When will the next pope be elected? Watch the Sistine Chapel smoke live
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Generate Key Takeaways
The Brief
The College of Cardinals will begin the secretive voting process of choosing a new pope on Wednesday, May 7.
Ballots are burned at the end of each voting session – black smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney means no decision, while smoke indicates that a new pope has been chosen.
FOX 5 DC will have a 24/7 LIVE look at the Sistine Chapel.
The College of Cardinals will begin the secretive voting process of choosing a new pope on Wednesday, May 7, and FOX 5 DC will have a 24/7 LIVE look at the Sistine Chapel.
Conclave live stream
***FOX 5 DC will have a 24/7 LIVE look at the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City as cardinal electors hold a conclave to elect Pope Francis' successor. You can watch in the media player above, or the YouTube player below.
Ballots are burned at the end of each voting session – black smoke from the Sistine Chapel chimney means no decision, while smoke indicates that a new pope has been chosen.
Papal conclave schedule of events
What we know
All 133 cardinal electors will attend a Eucharistic celebration in the morning, according to Vatican News.In the afternoon, electors will head to the Sistine Chapel where they will take an oath of secrecy.
Following the oath, the Master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations will deliver a meditation. During this time, electors can reflect on the importance of choosing their new pontiff.
READ MORE: Conclave schedule: How the Catholic church picks a new pope
Prayers are recited and anyone with last-minute questions are permitted to ask them at this point. Once electors are clear on the procedures and rules, the election process starts.
READ MORE: White smoke vs. black smoke: What it means for the pope
White smoke vs. black smoke: What it means
All eyes are on the copper chimney of the Sistine Chapel.
The release of black smoke from the Sistine Chapel signals that the cardinals voting to choose the new pope have not yet reached the two-thirds majority needed to secure a decision.
The College of Cardinals will cast as many as four ballots in a single day for the next pope. After each vote, the ballots are burned and smoke is released from the chapel's chimney as a signal to the throngs holding vigil in St. Peter's Square.
Simply put, black smoke, or umata nera in Italian, indicates that no pope has been elected, while white smoke, or fumata bianca, will indicate that the cardinals have chosen the next head of the Catholic Church.
READ MORE: The pope's regnal name: What it is and why it matters
VATICAN CITY, VATICAN - MARCH 13: White smoke is seen from the roof of the Sistine Chapel indicating that the College of Cardinals have elected a new Pope on March 13, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI's successor - the 266th Pontiff - has been selected by the College of Cardinals in Conclave in the Sistine Chapel. (Photo by)
If three days pass with no pope elected, voting can be suspended for a day to allow the cardinals time for reflection before the next round of ballots are cast.
READ MORE: Remembering Pope Francis' visit to DC in 2015
When does the conclave start?
The backstory
By tradition, the conclave must begin 15–20 days after the death or resignation of the pope. Francis died on Monday, April 21.
Big picture view
The College of Cardinals that will elect a new pope includes members from far corners of the globe whom Francis named over his 12-year papacy to bring in new points of view of the Catholic Church hierarchy.
READ MORE: How do religions choose their leaders? What to know as Catholics prepare for next pope
Saint Peter's statue and cardinals during the funeral ceremony of Pope Francis at Saint Peter's Square in Vatican on April 26, 2025. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Many have spent little or no time in Rome getting to know their colleagues, injecting some uncertainty into a process that requires two-thirds of the voting-age cardinals to coalesce behind a single candidate.
There are a total of 135 cardinal electors — 108 of whom were appointed by Francis — and the last 20 were appointed in early December. Only cardinals under 80 are eligible to vote, and it is not clear how many of the 135 will participate.
READ MORE: Trump's AI image of himself as pope draws criticism ahead of conclave
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Nicaragua's first lady is nothing to celebrate: She's a step backward for women
It's been six months since Rosario Murillo became Nicaragua's co-president, but it's nothing worth celebrating. In fact, it's a major step backward for Nicaraguan women. Just look at what's happened in Nicaragua since Murillo officially joined her husband, Daniel Ortega, as — let's be frank — co-dictator. The regime has arrested hundreds of opponents and violently repressed protests, killing more than 300 people. It has systematically dismantled civil society, canceling the registration of more than 5,600 NGOs since 2018. A significant number of the organizations targeted by this female-fronted authoritarian regime are women's groups. Of the 26 Catholic congregations stripped of legal status, all but four were led by women. Reports show at least 7,000 cases of aggression against women human rights defenders. Of the thousands of shuttered civil society organizations, at least 212 focused on women's rights. And yet, here's the disturbing part: the regime has effectively used superficial 'gender inclusivity victories,' like Murillo's rise to co-president, to boost its international image and gain diplomatic cover. This tactic is working — materially sustaining tyrannies under the guise of progress. When more women hold leadership roles — and only 20 countries in the world currently have a female head of state — people in wealthy democracies tend to perceive those governments as more democratic than they actually are. As a result, public support for sending foreign aid increases — aid that can be vital to the survival of these regimes. Autocrats know this and use it to their advantage. That's why gender representation in authoritarian governments is rarely a reflection of genuine progress. It's part of a broader strategy to cling to power. And let's be clear: Murillo's position as co-president is not a sign of advancement for women. When Edipcia Dubón, a Nicaraguan pro-democracy and women's rights advocate, was asked what Murillo's presidency means for women, her response was blunt: 'Absolutely nothing.' Nicaragua isn't the only dictatorship using gender for legitimacy. In June, under orders from the general commander of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), female military personnel posted videos attacking opposition leader María Corina Machado. They called her a 'fascist' and a 'sociopath,' among other insults. Military commanders amplified the videos, praising the women as 'strong' and 'victorious.' But Machado represents more than the opposition — she is a symbol of hope for Venezuelans who have endured decades of crimes against humanity: enforced disappearances, more than 900 political prisoners, systematic persecution of dissenters, torture, transnational repression and widespread human rights abuses. The video campaign aimed to weaken her standing and boost the regime's legitimacy. It failed. If anything, the campaign highlighted Machado's strength — and how threatening her image is to Nicolás Maduro's grip on power. The regime was forced to weaponize gender in an attempt to discredit its most prominent critic. Autocracies exploit the global push for women's rights to deflect attention from their abuses. The regimes of Maduro and Ortega-Murillo want the world to see Murillo and Venezuela's female military figures as feminist icons. But these are the same women who prop up brutal governments that have done nothing meaningful to improve the lives of women in a region still in dire need of gender justice. The real heroes are those risking their freedom to fight back. Women like Angélica Chavarría Altamirano, Eveling Carolina Matus, Fabiola Tercero, Lesbia Gutiérrez and Carmen Sáenz have been arrested for speaking out against the regime since 2024. Others — including Dora María Téllez, Cristiana Chamorro, Suyen Barahona and Ana Margarita Vijil — were imprisoned, held in solitary confinement, exiled and stripped of their citizenship. These women are doing more for democracy and women's rights than Murillo — or any other authoritarian figurehead — ever could. Mariana Atala is a legal and policy fellow at the Human Rights Foundation in New York.
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Bloomberg Surveillance: The Race For New York City
Watch Tom and Paul LIVE every day on YouTube: Bloomberg Surveillance hosted by Tom Keene & Paul Sweeney August 5th, 2025 Featuring: 1) Andrew Cuomo, NYC Mayoral candidate and former NY Governor, on the state of the race and how New York City is a national story. 2) Erica Groshen, former Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and currently a Senior Advisor at Cornell, on President Trump firing a BLS chief after weak jobs data. 3) Henrietta Treyz, co-founder at Veda Partners, on President Trump's tariff push 4) Lisa Mateo joins with the latest headlines in newspapers across the US, including how AI is listening to your meetings and how NYC's iconic Flatiorn Building will get bathed in lights for the first time in 123 years
12 hours ago
How Russia reins in the internet by blocking websites and isolating it from the rest of the world
TALLINN, Estonia -- YouTube videos that won't load. A visit to a popular independent media website that produces only a blank page. Cellphone internet connections that are down for hours or days. Going online in Russia can be frustrating, complicated and even dangerous. It's not a network glitch but a deliberate, multipronged and long-term effort by authorities to bring the internet under the Kremlin's full control. Authorities adopted restrictive laws and banned websites and platforms that won't comply. Technology has been perfected to monitor and manipulate online traffic. While it's still possible to circumvent restrictions by using virtual private network apps, those are routinely blocked, too. Authorities further restricted internet access this summer with widespread shutdowns of cellphone internet connections and adopting a law punishing users for searching for content they deem illicit. They also are threatening to go after the popular WhatsApp platform while rolling out a new 'national' messenger that's widely expected to be heavily monitored. President Vladimir Putin urged the government to 'stifle' foreign internet services and ordered officials to assemble a list of platforms from 'unfriendly' states that should be restricted. Experts and rights advocates told The Associated Press that the scale and effectiveness of the restrictions are alarming. Authorities seem more adept at it now, compared with previous, largely futile efforts to restrict online activities, and they're edging closer to isolating the internet in Russia. Human Rights Watch researcher Anastasiia Kruope describes Moscow's approach to reining in the internet as 'death by a thousand cuts." "Bit by bit, you're trying to come to a point where everything is controlled.' Kremlin efforts to control what Russians do, read or say online dates to 2011-12, when the internet was used to challenge authority. Independent media outlets bloomed, and anti-government demonstrations that were coordinated online erupted after disputed parliamentary elections and Putin's decision to run again for president. Russia began adopting regulations tightening internet controls. Some blocked websites; others required providers to store call records and messages, sharing it with security services if needed, and install equipment allowing authorities to control and cut off traffic. Companies like Google or Facebook were pressured to store user data on Russian servers, to no avail, and plans were announced for a 'sovereign internet' that could be cut off from the rest of the world. Russia's popular Facebook-like social media platform VK, founded by Pavel Durov long before he launched the Telegram messenger, came under the control of Kremlin-friendly companies. Russia tried to block Telegram between 2018-20 but failed. Prosecutions for social media posts and comments became common, showing that authorities were closely watching the online space. Still, experts had dismissed Kremlin efforts to rein in the internet as futile, arguing Russia was far from building something akin to China's 'Great Firewall,' which Beijing uses to block foreign websites. After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the government blocked major social media like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, as well as Signal and a few other messaging apps. VPNs also were targeted, making it harder to reach restricted websites. YouTube access was disrupted last summer in what experts called deliberate throttling by authorities. The Kremlin blamed YouTube owner Google for not maintaining its hardware in Russia. The platform has been wildly popular in Russia, both for entertainment and for voices critical of the Kremlin, like the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Cloudflare, an internet infrastructure provider, said in June that websites using its services were being throttled in Russia. Independent news site Mediazona reported that several other popular Western hosting providers also are being inhibited. Cyber lawyer Sarkis Darbinyan, founder of Russian internet freedom group Roskomsvoboda, said authorities have been trying to push businesses to migrate to Russian hosting providers that can be controlled. He estimates about half of all Russian websites are powered by foreign hosting and infrastructure providers, many offering better quality and price than domestic equivalents. A 'huge number' of global websites and platforms use those providers, he said, so cutting them off means those websites 'automatically become inaccessible' in Russia too. Another concerning trend is the consolidation of Russia's internet providers and companies that manage IP addresses, according to a July 30 Human Rights Watch report. Last year, authorities raised the cost of obtaining an internet provider license from 7,500 rubles (about $90) to 1 million rubles (over $12,300), and state data shows that more than half of all IP addresses in Russia are managed by seven large companies, with Rostelecom, Russia's state telephone and internet giant, accounting for 25%. The Kremlin is striving 'to control the internet space in Russia, and to censor things, to manipulate the traffic,' said HRW's Kruope. A new Russian law criminalized online searches for broadly defined 'extremist' materials. That could include LGBTQ+ content, opposition groups, some songs by performers critical of the Kremlin — and Navalny's memoir, which was designated as extremist last week. Right advocates say it's a step toward punishing consumers — not just providers — like in Belarus, where people are routinely fined or jailed for reading or following certain independent media outlets. Stanislav Seleznev, cyber security expert and lawyer with the Net Freedom rights group, doesn't expect ubiquitous prosecutions, since tracking individual online searches in a country of 146 million remains a tall order. But even a limited number of cases could scare many from restricted content, he said. Another major step could be blocking WhatsApp, which monitoring service Mediascope said had over 97 million monthly users in April. WhatsApp 'should prepare to leave the Russian market,' said lawmaker Anton Gorelkin, and a new 'national' messenger, MAX, developed by social media company VK, would take its place. Telegram, another popular messenger, probably won't be restricted, he said. MAX, promoted as a one-stop shop for messaging, online government services, making payments and more, was rolled out for beta tests but has yet to attract a wide following. Over 2 million people registered by July, the Tass news agency reported. Its terms and conditions say it will share user data with authorities upon request, and a new law stipulates its preinstallation in all smartphones sold in Russia. State institutions, officials and businesses are actively encouraged to move communications and blogs to MAX. Anastasia Zhyrmont of the Access Now internet freedom group said both Telegram and WhatsApp were disrupted in Russia in July in what could be a test of how potential blockages would affect internet infrastructure. It wouldn't be uncommon. In recent years, authorities regularly tested cutting off the internet from the rest of the world, sometimes resulting in outages in some regions. Darbinyan believes the only way to make people use MAX is to 'shut down, stifle' every Western alternative. 'But again, habits ... do not change in a year or two. And these habits acquired over decades, when the internet was fast and free,' he said. Government media and internet regulator Roskomnadzor uses more sophisticated methods, analyzing all web traffic and identifying what it can block or choke off, Darbinyan said. It's been helped by 'years of perfecting the technology, years of taking over and understanding the architecture of the internet and the players,' as well as Western sanctions and companies leaving the Russian market since 2022, said Kruope of Human Rights Watch. Russia is 'not there yet' in isolating its internet from the rest of the world, Darbinyan said, but Kremlin efforts are 'bringing it closer.'
