Morning Digest: Trump kicks Zelenskyy out of White House after shouting match; Vatican says ailing Pope Francis suffers breathing ‘crisis’, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on March 1, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump erupted at Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday (February 28, 2025), angrily sending the Ukrainian leader out of the White House after an extraordinary Oval Office meltdown because he was “not ready” for peace with Russia. The abrupt exit, cutting short what was meant to be a day of Ukraine-U.S. diplomacy, meant Mr. Zelenskyy left without a deal for joint development of his country’s minerals resources that was to be part of a post-war recovery in a potential U.S.-brokered truce.

Pope Francis suffered an isolated coughing fit on Friday (February 28, 2025) that resulted in him inhaling vomit, requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said in relaying a setback in his two-week long battle against double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover.

In a life-and-death race against time, teams from the Indian Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police are working to save 24 workers who are feared trapped beneath the ice after a devastating glacier avalanche hit a Border Roads Organisation (BRO) project site at Mana village in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district at around 5 a.m. on Friday (February 28, 2025).

The rescue operation to trace the eight persons trapped about 14 km inside the Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel from morning of last Saturday reached its final stages on Friday (February 28) evening with the agencies involved speeding up removal of the debris of the tunnel boring machine and silt accumulated in the tunnel.

Amidst outrage over the Pune rape case, the Maharashtra government is slated to review its own Shakti Bill, which was passed by the Maharashtra legislature in 2021 to mandate stringent action for crimes against women and children. The Bill has been pending for the President’s assent.

The Madhya Pradesh Police are currently verifying the age of a 17-year-old boy, accused of brutally raping a five-year-old girl in Shivpuri district even as the survivor continues to remain under observation after surgery at a Gwalior hospital, officers said. 

The Indian Air Force needs to add 35 to 40 fighter jets every year to fill the shortage in numbers, Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh said on Friday (February 28, 2025). He added that the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) had promised to produce 24 Tejas Mark-1A jets next year.