World

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis, whose time as head of the Catholic Church was noted for an everyman humility and outreach efforts to people of disparate backgrounds and faiths, has died at 88, the Vatican has confirmed.

“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the house of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His Church,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell said on Monday.

Pope Francis was hospitalized for just over five weeks beginning in February 2025 to address what the Vatican initially said was a respiratory tract infection, for which he began receiving treatment. Four days after his hospitalization, the Vatican revealed that Francis had been diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

The pontiff’s health remained precarious in the ensuing weeks, including a “prolonged” asthmatic respiratory crisis that the Vatican said required doctors to administer him supplemental oxygen, as well as transfusions to address low blood platelets, which are cells that circulate in the blood and help it clot. He also experienced two episodes of “acute respiratory failure” in early March, according to the Vatican, that required “noninvasive mechanical ventilation” at night to help him breathe.

Pope Francis was released from the hospital and returned to the Vatican on March 23, where his physicians said he would require additional months of recovery. Two weeks later, he made his first public appearance since his discharge from the hospital, sitting in a wheelchair while using supplemental oxygen as he briefly greeted people in St. Peter’s Square. He also made an appearance on Easter Sunday from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, following a earlier meeting with Vice President JD Vance.

Pope Francis was said to be alert and aware throughout the health episodes and occasionally posted messages on X, acknowledging the good wishes sent his way.

“I would like to thank you for your prayers, which rise up to the Lord from the hearts of so many faithful from many parts of the world,” Francis posted on March 2. “I feel all your affection and closeness and, at this particular time, I feel as if I am ‘carried’ and supported by all God’s people.”

Four days later, the pope offered his first public comments since his hospitalization in the form of a recorded audio message in Spanish that was played in St. Peter’s Square.

“I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers for my health from the Square, I accompany you from here,” the pope said. “May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you,”

Pope Francis’ respiratory health was a lifelong issue for him; he had part of one lung removed at age 21 because of a respiratory infection. As he grew older, he began to experience gastrointestinal issues that led to a section of his colon being surgically removed in 2021 because of intestinal inflammation. He also began using a wheelchair and cane in 2023 because of strained knee ligaments and a small knee fracture that made walking and standing difficult.

As the leader of the Catholic Church, Francis captured the imaginations of believers and non-believers alike, with his populist style giving the church’s message of social justice far greater resonance than that of many of his predecessors.

Argentinian-born Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the Catholic Church’s 266th pope and the first ever from Latin America. He took the name Francis after the well-known St. Francis of Assisi, who ministered to the poor.

Like his namesake, the pontiff earned a reputation for living a humble life and eschewing the pomp of his predecessors. While Pope Benedict XVI had a flair for papal fashion, Francis chose the simple white cassock with few embellishments for everyday wear. When he was elected pope on March 13, 2013, he didn’t send an aide to pay his hotel bill in Rome, but took care of it himself.

He was also arguably more approachable than his predecessors, known to pose with tourists for selfies and for allowing children join him on the popemobile during his weekly public audience in the square. He once welcomed a child with Down syndrome to sit next to him, and held her hand while he delivered a speech.

Francis also chose not to live in the ornate papal apartments, preferring instead to reside with others in the simple quarters of the Vatican guest house. Rather than travel in a limousine, he made a point of traveling about in smaller, more ordinary vehicles when leaving the Vatican and on his trips.

He reached out to those on the margins of society, and to Catholics who felt alienated by church doctrine.

First Latin American pope

Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born on Dec. 17, 1936, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, one of five siblings. His father was an Italian immigrant employed as a railway worker, while his mother was the Argentine-born daughter of Italian immigrants.

Stricken with a lung infection as a teenager, Bergoglio ultimately had part of his right lung removed at age 21. He went on to hold various odd jobs, including working as a bouncer at a club, sweeping floors, and running tests in a chemical laboratory, before deciding to join the Jesuit order in 1958, becoming a priest just shy of 12 years later.

The same sense of social justice he embodied as Pope Francis can be traced back to when the pontiff was the archbishop of Buenos Aires. He made a name for himself then by reportedly leading a simple life – preparing his own meals, living in a spartan apartment and riding public transportation – eschewing the luxurious lifestyle typically associated with his position.

As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis in 2012 notably criticized priests who refused to baptize children born out of wedlock.

“They are the hypocrites of today,” said Francis. “They turn God’s people away from salvation. And that poor girl who could have sent her child back to the sender but had the courage to bring him into the world goes on pilgrimage from parish to parish to have him baptized.”

Outreach as pope

From the start, Pope Francis’ tenure was marked by a more populist ministry than that of his predecessors, demonstrated both by his outreach to groups traditionally ignored or criticized by the church, and his broader efforts to reform and contemporize the church itself.

On his first trip after becoming pope, Francis chose symbolically to travel to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, in southern Italy, one of the first points of entry into Europe for poor and desperate refugees and migrants from North Africa, who risk their lives to make the crossing in often unsafe vessels. He also used his first Christmas address as pontiff to call on people to “place ourselves at the service of the poor, make ourselves small and poor with them.”

In a February 2016 mass delivered on the U.S.-Mexico border, and with anti-immigrant sentiments on the rise, the pope called for people in the U.S. and around the world to keep “open hearts” regarding immigrants fleeing violence and poverty in their homelands.

With the church under broadside criticism for sex-abuse scandals involving prominent clergy, Pope Francis both met with and apologized to sex abuse victims, calling them “heralds of mercy” and acknowledging that the church had failed them, declaring, “God weeps.”

Francis also criticized the church itself for what he called its obsession with issues including same-sex marriage, abortion and contraception, although he stopped short of challenging the church’s traditional positions on them.

When a journalist asked him a question about gay priests on his first foreign trip in 2013, just four months after his election, Francis stunned people with his response: “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?”

As recently as August of 2023, Francis reiterated in comments during World Youth Day in Portugal that the Catholic Church is for “everyone,” including LGBTQ+ people, although they were still excluded from the sacraments. The following December, Francis approved a Vatican declaration titled “On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings” which noted that, while the church’s official policy remained opposed to same-sex marriage, “when people ask for a blessing, an exhaustive moral analysis should not be placed as a precondition for conferring it. For, those seeking a blessing should not be required to have prior moral perfection.”

Health problems

Pope Francis’ respiratory health was a lifelong issue for him; he had part of one lung removed at age 21 because of a respiratory infection. As he grew older, he began to experience gastrointestinal issues, including a bout of diverticulitis that led to a 10-day hospital stay in July 2021, during which time a section of his colon was surgically removed. He also began using a wheelchair and cane in 2023 because of strained knee ligaments and a knee fracture that made walking and standing difficult.

On a flight home from a trip to Canada in July 2022, where he had been using a wheelchair, Francis hinted he would have to slow down future travels and maybe resign one day.

“This trip was a bit of a test. It’s true you can’t do trips in this state, maybe we have to change a bit the style, reduce, pay the debts of the trips that I still have to do and reorganize,” Francis said.

He added that “the door is open” for him to resign if he couldn’t carry on.

Even so, Francis continued traveling in 2023, with a total of five trips that year despite increasing health issues.

In January of 2023, then-86-year-old Pope Francis revealed his diverticulitis had returned but was being managed. The following March, he was hospitalized for three days with acute bronchitis.

“I am touched by the many messages received in these hours and I express my gratitude for the closeness and prayer,” Francis wrote on Twitter at the time.

In June of 2023, Francis was back in the hospital, where he underwent three hours of abdominal surgery to address intestinal blockages caused by scarring from previous surgeries. That following November, the Vatican announced that the pontiff had developed a “pulmonary inflammation that has caused some breathing difficulties,” and for which he was being treated with intravenous antibiotics. He subsequently canceled a planned trip to attend a climate conference in Dubai.

Pope Francis’ health continued to be an issue into 2024, prompting the cancellation of some events in late February of that year due to what the Vatican press office described as “mild flu symptoms,” which also saw him visit Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for what the Vatican called “diagnostic tests.”

In January 2025, the Vatican announced that Francis had injured his arm in a fall at his residence, suffering “a bruise to his right forearm, without fractures.” The Pope was seen using a soft sling to support his arm in a photograph released by the Vatican.

Pope Francis continued to experience respiratory issues and was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 14, 2025 for what the Vatican described as “necessary tests” and was subsequently diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection, also according to the Vatican, for which he began receiving treatment. Four days later, the Vatican revealed that Francis had been diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, for which he was receiving “additional drug therapy.”

“Thank you for the affection, prayer and closeness with which you are accompanying me in these days,” the pope posted on X on Feb. 16.

Pope Francis subsequently suffered a “prolonged” asthmatic respiratory crisis on Feb. 22, according to the Vatican, that required doctors to administer him supplemental oxygen, and that he remained in critical condition. Francis had also received transfusions to address low blood platelets, the Vatican said.

What happens next

A nine-day period of mourning is expected to be observed. The Pope’s funeral will be held after his body lies in state for public viewing in St. Peter’s Basilica.

During this time, all cardinals under the age of 80 who are eligible to participate are summoned to Rome to prepare for the secret conclave inside the Sistine Chapel to choose the next pontiff, a gathering that typically commences between 15 to 20 days after the pope’s death.

The cardinal-electors will cast as many as four ballots in a single day. Black smoke from the Sistine Chapel’s chimney will indicate an inconclusive vote, while white smoke will signify a new pope has been elected.

The new man chosen to lead the Catholic Church will then prepare to make his public debut at the central balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica.

ABC News’ Christopher Watson contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Francis made a short and unannounced visit Saturday to St. Peter’s Basilica to pray before this evening’s Easter vigil and greet some of the faithful present.

The 88-year-old pontiff, in a wheelchair, arrived at around 6 p.m. local time accompanied by his nurse and stayed for about a quarter hour, stopping to pray at St. Peter’s tomb, the Italian press service Ansa reported.

The pope greeted those in attendance before heading back to his residence.

The Vatican confirmed Pope Francis “went to St. Peter’s Basilica for a time of prayer, to be close to the faithful who will be celebrating the Vigil of the Holy Night of Easter in the next few hours,” a statement read.

This is the pope’s third public appearance during Holy Week. On Thursday, he met with about 70 inmates at a prison in Rome.

“Every year l like to do what Jesus did on Holy Thursday, the washing of the feet, in a prison,” the pope told the attendees, according to a statement from the Vatican. “This year I cannot do it but i wanted to be close to you. I pray for you and all your families.”

The pontiff also appeared at a mass in St. Peter’s Square on Palm Sunday, greeting a crowd of thousands gathered for the service.

Francis has remained mostly out of public view since his release in March from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he’d spent more than five weeks after being diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

Francis delegated to two cardinals his role in presiding over this weekend’s Easter masses, the Vatican Press Office said on Wednesday.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin declared an “Easter truce” in the war in Ukraine on Saturday, saying that the Russian side will cease military action from 6 p.m. local Saturday night until midnight April 21.

Putin said he assumes that “the Ukrainian side will follow our example,” according to a statement on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel. But he also says Russia will respond to “violations of the truce and provocations” by Ukraine, the statement said.

In a statement Saturday, Zelenskyy did not say whether or not Ukraine would agree to the truce, but called the proposal “yet another attempt by Putin to play with human lives” and pointing out that there were still Russian attacks being launched in the hour before the Russian ceasefire was meant to take effect.

The proposed truce comes as U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, continued holding talks in Paris this week to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Rubio said the talks were “productive” but asserted that the U.S. was willing to move on from the negotiations if they didn’t yield results.

“We need to figure out here, now within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term, because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio said on the tarmac as he left France early Friday morning.

Later, at the White House, President Donald Trump echoed Rubio’s assertion — saying that the U.S. would make a determination “very shortly.”

In the wake of Rubio’s public comments, Moscow signaled it was in no hurry to strike a deal.

These developments also come as one potential indicator of progress — a 30-day ceasefire intended to pause strikes on energy infrastructure targets—has expired, with no word from Putin on whether Moscow will restart attacks on those targets.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of repeatedly violating the agreement, which was brokered by the Trump administration last month.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — American David Barnes’ appeal to be released from a Russian detention center has been denied, causing prosecutors in Moscow to celebrate while Barnes’ friends and family in Alabama fear for his future.

In a hearing that lasted roughly three hours on Thursday, a judge at Moscow City Court rejected an effort by Barnes’ attorney Gleb Glinka to free him from custody. Instead, the judge increased Barnes’ sentence by six months, ordering that he be sent to a high-security penal colony and receive psychiatric treatment.

Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom, but Glinka told ABC News after the hearing that he was astounded by the decision, arguing that the Russian judicial system should not have jurisdiction over this case.

Barnes, 67, was convicted and sentenced to 21 years in a Russian penitentiary in February 2024.

The conviction came after Moscow prosecutors accused Barnes of abusing his two sons in Texas years earlier, despite Texas law enforcement having no involvement in the Russian trial.

Texas prosecutors previously found no basis to charge Barnes with a crime after his Russian ex-wife, Svetlana Koptyaeva, alleged during child custody proceedings that he abused their children in suburban Montgomery County.

“I do know that everyone that heard and investigated the child sexual abuse allegations raised by Mrs. Barnes during the child custody proceedings did not find them to be credible,” Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office Trial Bureau Chief Kelly Blackburn previously told ABC News.

“I didn’t do anything,” Barnes told his sister Carol on a phone call earlier this year. “This is a political situation and I need political help.”

Barnes, who was raised in Alabama and lived in Texas prior to his arrest in Moscow, is currently serving the longest prison sentence of any American currently being detained in Russia.

His case is unlike any other foreign detention case involving an American in recent memory, since Russian prosecutors have not accused him of committing crimes on Russian soil.

ABC News has been following the saga of Barnes’ detention since not long after he was taken into custody in Moscow in January 2022.

Barnes’ family members say he went to Russia a few weeks before his arrest in an effort to fight for visitation rights involving his children in Moscow’s family court system.

Although a Texas family court had designated Barnes as the primary guardian of his sons in August 2020, he could not see them since Koptyaeva, his ex-wife, allegedly committed felony interference with child custody in March 2019 by taking the children from the Houston suburbs to Russia and not returning.

A Texas warrant for Koptyaeva’s arrest remains active. Koptyaeva maintains that Barnes abused their two children, telling ABC News that she brought the children from the U.S. to Russia in order to protect them.

When Koptyaeva found out that Barnes had arrived in Moscow years later, she went to Russian law enforcement officials to report the allegations from Texas, according to Barnes’ relatives in Alabama.

Barnes was subsequently incarcerated.

His family and friends are hoping that he will be brought back from Russia to the U.S. through a prisoner exchange like the ones that saw the releases of Ksenia Karelina, Marc Fogel, Evan Gershkovich and Brittney Griner.

“If they have another exchange and he is not included on it, it’s going to devastate him,” Paul Carter, a friend of Barnes, told ABC News in January.

Carter and Barnes’ sisters, along with groups like the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, are calling on the Trump administration and the State Department to declare Barnes as being wrongfully detained.

“Embassy officials continue to closely monitor developments in the case and are in contact with Mr. Barnes, his family, and legal team,” an unnamed State Department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further details to share.”

Glinka told ABC News that he is planning to appeal Thursday’s ruling.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — In mid-January, when two U.S.-based contracting firms tapped to secure a critical vehicle checkpoint in Gaza scrambled to sign up more than a hundred ex-military operators, the packing list for prospective hires included two types of assault rifles, Glock pistols, and knives, according to a memo obtained by ABC News.

It said nothing of citrus fruits.

But from late January until mid-March, when the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal fell apart, the ex-military and intelligence officials found that humanitarian aid measures played a crucial role in ensuring their safety in one of the Middle East’s most dangerous corridors, said one of the former officials who asked not to be named.

“We observed firsthand the desperation of some of the folks coming through,” the official told ABC News. “So the oranges and water were a hit.”

The two U.S.-based private security companies, Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, were hired earlier this year by a multinational consortium of states involved in negotiating the ceasefire — including the United States, Qatar and Egypt — to ferry tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians back to a decimated northern Gaza, without allowing the movement of weapons.

The contractors, comprised of former Special Forces personnel, diplomats, and intelligence officers, did not face any notable confrontations or threats of violence over the course of two months on the ground in Gaza, the official said, and only confiscated a smattering of small weapons during vehicle searches.

But their mission was not without its challenges. From the time their contract was awarded, leaders of the two firms had just 96 hours to recruit, screen, and transport via chartered jet more than 100 individuals scattered across the U.S. to the Gaza Strip, where they then needed to sort out how to physically operate the checkpoint, mitigate security vulnerabilities, and minimize traffic congestion, the official said.

The model could inform future efforts to secure Gaza, some military contracting experts said.

Mick Mulroy, a former CIA paramilitary officer who is now an ABC News national security analyst, said private military contractors appear to be the only logical solution to peace in the short term.

“What is going to prevent the resurgence of Hamas? If it’s not a multinational military force, and it’s not the Israel Defense Forces — it’s the private security forces,” said Mulroy, who is also the founder of Fogbow, a humanitarian aid group. “Right now, there’s no alternative that I’ve seen.”

Confronting the past

Hamas launched a surprise attack across Israel’s southern border on Oct. 7, 2023, killing at least 1,200 Israelis while capturing about 250 Israeli hostages. Since then, Israel’s military response has killed at least 50,000 Gazans, most of them women and children.

A ceasefire agreement negotiated this past January ended last month when Israel resumed hostilities after saying Hamas had not released all remaining hostages. The conflict has led to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including the collapse of the health care system.

Before the contractors deployed in January, a memo drafted by UG Solutions and circulated among former U.S. military personnel offered a daily rate of $1,100 for “operators” and $1,250 for medics, with a $10,000 advance paid “within 5 days of arrival in the country,” according to a copy obtained by ABC News.

The memo solicited inquiries from former “U.S. [Special Operations Forces] Personnel Only,” and while details of the mission were not made explicit, it noted that members of the team “will be able to defend yourself and there will be written [rules of engagement] once you arrive.”

They had reason to tread carefully. The last time American contractors were hired to work in Gaza, in 2003, three employees of the security firm DynCorp were killed by a roadside bomb while escorting U.S. officials near Beit Lahiya, some 40 kilometers north of Rafah.

Despite the precarious threat environment in Gaza, the hired ex-soldiers spent a considerable portion of their time troubleshooting obstacles related to the destitution of Palestinians travelling through their checkpoint, the official said. Limited fuel supplies in the region meant officials “got really good at pushing cars,” for example.

Another challenge for the two U.S.-based firms, which worked in tandem with a third Egyptian company, was to overcome the troubled reputation of security contractors working in the Middle East. Concerns about the use of American military contractors abroad exploded in 2007 when members of Blackwater, a private military company, killed 17 Iraqi civilians during an incident in Baghdad. Four of those hired soldiers were eventually convicted for their roles in the massacre, before they were later pardoned by President Donald Trump.

National security commentators have in the past bristled at the premise of using American contractors to work on the ground in Gaza. Peter Singer, the author of a book about contract soldiers, called it a “terrible idea” and a “not-even-half-baked notion” that merited heightened scrutiny. David Ignatius, the Washington Post columnist, characterized its proposal as “a potentially controversial part of the plan” to secure Gaza.

The coalition official told ABC News that U.S. operators were cognizant of the “optics of the situation” and took proactive steps to not appear “intimidating” to Gazans passing through their checkpoint. The official described their personnel as mainly ex-Special Forces with experience in the region — “suburban dads” of an average age of 45-50.

“This was not going to be a security mission about running and gunning,” the official said. “This was going to be all about discipline and restraint.”

Several Gazans who used the checkpoint told ABC News that the contractors treated them with respect, often greeting motorists in halting Arabic. One Palestinian man who asked not to be named for security reasons observed that the contractors often tried to reduce the visibility of their weapons.

A ‘target on their backs’

Threats posed by Hamas and other hostile actors in the region were compounded in part by Trump’s rhetoric, regional experts told ABC News, which included a controversial proposal to redevelop the Gaza Strip into the “Riviera of the Middle East,” displacing its population in the process. Hamas leaders said the mere suggestion was “capable of igniting the region.”

Ambassador Luis Moreno, a former senior U.S. diplomat in Tel Aviv, warned that Trump’s inflammatory comments likely placed a “target on their backs,” referring to the American contractors.

“It’s already an incredibly risky, risky job,” Moreno told ABC News. “There’s no doubt that Trump’s declarations on moving two million Gazans out of Gaza made their lives much more complicated.”

The founder of UG Solutions is Jameson Govoni, a Massachusetts-bred retired Green Beret who once said he “helped set up” a surveillance program for the Special Forces that aimed to “teach special operations soldiers how to conduct surveillance and find hard-to-find terrorist cells around the world.”

Govoni later founded the Sentinel Foundation, a nonprofit focused on combating child trafficking, and a for-profit hangover cure company called Alcohol Armor, which last year hosted a David Guetta concert in Las Vegas, according to a video it shared on social media.

Safe Reach Solutions, the logistics firm in Gaza, was founded by Phil Reilly, a former CIA paramilitary officer who is no stranger to precarious missions in hostile territories. He was among the first Americans to set foot in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001 — less than two weeks after the attacks.

The contractors concluded their work in Gaza last month when the cease-fire deal fell apart and Israeli forces resumed their bombing campaign. The Israeli Defense Forces now claim to occupy some 30% of Gaza territory.

After the ceasefire collapsed, U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff suggested using a “security force” in Gaza as a long-term solution. A spokesperson for Safe Reach Solutions said they had not discussed a return to the region with American officials.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis arrived on Thursday for a meet-and-greet with inmates at a prison in Rome amid the Catholic Holy Week, making a public appearance for one of the first times since his lengthy hospital stay.

The pontiff, 88, made the short drive from the Vatican to Regina Coeli prison to greet about 70 inmates, the Vatican said.

Francis visited the same Roman prison on Holy Thursday in 2018 to celebrate the mass “In Coena Domini” — or The Lord’s Supper — with the traditional rite of washing feet to commemorate what Jesus did to his disciples at the Last Supper.

Francis has remained mostly out of public view since his release in March from Rome’s Gemelli hospital, where he’d spent more than five weeks after being diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.

Francis delegated to two cardinals his role in presiding over this weekend’s Easter masses, The Vatican Press Office said on Wednesday.

Saturday’s Easter Vigil mass will be overseen by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Sunday’s Easter mass will be overseen by Cardinal Angelo Comastri, emeritusvicar general for Vatican City, the office said.

Francis also on Wednesday met at the Vatican with medical staff from Gemelli, thanking them for his treatment. Francis appeared in a wheelchair, according to photos released by the Vatican.

“Thank you, and thank you for all you have done. Thank you for being so strong,” he said. “When women are in charge, things work. Thank you, and thank you all. I pray for you and please do it for me. Thank you. And thank you for your service in the hospital, it is very good. Thank you. Keep going like this.”

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

LONDON — Three people, including a child, were killed in a “massive” Russian drone strike overnight on Dnipro, Ukraine, the local governor said.

“Thirty people were injured, five of them children,” Serhiy Lysak, who leads the local administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. The injured later climbed to 31.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine described the strike as a “difficult night,” saying Russia had targeted “ordinary residential buildings, ordinary civilian infrastructure.”

“Tragically, three people were killed by this Russian strike, among them a girl, Veronika — she was only 17 years old,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “My condolences to the families and loved ones.”

The injured included a 9-month-old girl, along with two boys aged 6 and 11, the governor said.

The drones damaged at least 15 buildings in Dnipro, including students dorms and school buildings, Mayor Borys Filatov said on social media.

Rescue workers were busy on Thursday clearing the rubble near a destroyed high-rise building, Lysak said in a post in Ukrainian.

“Someone remembers how this building was built many decades ago, entire generations grew up here,” he said. “A few steps away is a playground, where, next to toys and swings, there are cars destroyed by fire. And then there is rubble and blood.”

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(GAZA) — Since the end of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on March 18, the humanitarian situation in Gaza has sharply deteriorated.

The continued closure of all border crossings since March 2 has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid, triggering a severe food crisis and endangering the lives of millions of civilians.

Aid organizations warn that without urgent action, Gaza faces the real possibility of widespread famine, escalating malnutrition and the collapse of essential services.

One of the gravest consequences of the blockade is the complete disruption of the food supply chain. According to residents, bakeries across Gaza have been forced to shut down due to a lack of flour, fuel and operational supplies.

“There is no bread, no bread at all. There is no flour. The crossings are closed. The children are starving,” said Ahmed Abu Mustafa, a resident of Khan Younis, in an interview with ABC News. “Even if we had flour … the bakeries don’t have fuel to bake or cook food.”

The impact on civilians is visible and tragic.

Moath Fayez Abu Ramadan, also from Khan Younis, waited daily at a closed bakery earlier this month hoping to find food for his children.

“I have been here since six in the morning, waiting for the bakery to open so I can feed my children,” he told ABC News. “My wife was killed in the war, and my children need someone to take care of them and provide food.”

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced on March 31 that its aid supplies to Gaza have been fully depleted. The closure of the crossings has made resupply impossible, with catastrophic results.

“We are in a famine in every sense of the word,” said Umm Mohammed, a displaced resident from Rafah. “No matter how much we describe it, it is a famine. What is the fault of the children?” she asked during an interview with ABC News.

In a series of statements on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue to bar the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, calling it “one of the main pressure tools that prevents Hamas form using this measure vis a vis the population.”

Katz said Israel planned to create an infrastructure for distributing aid using civilian companies later.

Aid organizations raise alarm

International aid organizations are also raising alarm over the humanitarian toll of the blockade.

Rosalia Bollen, a spokesperson for UNICEF, told ABC News, “Since March 18, hundreds of children have been killed, hundreds more have been injured. … Burns, shrapnel lodged in the bodies of children, children who’ve had their limbs amputated.”

She emphasized the urgent need to reestablish a ceasefire and reopen the crossings.

“The most impactful action that governments need to take is to ensure that the ceasefire is reestablished. That is the most important measure to save children’s lives,” she said.

Beyond food shortages, Gaza’s children are suffering psychologically from the relentless violence and deprivation.

“Children are deeply traumatized by what they’ve witnessed,” Bollen explained. “They’ve been exposed to really unprecedented levels of violence on a daily basis for months in a row. … Today, every child in Gaza needs mental health support.”

Violence has returned

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) echoed this concern and highlighted the challenges of operating under such extreme conditions.

“After a period of relative calm, violence has returned to Gaza and the civilian population once again is bearing the brunt,” said Hisham Muhanna, an ICRC spokesperson, in an interview with ABC News. “The entry of humanitarian aid – Gaza’s main lifeline – has been suspended … the situation is even more dire.”

ICRC’s operations in Gaza are ongoing but severely constrained, Muhanna said.

“Programs like common kitchens continue feeding people with, sometimes, the only meal they will receive a day,” Muhanna said.

However, he warned of a looming catastrophe.

“Flour supplies are dwindling, and many bakeries have had to shut down,” he said. “In short order, the impacts will be acute on nutrition and basic health.”

With no fuel entering Gaza, water purification systems and hospitals are on the verge of collapse, Muhanna said.

“Hospitals cannot operate without health care staff, who don’t live nearby and who are struggling to come to work safely during this period of hostility,” Muhanna said.

“With no proper sanitation and limited access to safe drinking water, the danger of communicable disease outbreaks is closer by the day,” he added.

‘In need of literally everything’

Citizens are also voicing their frustration and calling for urgent international action.

“We want the war on Gaza to stop. May God make the Arab countries stand with us,” said Abu Ramadan.

Umm Mohammed added, “We fear hunger. We no longer fear death; we have reached the point where we wish for death. … When your child asks for bread — his most basic right — what do you say?”

As aid agencies work tirelessly under impossible conditions, time is running out for Gaza.

“The suffering in Gaza isn’t just physical but also psychological,” said Bollen. “Children in Gaza are in need of literally everything: food, safe water, health care and emotional support.”

The international community faces a critical moment. Without immediate and sustained action to reopen the crossings and restore aid flows, aid agencies are warning that Gaza is at risk of plunging into an irreversible humanitarian catastrophe.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

)LONDON and PRETORIA) — An American missionary allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint during a church service in South Africa last Thursday has been rescued in “a high-intensity shootout” between police and his suspected captors, authorities said on Wednesday.

Three unidentified suspects were killed during Tuesday’s rescue operation, which was led by the South African Police Service’s elite Hawks unit, according to a statement from police spokesman Lt. Col. Avele Fumba.

While police have not yet named the rescued American, the Tennessee church with which he is affiliated has identified him as Josh Sullivan.

“Josh has been released. I just got ‘the go ahead to let it be known,” Tom Hatley, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville, Tennessee, said in a Facebook post early Wednesday. “Thank you for your support and prayers. Please do not stop praying for The Sullivans. Praise The Lord Jesus Christ!”

Investigators discovered that the abducted U.S. citizen, believed to be a pastor at a church in the South African port city of Gqeberha, was being held at a safe house there, Fumba said. As officers approached the house on Tuesday, suspects inside a vehicle opened fire and attempted to flee the scene, Fumba said, “leading to a high-intensity shootout in which three unidentified suspects were fatally wounded.”

“The victim was found inside the same vehicle from which the suspects had launched their attack,” Fumba added. “Miraculously unharmed, he was immediately assessed by medical personnel and is currently in an excellent condition.”

The investigation remains ongoing, according to Fumba.

Sullivan’s mother, Tonya Rinker of Maryville, Tennessee, previously confirmed that her son had been abducted.

“As a mother, you never think about something like this happening to your child, but faith carries you through the uncertainty,” Rinker told ABC News in a statement last week. “Joshua’s humor and wit are a blessing; he’s always ready with a joke, and forever seeking to make people laugh.”

Rinker described her son as “an exceptional father, husband, and son, embodying kindness, strength and generosity. He has a servant’s heart, a kind, compassionate spirit and is filled with selflessness. He has a burden for lost souls and has devoted his life to serving God in South Africa.”

Sullivan was reportedly abducted by armed men who burst into a church in Motherwell, a township near Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, the Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville said on its Facebook page last week.

The incident unfolded at about 7 p.m. local time on Thursday when the pastor of the church “was allegedly confronted by at least four unknown armed suspects during a church service,” Fumba told ABC News in a statement.

Witnesses told investigators that the suspects forced the minister into his own vehicle and then fled, Fumba said.

According to a biography on what appears to be Sullivan’s website, he describes himself as a “church-planting missionary to the country of South Africa,” who arrived there in November 2018 with his wife, Meagan, and their children to run Fellowship Baptist’s Motherwell church there.

Sullivan has been on the staff at Fellowship Baptist Church in Maryville since 2012, according to his website.

ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump earlier this month announced far-reaching “reciprocal tariffs” on scores of countries, but he soon suspended the levies on all but one: China.

Instead, Trump ratcheted up China tariffs to a whopping total of 145%. In response, China slapped 125% tariffs on U.S. goods and issued other countermeasures.

The trade war between the world’s two largest economies amounts to a battle of wills in which each stands poised to draw on economic advantages and political pressure points, analysts said. An assessment of each side’s leverage, they added, helps reveal how the standoff may unfold.

“The stakes are extremely high and the only issue remaining is who is going to blink first,” Yasheng Huang, professor of global economics and management at MIT, told ABC News.

Potential economic damage

The U.S. and China each are among the other’s top trade partners, meaning a sizable chunk of each economy depends on the relationship.

U.S. consumers and firms purchase more goods and services from China than the other way around, putting China at risk of a larger loss in economic activity if trading comes to an effective halt, analysts said.

Still, they added, the trade imbalance also threatens acute product shortages and price increases for U.S. consumers.

“The U.S. imports more from China than it exports to China — that gives the U.S. an advantage,” Shang-Jin Wei, a professor of finance and economics at Columbia University who studies the U.S.-China trade relationship, told ABC News.

“But the very fact that the U.S. buys so much from them also means that it is dependent on their supply of low-cost goods,” Wei said.

Last year, the U.S. imported about $438 billion worth of goods and services from China, making it the largest destination for China’s exports. In all, that figure accounts for about 15% of China’s exports, according to the U.S. Trade Representative. China makes up a primary source of consumer electronics like laptops and smartphones, as well as footwear, apparel and toys.

U.S. tariffs are expected to lower China’s gross domestic product growth this year by 0.7%, though the Chinese economy is still forecast to expand by more than 4%, J.P.Morgan said on Tuesday.

The loss of relatively cheap Chinese goods, meanwhile, is expected to raise prices for U.S. shoppers. Over the weekend, the Trump administration issued a tariff exemption for some consumer electronics from China, but price hikes are expected for a host of other goods.

On the other hand, China purchased about $143 billion of U.S. goods last year, including crops such as soybeans and wheat, as well as oil and gas.

Roughly 930,000 U.S. jobs are supported by exports to China, the U.S.-China Business Council said in a report last year. During Trump’s first term, the U.S. provided financial relief to some farmers to make up for lost sales to China.

Essential materials

The U.S. or China could also derive leverage from specialized goods that would be difficult for the other country to replace in the event of trade restrictions.

Earlier this month, China imposed export restrictions on some rare earth elements and magnets that make up critical inputs in some U.S. auto, energy and defense products. For now, Chinese companies can still export to U.S. buyers, though the Chinese firms must receive approval from the Chinese government.

Rare earths are vital for a range of defense technologies, including F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles and radar systems, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, said on Tuesday.

The U.S. is not prepared to immediately make up for a potential loss of those components through domestic industry, CSIS found.

“The U.S. dependency on China for rare earths is extremely high,” Huang said. “China can shut it off or turn it on at will — that is leverage.”

Meg Rithmire, a professor of business administration at Harvard University, said the U.S. could seek out alternative sources abroad but China remains the dominant source of such materials.

“It doesn’t seem like this is the kind of thing that will cripple anyone in the short term, but the supply chains are such that it could get messy in the medium term,” Rithmire said.

Meanwhile, China relies on the U.S. for some important components of its electronics, auto and technology products, Huang said.

China could likely withstand a temporary shortfall, Huang added, though a long-term shortage of such goods would pose a problem.

“It would definitely hurt them — no question about it,” Huang said.

Tolerance for financial pain

Analysts told ABC News that China’s authoritarian form of government affords it greater capacity to tolerate a prolonged period of economic hardship.

By contrast, separate branches of government and regular elections in the U.S. make it more difficult for the country to hold out through potential widespread financial challenges, they added.

The Chinese public faces limits on public expression and little recourse for bringing its displeasure to bear on political representatives, analysts said.

“There’s a lot structurally built into the Chinese system to withstand political pain, which isn’t the case for the U.S.,” Rithmire said. “The U.S. system incorporates the unhappiness of people as they experience the economic effects.”

The countries’ different responses to COVID-19 exemplify how their respective political systems respond to flagging general welfare, analysts said.

China maintained a zero-COVID policy for several years, severely restricting individual mobility and hamstringing a broad swath of the nation’s economy. In the U.S., on the other hand, eight states never issued COVID lockdowns, while the federal government focused on economic stimulus and expedited vaccine development.

“The trade war, as substantial as it is, doesn’t compare to the COVID lockdown that China implemented,” Huang said. “We have solid evidence that the political system is quite immune from economic hardship.”

Still, that tolerance of economic pain has limits, Wei said. Over the past half century, the Chinese government has drawn legitimacy from its ability to deliver economic growth and improved living standards, he added.

“Anything that hurts that can undermine their power,” Wei said.

Ultimately, the standoff may endure until each country sees a pathway out of the trade spat that promises sufficient political benefit.

“Is there a productive off-ramp for each side?” Huang said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.