Pope Francis has a “polymicrobial infection” of his respiratory tract that will require his hospital treatment to be changed, the Vatican said Monday, with tests indicating a “complex clinical picture” for one of the oldest popes in the church’s history.

The test results implied a further change in treatment requiring “adequate hospitalization” for the 88-year-old pontiff – who has long been plagued by a string of lung-related medical struggles.

“The results of the tests carried out in recent days and today have demonstrated a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tract that has led to a further change in therapy,” the Vatican said in a statement.

“All the tests carried out to date are indicative of a complex clinical picture that will require adequate hospitalization.”

Earlier Monday, Francis slept well, read some newspapers and ate breakfast, according to Vatican spokesperson, Matteo Bruni.

The pope was checked into a hospital in Rome last week for “diagnostic tests” relating to a respiratory tract infection, the Vatican added. They later confirmed he was in Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in the Italian capital – and had canceled his meetings for the next three days, including his general audience scheduled Wednesday.

He did not lead the weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday – only the second time that this has happened in his almost 12-year-long papacy.

Doctors had prescribed “complete rest” for the pope, who had engaged in an intense round of meetings and public events until his hospitalization.

When he was younger, the Argentinian leader endured severe pneumonia and had part of one lung removed. More recently, he suffered two falls in recent months and has been seen using a wheelchair to help alleviate his restricted mobility.

Francis also has diverticulitis, a common condition that can cause the inflammation or infection of the colon. In 2021, he had surgery to remove part of his colon.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A man hailed as the world’s first imam to say he was gay was shot dead in South Africa on Saturday, local police said, in what rights groups fear could be a hate crime.

Eastern Cape provincial police said in a statement it was investigating the death of Muhsin Hendricks, 58, in Bethelsdorp stating that the motive behind the killing was unclear.

The statement said that at around 10 a.m. Saturday, “Hendricks and a driver was inside a gold-colored VW TRoc in Haley Place, Extension 24, Bethelsdorp when a silver-colored Hilux double cab stopped in front and blocked them from driving off.”

It added that: “Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle. Thereafter they fled the scene, and the driver noticed that Hendricks who was seated at the back of the vehicle was shot and killed.”

Shootings are common in South Africa where murder rates – already among the highest in the world – are at a 20-year high.

Fears of hate crime

Hendricks was the “first imam in the world to come out as gay” in 1996, according to a statement from the advocacy group the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World) on Saturday.

“The ILGA World family is in deep shock at the news of the murder of Muhsin Hendricks, and calls on authorities to thoroughly investigate what we fear may be a hate crime,” Julia Ehrt, executive director at ILGA World, said in the statement.

South Africa’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development said it was “saddened” by Hendrick’s murder and pledged to “track and monitor that justice is dispensed” if his death is indeed confirmed as a hate crime.

Hendricks founded the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation in Cape Town, where he served as executive director. The human rights organization provides support to “Queer Muslims helping them to reconcile Islam with their Sexual orientation and Gender Identity,” according to the Al-Ghurbaah Foundation’s website.

The Muslim Judicial Council of South Africa (MJC) “unequivocally” condemned the “shocking killing” in a statement Sunday.

“It has been alleged that the killing may have been motivated by hatred towards Muhsin Hendricks due to his views on same-sex relationships. While the MJC has consistently maintained that Muhsin’s position is incompatible with Islamic teachings, we unequivocally condemn his murder and any acts of violence targeting members of the LGBTQ community or any other community,” the MJC said.

The imam was the subject of the 2022 documentary “The Radical” which followed Hendricks establishing a mosque for LGBTQ+ Muslims in Cape Town, South Africa, amid death threats. “The need to be authentic was greater than the fear to die,” Hendricks says in the film.

Some 400 calls for help went unanswered when the helpline at Ukraine’s Veteran Hub went silent for a week after key funding from the United States was abruptly cut last month.

The Ukrainian NGO gets all sorts of calls. Some come from military families who have just found out their loved one was killed on the frontline. Some are from injured veterans who are struggling to cope with their return to civilian life or need help navigating the bureaucracy.

And some calls can save lives.

Kostyna and her colleagues had no choice but to shut the helpline down last month after receiving a stop-work order from the United States Department of State – a direct consequence of President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend nearly all US foreign aid.

The freeze is already causing hardship across Ukraine, with lifesaving projects suddenly put on hold.

Ukraine has been by far the biggest recipient of USAID funds in the past three years, ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

According to the agency’s now defunct website, USAID has provided Ukraine with a total of $37.6 billion in humanitarian aid, development assistance and direct budget support since the full-scale war began.

Trump and his allies have said the agency, created by the US legislature as an independent body, is overtly partisan. Opposition lawmakers and former USAID administrators from both political parties have rejected that assertion and called for America’s foreign assistance programs to be protected.

After the European Union, the US is Ukraine’s biggest donor of humanitarian aid, providing more than a quarter of all the country receives. It is by far the biggest donor of military aid.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government was trying to find alternative sources of funding from within Ukraine and abroad. “These are areas that the government cannot provide for because the government doesn’t have enough money because the government is funding the army,” Kostyna said.

But the impact of the suspension goes way beyond the funding.

Kostyna said that many of the hub’s employees are either the main or sole breadwinners in their families, which means they cannot afford to be on unpaid leave. Most are highly qualified, with years of experience.

“So not only would we lose that person but, if the funding comes back, we’d have to rebuild, and we would lose six months training the next person. This is why continuity is so important,” she said.

‘Zero warning’

Vykhid has been a USAID partner since 2004. It serves roughly 5,000 clients at any given time, including drug users, newly diagnosed people and long-term patients.

The foundation relies on USAID for more than half of its funding, although there were times in the past when it was its only source. “We realized (then) that it is impossible to have only one donor for the organization to exist and we tried to have diversified sources of funding – thank God that we still have that,” Goriacheva said.

The foundation has had to shut down a key project focused on detection of new HIV cases since the freeze was announced, Goriacheva said. Ukraine has the highest prevalence of HIV in Europe and one of the highest outside Africa. The country experienced a rapidly spreading epidemic in the 1990s and, while rates have since dropped, early detection remains crucial.

“There are very few (people) doing this type of work. Doctors who worked with us for six years were receiving remuneration from us for any new patient they identified,” she said. “Now that the project has closed, some of them have stopped doing this activity completely.”

The foundation also provides other assistance to people living with HIV. It received a request last week to cover the cost of an MRI scan for a severely ill HIV patient in an intensive care unit.

The hospital turned to Vykhid, but because of the stop-work order Goriacheva had to turn the request down. Thankfully, she said, the hospital was able to find funding elsewhere.

The sudden nature of the funding freeze has made the situation particularly difficult. The order came without warning, effectively pulling the plug on hundreds of projects across Ukraine.

Kostyna said that anyone working in the non-profit sector knows that funding sources can dry up. “But it never crossed our mind that it could stop in a day. And it’s not about the money, it’s about the fact that we had zero warning, and we had no way to cover (the cuts) because we are not allowed to put money aside,” she said.

Goriacheva said that earlier this week, she was told by USAID subcontractors that some of the projects – those deemed essential – were being restored.

“Not in full. But those services that are vital are being restored,” she said, adding that she is now reaching out to her former project coordinators to figure out how to proceed.

‘On the verge of a disaster’

The rural community of Shevchenkove in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine has been hit hard by the war. It was partially occupied for nine months after the full-scale invasion. The head of the local administration, Oleh Pylypenko, was detained by Russian forces.

Ukrainian forces liberated the area in November 2022, but the damage suffered during the occupation was extensive.

“Everything that was destroyed had to be rebuilt, and everything that was occupied had to be rebuilt,” said Pylypenko, who was released in a prisoner swap.

Health was a major issue for the community following the lengthy occupation, he said. Doctors and healthcare professionals funded by foreign aid money, including USAID, set up diagnostic clinics and have been distributing free medicines. All of the services that relied solely on USAID funding have now been suspended.

Pylypenko said he doubts that other international donors can match the funds previously provided by USAID. “I think (the situation) is on the verge of a disaster,” he said, adding that even if the programs are restarted after the initial 90-day freeze announced by Trump, it will take much longer to get them back up and running.

This delay will have a significant impact on the community, he said. One local project funded by USAID was focused on setting up emergency educational spaces. These are fully equipped classrooms in safe locations with access to shelters, where children whose schools were destroyed can attend in-person classes.

One was opened recently in the region, and another was supposed to open in March. Pylypenko said the children who were due to attend had seen their original schools destroyed during the occupation, only for another at which they were attending classes to be hit by a Russian drone last summer.

Pylypenko now hopes they can have the new space ready for September, but if Trump’s freeze is renewed, alternative funding will need to be found, “God willing.”

But what worries Pylypenko the most is the freeze impacting Ukraine’s access to the training programs provided by USAID. These tend to focus on local government, anti-corruption, efficiency and democracy-building, and they are key for Ukraine’s future development, as well as its hopes of eventually joining the European Union.

“These were good training programs, plus there was exchange of experiences with the best communities, and the level (of performance) rose significantly,” he said, likening the USAID programs to the proverb about teaching people to fish, rather than just sending them fish to eat.

Working for free

Kostyna first launched the Veteran Hub in 2016, after a firsthand experience with trauma. Her friend, 19-year-old Ustym Holodnyuk, was killed by a sniper at Kyiv’s Maidan, or Independence Square, during the 2014 protests. She struggled for a long time without support.

“It didn’t even (cross) my mind to reach out for help, to reach out to a psychologist. And now, fast forward 10 years, and the impact that we, among others, have managed to achieve is that there is a large change in how people perceive this, we see a rising number of veterans (who say) they trust psychologists,” she said.

Kostyna said that the consistency in the US foreign aid program meant that she and her colleagues were able to build something that was unheard of in Ukraine just a decade ago: a comprehensive veterans’ affairs (support?) service.

“We now have taxi drivers bringing people in when they’re in distress. So they would sit in a taxi, share their story, and the taxi driver would (make a detour) and bring them to us… they do this regularly,” she said.

Most of those working at the Veteran Hub are relatives of veterans, active service members, or people who have experienced trauma, she said. Like many in Ukraine, they are struggling to make ends meet, living paycheck to paycheck.

Yet when the stop-work order came in, staff at one of their two centers refused to leave.

“In the week of the freeze, when we didn’t have funding, our Vinnytsia hub remained open, even though we couldn’t pay our employees. They didn’t receive (a) salary, but they all showed up to work on Monday, wearing uniforms, and they continued working,” she said.

There was some good news that week. After three days of intense fundraising efforts, the Veteran Hub managed to secure enough money to keep the helpline open for three months and get 14 people back to work. A few days later it received assurances from local businesses and the Vinnytsia city council that they will provide funding until the Veteran Hub finds a long-term solution.

The fact that she didn’t have to shutter the hub was a lifesaver, Kostyna said.

“There are so many people who just turn up,” she said. “There was a veteran who lost his documents, and he was referred to us because he was literally homeless, and he was looking for shelter and he needed medicine, and we were able to assist him.”

If the hub’s doors were to close, people like him would find themselves with nowhere else to go.

Mexico will take Google to court if maps shown to US-based users continue to label the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America across the entire body of water, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday, arguing that US President Donald Trump’s order to rename it only applies to the part of the continental shelf under US control.

“What Google is doing here is changing the name of the continental shelf of Mexico and Cuba, which has nothing to do with Trump’s decree, which applied only to the US continental shelf,” Sheinbaum told reporters. “We do not agree with this, and the Foreign Minister has sent a new letter addressing the issue.”

Sheinbaum said the renaming is “incorrect,” adding that Trump’s decree “only changed the name within his own continental shelf, which extends 22 nautical miles from the US coast—not the entire Gulf.”

Last week, Google renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America for US-based users of Google Maps, citing “a longstanding practice of applying name changes when they have been updated in official government sources.” People in Mexico continue to see the body of water listed as the Gulf of Mexico. All other countries see both names.

During the press conference, Sheinbaum read out a response from Google to a letter sent by Mexico to the company in January, contesting the tech giant’s decision to rename the area.

“As we first announced two weeks ago, and consistent with our product policies, we’ve begun rolling out changes in Google Maps. We would like to confirm that people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,’” the letter from Google reiterated.

“People in the US will see ‘Gulf of America’. Everyone else will see both names,” the letter added.

Sheinbaum said Mexico is now sending a new letter back to Google, which reads “any reference to the ‘Gulf of America’ initiative on your Google Maps platform must be strictly limited to the marine area under U.S. jurisdiction.”

“Any extension beyond that zone exceeds the authority of any national government or private entity. Should that be the case, the Government of Mexico will take the appropriate legal actions as deemed necessary,” it added.

Sheinbaum noted that Mexico would wait for Google’s response before moving forward with legal action.

Sheinbaum first threatened to take Google to court last week, saying a civil suit could be on the table if the tech giant does not correct what she called an “inaccurate designation.”

Famed Mexican singer-songwriter Paquita la del Barrio has died at the age of 77, her team announced Monday in a statement on Instagram.

“Rest in peace, your music and legacy will always live in our hearts,” the statement said, asking for space so that her family can “live their grief in privacy.”

The artist, whose real name was Francisca Viveros Barradas, was born in the eastern Mexican state of Veracruz in 1947. Her best-known songs were known for lyrics that called out men in broken romantic relationships.

This is a developing story. More to come

The identities of the hostages have not been released.

This marks the first handover of deceased hostages since the ceasefire deal with Hamas went into effect in January. The Israeli military had previously retrieved the bodies of multiple hostages in Gaza.

The return of the hostages’ remains comes as the state of the ceasefire deal appears uncertain, even after the release of three more hostages on Saturday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would discuss the second phase of the deal with his political-security cabinet on Monday.

According to the terms of the initial ceasefire and hostage release agreement, the next exchange is scheduled for February 22, when three hostages are set to be released.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Follow our live coverage here.

A Delta Air Lines commuter plane arriving from Minneapolis has crashed at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, with images of the incident showing the aircraft flipped upside down.

“Emergency teams are responding. All passengers and crew are accounted for,” the airport said in a statement on X.

All 80 people aboard Delta flight 4819 have been evacuated, the FAA said.

“Delta Air Lines Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, crashed while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada around 2:45 p.m. local time,” the statement said, noting the airplane had departed from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.

Airport staff told CTV News that all arrivals and departures at Pearson were shut down. According to the FAA’s NOTAM notice system, all runways at the airport are closed.

Endeavor Air is a wholly owned subsidiary and regional airline for Delta.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA also said it is responding to the incident, which it said involved AFA crew who were working the flight.

The crash comes less than three weeks after an American Airlines plane collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport. It also comes on the heels of deadly Jeju Air and Azerbaijan Airlines accidents in December.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Kensington Palace shared four portraits drawn by Catherine, Princess of Wales, and her three children – George, Charlotte and Louis – in a social media post on Monday.

The drawings were posted to X with the caption, “Drawing portraits with children can provide a moment of connection as you spend time looking at and focusing on one another, as well as being creative and – most importantly – having lots of fun together!”

A social media post accompanying the portraits listed the creators of the artwork as “Prince Louis, Princess Charlotte, Prince George and The Princess of Wales.”

Kensington Palace released the pictures after Princess Catherine inaugurated a new exhibit at London’s National Portrait Gallery earlier this month. The exhibit, dubbed the “Bobeam Tree Trail,” encourages children to draw self-portraits while visiting the museum.

“When children engage in enjoyable activities with friends, family, and other caring adults, it not only allows them to have fun in the moment but can also help them to develop their social and emotional skills for the future,” the Palace’s statement said.

The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood said that visiting kids can enjoy the exhibit while “listening to audio recordings, using props, exploring facial expressions and finally, by thinking about their own lives, feelings and thoughts while creating a self-portrait.”