The Headlines - ‘Conclave Fever’ in Rome, and Trump’s Plan to Send Migrants to Libya

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Plus, your chance at island living. On Today’s Episode:The Vote for the Next Pope Is Also a Referendum on Francis, by Jason Horowitz and Motoko RichIndia Strikes Pakistan, Which Vows to Respond, by Salman Masood, Mujib Mashal and Hari KumarTrump Says the U.S. Will Cease Strikes on Houthi Militants, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Vivian NereimTrump Administration Plans to Send Migrants to Libya on a Military Flight, by Eric Schmitt, Hamed Aleaziz, Maggie Haberman and Michael CrowleyTrump Officials to Meet With Chinese Counterparts Amid Trade Standoff, by Ana SwansonE.P.A. Plans to Shut Down the Energy Star Program, by Lisa Friedman and Rebecca F. ElliottUnique Offer on Remote Scottish Island Draws ‘Dreamers and Schemers’, by Ephrat LivniTune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail].  

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Wednesday, May 7th. Here's what we're covering. What we have in Rome right now is a case of conclave fever. Over the last two weeks, Vatican City has been full of cardinals. They've been in the back rooms of churches spinning about what type of pope they want. They won't say exactly who they want, but they'll get close by saying what

characteristics they're looking for. Around St. Peter's Square, you'll see reporters trying to ambush Cardinals on the way out of these daily meetings that they have behind Vatican walls. In restaurants, waiters will also give you their shortlist based on who's been eating there and what they're overhearing at tables. Everyone's just desperate to know as much as they can about which way these 133 cardinals are leaning. My colleague Jason Horowitz is covering the Conclave, the Catholic Church's ritual for selecting the next pope. It begins today at 4.30 p.m. when the eligible cardinals are locked inside the Sistine Chapel. They'll stay there and vote until a two-thirds

majority can agree on which one of them will lead the church and its one billion members worldwide. The ballots will be burned after each round, and the chimney of the chapel will release colored smoke, black if there's no consensus, and white when they've made a decision. Jason says the Cardinals' votes will in many ways be a referendum on how Pope Francis led the Church before he died. Some Cardinals may push for a new pope willing to continue in Francis' footsteps, talking openly about progressive issues.

Others may push for a candidate who will reinforce more conservative church doctrine. It seems like a majority maybe want a mix. They want to keep going in the general direction of Francis, but maybe want someone a little more moderate, someone who is not going to shake the institution so much and give them a rest. But, you know, that's just one theory of the case. Conclave's are always unpredictable because, you know, you never know who's going to come out of it as Pope. But this one seems especially unpredictable because there are so many new faces,

so many new cardinals that France has appointed from all over the world. So because they don't know each other often, it's harder to form new alliances alliances and not everybody has such a good read on everyone's politics, their ideology, their culture. There's all sorts of things that people don't know about one another and so these past two weeks have been sort of a learning process, a speed dating if you will, for these guys to really get to know each other and decide who amongst them has the charisma, who has the leadership abilities, and who agrees with them on their vision for the church. So today it would be astonishing if they come out with a pope,

because usually on the first day, it's sort of symbolic candidacies, they're feeling one another out, but there's a sense that this one's going to take longer. And if we get into the end of Thursday without a pope, and especially if we get through Friday without a pope, and especially if we get through Friday without a pope and there's just black smoke and no white smoke, I think the ideas of the strong candidacies that we had going in are probably out the window and whoever comes

out on that balcony is going to be anyone's guess. At the moment, the two most talked about candidates to replace Pope Francis are Cardinal Perilin of Italy, considered a steady, competent, if somewhat bland option, and Cardinal Tagley of the Philippines, who would be the first pope from Southeast Asia and shares Francis' dedication to working with the poor. Early this morning, India said it had carried out strikes against Pakistan, escalating a decades-long conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbors. The strikes came weeks after more than two dozen civilians were killed in an attack in Kashmir, the disputed border region between the countries, an attack that India blamed

on Pakistan-based terrorists, which Pakistan has denied. India said its forces hit nine different sites across the region, and Pakistani military officials said at least eight people have been killed. Local news reports suggested that amid the strikes, two Indian military planes had been shot down. India will now face Pakistan's very fierce response. In a TV interview, a top Pakistani official said his country would retaliate. — Make no mistake, because our desire for peace should not be mistaken for our weakness. — At the White House yesterday.

— We had some very good news last night. The Houthis have announced that they are not, or they've announced to us at least, that they don't want to fight anymore. President Trump said the U.S. had reached an agreement with the Houthis. The U.S. will stop bombing Yemen, where the militant group is based, and the Houthis will stop attacking

American ships in the Red Sea. They were knocking out a lot of ships going, as you know, sailing beautifully down the various seas. For more than a year, the Houthis had been launching strikes against commercial and military ships along what had been one of the busiest shipping routes in the world, saying they were attacking out of solidarity with the people of Gaza. The attacks caused major disruptions to global trade, and in the past few months, the U.S. had launched a billion-dollar military campaign against the group. That was so intense, some US military commanders were concerned it was depleting the Pentagon's

stockpiles. The Houthis are very skilled at propaganda, and they pretty much immediately began portraying this announcement from Trump as a major win for them. Almost to the US is standing down. My colleague Vivian Neyreheim has been covering the conflict. Of course, the Americans are also celebrating it as a victory. And what actually sort of matters in terms of the effects for global shipping are two things that we need to wait to see, basically.

Are the Houthis going to stop attacking any ships at all? Is it purely, you know, American vessels? Are they going to continue to target vessels that they believe are linked to Israel? And then we also need to wait to see how the shipping industry is going to react to this degree of uncertainty. Does this really change their evaluation of how risky it is to sail through the Red Sea and pass Houthi territory? Or are they going to take the safer route around the southern tip of Africa, which they've already been doing for a very long time at this point? Now three more quick updates on the Trump administration.

The Times has learned that U.S. officials are planning to send a group of migrants to Libya as part of the administration's deportation efforts. Many details of the plan are unclear, including the nationalities of any migrants that would be sent and where they would end up. But Libya has a network of detention centers that have been used to house migrants who tried to get to Europe from Africa. Human rights groups have called those centers, quote, a hellscape, where people have faced sexual violence, torture, and even slavery. If it goes through, the Libya operation would mark the latest deal the administration has

made with a foreign country to take migrants from the U.S. Hundreds of people have been deported to a prison in El Salvador, and there have been early talks with Rwanda about sending migrants there. Also, administration officials are said to have their first formal trade meetings with China since President Trump hit the country with tariffs of over a hundred percent escalating the trade war between them. The meetings are scheduled for this weekend in Switzerland with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent leading the US delegation. My sense is that this will be about de-escalation not about the big trade

deal but we've got to de-escalate before we can move forward. The trade war has sent economic shockwaves through both countries, threatening to raise prices for American consumers and potentially put millions of people out of work in China. And you know those little blue stickers with a star on them that are on a lot of dishwashers and refrigerators? They come from Energy Star, a government program designed to help consumers easily spot efficient appliances and save money on energy costs. Now the administration has announced the decades-old initiative is ending as it guts programs that

were designed to fight climate change. The head of one energy efficiency advocacy group told the Times that Energy Star only cost about $30 million a year to to run but it saved American households and businesses 40 billion dollars a year on their utility bills And finally here's an interesting job offer for you depending on how much you would like to escape from the world and How you feel about smoked fish? The owner of a fish smokery on a remote island in Scotland is giving his business away if you're willing to commit to living there. The island, Colinsay,

has a population of 125, the majority of whom are over 60. The owner wants there to be more young people, so he thinks the ideal candidate for the smokery will be from a young couple or family. After putting the offer out there this week, he told the Times he's gotten a lot of interest already. Quote, I'm getting loads and loads of inquiries from people I'd call dreamers and schemers. This is not the first one of these kind of offers. In the past few years, Ireland's offered to pay people willing to live on remote islands, and an island in Greece launched the same kind of scheme. If you are considering Colinse, it is reachable by ferry. It's got a golf

course, a bookshop, and sandy beaches. You can send us a postcard or some salmon. Or no, maybe no fish in the mail. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, the legacy of Warren Buffett, who announced he's stepping down from his role running one of the most successful companies in modern history. That's next in the New York Times audio app where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.