experts say.

The interval between the onset of symptoms which include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding and death has been 48 hours in most cases and thats whats really worrying, said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center.

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These hemorrhagic fever symptoms are commonly linked to known deadly viruses, such as Ebola, dengue, Marburg and yellow fever, but researchers have ruled these out based on tests of more than a dozen samples collected so far.

The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, with 419 cases recorded and 53 deaths.

The outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said Monday.

There have long been concerns about diseases jumping from animals to humans in places where wild animals are popularly eaten. The number of such outbreaks in Africa has surged by more than 60% in the last decade, the WHO said in 2022.

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After the second outbreak of the mystery disease began in the village of Bomate on Feb. 9, samples from 13 cases were sent to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in Congos capital, Kinshasa, for testing, the WHO said. All samples were negative for common hemorrhagic fever diseases, although some tested positive for malaria.

Last year, another mystery flu-like illness that killed dozens of people in another part of Congo was determined likely to be malaria.

The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a new survey Wednesday from the Pew Research Center.

The Religious Landscape Study finds 62% of U.S. adults call themselves Christians. While a significant dip from 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christian, Pew found the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019.

The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated the so-called " nones " has also reached at least a temporary plateau, according to Pew. Approximately 29% of U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, including those who are atheist (5%), agnostic (6%) or "nothing in particular" (19%).

"It's striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline," said Pew's Gregory Smith, one of the study's co-authors. "One thing we can't know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country's religious trajectory."

By some measures, the U.S. remains overwhelmingly spiritual. Many Americans have a supernatural outlook, with 83% believing in God or a universal spirit and 86% believing that people have a soul or spirit. About seven in 10 Americans believe in heaven, hell or both.

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Young adults are less religious than their elders

Despite this widespread spirituality, there are harbingers of future religious decline. Most notably, Pew found a huge age gap, with 46% of the youngest American adults identifying as Christian, compared to 80% of the oldest adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated.

"These kinds of generational differences are a big part of what's driven the long-term declines in American religion," Smith said. "As older cohorts of highly religious, older people have passed away, they have been replaced by new cohorts of young adults who are less religious than their parents and grandparents."

Michele Margolis, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist not affiliated with the Pew survey, has studied how religious involvement changes over a lifetime.

Young adults frequently move away from religion. "Then when you get married and have kids, this is a time where scholars have noted that religion is more likely to become important," Margolis said.

Margolis said one question going forward is whether the youngest American adults firmly reject organized religion, or if some of them will return to the religious fold as they age.

Between 2007 and 2024, Pew religious landscape studies haven't indicated that Americans are growing more religious as they get older.

Smith at Pew said "something would need to change" to stop the long-term decline of American religion, whether that's adults becoming more religious with age or new generations becoming more religious than their parents.

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How partisan politics intertwines with religious identity

The long-term decline of U.S. Christianity and rise of the "nones" has occurred across traditions, gender, race, ethnicity, education and region. But it is much more evident among political liberals, according to Pew. The survey shows 51% of liberals claim no religion, up 24 points from 2007. Only 37% of U.S. liberals identify as Christian, down from 62% in 2007.

Penny Edgell, a University of Minnesota sociologist and expert adviser for the Pew study, said this religious and political sorting aligns with whether people "support traditional, patriarchal gender and family arrangements."

Edgell also notes that Black Americans defy the assumption that all Democrats are less religious than Republicans.

"More Black Americans percentagewise are Democrats, but their rates of religious involvement are still really high," Edgell said. "That has something to do with the way that religious institutions and politics have been intertwined in historically unique ways for different groups."

Roughly seven in 10 Black Protestants told Pew that religion is very important to them about the same rate as evangelicals and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Black Protestants are likely to identify as Democrats (72%), whereas evangelicals and Latter-day Saints are likely to identify as Republican (70% and 73%, respectively).

The Pew survey tracks many religious traditions

It's been nearly 10 years since the last Religious Landscape Study, which tracks religious data that the U.S. census does not.

The new survey found that a majority of immigrants to the U.S. are Christian (58%), but they also follow the upward trend of the religiously unaffiliated, with a quarter of foreign-born U.S. adults claiming no religion.

The number of Americans who belong to religions besides Christianity has been increasing, though it's still a small portion of the population (7%). That includes the 2% who are Jewish, and the 1% each who are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu.

Of U.S. Christian adults, 40% are Protestant and 19% are Catholic. The remaining 3% in Pew's survey include Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses and smaller Christian groups.

The two largest Protestant denominations in the Pew survey remain the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church though both have lost many members since the first Religious Landscape Study in 2007.

The Pew Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish between July 2023 and March 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey's margin of error for results based on the full sample is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points.

Scientists have finally given the all-clear to Earth from a newly discovered asteroid.

After two months of observations, scientists have almost fully ruled out any threat from the asteroid 2024 YR4, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

At one point, the odds of a strike in 2032 were as high as about 3% and topped the worlds asteroid-risk lists.

ESA has since lowered the odds to 0.001%. NASA has it down to 0.0017% meaning the asteroid will safely pass Earth in 2032 and there's no threat of impact for the next century.

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Paul Chodas, who heads NASAs Center for Near Earth Objects Studies, said there is no chance the odds will rise at this point and that an impact in 2032 has been ruled out.

"Thats the outcome we expected all along, although we couldnt be 100% sure that it would happen, he said in an email.

But theres still a 1.7% chance that asteroid could hit the moon on Dec. 22, 2032, according to NASA. Chodas expects the odds of a moon strike will also fade.

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The world's telescopes will continue to track the asteroid as it heads away from us, with the Webb Space Telescope zooming in next month to pinpoint its size. It's expected to vanish from view in another month or two.

Discovered in December, the asteroid is an estimated 130 feet to 300 feet across, and swings our way every four years.

While this asteroid no longer poses a significant impact hazard to Earth, 2024 YR4 provided an invaluable opportunity" for study, NASA said in a statement.

The White House said Tuesday that its officials will determine which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump up close a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services. Leavitt cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore access back to the American people who elected Trump. But media experts said the move raised troubling First Amendment issues because the president is choosing who covers him.

"The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office," Leavitt said at a daily briefing. She added at another point: A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.

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Leavitt said the White House will double down on its decision to bar The Associated Press from many presidential events, a departure from the time-tested and sometimes contentious practice for more than a century of a pool of journalists from every platform sharing the presidents' words and activities with news outlets and congressional offices that can't attend the close-quarter events. Traditionally, the members of the pool decide who goes in small spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.

Its beyond time that the White House press operation reflects the media habits of the American people in 2025, not 1925, Leavitt said.

There are First Amendment implications

The change said one expert on presidents and the press, is a dangerous move for democracy.

It means the president can pick and choose who covers the executive branch, ignoring the fact that it is the American people who through their taxes pay for the running of the White House, the presidents travels and the press secretarys salary, Jon Marshall, a media history professor at Northwestern University and author of Clash: Presidents and the Press in Times of Crisis, said in a text.

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Eugene Daniels, president of the White House Correspondents Association, said the organization consistently expands its membership and pool rotations to facilitate the inclusion of new and emerging outlets.

This move tears at the independence of a free press in the United States. It suggests the government will choose the journalists who cover the president, Daniels said in a statement. In a free country, leaders must not be able to choose their own press corps."

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press called it a drastic change in how the public obtains information about its government.

The White House press pool exists to serve the public, not the presidency, Bruce D. Brown, the group's president, said in a statement.

It comes in the context of a federal lawsuit

Leavitt spoke a day after a federal judge refused to immediately order the White House to restore the AP's access to many presidential events. The news outlet, citing the First Amendment, sued Leavitt and two other White House officials for barring the AP from some presidential events over its refusal to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America as Trump ordered. AP has said its style would retain the Gulf of Mexico name but also would note Trump's decision.

U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden said said the AP had not demonstrated it had suffered irreparable harm. But he urged the Trump administration to reconsider its two-week-old ban, saying that case law in the circuit is uniformly unhelpful to the White House.

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McFaddens decision was only for the moment, however. He told attorneys for the Trump administration and the AP that the issue required more exploration before ruling. Another hearing was scheduled for late March.

The AP Stylebook is used by international audiences as well as those within the United States. The AP has said that its guidance was offered to promote clarity.

Another Trump executive order to change the name of the United States largest mountain back to Mount McKinley from Denali is being recognized by the AP Stylebook. Trump has the authority to do so because the mountain is completely within the country he oversees, AP has said.

Pope Francis woke up and was continuing his therapies Monday after a quiet night, on the 10th day of his hospitalization for a complex lung infection that has provoked the early stages of kidney insufficiency, the Vatican said.

The night passed well, the pope slept and is resting, it said. The 88-year-old pope is continuing to feed himself and is not receiving artificial or liquid nutrition, the Vatican said, adding that he was in good spirits.

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A medical bulletin was expected later in the day. Also later Monday, the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, was to lead a nighttime prayer of the Rosary in St. Peter's Square.

Late Sunday, doctors reported that blood tests showed early, slight kidney insufficiency that was nevertheless under control. They said Francis remained in critical condition but that he hadn't experienced any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

Francis, who has pneumonia in both lungs, was receiving high flows of supplemental oxygen and, on Sunday, was alert, responsive and attended Mass. They said his prognosis was guarded.

Doctors have said Francis condition is touch-and-go, given his age, fragility and pre-existing lung disease. They have warned that the main threat facing Francis is sepsis, a serious infection of the blood that can occur as a complication of pneumonia.

To date there has been no reference to any onset of sepsis in the medical updates provided by the Vatican.

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This hospitalization now stands as Francis' longest as pope. He spent 10 days at Romes Gemelli hospital in 2021 after he had 13 inches of his colon removed.

In New York on Sunday, Cardinal Timothy Dolan acknowledged what church leaders in Rome werent saying publicly: that the Catholic faithful were united at the bedside of a dying father.

As our Holy Father Pope Francis is in very, very fragile health, and probably close to death, Dolan said in his homily from the pulpit of St. Patricks Cathedral, though he later told reporters he hoped and prayed that Francis would bounce back.

Francis' condition has revived speculation about what might happen if he becomes unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, and whether he might resign.