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. Correction: An estimated $1 trillion of goods transits through the Gulf of Aden each year. An earlier version of this podcast said that was a daily figure. (Corrected on April 21) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened to Pope Francis?
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.
Chapter 2: What are the details surrounding Pope Francis's passing?
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.
So Margarita, what comes next? What should we expect?
Chapter 3: What is the Conclave process after a Pope's death?
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 tomorrow. as people kind of process this news.
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.
Chapter 4: How did Pope Francis impact current events and policies?
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.
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 his 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, the success of 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 Stancati. 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.
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Chapter 5: What legacy does Pope Francis leave behind?
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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,
Chapter 6: What are the implications for the next Pope?
comes as Hegseth 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 Hegsath's office was becoming stronger and more efficient. Meanwhile, U.S.
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 Sudarshan 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 U.S. or its allies, especially Israel. The Houthis have been regularly flying missiles into Israel. They've also been trying to target U.S. 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%. 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.
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