CBS News
Pope Francis cancels trip to COP28 climate conference in Dubai due to illness
Pope Francis has canceled a planned trip to Dubai, where he was scheduled to speak at a climate conference, based on his doctors’ advice, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Tuesday in a statement.
The pope who was slated to speak Saturday at COP28 on climate issues announced on Sunday he was fighting a lung inflammation.
The pope’s “influenza and inflammation of the respiratory tract has improved,” his doctors said in the statement, but they’ve “asked the Pope not to make the trip planned for the next few days.”
“Pope Francis accepted the doctors’ request with great regret and the trip was therefore canceled,” the statement said.
Francis, who will turn 87 on Dec. 17, has been focused on fighting climate change — making the issue a signature fight of his papacy. He has said climate change is “one of the most worrisome phenomena that humanity is facing,” and urged climate negotiators to ignore special interests, political or economic pressures, and instead engage in an honest dialogue about the future of the planet.
In 2021, Francis called on lawmakers and governments to commit to ambitious goals to tackle the threat of rising temperatures and stressed the importance of “concretely encouraging new paths to pursue” that would help protect the environment. That same year, he said he planned to attend COP26, but the Vatican announced that the pope wouldn’t attend and the church’s delegation would instead be led by the secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
No explanation was given at the time, but the pope had undergone intestinal surgery a few months prior. He had said his attendance at the climate conference depended on his “continued recovery.”
Francis came down with the flu late last week. After canceling his audiences Saturday — including with the visiting leader of Guinea Bissau — he went to the hospital for a CAT scan, and the Vatican said the test had ruled out pneumonia.
On Sunday, he skipped his traditional appearance at his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square to avoid the cold. Instead, Francis gave the traditional noon blessing in a televised appearance from the chapel in the Vatican hotel where he lives and asked a priest to read his written daily reflections out loud.
He coughed and spoke in a whisper, and sported the cannula in which he was receiving antibiotics intravenously. Recruiting a substitute speaker was a first for this pope and recalled how St. John Paul II frequently had other prelates read his remarks in his final years as he battled the effects of Parkinson’s disease.
People who saw Francis this week said his health was improving but he still spoke in a whisper.
In April, the pope spent three days at Rome’s Gemelli hospital for what the Vatican said was bronchitis after he had trouble breathing. He was discharged after receiving intravenous antibiotics.
Francis spent 10 days at the same hospital in July 2021 following intestinal surgery for a bowel narrowing. He was readmitted in June of this year for an operation to repair an abdominal hernia and remove scarring from previous surgeries.
When asked about his health in a recent interview, Francis quipped in reply what has become his standard line — “Still alive!”
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.