By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis reached the two-week mark in his recovery from pneumonia Friday as doctors suggested he had overcome the most critical phase of the infection but held out on declaring him out of danger entirely.

The Vatican, though, made alternative plans for Ash Wednesday next week, making clear Francis still had a long road ahead. Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, a Vatican official and former vicar of Rome, will preside over the March 5 ceremony and procession that inaugurates the church’s solemn Lenten season leading up to Easter in April.

People attend as The Pope’s vicar for the dioceses of Rome Cardinal Baldassarre Reina holds a rosary prayer for the health of Pope Francis in St Peter’s Square at The Vatican, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The Vatican’s early Friday update suggested a level of normalcy and routine as the 88-year-old pope continues recovering at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital. “As in past days, the night was tranquil and the pope now is resting,” it said.

Francis had breakfast, read the day’s newspapers and was receiving respiratory physiotherapy, the Vatican said.

In their Thursday evening bulletin, doctors said Francis’ clinical condition had confirmed that he was improving. He was alternating the high-flow supplemental oxygen he had been receiving by a nasal tube with a mask in a sign of improved respiratory function. Additionally, he left his hospital room to go to his nearby private chapel to pray, while continuing with respiratory physiotherapy and work, the Vatican said.

For the second day in a row, doctors avoided saying Francis was in critical condition, suggesting he had overcome the most acute phase of the infection. But given the complexity of his lung infection, they said “further days of clinical stability are needed” before they revise their prognosis officially and say he is out of danger.

Francis has been at Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 after his bronchitis worsened.

He has shown steady, albeit slight, improvements since a respiratory crisis and kidney trouble over the weekend sparked fears for his life. The improvements beat back speculation of an imminent death or resignation and signaled that he was still very much in charge.

Prayers continued to pour in

In Mexico City, a few dozen people gathered Thursday night at the cathedral to pray for Francis’ recovery.

Parishioners light candles while praying for the health of Pope Francis at the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

“He is like part of the family,” said Araceli Gutiérrez, who treasures the time she saw the pope during his trip to the country of nearly 100 million Catholics in 2016. “That’s why we feel so concerned for him.”

María Teresa Sánchez, who was visiting from Colombia with her sister, said that she has always felt close to Francis — the first Latin American pope.

“That’s like having a relative within the higher-ups, with God,” she said. “He has done so much for religion; he’s such a humble person.”

Upcoming calendar in question

Despite his improvements, Francis’ near-term upcoming calendar of events was being changed: The Vatican canceled a Holy Year audience scheduled for Saturday, and it remained to be seen if Francis would skip his Sunday noon blessing for the third week in a row. With Ash Wednesday now delegated to a cardinal, the next major events come during Holy Week and Easter, which this year falls on April 20.

In past years, when Francis has battled bronchitis and influenza in winter, he curbed his participation in Ash Wednesday and Holy Week events, which call for the pope to be outdoors in the cold leading services, participating in processions and presiding over prayers in the solemn period in which the faithful commemorate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection.

Beyond that, Francis has a few major events coming up that he presumably would hope to keep if well enough. On April 27, he is due to canonize Carlo Acutis, considered to be the first millennial and digital-era saint. The Vatican considers the Italian teenager, who died of leukemia in 2006 at the age of 15, an inspiration for young Catholics.

Another important appointment is the May 24 commemoration of the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, Christianity’s first ecumenical council. The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew I, has invited Francis to join him in Iznik, Turkey, to commemorate the anniversary, which he has called an important sign of reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Before he got sick, Francis said he hoped to go, though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed the trip.

Maria Hernandez contributed from Mexico City.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By JOSH FUNK, Associated Press Business Writer

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Egg producers blame the bird flu outbreak for driving prices to record highs, but critics believe giant companies are taking advantage of their market dominance to profit handsomely at the expense of budget-conscious egg buyers.

Advocacy groups, Democratic lawmakers and a Federal Trade Commission member are calling for a government investigation after egg prices spiked to a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month. The Trump administration did unveil a plan this week to combat bird flu, but how much that might ease egg prices — a key driver of inflation — remains to be seen.

“Donald Trump promised to lower food prices on ‘Day One’, but with egg prices skyrocketing out of control, he fired the workers charged with containing bird flu. Working families need relief now,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement.

What’s behind the record egg prices?

The industry, and most experts, squarely blame bird flu. More than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to contain the virus. Some 30 million egg layers have been wiped out just since January, significantly disrupting egg supplies. The Department of Agriculture’s longstanding policy has been to kill entire flocks anytime the virus is found on a farm.

FILE – Eggs are for sale at a grocery store in Lyndhurst, New Jersey, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, as bird flu is forcing farmers to slaughter millions of chickens a month, pushing U.S. egg prices to more than double their cost in the summer of 2023. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)

As a result, the number of egg layers has dropped nationwide by about 12% from before the outbreak to 292 million birds, according to a Feb. 1 USDA estimate, but another 11 million egg layers have been killed since then, so it’s likely worse. When prices spiked to $4.82 two years ago and prompted initial calls for price gouging probes, the flock was above 300 million.

“This has nothing to do with anything other than bird flu. And I think to suggest anything else is a misreading of the facts and the reality,” American Egg Board President Emily Metz said.

“Our farmers are in the fight of their lives, period, full stop. And they’re doing everything they can to keep these birds safe,” Metz said. “This is a supply challenge. Due to bird flu. Nothing else.”

Farm Action suspects monopolistic behavior. The group that lobbies on behalf of smaller farmers, consumers and rural communities notes that egg production is only down about 4% from last year and some 7.57 billion table eggs were produced last month, yet some consumers are still finding egg shelves empty at their local grocery stores.

“Dominant egg corporations are blaming avian flu for the price hikes that we’re seeing. But while the egg supply has fallen only slightly, these companies profits have soared,” said Angela Huffman, Farm Action’s president. The Justice Department acknowledged receiving the group’s letter calling for an investigation but declined to comment on it.

The fact that a jury ruled in 2023 that major egg producers used various means to limit the domestic supply of eggs to increase the price of products during the 2000s only adds to the doubts about their motives now.

What do the numbers show?

Retail egg prices had generally remained below $2 per dozen for years before this outbreak began. Prices have more than doubled since then, boosting profits for egg producers even as they deal with soaring costs.

FILE – The eggs price is displayed on the edge of a shelf at a grocery store in Glenview, Ill., Monday, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Most of the dominant producers are privately held companies and don’t release their results. But the biggest, Cal-Maine Foods, which supplies about 20% of the nation’s eggs, is public, and its profits increased dramatically. Cal-Maine reported a $219 million profit in the most recent quarter when its eggs sold for an average of $2.74 per dozen, up from just $1.2 million in the quarter just before this outbreak began in early 2022 when its eggs were selling for $1.37 per dozen.

Sherman Miller, Cal-Maine’s president and CEO, said in reporting the numbers that higher market prices “have continued to rise this fiscal year as supply levels of shell eggs have been restricted due to recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza.”

But he said Cal-Maine also sold significantly more eggs — some 330 million dozens, up from 288 million the year before — in the quarter because demand is so strong and Cal-Maine has made a number of acquisitions. Cal-Maine also suffered few outbreaks on its farms, outside of a couple facilities in Kansas and Texas. The Mississippi-based company didn’t respond to calls from The Associated Press.

What about production costs?

Economists and analysts say the record egg prices aren’t a sure sign of something nefarious, and short-term profits might only last until farms get hit. Once a flock is slaughtered, it can take as long as a year to clean a farm and raise new birds to egg-laying age. The USDA pays farmers for every bird killed, but it doesn’t cover all the costs for farmers as they go without income.

“The consumer, I think, will probably feel like they’re getting the rough end of the stick. But I guarantee you, the farmers that are having to depopulate the barns, they’re having a rougher time,” CoBank analyst Brian Earnest said.

Inflation in the costs of feed and fuel and labor have contributed to rising egg prices, and farmers have been investing in biosecurity measures to help keep the virus away. So production costs also appear to be at an all-time high, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ producer price index.

“This isn’t a case where they’re taking the price up to gouge the market. It is the price is going up through auction at wholesale. And they’re benefiting from higher prices because supplies are tight,” University of Arkansas agricultural economist Jada Thompson said.

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers cut back drastically on spending last month, the most since February 2021, even as inflation declined, though stiff tariffs threatened by the White House could disrupt that progress.

Americans cut their spending by 0.2% in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, possibly because of unseasonably cold weather. Yet the retreat may be hinting at more caution by Americans amid rising economic uncertainty.

Inflation declined to 2.5% in January compared with a year earlier, down from 2.6% in December, the government said. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices dropped to 2.6%, the lowest since June, from 2.8%.

Inflation spiked in 2022 to its highest level in four decades, propelling President Donald Trump to the White House and causing the Federal Reserve to rapidly raise interest rates to tame prices.

Last month’s decline could reassure Fed officials that inflation is still slowly cooling. The Fed prefers Friday’s measure to the more widely-known consumer price index, which rose for the fifth straight month in January to 3%. Friday’s gauge calculates inflation slightly differently: For example, it puts less weight on the costs of housing and used cars.

Even so, the key question preoccupying many American consumers, investors, and business executives is whether Trump’s extensive tariff proposals will push prices higher in the coming months. Trump said Thursday he will double his recently-announced tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%, and will impose 25% import taxes on Canada and Mexico next Tuesday. The three countries are the United States’ top trading partners.

Trump is also calling for widespread layoffs of federal workers, which could cause hundreds of thousands of job losses and potentially lift the unemployment rate.

“Increased uncertainty surrounding trade, fiscal and regulatory policy is casting a shadow over the outlook,” said Lydia Boussour, a senior economist at accounting and consulting firm EY.

On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% in January from the previous month, matching December’s 0.3% increase. Core prices rose 0.3%, up from 0.2% in December. If sustained, January’s increases would keep inflation running above the Fed’s target. The Fed pays more attention to core prices because they provide a better read of future inflation.

A big concern right now is whether tariffs will push up inflation, or slow the economy, or — in a particularly toxic combination — both.

A report from the Federal Reserve’s Boston branch this month concluded that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, along with Trump’s initial 10% import taxes on China, could lift core inflation by as much as 0.8 percentage points.

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has offered the United States to restore direct air links between the two countries during the latest round of consultations with Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Russian and U.S. diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss normalizing the operation of their respective embassies that has been crippled by multiple round of diplomats’ expulsions during previous years.

The Russian Foreign Ministry hailed the talks as “substantive and businesslike” and noted in a statement that “joint steps were agreed upon to ensure unimpeded financing of the activities of diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States on a reciprocal basis and to create appropriate conditions for diplomats to perform their official duties.”

The ministry said that it also offered the U.S. “to consider the possibility of restoring direct air traffic.” It didn’t add any details or possible time frame, and there was no immediate comment from Washington on the issue.

U.S. and other Western nations cut air links with Russia as part of a slew of sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The U.S.-Russia talks in Istanbul followed an understanding reached during U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and negotiations between senior Russian and U.S. diplomats and other officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

In Riyadh, Moscow and Washington agreed to start working toward ending the fighting in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. That includes restoring staffing at embassies, which in recent years were hit hard by mutual expulsions of large numbers of diplomats, closures of offices and other restrictions.

The U.S. State Department said that during Thursday’s talks in Istanbul, the U.S. delegation “raised concerns regarding access to banking and contracted services as well as the need to ensure stable and sustainable staffing levels at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.”

“Through constructive discussions, both sides identified concrete initial steps to stabilize bilateral mission operations in these areas,” it said in a statement.

Sonata Coulter, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Russia and Central Europe who led the U.S. delegation, and Alexander Darchiyev, the head of the North America department of the Russian Foreign Ministry who headed Moscow’s team of negotiators, “agreed to hold a follow-up meeting on these issues in the near term,” the U.S. State Department said.

Putin on Thursday hailed the Trump administration’s “pragmatism and realistic view” compared with what he described as the “stereotypes and messianic ideological cliches” of its predecessors.

“The first contacts with the new U.S. administration encourage certain hopes,” Putin said. “There is a mutual readiness to work to restore relations and gradually solve a colossal amount of systemic strategic problems in the global architecture.”