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VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has shown a “further, slight improvement” in his medical condition, the Vatican said on Wednesday, in a sign of progress as the 88-year-old pontiff battles double pneumonia.
The pope is spending his 13th night at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the longest hospital stay of his nearly 12-year-old papacy.
“The clinical condition of the Holy Father in the last 24 hours has shown a further, slight improvement,” the latest detailed health update read.
The pope, it said, is continuing to receive oxygen but has not experienced any further respiratory crises. A CT scan of his chest, performed on Tuesday, “showed a normal evolution” of the inflammation in his lungs, it added.
Over the weekend, the Vatican said the pontiff had shown a “mild kidney insufficiency,” raising fears he might be about to suffer kidney failure. On Wednesday, it said the issue had been “resolved.”
The statement did not specify whether the pope was still considered to be in critical condition, as he has been listed since Saturday. Despite the pope’s improvements, it said his prognosis was still “guarded.”
A Vatican official, who did not wish to be named because he was not authorized to discuss the pope’s condition, said earlier on Wednesday that Francis was alert through the day and was able to eat normally and move about his hospital room.

ARGENTINIANS IN ROME PRAY FOR POPE
Francis, who has been pope since 2013, is originally from Argentina and is the first Catholic pontiff from the Americas. On Tuesday evening, many in Rome’s Argentinian community gathered at the Our Lady of Sorrows Church to pray for him.
“We pray for his health, that he can continue to govern the Church,” said Reverend Mario Aler, who referred to the ongoing 2025 Catholic Holy Year.
“(Francis) should continue to accompany this important event for the whole Church,” he said.
Paraguay’s ambassador to the Vatican, Romina Taboada Tonina, who was attending the service, called the pope “a great leader, without a doubt.”
“Not only for Catholics, but he is a great political leader as well,” she said.
At the Vatican on Tuesday evening, for the second day running, hundreds gathered in St. Peter’s Square for a prayer vigil attended by pilgrims and senior Church figures. The service is being repeated daily this week.
Double pneumonia is a serious infection of both lungs that can inflame and scar them, making it difficult to breathe. The Vatican has said the pope’s infection is “complex,” and caused by two or more microorganisms.
Francis has suffered several bouts of ill health over the past two years. He is prone to lung infections because he developed pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
Francis has been working occasionally from the hospital as Vatican business
continues apace during his illness. The Vatican announced several new appointments on Wednesday that would have needed the pope’s approval.

GENEVA: The UN rights chief on Wednesday rejected as “unlawful” proposals for the annexation of or forced transfer from Palestinian territories, warning they posed a threat to the entire region.
“We must resist any normalization of unlawful conduct, including proposals for annexation or forced transfer,” Volker Turk told the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Such proposals “could threaten the peace and security of Palestinians and Israelis, and of the wider region,” he warned, insisting that “this is the moment for voices of reason to prevail.”
Turk did not give details, but there have been rising levels of violence by Israeli settlers in the West Bank and calls for annexation after Israel announced expanded military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly proposed emptying war-ravaged Gaza of Palestinians.
He has floated the idea of a US takeover of Gaza under which its Palestinian population would be relocated — a proposal met with widespread condemnation, but welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump later appeared to soften his plan, saying he was only recommending the idea, and conceding that the leaders of Jordan and Egypt — the proposed destinations for relocated Gazans — had rejected any effort to move Palestinians against their will.
But the US president’s official social media accounts on Wednesday posted an apparently AI-generated video depicting war-ravaged Gaza rebuilt into a seaside resort, replete with a towering golden statue of Trump himself.
Presenting a fresh report on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, Turk said Wednesday: “We urgently need to end the conflict.”
To do so, he said it was vital to hold accountable perpetrators of a vast array of abuses committed since the war in Gaza erupted after Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attacks inside Israel.
“Israel’s means and methods of warfare have caused staggering levels of casualties and destruction, raising concerns over the commission of war crimes and other possible atrocity crimes,” he said.
But he raised “serious doubts” about the Israeli justice system’s ability to deliver justice “notably in relation to the unlawful killing of Palestinians in Gaza or in the West Bank.”
He also noted that “Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have taken, held, and tortured hostages in Gaza, and have indiscriminately fired projectiles into Israeli territory, amounting to war crimes.”
To his knowledge, none of these groups had taken measures to punish those responsible, he said, adding that such “impunity begets more violence.”
So to did “delegitimising and threatening international institutions that are there to serve people and uphold international law also harms us all,” he warned.
All violations and abuses need to be investigated independently, he said.
While Turk mentioned no names, earlier this month Washington sanctioned the chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court Karim Khan over the ICC’s investigations targeting US personnel as well as alleged Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
Khan was responsible for the request that led the ICC to issue arrest warrants late last year for Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant.