News overview: Populace prays for Pope Francis as his health shows a slight improvement. Third anniversary of the full-scale invasion by Russia

• Hundreds of the faithful participated in a Mass for Pope Francis's health on Monday at Constitution Square in Buenos Aires, the capital of his native Argentina. Archbishop Jorge Garcia Cuerva, who officiated the Mass, described the pope's pontificate as a "breath of oxygen for a world suffocated by violence." The 88-year-old pope has bilateral pneumonia and has been at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic for 11 days. Pope Francis's clinical condition is critical, but according to Monday’s medical bulletin from the Vatican, a slight improvement has been noted.

• Residents of the small town of Portacomaro in Piedmont, northern Italy, where Pope Francis's family is from, also gather at Masses in the local parish, praying for his health. The town is home to the pope's 93-year-old cousin, Carla Rabezzana, who constantly monitors updates about his condition. Media reports indicate that the local church is full during each Mass, and the faithful say, "We all pray that the Pope will leave the hospital healthy."

• Cuba experienced an unprecedented demographic crisis in 2024 due to high mortality rates and low birth numbers, according to the government's National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), which reported this on Monday. As noted by Onei’s deputy director Juan Alfonso Fraga, the island's population stood at just over 9.7 million people on the last day of 2024.

• The UN Security Council adopted the U.S. draft resolution regarding the war in Ukraine, which does not designate Russia as an aggressor but refers to the "Russian-Ukrainian war." The document calls for a lasting end to the conflict but does not condemn the Russian invasion.

• The blue-yellow illumination, in the colors of the Ukrainian flag, adorned the Eiffel Tower on Monday, during the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion by Russia. In this way, the authorities of Paris demonstrated their solidarity with Ukraine, as in previous years. The symbol of Paris lit up with Ukrainian national colors on Monday at 1 PM Eastern Time. Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has visited Ukraine five times since the war began.

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