The Headlines - How to Choose a Pope, and a Deportation ‘Black Hole’

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

Plus, the Oscars OK the use of A.I. (with caveats). On Today’s Episode: Vatican to Hold Pope’s Funeral on Saturday, by Eric Nagourney and Emma BubolaMarkets Slide as Trump Renews Attacks on Fed Chair, by Danielle Kaye and Kevin GranvilleHarvard Sues Trump Administration Over Threats to Cut Funding, by Stephanie SaulTrump Calls Concern Over Hegseth’s 2nd Signal Chat Episode ‘Waste of Time’, by Jonathan Swan, Aishvarya Kavi and Michael GoldA Venezuelan Is Missing. The U.S. Deported Him. But to Where?, by Miriam JordanSupreme Court Story Time: Justices Consider Children’s Books With L.G.B.T.Q. Themes, by Adam LiptakOscars OK the Use of A.I., With Caveats, by Brooks BarnesTune 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 Tuesday, April 22nd. Here's what we're covering. From Vatican City to the Philippines to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mourners have turned out to honor Pope Francis, who died yesterday at 88. The Vatican announced yesterday that his cause of death was a stroke,

and officials have now begun the preparations for the funeral of the Catholic leader. Francis was known for rejecting some of the pageantry that came with being Pope, preferring a more modest lifestyle. He lived in a Vatican apartment instead of the usual palace and ate his meals at a cafeteria. And before his death, he rewrote some of the rules around papal funerals to make them less of an elaborate spectacle. For example, his body will not be put on a raised pedestal, but laid in a simple coffin. On Saturday morning, world leaders are expected to gather at the Vatican for a public mass

to mark Francis' death. Once the funeral is complete, the Church's leadership will turn to selecting the next pope, a centuries-old, highly ritualized process. Over a hundred cardinals from around the world will travel to the Vatican and convene in the Sistine Chapel for what's known as a conclave. They'll swear an oath of secrecy and vote using private ballots to choose Francis's successor. Any candidate must win a two-thirds majority to be elected, so it often takes multiple

votes over multiple days. After each round, the ballots are burned, and colored smoke is released from the Vatican's chimney as a signal. If the smoke is black, they haven't reached a consensus. When the smoke is white, a new pope has been chosen. For more on the legacy of Pope Francis, listen to today's episode of The Daily. Now, three updates on the Trump administration. Donald Trump delivering another brutal day to Wall Street. Stocks, bonds, and the value of the U.S. dollar all tumbled yesterday after President Trump

renewed his attacks on the chair of the Federal Reserve. He called Jerome Powell a, quote, major loser and urged the Fed to lower interest rates. Trump has been calling for the lower rates as a way to boost the economy amid his disruptive new tariffs. But for many investors, even a hint that the president may be way to boost the economy amid his disruptive new tariffs. But for many investors, even a hint that the president may be trying to undermine the Fed's independence set off alarm bells. Also, Harvard has taken its fight against the Trump administration to the courts, filing

a lawsuit yesterday accusing the administration of trying to exert unprecedented and improper control over the university. The administration has moved to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding for the school after Harvard rejected a series of demands to give the government more oversight over its hiring and academic programs. The administration has claimed Harvard hasn't done enough to address anti-Semitism on campus, but Harvard claims its demands violate the First Amendment. And...

No, he's doing a great job. It's just fake news. It just bring up stories. President Trump is defending his Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, after news broke that Hegseth shared military attack plans in a group chat with his family members. Trump called any concerns about how Hegseth handled the sensitive national security information a waste of time. But the Times has learned that inside the Pentagon, there are also wider concerns about

how the department is functioning under Hegseth, with current and former officials describing widespread disarray. There have been screaming matches between Hegsess aides. His team has been combing through staff members' old social media posts to look for signs of disloyalty. And bureaucratic log jams have slowed down key defense projects like a new missile defense system for the U.S. A Pentagon spokesman blamed any reports about dysfunction there on disgruntled employees with an axe to grind. As the federal government ramps up its deportation of migrants from the U.S.,

the Times has been tracking some of their cases, and a new investigation has found that one man has essentially disappeared. Ricardo Prado Vazquez, who's 32 and originally from Venezuela, was working in Detroit this January when he made a wrong turn. He was trying to deliver a McDonald's order and accidentally got onto the bridge that connects Michigan to Canada, a common mistake even for people who live in the city. At the border, U.S. authorities took him into custody, and the Times has reviewed records that show he was held for over a month before his deportation order came down. On March 15th, while being held at a detention facility in Texas, he told a friend he expected

to be sent back to Venezuela, but no one has seen or heard from him since. That night, the federal government sent over 200 migrants to a high-security prison in El Salvador. His friends and family thought maybe he was one of them, but his name is not on that list. Venezuelan authorities haven't found any information about him either, according to his family. And when a lawyer tried to track him down,

ICE officials eventually confirmed he was deported but refused to say where. The confusion may be administrative oversight, but immigrant advocates and legal scholars say the case suggests a new level of disorder in the immigration system. One expert told the Times he hadn't heard of a disappearance like this in the 40 years he'd been teaching and practicing immigration law. He said, quote, this case represents a black hole. Today at the Supreme Court, a set of kids books will be at the center of the arguments. A few years ago, Maryland's largest public school system

added a handful of books to their elementary school curriculum that included LGBTQ characters. There's one book about a girl with a crush on another girl and one about a transgender boy who wins a karate tournament. Initially, the school system gave parents notice when the books were going to be discussed

and the option to have their children sit those sessions out. But they then eliminated those policies, saying they led to students missing class and that they might cause kids who saw themselves or their families represented in the books to feel stigmatized. Some parents sued, saying the books violate their rights to freedom of religion. They say they don't want the books removed, but they want to shield their children

from having to discuss them. To date, lower courts have ruled against the parents, with one judge writing, quote, "'Simply hearing about other views "'does not necessarily exert pressure to believe "'or act differently than one's religious faith requires.'" But the case will now go before the Supreme Court, which has frequently ruled in favor of religious rights

in recent years. For example, the court sided with a web designer who did not want to create sites for same-sex marriages and with a high school football coach who said he had a constitutional right to prey on the 50-yard line at his team's games. A decision in this case isn't expected until around June at the end of the court's term. And finally, the Oscars are wading into what's been a brewing controversy.

Can a movie that relies on artificial intelligence win an award? Or should those be saved for, you know, humans? Yesterday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences updated its rules to say that using AI will not disqualify a movie from the competition, but that the Academy will take into account how much a human was behind the creative expression. The issue bubbled up at this year's Oscars when Adrian Brody was nominated for his performance in The Brutalist, in which he plays a Hungarian immigrant. It came out that the film used AI to enhance the accents on some of the dialogue in Hungarian. Brody went on to win. Other nominated films like Amelia Perez and Dune Part II also used AI tools. The Academy had been considering requiring movies to disclose if they used AI, but didn't

go that far yet. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.