VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis, who began his fifth day in hospital on Tuesday for what doctors have described as a “complex” respiratory infection, will not take part in this weekend’s Holy Year events, the Vatican said on Tuesday. 

The 88-year-old pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Friday. 

A planned public papal audience set for Saturday had been canceled “due to the health condition of the Holy Father,” the Vatican said in a brief statement.  

A papal mass scheduled for Sunday will still take place, but will be led instead by a senior Vatican official, it added. 

The Vatican said on Monday that doctors had changed the pope’s drug therapy for the second time during his hospital stay to tackle a “complex clinical situation.” They described it as a “polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract.” 

 

Doctors say polymicrobial diseases can be caused by a mix of viruses, bacteria and fungi. 

Francis, who has been pontiff since 2013, has had influenza and other health problems several times over the past two years. As a young adult he developed pleurisy and had part of one lung removed, and in recent times has been prone to lung infections. 
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A Russian drone hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Dolynska, officials said Tuesday, injuring at least three people.

Andriy Raikovych, governor of the Kirovohrad region where the attack took place, said on Telegram that authorities evacuated dozens of people from the building and that those injured included a mother and two children.

The attack was part of a widespread Russian aerial assault overnight, which the Ukrainian military said included 176 drones.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 103 of the drones, with intercepts taking place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions, the military said Tuesday.

Cherkasy Governor Ihor Taburets said on Telegram that debris from a destroyed drone damaged four houses in his region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it destroyed five Ukrainian drones, including four over the Voronezh region and one over Belgorod.

Both regions are located along the Russia-Ukraine border and are frequent targets of Ukrainian drone attacks.

Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said on Telegram there were no reports of casualties or damage.

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters
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PARIS — European leaders called for beefing up their defense spending Monday after a Paris summit on Ukraine and the region’s security — amid concerns about an aggressive Russia and declining support from Washington. The emergency meeting comes ahead of U.S.-Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine — which it appears could leave out the Europeans.

The summit, called by French President Emmanuel Macron, came as Europeans confront a shift in transatlantic relations under the new administration U.S. President Donald Trump.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said European security was at a “turning point.”

Ahead of the Paris talks — gathering European Union, NATO and British leaders — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described efforts to introduce competition between the European Union and the United States as senseless and potentially dangerous.

Ian Lesser, who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund policy institute, said there are two big issues on the agenda for European leaders in the near term.

“It’s all about what can be done for and with Ukraine, in anticipation of the United States doing less, and possibly in anticipation of having to guarantee a settlement or at least a ceasefire,” Lesser said.

“The other long-term question, which is some ways more serious, is how to secure Europe’s defense with the United States potentially absent in the years to come And there, I think, there’s very little consensus, and it’s a very big and expensive and long-term project for Europe.”

Top U.S. and Russian officials were to hold talks Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss Ukraine and a possible summit between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. Neither Ukraine nor the Europeans have been invited.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country is willing to send troops to Ukraine as part of any peace deal. Other European leaders say that’s premature. Meanwhile, the foreign minister of Hungary, which is close to both Russia and the Trump administration, said the Paris talks undermine peace.

Leaders in Paris also discussed ways to rapidly increase Europe’s own defense capabilities and support for Ukraine.

“Increased spending at home, increased defense production, increased sizes of armies, increased intelligence cooperation, increased training — all of this is to happen, in addition to supplying Ukraine so its front line doesn’t collapse,” said Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House think tank in London.

She described a key security conference in Munich last week, which left Europe concerned about Washington’s new priorities, as a wake-up call.

“It’s a different White House and a different team,” she said. “And Europe was slow to realize that and to find the right words and the right package for this transactional world of America.”

The U.S. has long pushed Europe to do more for its own defense. Now — with Russia gaining the advantage on the ground in Ukraine, and Washington calling for NATO members to increase military budgets — Europeans are sensing an urgency to do so.
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NICOSIA, CYPRUS — A pair of agreements outlining how sizable natural gas deposits inside Cypriot waters will get to market via processing facilities in Egypt are a milestone for energy cooperation, Cyprus’ president said Monday. 

President Nikos Christodoulides said the cooperation between Cyprus and Egypt is helping to define the regional energy map, calling the agreements “game-changers” that are “pivotal for our strategic partnership.” 

The first agreement between Egypt, Cyprus and a consortium made up of energy companies Total of France and Italy’s Eni foresees piping natural gas from a deposit known as Cronos to Egyptian facilities where it will be liquefied and processed for export to markets including Europe. 

The Eni-Total consortium, which holds exploratory licenses for four of the 13 areas or blocks inside Cyprus’ offshore economic zone, will make a final decision on how it will extract and convey the gas before the summer this year. 

Eni Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi called the agreement a decisive step toward creating an energy hub in the eastern Mediterranean. 

Officials haven’t disclosed how large the Cronos deposit is, but it’s believed to hold more than the Aphrodite deposit — the first gas field discovered inside Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone in 2011 — that’s estimated to contain 4.5 trillion cubic feet of gas. 

The second agreement between Egypt, Cyprus and a consortium composed of Chevron, NewMed Energy and Shell sets out the framework under which the Aphrodite deposit will be developed and monetized. 

The Aphrodite deal comes three days after the Cypriot government and the Chevron-led consortium approved a revised development and production plan for the deposit that includes a floating platform that processes extracted natural gas as well as a pipeline link to Egypt. 

Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said last month the options of whether to use Aphrodite gas for Egypt’s domestic energy needs or to process it for export are still being weighed. 

Christodoulides also held talks with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on the two countries’ next energy cooperation goals as well as regional developments. 

Christodoulides also met on the sidelines of Egypt’s energy exhibition EGYPES 2025 with ExxonMobil’s Vice President for Global Exploration John Ardill. 

ExxonMobil and partners Qatar Petroleum — which hold exploration licenses for two Cypriot blocks — are currently drilling a new well near the existing Glaucus deposit, which is estimated to contain 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet of gas. 

Papanastasiou has said there are “positive” indications of natural gas quantities at the new Elektra well, also in Cypriot waters, with preliminary results expected in early April.
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Taipei, Taiwan        — China has launched a new round of diplomatic outreach to European countries amid rising tension between the United States and its European allies.

While top U.S. officials and European leaders clashed over issues such as values, democracy and Ukraine at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi held bilateral meetings with several top European officials, including EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

“There is no fundamental conflict of interest or geopolitical conflicts between China and the EU,” Wang said during his meeting with Kallas on Saturday, adding that Beijing “supports all endeavors conducive to peace and backs Europe in playing a significant role” in the peace negotiation process regarding the war in Ukraine.

The EU response was somewhat more reserved, with Kallas saying the EU was ready to “continue with dialogue and cooperate in selected areas, such as trade, economic affairs, and climate change.” He urged Beijing to halt exports of dual-use goods to Russia, which she said fuels Moscow’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

Wang’s remarks were in stark contrast to U.S. Vice President JD Vance’s criticism of European countries. Instead of highlighting the threats posed by Russia and China, Vance accused European government of censoring right-wing parties and failing to control migration.

“What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America,” he said in a defiant speech that stunned European officials in Munich.

Several European leaders quickly rejected Vance’s remarks, with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying the U.S. vice president’s characterization of European policies was “unacceptable.”

The rare open clash between the U.S. and European countries came as top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz, and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday for talks about the Ukraine-Russia war with Russian diplomats.

To the surprise of many European leaders, U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg said in Munich that European countries wouldn’t be part of any peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which would be mediated by the U.S.

Analysts say China’s effort to strengthen engagement with Europe is part of Beijing’s plan to take advantage of divisions between Washington and its European allies.

“China’s posture is about exploiting the perceived mistakes of any U.S. administration,” said Mathieu Duchatel, director of international studies at the French policy group Institut Montaigne.

He told VOA by phone that the current tension between the U.S. and European countries has created an opportunity for Beijing to “weaken the transatlantic alliance on China policy.”

Given that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on European countries, other experts say the growing tension in transatlantic relations could force the EU to moderate its policies towards China.

“Since Europe can’t afford to wage two trade wars at the same time, it will be difficult for the EU and EU member states to maintain critical policies toward China,” Matej Simalcik, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA in an interview in Taipei.

In recent weeks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who has pushed the EU to adopt more assertive policies against China, has repeatedly said the bloc is open to improving relations with China.

Europe “must engage constructively with China – to find solutions in our mutual interest,” she said during a keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.

US-European ties expected to hold

While European countries may consider adjusting their China policies, some European analysts say it’s unlikely for these attempts to turn into a fundamental shift of European policies towards China and the U.S.

“The U.S. and Europe are each other’s most important trading partners, so I don’t think there will be a [complete] transatlantic break,” said Sari Arho Havren, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.

European countries “are testing the grounds and seeing what can be done, but at the same time, European officials have said whatever happens with China, it must be fair,” she told VOA by phone, adding that these factors will prevent the EU from “walking back” their earlier positions on China entirely.

Additionally, Duchatel at Institut Montaigne said Beijing’s decision to appoint former Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye, a prominent “wolf warrior diplomat,” as its special representative for European affairs means China is unlikely to make major concessions in its relations with the EU.

“Lu’s appointment represents inflexibility on everything that matters,” he told VOA, adding that some European diplomats said the new Chinese special envoy would “turn any diplomatic meeting into some sort of ideological confrontation that leads to no common position” between Beijing and European countries.

While China and the EU’s fundamental differences over issues such as Beijing’s partnership with Russia and the trade imbalances remain unresolved, some Chinese academics say the growing tension between the U.S. and European countries still offers an opportunity for Beijing and Europe to “increase mutual trust.”

“The growing tension in transatlantic relations has created a new environment for China to moderate relations with the EU, but it doesn’t mean European countries will reduce their criticism over Beijing’s partnership with Russia or China’s human rights record,” Shen Ding-li, a Shanghai-based international relations scholar, told VOA by phone.
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French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host a group of European leaders for talks Monday focused on the situation in Ukraine amid a shift in the U.S. approach to the conflict and suggestions by U.S. officials that Europe would not have a role in peace talks.

Among those expected to attend were leaders from Britain, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark. NATO chief Mark Rutte, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were also due to participate.

European leaders have in recent days pledged continued support for Ukraine, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying his government was ready to send troops to Ukraine as part of any postwar peacekeeping force.

“I do not say that lightly,” he wrote Sunday in the Daily Telegraph. “I feel very deeply the responsibility that comes with potentially putting British servicemen and women in harm’s way.”

Starmer said securing a lasting peace in Ukraine was essential to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from further aggression.

Costa said last week’s Munich Security Conference showed the clear message that the security of Ukraine and the European Union “cannot be separated.”

“There will be no credible and successful negotiations, no lasting peace, without Ukraine and without the European Union.”

U.S. officials said Sunday they were heading to Saudi Arabia for talks in the coming days with Russian diplomats about ending the war, which began in February 2022 with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed during an hour-long call last week to the immediate start of peace negotiations, but U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in an interview that aired Sunday, “A process towards peace is not a one-meeting thing.”

“We’ll see in the coming days and weeks if Vladimir Putin is interested in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, in a way that is sustainable and fair,” Rubio said.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said they were headed to Riyadh for the talks, while a Ukrainian minister says that an official delegation has arrived there in preparation for a possible visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The shape of the talks remained uncertain.

Rubio said he wasn’t even sure who Moscow was sending. “Nothing’s been finalized yet,” he said, adding that the hope was for an opening for a broad conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war.”

Trump’s call with Putin blindsided NATO allies as well as Kyiv, with Zelenskyy later saying that there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Whatever occurs this week in Saudi Arabia, Rubio said that once “real negotiations” begin, then Ukraine “will have to be involved.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Zelenskyy said, “I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never. The war in Ukraine is against us, and it is our human losses.”

Zelenskyy said he told Trump in a call they had last week that Putin is only pretending to want peace.

“I said that he is a liar. And [Trump] said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.'”

The United States has been Ukraine’s biggest arms supplier during the conflict, but Trump has wavered on continued support and declined during a political debate last year to say that he wants Ukraine to win.

Zelenskyy said that without continued U.S. military support, “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult” to defeat Russia. “And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

Russia now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean Peninsula it unilaterally annexed in 2014, the eastern portion of Ukraine pro-Moscow separatists captured after that, and areas Russian forces have taken since February 2022.

Ukraine’s military said Monday it shot down 83 of the 147 drones that Russian forces used in overnight attacks.

The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions, the military said.

Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegram that Russian shelling injured four people, while damaging eight apartment buildings and four houses.

In Kharkiv, Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported damage to three warehouse buildings and 14 houses from Russia’s attacks.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday it destroyed 90 Ukrainian aerial drones, including 38 over the Sea of Azov, 24 over the Krasnodar region, 15 over Russia-occupied Crimea and seven over the Black Sea. Russian air defenses also shot down drones over the Kursk, Rostov, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, the ministry said.

Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that falling debris from downed drones injured one person and damaged 12 houses.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters 
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Baghdad — A Turkish opposition party delegation arrived in Iraq’s semiautonomous Kurdish region Sunday against the backdrop of peace efforts between Ankara and a banned Kurdish separatist movement in Turkey.

The delegation led by Sirri Sureyya Onder and Pervin Buldan, two senior officials with the pro-Kurdish People’s Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM, in Turkey, met with Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party — the dominant Kurdish party in Iraq — in Irbil Sunday.

Barzani’s office said in a statement that they discussed “the peace process in Turkey” and that the Turkish delegation conveyed a message from Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

Barzani “stressed the need for all parties to intensify their efforts and endeavors to enable the peace process to achieve the desired results” and reiterated “his full readiness to provide assistance and support to the peace process in Turkey and make it a success,” the statement said.

The DEM party has long pressed for greater democracy in Turkey and rights for the country’s Kurdish population, and to improve conditions for the imprisoned Ocalan.

Ocalan, 75, founded the PKK, in 1978, which began an armed insurrection for an autonomous Kurdish state in Turkey’s southeast in 1984, costing tens of thousands of lives. The group is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey and its Western allies. The central Iraqi government in Baghdad announced a ban on the group, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, last year.

Captured in 1999 and convicted of treason, Ocalan has been serving a life sentence on Imrali Island in the Marmara Sea.

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has traditionally had an antagonistic relationship with the left-wing DEM party, frequently ousting its elected officials on charges of ties to the PKK and replacing them with state appointed officials.

However, this icy relationship began thawing last October, when Erdogan’s coalition partner, far-right nationalist politician Devlet Bahceli suggested that Ocalan could be granted parole, if his group renounces violence and disbands.

The peace effort comes at a time when Erdogan may need support from the DEM party in parliament to enact a new constitution that could allow him to stay in power for unlimited terms.

The Turkish Constitution doesn’t allow Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003 as prime minister and later as president, to run for office again unless an early election is called — something that would also require the support of the pro-Kurdish party.

Even as the latest peace efforts are underway, Erdogan’s government has widened a crackdown on the opposition, arresting journalists and politicians. Several elected Kurdish mayors have been ousted from office and replaced with state appointed officials, the latest this Saturday, when the mayor of Van municipality in eastern Turkey was removed from his post and replaced with the state-appointed governor.

Meanwhile, conflict is ongoing between Turkish-backed armed groups and Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria.

Turkey views the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed military Kurdish alliance in Syria, as an extension of the PKK. The SDF is in negotiations with the new government in Damascus following the ouster of then Syrian President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive.

While most former insurgent groups have agreed to dissolve and integrate into the new Syrian army, the SDF has refused so far.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Saturday that the government would reconsider its military presence in northeastern Syria if that country’s new leaders eliminate the presence of the PKK in the area. Also Saturday, Kurds in northeastern Syria staged a mass protest to demand Ocalan’s release.
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Top U.S. officials headed Sunday to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian diplomats in the coming days on ending Moscow’s three-year war on Ukraine, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed prospects for an immediate breakthrough.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed during an hour-long call last week to the immediate start of peace negotiations, but Rubio told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in an interview aired Sunday, “A process towards peace is not a one- meeting thing.”

“We’ll see in the coming days and weeks if Vladimir Putin is interested in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine in a way that is sustainable and fair,” Rubio said.

Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz said they were headed to Riyadh for the talks, while a Ukrainian minister says that an official delegation has arrived there in preparation for a possible visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The shape of the talks remained uncertain.

Rubio said he wasn’t even sure who Moscow was sending. “Nothing’s been finalized yet,” he said, adding that the hope was for an opening for a broad conversation that “would include Ukraine and would involve the end of the war.”

Trump’s call with Putin blindsided NATO allies as well as Kyiv, with Zelenskyy later saying that there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Whatever occurs this week in Saudi Arabia, Rubio said that once “real negotiations” begin, then Ukraine “will have to be involved.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, Zelenskyy said, “I will never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine. Never. The war in Ukraine is against us, and it is our human losses.”

Zelenskyy said he told Trump in a call they had last week that Putin is only pretending to want peace.

“I said that he is a liar. And [Trump] said, ‘I think my feeling is that he’s ready for these negotiations.’ And I said to him, ‘No, he’s a liar. He doesn’t want any peace.’”

The United States has been Ukraine’s biggest arms supplier during the conflict, but Trump has wavered on continued support and declined during a political debate last year to say that he wants Ukraine to win.

Zelenskyy said that without continued U.S. military support, “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult” to defeat Russia. “And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States.”

Russia now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean Peninsula it unilaterally annexed in 2014 and the eastern portion of Ukraine pro-Moscow separatists captured after that and since the full-scale February 2022 Russian invasion.
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KYIV — Russian troops have sharply stepped up their attacks in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday, as a NATO official predicted Moscow would increase the pace and intensity of its assaults with talks to end the war approaching.

The main attacks were concentrated near the imperiled logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Kyiv said, with U.S. and Russian officials expected to hold talks in the coming days in Saudi Arabia and U.S President Donald Trump pushing for peace.

Kyiv’s military reported 261 combat engagements with Russia over a 24-hour period on Saturday, easily the largest number recorded this year and more than double the roughly 100 per day it reported in previous days.

“Today was the hardest day of 2025 at the front,” the Ukrainian DeepState military blog wrote late on Saturday.

Moscow’s troops advanced steadily in the east for much of the second half 2024, announcing the capture of village after village, though the intensity of the fighting dropped in January this year, according to Ukrainian military data.

Russian forces have seized a swathe of territory to the south of Pokrovsk and are now pushing upwards to its southwest, threatening a main supply route into the outpost, the capture of which could open up more lines of attack for Russia.

Despite being on the backfoot, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reported a “good result” in the east on Thursday and a military spokesman said Kyiv’s forces had recaptured the village of Pishchane, about 5 km to Pokrovsk’s south.

“It isn’t so much the result of something collapsing for the Russians or some kind of magical weapon being delivered to Ukraine, no. Certain organizational actions were taken to help Ukrainians act more effectively,” Viktor Trehubov, a military spokesman, told Reuters.

Ukraine has been using drones for deep strikes on Russia in an effort to inflict pain and strengthen its overall position. Russia has continued to conduct regular drone and missile strikes, while making advances on the ground in the east.

“I would expect a much stronger push. I would expect that we would see … a lot of Russian efforts to advance,” a NATO official who requested anonymity told Reuters.

Though Ukrainian officials are careful to praise Trump, his push to engage directly with the Russians without first consulting with Kyiv and to leave out the Europeans entirely is a cause for alarm in Ukraine and Europe.

Kyiv has said it was not invited to take part in the talks in Saudi Arabia and that in any case it wants to devise a joint strategy with its U.S. and European allies before meeting Russian officials.

France said on Sunday it would host a summit of European leaders on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent scrambles to respond concretely to Trump’s unilateral approach to the conflict.

Zelenskiy gave figures for Russian strikes with aerial bombs and missiles that appeared to suggest they had increased in size in the last week.

He said Russia had fired about 1,220 aerial bombs, more than 850 drones and 40 missiles at Ukraine, compared with 1,206, bombs, 750 drones and 10 missiles the week before.
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LONDON — When Malcolm Weale saw the tiny, dirt-covered object he’d unearthed in an English field, he knew it was something special. 

In his hand was a silver penny minted during the reign of Guthrum, a Viking commander who converted to Christianity and ruled eastern England in the ninth century as Athelstan II. 

For Weale, finding the first silver coin minted by a Viking ruler in Britain was the pinnacle of decades of hunting with his metal detector in the fields and forests near his home in eastern England. 

“I was shaking,” Weale said at the British Museum, where the coin was displayed Tuesday alongside other items unearthed by amateur history hunters in 2023 and 2024. “I knew that it was a life-changing, incredible, historical find. 

“I’d watched the series ‘Vikings’ on Netflix, and about a week later I’ve got the Guthrum penny in my hand,” he said. 

The thrill of finding fragments of history beneath our feet drives detectorists like 54-year-old Weale, who was introduced to the pastime at the age of 7 and “was hooked.” 

His find was on show as the museum released its annual report on the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a government-funded project that records thousands of archaeological discoveries made by the public each year. The coin sat alongside a set of 3,000-year-old bronze metalworkers’ tools, a seventh-century gold and garnet necklace, and a gold signet ring with an intriguing link to Queen Elizabeth I. 

They have been officially classed as “treasure” by a coroner, meaning they will be independently valued and offered to local museums. 

Discoveries by detectorists, as well as beachcombers and mudlarkers — who search for items on riverbanks — shine new light into corners of British history. The necklace of glittering gold and garnet pendants found in Lincolnshire, central England, reveals the sophistication of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship, and is surprisingly global. 

Archaeologist Helen Geake, who serves as a “finds liaison officer” for the antiquities program, said that it was likely made in England — “English craftsmen were by far the best in Europe” — with garnets from Sri Lanka. 

Andy Akroyd, 49, also struck gold when he was out metal detecting near his home in Bedfordshire, central England. 

“When I first saw it, I thought ‘Oh it’s a coin.’ Then I saw it’s a ring, I was thinking 1980s, cheap sovereign ring,” Akroyd said. 

It turned out to be a 16th-century signet ring engraved with a phoenix, a mythical bird symbolizing rebirth that was associated with Elizabeth I. Found in an area used as a royal hunting ground in Elizabethan times, it was likely worn, and lost, by one of the queen’s supporters. 

“When you find it, your journey is just beginning,” Akroyd said. Then come the questions: “What is this, how is it here?” 

When items are declared treasure, their value is split between the finder and the owner of the land where it was found. Detectorists occasionally strike it rich — last year, a hoard of 1,000-year-old coins found in southwest England sold for 4.3 million pounds ($5.3 million). 

But the vast majority are in it for the thrill of discovery, not the money, Weale said. 

“You could be a multi-multi-millionaire, but you could never buy that feeling that you feel when you find something,” he said. 

Both he and Akroyd say that they will soon be back out tramping the fields, in the mud and — this is England, after all — the rain. 

“You always find the best stuff when the weather’s terrible,” Weale said. 

Both men extol the mental health benefits of the methodical, slow-paced hobby, popularized to a wider audience by the gentle BBC sitcom “Detectorists.” 

“All I’m thinking about when I’m out metal detectoring is history,” Weale said. “Kings, queens — I’m totally in the zone. I’m not worried about bills, or even keeping warm. Sometimes I forget to eat.” 

Akroyd said that some days he just sits, watching hares leap and birds of prey soar in the sky. 

“I lost my dad last year. I’ll have a chat to my dad when I’m out in the field. ‘Come on, Dad — what way now?'” Akroyd said. “He never finds me anything.” 
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ROME — An Italian nun is taking over a top management job in the Vatican: Sister Raffaella Petrini was named Saturday as president of the Vatican City State, making her essentially the governor of the 44-hectare (108-acre) territory in Rome that is home to the Catholic Church. 

Petrini, 56, had previously been the secretary general of the Vatican administration, which among other things is responsible for the city state’s infrastructure and the Vatican Museums, a major source of revenue for the Holy See. She moves into the top job on March 1, following the retirement of Cardinal Fernando Vergez Alzaga, who turns 80 that day. 

Pope Francis had previously announced Petrini’s promotion, part of his effort to place women in decision-making roles in the Vatican to serve as models for the rest of the church. The Vatican officially published the appointment Saturday while the pope was hospitalized with a respiratory tract infection. 

Last month, Francis named the first woman to head a major Holy See office, appointing another Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church’s religious orders. 

While women have been named to No. 2 spots in some Vatican offices, never before have women been named to the top jobs of the Holy See Curia or Vatican City State administration. 

Catholic women have long complained of second-class status in an institution that reserves the priesthood for men. Francis has upheld the ban on female priests and tamped down hopes that women could be ordained as deacons. 

But there has been a marked increase in the percentage of women working in the Vatican during his papacy, including in leadership positions, from 19.3% in 2013 to 23.4% today, according to statistics reported by Vatican News. In the Curia alone, the percentage of women is 26%. 

Critics complain that making women managers of the church doesn’t compensate for the continued ban on ordaining them as ministers. 

In addition to her job running the Vatican City State administration, Petrini also serves as one of three women who are members of the Vatican office that vets bishop nominations. When they were named in 2022 it marked the first time women had had a formal role in the Vatican process of selecting bishops. 

A member of the Meriden, Connecticut-based Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist religious order, Petrini otherwise keeps a relatively low public profile. 

But during a 2023 Women’s Day speech at Rome’s Pontifical Holy Cross university, she acknowledged that her nomination as secretary general of the Vatican City State had raised eyebrows, “more than I expected in my ingenuity.” 

“Even in non-ecclesial organizations, resistance is part of the process of change,” said Petrini, who has also been a professor of welfare economics at Rome’s Pontifical Angelicum University. 
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MOSCOW — A Moscow court has ordered a U.S. citizen suspected of drug smuggling held in pre-trial detention for 30 days, the Moscow courts press service said Saturday, days after a Moscow-Washington prisoner swap that the White House called a diplomatic thaw and a step toward ending the fighting in Ukraine. 

The U.S. citizen, whom Saturday’s statement named as Kalob Wayne Byers, was detained after airport customs officials found cannabis-laced marmalade in his baggage. 

Russian police said the 28-year-old American had attempted to smuggle a “significant amount” of drugs into the country, the Interfax agency reported, citing Russia’s Federal Customs Service. The agency said the American was detained at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after flying in from Istanbul on February 7. 

Mash, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the U.S. citizen faces up to seven years in prison if convicted. 

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department. 

The Washington-Moscow prisoner exchange this month saw Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States, returned to Russia in exchange for American Marc Fogel, a teacher from Pennsylvania who was detained in 2021 when traveling to Russia to work at a school. 

Fogel had been serving a 14-year sentence for having what his family and supporters said was medically prescribed marijuana. President Joe Biden’s administration designated Fogel as wrongfully detained in December. 

President Donald Trump on Wednesday upended three years of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, saying he and Russian leader Vladimir Putin had agreed to begin negotiations on ending the conflict following a lengthy direct phone call. 
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