Public Occurrences April 21, 2025

POPE FRANCIS HAS DIED

Pope Francis, first Latin American pontiff who ministered with a charming, humble style, dies at 88

AP's lede is spot on.

Trump to Replace Fox' Hegseth as Def Sec

7:19 pm:

"Exclusive" it is. No other outlet has confirmed it, which they typically do with credit to the original reporting org. At this point the question is, is it accurate? It's based on one anonymous "U.S. official." All the principals have denied, Trump stating that the Signal chats issue are a "waste of time. He's doing a great job — ask the Houthis how he's doing."

This would be a big boo-boo for NPR if it's not true.

*Update.

The greater weight of the evidence at this updated post time in my opinion is that the NPR story is false and
was published without additional corroboration of one
source. This is a major, major fuck-up by reporters Tom Bowman, Quil Lawrence, and their editors.