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Papal death, Hegseth turmoil and Israel's Gaza medic mistake

 
Today's RELIGION story

Pope Francis dies at 88

What happened
Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pontiff and first pope from Latin America, died this morning. He was 88 and had been in poor health since an extended hospital stay for double pneumonia.

Who said what
"At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father," after a life "dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his church," said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, or de facto administrator of the Holy See after a pope's death. "For Pope Francis, it was always to extend the arms of the church to embrace all people, not to exclude anyone." The pope had appeared in public yesterday to bless tens of thousands of people gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday.

During his 12-year papacy, Francis "charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change" and his incremental elevation of women in the church and embrace of LGBTQ+ Catholics, The Associated Press said. He shook up the Catholic Church "without changing its core doctrine," shifting its focus to be a "refuge for everyone."

What next?
Pope Francis' death "will set off mourning around the world and deliberations and machinations to choose a successor" through a "chain of rituals and procedures, many of which have remained unchanged for centuries," The New York Times said. The College of Cardinals will have to decide "whether to choose a new pope who will follow his welcoming, global approach or to restore the more doctrinaire path" forged over "more than three decades of conservative papacies." Francis named 111 of the 136 voting cardinals, The Washington Post said, "making sure the conclave that would pick his successor was more diverse and less dominated by Europeans."

 
 
Today's NATIONAL SECURITy story

Hegseth reportedly shared war plans in 2nd group text

What happened
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed, sensitive plans for an imminent attack on Yemen with a second Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, The New York Times and other news organizations reported yesterday. The new revelations capped a "month of total chaos at the Pentagon," newly departed Hegseth spokesperson John Ullyot said yesterday in an essay at Politico.

Who said what
Hegseth posted "essentially the same attack plans" in the newly uncovered group text as he had shared with Trump's top national security officials at "roughly the same time" on March 15, the Times said. Unlike the "Signalgate" group, some of the 13 participants in Hegseth's "Defense | Team Huddle" chat had no "apparent need to be given real-time information" on a forthcoming strike on the Houthis.

Along with Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, and brother Phil — a Pentagon liaison with the Homeland Security Department — the group chat included top Hegseth aides Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick and Joe Kasper. Caldwell, Selnick and a third top Pentagon aide, Colin Carroll, were escorted out of Pentagon last week and fired on Friday, accused of leaking unauthorized information — a charge they denied in a statement on Saturday. 

What next?
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) asked the Pentagon inspector general's office to "include this latest incident in its ongoing investigation of Mr. Hegseth's mishandling of classified information." Other Democrats called for his ouster. Given the "dysfunction" and "disarray under Hegseth's leadership," Ullyot said at Politico, it's "hard to see" him "remaining in his role for much longer."

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL Story

Israel blames 'failures' for killing of medics

What happened
Israel's military said yesterday that its investigation into the killing of 15 aid workers in Gaza had uncovered "several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident." The Israel Defense Forces field commander in charge of the March 23 killings was dismissed, Israel said, and a brigade commander reprimanded.

Who said what
The IDF special forces unit killed eight Palestinian Red Crescent personnel, six emergency rescue workers and a United Nations employee in three separate predawn attacks at the same location south of Rafah, then buried the 15 aid workers in a mass grave along with their crushed emergency vehicles. Firing on the first medical team and then the ambulance crews that came to find them an hour later "resulted from an operational misunderstanding by the troops," the report said.

The shootings "outraged many in the international community," with some calling them a "war crime," The Associated Press said. Israel "backtracked" from its initial claim, that the ambulances were "advancing suspiciously" toward the IDF troops "without headlights or emergency signals," after cellphone video recovered from one of the medics showed the ambulances with "lights flashing and logos visible." Breaking the Silence, an organization of IDF veterans, called the report "riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing and selective details."

What next?
Israel's military advocate general was investigating the incident and could pursue criminal charges, but "there are no outside investigations of the killings underway," the AP said. The IDF has "killed more than 150 emergency responders" and "well as over 1,000 health workers," according to the U.N., and it "rarely investigates such incidents."

 
 

It's not all bad

Millions of viewers are tuning in to watch "The Great Moose Migration," a 24-hour livestream of the animals crossing the Angerman River in Sweden. Dozens of cameras are capturing the action, set to be streamed through May 4. Launched in 2019 by public broadcaster SVT, the show has an appealingly slow pace. It's "gripping" despite "nothing spectacular happening," Annette Hill, a professor of media and communications at Jonkoping University, said to The Associated Press.

 
 
Under the radar

Clobazam, a benzodiazepine used to treat anxiety, has been found to affect Atlantic salmon in similar ways to humans. Exposure to the drug makes the fish less fearful and gives them more confidence to take risks, according to a study published in the journal Science. This boldness can both increase their chance of survival and increase their vulnerability to predators.  

Researchers dumped clobazam and the pain-relieving opioid tramadol into the waters of Atlantic salmon before they were set to migrate from the River Dal in Sweden to the Baltic Sea. Clobazam was found to make the fish bolder and changed their migratory behavior, while tramadol had seemingly no effect. More of the salmon affected by the anti-anxiety drug swam faster and farther and made it out to sea than those that were drug-free. 

They also passed through obstacles, including two hydropower dams, more quickly. "You can imagine passing through a hydropower dam — these are big dams with big turbines — is a fairly stressful event for a small fish," Jack Brand, the study's lead author, told Vox. But the bold behavior also put them at higher risk of becoming a seal's lunch or falling prey to another predator attracted to the migration paths.

"Our bodies don't absorb 100% of the drugs we ingest, so traces of them end up in the toilet" and then pass through sewage treatment plants into bodies of water, said Vox. So in many bodies of water, fish are swimming in a "veritable soup of drugs," said NPR. And since most fish tend to be much smaller than humans, even trace amounts can significantly affect their behavior.

 
 
On this day

April 21, 1986

TV host Geraldo Rivera aired a special in which he opened a secret vault once owned by legendary gangster Al Capone under a Chicago hotel, only to discover the vault was empty. Despite its disappointing finish, "The Mystery of Al Capone's Vault" was wildly popular and aired to 30 million viewers, making it TV's highest-rated syndicated special.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

"U.S., China brace for cold war as tensions heat up," as President Donald Trump's "trade offensive hits America's financial primacy," The Wall Street Journal says on Monday's front page. "Southeast Asia a new front in U.S.-China trade war," The Washington Post says. Vice President J.D. Vance "meets pope in private Vatican visit." The "pope emerges from convalescence on Easter," the Journal says, hours before the pope died. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth "said to send war plan to second group" including "family members and lawyer," The New York Times says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Bad call

A Michigan man angry over having to watch his vacationing girlfriend's pets was sentenced to eight months in prison after he emailed a bomb threat to her Carnival cruise ship. Joshua Lowe, 19, made the fake bomb threat as the ship was en route to Jamaica. All 1,000 rooms had to be searched and the liner diverted. The email was traced to Lowe, said The Independent, and he took "full responsibility" for the hoax.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Stefano Costantino / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images; Kent Nishimura / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Eyad Baba / AFP via Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images