Wishing You a Happy Easter

Happy Monday! We hope all who celebrated yesterday had a blessed Easter! We’ll keep today’s newsletter short in light of the holiday.

But first, some tragic news overnight …

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, died on Easter Monday at the age of 88. Francis was hospitalized in February with bronchitis, later developing pneumonia in both lungs. During his more than 12 years leading the Roman Catholic Church, Francis—born Jorge Mario Bergoglio—ushered in a period of reform, addressing the church’s sexual abuse crisis, focusing on climate change and refugees, and incorporating women into leadership positions. “He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with fidelity, courage, and universal love, especially in favor of the poorest and most marginalized,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell said in a statement announcing Francis’ death. The College of Cardinals is expected to meet within 20 days to choose his successor.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a 30-hour “Easter truce” on Saturday, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that the Russian military continued to strike targets across Ukraine. Zelensky said that Ukraine would honor the ceasefire if Russia would, and challenged Putin to extend the pause in fighting for 30 days. The exchange came after President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. would “pass” on seeking a peace deal in Ukraine if neither side seemed willing to come to a deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, indicated that the U.S. would abandon its efforts to broker a ceasefire “within days” barring new progress toward a deal. 
• A U.S. delegation led by the Trump administration’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi at the Omani embassy in Rome on Saturday to continue negotiations over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. The four-hour meeting showed “very good progress,” one U.S. official told CBS News, and both delegations plan to meet again in Oman—the country serving as an intermediary in the talks—on April 26. Last week, Witkoff said that Iran must “eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program” for any deal to be reached. 
• The U.S. military plans to withdraw some 1,000 of the 2,000 troops currently deployed in Syria, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced Friday. The “deliberate and conditions-based process” will involve moving U.S. military assets and personnel to select areas of the country, he said. The U.S. currently works with local partners to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State, but President Donald Trump has long signaled skepticism about the continued deployment of U.S. ground forces in Syria. Noting Washington’s successes in degrading the terrorist group, Parnell said U.S. Central Command will “remain poised to continue strikes against the remnants of ISIS” in the country. 
• The Supreme Court on Saturday instructed the Trump administration to temporarily halt deportation proceedings for a group of Venezuelan nationals that the government has accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. President Trump sought to invoke the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to carry out the deportations, but on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed an emergency appeal claiming that “dozens or hundreds” of men at a Texas detention center were at risk of being removed and imprisoned in El Salvador with “no real opportunity to contest their designation or removal.” The Supreme Court has previously upheld the administration’s ability to carry out deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, but only if potential deportees are granted due process. Saturday’s ruling barred deportations of Venezuelans held in Texas’ Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.
• The top Pentagon officials who were removed from their positions last week—Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll—wrote in a joint statement on Saturday that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.” All three were reportedly removed in connection with a Department of Defense probe investigating leaks of sensitive information, and anonymous Pentagon sources accused Caldwell of leaking the information to the press. “At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with,” the trio wrote.

Today’s Must-Read

Toeing the Company Line

Worth Your Time

• In the Wall Street Journal, Peggy Noonan reflected on the biblical story of the good thief. “[It] always hits me like a punch. They’re minutes from death. One thief goes out the way he’d always likely been, insolent and mean. The other thief has a heart for justice—we deserve what’s happening to us, but he doesn’t—and asks for mercy. Christ tells him, essentially, you’re not forever alone, soon we’ll be together in Heaven,” she wrote. “The story, in Luke’s Gospel, is understood as a moment of grace and redemption, and it is those things, but it’s also a story involving the simple idea that it’s never too late. Famous words—we say it’s never too late to learn physics or go to Machu Picchu—but this story is about the infinitely more important idea that it’s never too late to become a better human being.”
• Writing for Vanity Fair, Gabriel Sherman looked into how President Donald Trump’s new “ignore-the-media” strategy is shaping his second administration. “In his second term, negative news reports are motivating Trump to double down rather than moderate,” Sherman wrote. “This dynamic had its most prominent display yet when Trump hosted El Salvador’s strongman president, Nayib Bukele, in the Oval Office on Monday. For weeks the media has reported on the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whom the administration admitted to having mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. The Supreme Court ruled last week that the administration needed to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. Trump, with Bukele at his side, mocked a CNN reporter who asked if he was planning to comply with that order. … Trump seems to be using Abrego Garcia’s case to send a bigger message: The mainstream media will never influence what he does. (Whether the courts can compel him is another, perhaps even darker question.)”

Presented Without Comment

President Donald Trump, on Truth Social: 

Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country. Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten! Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America. He was, by far, our WORST and most Incompetent President, a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing — But to him, and to the person that ran and manipulated the Auto Pen (perhaps our REAL President!), and to all of the people who CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election in order to get this highly destructive Moron Elected, I wish you, with great love, sincerity, and affection, a very Happy Easter!!!

Also Presented Without Comment

New York Times: Hegseth Said to Have Shared Attack Details in Second Signal Chat

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.

Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.

Also Also Presented Without Comment

Sports Illustrated: Seagull With Hot Dog Becomes Instant Baseball Icon at Chicago Cubs Game

In the Zeitgeist

After the last Fantastic Four movie failed to crack 10 percent on Rotten Tomatoes in 2015, Marvel is taking another swing at bringing the classic superheroes to the big screen. But this time around, the film will star Pedro Pascal (who is in just about everything these days) as Mister Fantastic—and Cousin Richie from The Bear as The Thing.

Let Us Know

What do you think Pope Francis’ legacy will be?