WSJ What’s News - Francis, Pope of Firsts, Dies at 88

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

A.M. Edition for April 21. The Vatican announces the death of Pope Francis, triggering what Rome-based correspondent Margherita Stancati says will be a succession process that centers on whether to continue the pontiff's progressive legacy. Plus, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water again after sharing detailed military plans in another Signal chat. And the Supreme Court halts the Trump administration's deportation of Venezuelan migrants under a rarely used wartime law. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yeah, it's a big deal. The Ford It's a Big Deal event. Visit your Toronto area Ford store or ford.ca today. Pope Francis, the first South American pontiff, has died. Plus Pete Hegseth comes under pressure amid revelations of a second signal chat and claims of chaos at the Pentagon. And China lobs a fresh salvo in the trade war, kicking off a jittery week for markets. The dollar is really taking a beating again and gold is surging to a record high again.

Obviously the trade tensions with China and the rest of the world is prime among them, but we shouldn't forget that last week ended with President Trump threatening to fire the head of the Federal Reserve. So there's lots out there concerning investors. It's Monday, April 21st. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. And here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The Vatican says that Pope Francis has died at the age of 88. Born Jorge Murillo Bergoglio, Francis had battled a serious bout of pneumonia in recent months and his health had remained fragile since.

With more, I'm joined by journal correspondent Margarita Stancati. Margarita, tell us, what do we know about the Pope's passing at this early hour? Margarita Stancati, Journal Correspondent So the Vatican at around 10 a.m. local time announced that Pope Francis had died. They released a very short note in which they just said that the Pope had died at 7.35 this morning in Rome in his apartment in the Vatican. The Pope had been very sick recently. He had been hospitalized for about a month and returned home in mid-March. Now, he nearly died twice when he was in hospital with a severe respiratory illness. His health had improved, but he was still looking very, very

frail. And he was still receiving medical treatment and was not well enough, for example, to lead the traditional Easter Sunday mass yesterday. That is also when we last saw him. Although he couldn't lead the mass himself, he appeared on the balcony at St. Peter's Square, blessed the crowd and wished everybody a happy Easter. He also came down into the square on his popemobile waving at the crowd and that's the last time we saw him in public. Pete So, Margarita, what comes next? What should we expect? So after the Pope dies, there will be a process called the Conclave, which will be held in

the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel. And that's where all the cardinals under the age of 80 select a new pope. And that's a process that can take a long time. It will take some time for the Catholic faithful to process the news of Pope Francis. He was a very beloved pope across the world. So there will be a few days of mourning and there's a lot of pilgrims in Rome right now. It's currently the Jubilee. So I think we'll see large crowds gathering in St. Peter's Square as people can process this news. Nat. Processing this news, reflecting on his legacy as well. This was, among many other things, a pope not shy about weighing in on current events.

Absolutely. Pope Francis was the first Latin American pope, and he made a point of always speaking up for the poor, the vulnerable, the migrants, and weighed in on current affairs the whole time. Just yesterday in his Easter speech, which was read out by an aide, he spoke about the need to end wars in Ukraine, in Gaza, in Sudan and elsewhere. So his message was always against wars and he spoke up in favor of the poor and migrants, and that's something that actually caused some tensions with the Trump administration. He had been very critical of the Trump administration's

anti-immigration policy and specifically of the kind of large-scale deportations. And that's something he also mentioned in his speech yesterday. He spoke in defense of migrants and criticized the contempt that is often directed towards them. Nat. Finally, Margarita, as the church now faces a choice in who will lead it going forward, to what extent is Francis's legacy likely to prompt some debates about the role of the pontiff, the role they ought to have on matters like the ones we just discussed? Every pontiff makes its own mark on the papacy. But for sure, the last few popes have been

quite active in current affairs. So I don't think that's going to change. Pope Francis was seen as a relatively progressive pope. He was relatively liberal for a pope and there are currents that have opposed this, from their point of view, this excessive liberalism. It's too early to say who's going to follow Pope Francis, but he has appointed most of the cardinals who will then have to decide who will follow him. So his legacy is not going to die with him. That was Journal correspondent Margarita Stankati. Coming up, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is in hot water again after sharing detailed military plans in another Signal Chat. We've got that story and the rest of the day's news after the break. The all-new, all-electric Can-Am Pulse Motorcycle is your cheat code for the city. Light, agile, and stylish for all you smart commuters.

Find your pulse today. Learn more at CanAmMotorcycles.com. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsath is facing fresh scrutiny over his handling of sensitive military information amid revelations that he created a separate group chat on the messaging app Signal, which included his wife, personal lawyer, and others. The emergence of the chat, created around the time of his confirmation hearing, comes as Hegsath was already facing questions after sharing details about a military strike on rebels in Yemen, and we report that the new chat contained nearly the same information. Separately, a former top advisor to Hegseth, who resigned from the Pentagon last week,

spoke out in Politico over the weekend, describing total chaos under Hegseth's leadership and alleging that three Pentagon officials fired last week were wrongly smeared by anonymous officials as being leakers who had failed polygraph tests. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said yesterday that no classified information was posted in any signal chat and said Hegseth's office was becoming stronger and more efficient. Meanwhile, US military activity in Yemen is picking up, with the country's Houthi rebels claiming that American airstrikes targeted the capital Sana'a overnight, killing 12

people and injuring dozens more. Journal Senior Middle East Correspondent Sudarsan Raghavan told me that Washington's aims in Yemen are fast evolving beyond merely disrupting the group's attacks on Israel and against vessels in the Red Sea. The goal is not just to limit their capacities, but more to try to enhance some form of regime change by really going after senior leaders. As of the moment, everything is from the air. The Americans have been striking regularly all across Yemen. But according to our own reporting, there is some thinking going on between the administration

and its allies in the Arab world about a possible ground attack. Because no analyst so far that we've talked to has indicated that an air campaign alone will be able to destroy the Houthis. And Sudarsan, there are broader geopolitical priorities at play here for the United States as well, right? Yes, that's correct. The Houthis now are the last remaining member of Iran's axis of resistance that is still routinely targeting, almost daily in some cases, the US or its allies, especially Israel.

The Houthis have been regularly flying missiles into Israel. They've also been trying to target US military ships. They've been shooting down American drones. So yes, a key goal is to try to diminish this last existing Iranian proxy. The second thing is the Houthis, they have basically single-handedly reduced traffic in the Red Sea by 60%. And this is a strategic waterway, nearly a trillion dollars a day goes through it. And they've managed to disrupt that significantly.

So the second goal also is to reassert the projection of American power in the Middle East, to bring back stability to a very strategic waterway that not only helps American companies but global trade. Back in Washington, it is shaping up to be a key week in the Trump administration's push to carry out its immigration agenda. Over the weekend, the Supreme Court ordered a halt to deportations of Venezuelan migrants being carried out under a 1798 law, ruling that individuals designated as alien enemies were entitled to being notified of their pending removal and given the chance to challenge

their deportations in court. That narrow ruling early Saturday followed a fast-moving effort by the American Civil Liberties Union to stop the deportations. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the order, and the government responded to Saturday's ruling by arguing the plaintiff's claim was prematurely filed. Separately, hearings are set this week in several cases alleging the Trump administration still hasn't implemented a system of notice allowing those slated for deportation to seek court interventions in time. We are exclusively reporting that the Trump administration is planning to pull in additional

one billion dollars of funding for health research at Harvard. According to people familiar with the matter, administration officials have become furious with the university after a week of escalating dispute between the two sides. It started last Monday when Harvard released a long list of demands the administration sent to the university, which officials believed was a confidential starting point for negotiations. The letters to Harvard and other schools are coming from a new Trump panel called the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Hours after Harvard released the list of demands, the White House froze more than $2 billion in funding and threatened Harvard's tax exempt status and its ability to enroll international students. And trade tensions are back on the front burner this morning after an announcement from China

that any countries that make a trade deal with the US at Beijing's expense will face Chinese reciprocal tariffs. With markets in Asia and the US trading again after the holiday weekend, finance editor Alex Frangos says that news is furthering the sell-America trade, with US futures and assets like the dollar trending lower. The dollar is really taking a beating again, hitting fresh lows against the euro and the yen and the pound, and gold is surging to a record high again. So there's lots out there swirling concerning investors.

Obviously, the trade tensions with China and the rest of the world is prime among them. And then there's also, we shouldn't forget that last week ended with President Trump threatening to fire the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, and that's obviously hanging over markets as well because the stability of the Federal Reserve is something that investors around the world really value. And so I think there's jitters around that. And at the same time, Alex says it's a busy week for earnings and geopolitical news, all of which could result in some choppy trading. We're just heading into this week with so many balls being juggled in the air, like

the talks over trying to end the war in Ukraine and Iran talks. Those are two geopolitical things that can have a really big impact on oil markets and on currencies. It's hard to predict exactly what's going to happen, but there's certainly a lot going on with big earnings from household names like Tesla and Alphabet. People are really going to be listening out for what CEOs say about the future. What are they seeing in their businesses?

How is it being affected by all the tariff uncertainty? I mean, how will that affect their bottom lines? And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach. Our supervising producer was Sandra Kilhoff. And I'm Luke Vargas for the Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show. Until then, thanks for listening.