[Python] Python in VS Code skips reading "[]" plus one more character

I have this bizarre problem with using Python in VS Code. Whenever running a command in a .py file that contains [ and ], the program misses both characters plus one more that follows after [.

So for example the command:

df = pd.concat([df1,df2], axis = 0)


is incorrectly read by the program as:

df = pd.concat(f1, df2, axis=0)


and therefore an error is reported:

NameError: name 'f1' is not defined. Did you mean: 'df1'?


Similarly:

df["mesic"] = df.added.astype(str).str[0:7]


is incorrectly read by the program as:

dfmesic" = df.added.astype(str).str:7


leading to this error:

SyntaxError: unterminated string literal (detected at line 1)


Any ideas on what I can do about it?

I have reinstalled VS Code and Python but no improvement. Asked various LLM models but they did not advise.

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