Reuters World News - Pope, Hegseth and Ukraine

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Pope Francis is dead at 88. The Vatican made the announcement hours after he appeared on a balcony, celebrating Easter Sunday. Plus Pete Hegseth's latest chat fallout, what's next for a Ukraine ceasefire and tariffs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Pope Francis has died. The Vatican, releasing a video statement early Monday morning, hours after the first Latin American leader of the Catholic Church appeared on a balcony for Easter services. It's Monday, April 21st. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Christopher Waljeper in Chicago.

Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. The Vatican announcing his death at 7.35 a.m. local time, the morning after he attended Easter services. Tributes are pouring in from around the world for the Argentinian man born Jorge Mario Burgolio, who surprised church watchers when he ascended to the role in 2013. Pope Francis was known for eschewing the ornateness of the church and embracing the poor. His 12-year papacy was marked by division and tension as he brought reform to the Catholic institution.

His leadership was also marred by various ailments and ill health. Joshua McElwie is our Vatican reporter. He spoke to Reuters World News about Francis's legacy. Francis was really known for having a very open dialogue with the church, wanting the church to be more open to modern conversations, and to tackling big issues that had kind of been off the table for years, even things such as possible ordination of women to the clergy, better ministry or reaching out to gay or LGBTQ Catholics, and opening up kind of big conversations the church maybe hadn't had for a few decades. And I think a lot of people will remember that and will remember him as a pope who was very fond of being amongst people and kind of being very comfortable with conversations that might be a little uncomfortable for Catholics who are used to a church of an earlier era. Now, we're hearing tributes around the world, and crowds are already beginning to gather at churches,

especially in Buenos Aires. What happens now? Basically, most of the church's business at the Vatican stops. There's a cardinal called the Camerlengo who kind of takes over the day-to-day administration of the Vatican, but not many people. the big decisions can be taken. They seal the apartment where the pope was living to make sure no one can enter the apartment. And then we would expect it would take some time to arrange the funeral. Pope Francis has asked to be buried at the church in Rome called the Basilica of St. Mary Major,

unlike other popes who had decided to be buried in St. Peter's Basilica. And then Cardinals around the world would come to Rome for what's called the conclave. It's a secret election to elect the next pope. But that takes also some weeks to arrange. Tell me about the conclave. What can we expect? The whole process is going to take a month or more before there would be a new Pope. There are some guidelines laid out in official documents, particularly those approved by Pope John Paul II. It's not entirely firm. It's typically five to six days. It could be, there could be a change based on the public's reaction, how many people come to Rome. Pope Francis will be, his body will be put out in St. Peter's Basilica for people.

to make visits, and it might depend a bit on how many people come to make visits and kind of how steady the stream of mourners is. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsef is once again under scrutiny for a signal chat. This time, a source tells Reuters he shared sensitive Yemen war plans in a group that included his wife and his brother. The revelation of a second signal chat comes at a particularly delicate moment for Hegeseth. Several senior Pentagon officials were ousted last week because of an investigation into leaks. Reporter Idris Ali covers the Pentagon.

What's raising a lot of eyebrows is not only that this is the second instance of this happening, but that it is sharing sensitive information on a or through a platform, which usually isn't used to share such information and can be quite problematic. Now, this is coming at sort of a sensitive time for Hegel. Seth, isn't it? It is. There's a lot going on at the Pentagon. Some people have called it chaos, but at the very least, it's, you know, a very precarious and tumultuous time for the Pentagon and for Hexeth. There was essentially a leak investigation started in recent weeks. And that is really embroiled some of his top advisors, including an individual named Dan Colwell. And he was actually

one of the people, or the main person that Hexed named as a point of contact in the first signal chat. And so we're at a point where, you know, lawmakers, especially democratic lawmakers, are really questioning whether he is fit for the job or he should step aside. How has the Pentagon responded? The chief spokesperson essentially says it's another day, another oral story that's coming back from the dead, and really raising doubt about it and the source of the information. It says that the New York Times and other outlets who have matched the story are essentially relying on the words of people who were fired this week and who might essentially have a motivation to sabotage the Secretary of Defense. So they're coming out fighting.

What's going to be interesting to see is how President Trump himself will respond to this. Is it something that starts taking up too much time? And we've seen in previous instances where if it becomes a bit of a nuisance, he might reconsider whether the person needs to be in the job or not. So, you know, the Pentagon has come out. We're going to wait and see what the president himself is going to say about this in the coming days. Israel's military has dismissed a commander over last month's killing of emergency responders in Gaza. A review blamed, quote, several professional failures. Fifteen paramedics and other rescue workers were killed on March 23rd in three separate shootings in southern Gaza.

China is warning countries around the world against doing people. trade deals with the U.S. at its expense. Beijing is ratcheting up its rhetoric as the trade war between the two economic superpowers spirals. Anxiety over tariffs has investors nervous this morning as U.S. markets reopen after a long weekend. Stocks and the dollar slid in Asian trading overnight. Investors also appear shook after Trump's attacks on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. Gold has catapulted to yet another record high. A Republican Senate, a Republican Senate Senator is criticizing the Trump administration for their handling of the deportation case of Kilmar Abrago Garcia.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana called the case a, quote, screw up on NBC's Meet the Press. His comments come after the Supreme Court temporarily barred the government from deporting a group of accused Venezuelan gang members using the Alien Enemies Act. That led Justice Samuel Alito to release a five-page dissent criticizing his his fellow justices. The U.S. is calling for an extension to a one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin. But while the Trump administration continues to try to broker peace, both Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of violating the ceasefire. Christian Lowe was in Kiev over the weekend. Christian, what did the ceasefire look like on the

ground? So anyone like me who's in Ukraine for the past like 30 hours would have experienced that unusually there weren't any long-range aerial strikes, drones, ballistic missiles, going into the big cities, which I guess was a welcome respite for anyone who's been experiencing that kind of stuff pretty much every day for three years. So in that sense there was a difference. We don't have the full visibility of what's going on there, but if you're a soldier on the front line according to Ukrainian commanders, it was kind of business as usual because attacks carried on. So in that respect, there wasn't much of a ceasefire at all. And I think the average Ukrainian would have felt some skepticism that this was anything other than a ruse, I guess, as President Zelensky described it.

There's very little faith in Russia's good intentions here. Both sides reported violations to the ceasefire. Ukraine said there were many, many of them almost instantly. Russia said that Ukraine was also violating a ceasefire from its side, although on the other hand, Ukraine had never. signed up to the ceasefire. But either way, the effect was, it didn't hold. So how's this one-day ceasefire being viewed by Ukraine and Zelensky? So Ukraine interpreted this ceasefire as being window dressing, as in Russia saying, well, we'll put on a show of a ceasefire for 30 hours to satisfy Donald Trump,

and hopefully that will be enough, but it's not a sincere effort as a ceasefire. That's Kiev's perception of that. In Moscow, the perception is different. Vladimir Putin is saying this is a humanitarian gesture. It's Easter. So what comes next? We're on a timeline here that's been set by Donald Trump, who said he wants a peace deal by the end of this week. On Wednesday, Marco Rubio head to London, and there'd be some meetings there with Ukrainians and with European partners. See if they are moving closer and if they can meet this deadline set by Donald Trump. Crowds have already begun to gather in St. Peter's Square to mourn the Pope.

As Josh said earlier in the podcast, it could be some time before we know when the conclave will be held. You can follow all the latest developments around the world on our live page. For more on any of the stories from today, check out reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast player. We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.