ROME – Pope Leo XIV passed a peaceful night Wednesday at the Gemelli Hospital after undergoing radical surgery for lung cancer, the Vatican said. Doctors who operated on the American pontiff said they removed the “the lower lobe of the right lung,” adding that the surgery was successful and there were no complications.

 Leo, 71, now will undergo a period of convalescence and physiotherapy as well as further tests to determine whether the surgery has prevented the cancer spreading, Vatican sources said.

 ROME – Members of the Ukrainian community staged a rally outside the Eternal City headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization demanding that the UN hunger-fighting agency take action to save inhabitants of the Ukrainian town of Oleshko who face starvation due to Russian occupation.

“This UN agency should intervene in emergency situations and help to save people from hunger,” the organisers, the Association of Christian Ukrainians in Italy, said in a statement. Demonstrators Thursday carried slogans saying “Save Oleshky,” and “FAO! UN! SAVE THE OLESHKY CIVILIANS.”