Pope Francis was breathing without a mask on Tuesday after suffering two bouts of acute respiratory failure, the Vatican said as the leader of the world’s Catholics spent his 19th day in hospital with pneumonia.

The 88-year-old Argentine pontiff, head of the Catholic Church since 2013, “slept all night long and continues to rest” following Monday’s crisis, the Holy See said.

As of Tuesday morning, Francis had switched from an oxygen mask to high-flow oxygen delivered through a cannula, a plastic tube which tucks into the nostrils, a statement read.

He is continuing his treatment and respiratory physiotherapy, it added.

In its evening update on Monday, the Vatican stressed Francis’s prognosis remained “reserved” — an indication that doctors cannot predict the likely outcome of his condition.
Francis, who leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 with bronchitis, which developed into pneumonia in both lungs.

His admission has sparked widespread alarm, and well-wishers across the world have been praying for his recovery.

The pope, who had part of a lung removed as a young man, had already suffered two breathing crises in the days running up to Monday’s double attack.

The pope had “experienced two episodes of acute respiratory failure, caused by a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm”, the Vatican said on Monday evening.

Acute respiratory failure, which can be life-threatening, occurs when the lungs cannot pass enough oxygen into the blood or when carbon dioxide builds up in the body.

Leelamma Lal, a 67-year-old nurse, was seriously injured in a distressing incident at a Palm Beach County hospital, and Stephen Scantlebury, a 33-year-old man, is accused of attempted second-degree murder with a hate crime enhancement.

Scantlebury, a mental health patient at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital, is accused by authorities of assaulting Lal last Tuesday, causing her to sustain multiple facial fractures, a broken collarbone, and brain hemorrhage. Hospital surveillance film shows the incident, which lasted one to two minutes and has been called violent and brutal.

Cindy Joseph, Lal’s daughter, described the severity of her mother’s injuries: “The right side of her face was completely fractured, and she had subdural and intermittent bleeding of the brain. Her face was heavily bruised, her eyes were swollen, and she was unconscious and intubated. I did not recognize her at all.

Palm Beach County Deputy Sgt. Beth Newcomb testified regarding Scantlebury’s comments during a pre-trial detention hearing, and Lal’s daughter detailed the extent of her mother’s injuries.

According to Scantlebury’s wife, he had been feeling paranoid in the days before the attack, thinking that his house was bugged and that he was being watched. A plea to move Scantlebury to a mental health facility was turned down by the judge, who deemed it “premature.”

Concerns about the safety of medical personnel have been raised by the occurrence; in just three days, a petition demanding for stronger security protocols and harsher punishments for attacks on healthcare workers gathered over 10,000 signatures.

19-year-old Stanley Zhong and his father, Nan Zhong, are taking legal action against 16 US universities that rejected his applications despite his exceptional academic credentials. Mr Zhong, who boasts a 3.97 GPA and 4.42 weighted GPA, scored an impressive 1590 on the SAT, placing him among the top 2,000 test-takers out of over two million annually. He even had an offer in hand to work a PhD-level job at Google when he was just 13, the New York Post reported. Years later, he accepted Google’s job offer and has been working as a full-time software engineer since October 2023.

However, his impressive academic record didn’t guarantee him a spot at his desired college. Despite his stellar credentials, he was rejected by 16 of the 18 universities he applied to, including five University of California schools.

As per the Post, Mr Zhong was rejected by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Caltech, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell University, Georgia Tech, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UCLA, UCSD, UCSB, the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan, the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin. He managed to get into only two schools – the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Maryland.

Dismayed the rejection, Mr Zhong and his father, Nan, have filed a lawsuit against the UC system, alleging that the university discriminates against high-achieving Asian-American applicants. Notably, they are pursuing the case without legal representation, as multiple law firms declined to take on their claim.

Controversy surrounds China’s territorial conflicts, which extend from Arunachal Pradesh to the Senkaku Islands, the Paracel Islands, and the South China Sea. Chinese internet users have recently started asserting that the Philippine province of Palawan, which is part of the MIMAROPA region, is part of China. Social media attention to these accusations prompted Manila officials to vehemently refute them, calling them “delusional” and a component of China’s “propaganda” operation.

The South China Morning Post reports that messages on websites like Douyin and RedNote that have been going around since January and assert that Palawan, which is in the western Philippines, was once known as Zheng He Island, after the well-known Chinese explorer, infuriated Filipino social media users.

False claims were made by other Chinese social media users that last month their government “restored” Palawan’s name to Zheng He Island.

On the Chinese social networking site Douyin, a content producer by the name of Travel Brother has received around 14,000 likes for his video in which he asserted that Palawan Island is historically Chinese. Our lack of strength is the reason we lost it.”

An X account named BRP Sierra Madre posted, refuting the Chinese internet users’ claims: “To be clear, Palawan has been, is, and will always be a part of the Philippines. There is no question about that. There is no question about it. It is acknowledged globally as Philippine territory, and Beijing’s forceful cartography cannot alter this fact.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, humanoid robots have been observed roving the streets of Guangdong and Shenzhen, China, while donning high-visibility police vests. On Chinese social media, videos of the robots walking in unison with the police officers and keeping pace have gone viral.

The robots were seen responding to voice commands, shaking hands with humans, and waving to the crowd. Even though the Shenzhen police department only uses the humanoid robots sometimes, they help the officers with patrol operations, which could reduce their workload.

Social media users’ reactions to the robot as the video went viral claimed that humanity’s future had arrived.

Another user commented: “Those LED strips for eyes are evocative of RoboCop from the movies.” “This is the first robot from China that walks upright like a human,” another user noted. Very futuristic.

The PM01 humanoid robot, created by Shenzhen-based startup EngineAI robotics, is 1.38 meters tall, 40 kg in weight, and costs Rs 10.5 lakh (88,000 yuan) each.

“With both mechanical gait and humanoid natural gait walking modes, its waist can rotate 320 degrees, allowing it to perform a wide range of complex maneuvers,” the business stated.

Notably, the robot precisely gathers enormous volumes of human motion data by utilizing cutting-edge optical motion capture technology. As its interactive core screen, the PM01 also features an Iron Man-inspired smart control interface that integrates a number of clever interactive features.

A school in England has eliminated all of the mirrors in its restrooms due to the claim that kids are using them excessively.

According to Grant Edgar, headteacher of William Farr Comprehensive in Welton, “mirrors can encourage students to spend too much time in lavatories often in large groups,” which might make some kids feel “uncomfortable,” according to the BBC.

The parents’ responses ranged from “odd” to “a bit extreme” to “silly.”

Mr. Edgar claimed that “certain difficulties during changeover periods” plagued the academy, which might “impact punctuality to lessons”

Mirrors can make it “uncomfortable for some children to use the toilets” and “urge” pupils to spend too much time in the restrooms, where they are frequently gathering in “large groups,” according to Mr. Edgar.

According to the headmaster, students can request a mirror at the reception if they need one for medical reasons.

“Do not you think they are only mirrors? Why are mirrors not allowed at schools yet we have them at home? A parent was quoted by the BBC.

According to reports, a middle school in North Carolina decided to take down toilet mirrors in January 2024 because more pupils were wasting valuable class time making TikTok movies in the restrooms.

According to the Daily Mail, in 2023, Christopher Whitehead Language College in Worcester put up posters depicting makeup as a “dangerous substance” that makes women “feel ugly” in place of mirrors in the restrooms for females.

According to information provided by police to AFP, two members of a militant group who are suicide bombers drove two cars loaded with explosives into an army compound in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday evening, which resulted in massive explosions. “Suicide bombers rammed two explosives-laden vehicles into the entrance gate of Bannu Cantonment, triggering massive explosions… after which multiple militants attempted to storm the compound,” a senior district police official said on condition of anonymity.

“Security forces present at the scene engaged them in a gunfight. Initial reports confirm that four militants have been killed,” he added.
Bannu is a district in Pakistan’s turbulent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that is close to Afghanistan and adjacent to the formerly self-governing tribal areas of the country. “The exchange of fire is still ongoing, and security forces are pursuing the remaining attackers,” official said.
The attack was claimed by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur armed group, which actively supported the Afghan Taliban in its war against the US-led NATO coalition since 2001.
“Our fighters got access to an important target and took control,” the group said in a statement, without providing further details.