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POPE FRANCIS HAS been admitted to hospital in Rome today for tests and treatment for bronchitis, the Vatican said, the latest in a series of health problems for the 88-year-old pontiff.
Francis, who has been breathless in recent days and has delegated officials to read his speeches, was admitted following his morning audiences, the Vatican said.
He was hospitalised at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for “some necessary diagnostic tests and to continue treatment for ongoing bronchitis in a hospital setting”, according to the Vatican.
The Argentine pontiff, who took over as head of the Catholic Church in 2013, will be staying in a suite used exclusively by popes, which has its own chapel.
The Pope, who had part of one of his lungs removed as a young man, has been suffering with breathing difficulties for over a week, asking aides several times to read his speeches aloud on his behalf.
At his weekly general audience on Wednesday, a breathless Francis said he “cannot yet” read his own speeches, adding with a smile: “I hope that next time I can.”
He also held meetings at home on February 6 and 7 in an attempt to rest and recover.
Francis was admitted to hospital for three nights in March 2023 with bronchitis, which was cured with antibiotics.
And in December that year he had to cancel a visit to Dubai to participate in the United Nations COP28 climate change conference due to another bout of bronchitis.
The Argentine pontiff has been plagued in recent years by health issues, including an inflamed colon. He also underwent surgery for a hernia.
He has been using a wheelchair since 2022 due to persistent knee pain and uses a cane during rare moments standing up.
He has also fallen a couple of times in the past few months, bruising his forearm in January and sporting a large bruise on his right jaw in December, caused by toppling from his bed.
Despite his health troubles, Francis rarely rests. In September, he completed a four-nation trip, the longest of his papacy in terms of duration and distance.
He never takes holidays and keeps a busy schedule, sometimes with a dozen meetings in one morning.
Francis’s health issues regularly spark speculation over his future, particularly as his predecessor, Benedict XVI, quit over failing health in 2013.
While Francis has left open the option of resigning should he be unable to carry out his duties, he has said that for now he is going nowhere.
In a memoir published last year, Francis wrote that he did “not have any cause serious enough to make me think of resigning”.
Resignation is a “distant possibility” that would be justified only in the event of “a serious physical impediment”, he wrote.
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They’ll probably need an update every 1000 miles
That’s OK, the battery will need 1,000 recharges to do those 1,000 miles.
Instead of petrol it runs on apple juice!!
I’ll buy one if it comes with a spare battery.
Why is bono on the dash?
Battery will be not replaceable. It will only work on primary roads will not allow to work on lanes. Will only charge at designated apple stores with a lightening connecter. It will run on Apple maps so be prepared never to get where you want. It will also have one radio station approved by Apple
Samsung will release one with better replaceable battery. Charge anywhere. Listen to everything and will not bend when you tip a kerb
But the apple version will be sleek, shiny, futuristic and give you spontaneous orgasm when you grasp the leather steering wheel and it starts up…
Meanwhile someone will be rattling along in a plastic Samsung banging on the window and trying to scream… ‘I’m just as good! I’m just as good’ but completely drowned out…
Unless you go the N4 Samsung version with faster speeds better cornering and better breaks :)
Breaks will not come as standard in apple car
Ahhh the N4… Would that be the ugly grey plastic one… Or the slightly less ugly blue-grey plastic one… Or the kind of grey black not entirely ugly but low spec that’s cheap one?
It’s the one that comes with metallic leather and s pen but should not write and drive
Drew would that be the same ‘ugly plastic’ that’s used in Ferrari F1 cars?
Can I please vote Drew’s comment of the year? :)
pffft… it will probably only work on their roads and an army of tech-ignorant douches will be lining up to buy them anyway.
Someone’s man they couldn’t afford an iPhone
Mad*
It’ll be priced like a Merc and will run like a Renault.
Will I be able to Jailbreak it?
You can drive in into the gates of Mountjoy and find out ?
Wonder if it’ll have WINDOWS
iScreen
Great news, love a bit of competition.
Apples popularity should open up the market, hopefully we’ll be ordering knock offs from China soon.
Might open up your humour as well cos it’s clearly Nokia humour at the moment.
Nokia started life in the 1800s as bog roll specialists in Finland.
Product diversification can also be good for the Apple brand.
The only way an electric car will sell is if Apple made them
Cars are not at apples core!
carbon credits baby, its the new money spinner, tesla made 100 million last year selling carbon credits of the back of making electric cars. one could ask jf they reduced their carbon footprint?
News outlets now confirming apple are making cars? How can they confirm something that’s just a rumour?
Hope I don’t need to use my sh!t iPhone charger
Will it have airplane mode? :)
It will never crash .
cool
I’d be more concerned about what data it’s keeping about my driving, where I go, when I go, how I go, and what use it is making of that data. The internet of things is going to be a privacy and civil liberties minefield, the beginning of which we’re only starting to get a glimpse of now.
Peace, love and empathy.
Realistically would anyone buy a car from a manufacturer that has never made or produced a car before with zero track record of such an endeavour?
I wouldn’t!
You’d turn down a Tesla?
Is that a good reason for people to never try and build a car? Because they never made one before? What logic is that?
People bought a phone from a computer company that had never made phones before and it was the biggest product success in history…
Biggest product success in history? Is that a fact?
Thanks but I’ll let someone else be the lemming, then might consider it on 2nd or 3rd generation.
@PaulRoche, taking a couple of engineers from Tesla does not make Apple Tesla.
@JonBurkin, no not at all, just not a 1st generation one.
@AllanFarrell, What’s your point? Is that a question?
A company worth approx 170+ billion, thats a success!!
Tesla is worth approx $25 billion from selling electric cars. Its a good future business for apple,
Tesla is worth approx $25 billion from selling carbon credits, not cars.
Its a car company and its still worth $25 billion regardless to its carbon credits business
Sorry, 700billion
David,
You might want to sit down for this.
Tesla had zero history in car manufacturing until they started making them.
That was my point.
Just don’t try to use it to go to the airport!
Will my I phone charger be able to cope with charging it .
There are just so many reasons why Apple should never make a car it’s not even funny… It will be the comedy gift that just keeps giving when stupid people with way more money than sense buy one of these just because it has an Apple badge and a pretty white box…. I despair.
It won’t allow for windows either
Would you have bought a car from a company that made sewing machines, today they are called toyota.
Mazda used to make light bulbs
An apple car, it will probably only let you go the way it wants you to go.
Not true…they Will get into making electronic dashboards/navigation/driver assist…who would buy a bloody Apple car?
have your say