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Funeral For Pope Francis To Be Held On Saturday; U.S. Treasury Secy.: Trade War With China Unsustainable; Palestinians in Gaza Mourn Pope Francis' Death; First Glimpse of Trump Portrait Gifted by Putin; Embattled Hegseth Remains Defiant Despite Leaks, Disarray; Wild Jaguar Takes Her First Steps Into a New Future. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 23, 2025 - 01:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[01:00:31]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: How Pope Francis rewrote the rules for a simpler, more down-to-earth papal funeral. Ahead on CNN Newsroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Service, humility, and simplicity are the hallmarks of Francis in life and also in death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: After lying in state for the next three days, Pope Francis will be buried this Saturday.

The art of the blink.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not going to say, oh, I'm going to play hardball with China. No, we're going to be very nice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Raising hopes of a possible trade deal between Washington and Beijing and end to weeks of economic turmoil.

And from Russia, with love.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see the Russian artist who we met in Moscow was pretty kind, showing Trump looking heroic, even trim.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: An exclusive look at the painting commissioned by Vladimir Putin and given to Donald Trump. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with John Vause.

VAUSE: The body of Pope Francis will soon be lying in state at St. Peter's Basilica.

And for the next three days, the faithful will have a chance to pay their respects in person to a pontiff often called the People's Pope. In the coming hours, the Pope's coffin will be moved from the Santa Maria guest house where Francis lived to St. Peter's. After a senior Vatican official known as a Camerlengo or Chamberlain holds a short prayer service, the Holy Father lying in state.

Cardinals will be the first to pay their respects. After that, the doors will open to the public. The funeral this Saturday for Pope Francis marks the start of nine days of mourning. Then comes the conclave, a gathering of cardinals at the Vatican to choose the next pontiff. CNN's Jim Bittermann has details.

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JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From St. Peter's Basilica to Notre Dame in Paris to Catholic churches around the world, resounding bells brought the news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Dear brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, I must announce the death of our Holy Father, Francis.

BITTERMANN (voice-over): Almost immediately, crowds began gathering to mourn, to pray and join together with fellow Catholics. The death of Pope Francis started a timeline of Papal transition established over centuries. His funeral and then a nine-day mourning period known as Novemdiales.

During this time, the faithful will be able to travel to the Vatican to see the post body lying in state. When Pope John Paul II passed away in 2005, hundreds of thousands, traveled to St. Peter's to pay their respects. Abbeys and convents sent representatives train loads of mourners came from his native Poland. Sometimes the lines to get into the Basilica were miles long.

But as much as events will follow, as tradition demands, there will be changes. Pope Francis said he didn't want to be buried in the crypts beneath St. Peter's, as most other popes have been, but in one of Rome's major churches.

LATE POPE FRANCIS, HEAD OF CATHOLIC CHURCH AND SOVEREIGN OF THE VATICAN CITY STATE (through translator): I want to be buried in Santa Maria Maggiore. I always went there on Sunday mornings when I was in Rome, there's a very strong connection.

BITTERMANN (voice-over): One tradition is certain to hold heads of state, heads of government and royalty from around the world will gather to honor and remember Pope Francis, even some who perhaps didn't always agree with his teachings. After the funeral, the work of choosing a new pope begins as cardinals from all over the world will arrive for the conclave.

It's an election process cloak in tradition and secrecy, conclave meaning with the key, the procedure by which the cardinals are locked away in the Sistine Chapel to begin voting. Anyone violating the secrecy of the voting risks excommunication.

Inconclusive ballots are burned with a chemical which produces black smoke, but when the next pope is picked, another chemical is used, producing white smoke. The signal to all that the spiritual head of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics has been chosen with the words echoing from St. Peter's balcony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Habemus Papam.

BITTERMANN (voice-over): Habemus Papam, Latin for we have a pope the way popes, including Pope Francis himself, have been introduced for centuries.

Jim Bittermann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: With us now from Washington is Kim Daniels, director of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University. Thank you for being with us.

[01:05:06]

KIM DANIELS, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Thank you.

VAUSE: So during his time as pope, Francis angered conservatives both inside and outside the church, especially in the United States. He called out church leaders for not doing enough to help those in need. He clashed with President Trump on issues like climate change and immigration.

In the hours after he did -- he died, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a notorious Trump ally, tweeted, today, there were major shifts in global leaderships. Evil is being defeated by the hand of God.

The message was cryptic, as well as being an incredibly poor taste, to say the least. But it just shows that the pope was not universally loved, I guess. He was also at odds with the Vice President over church doctrine.

So given all of that, will conservatives, especially in the U.S., try to influence the choice of the next pope? And if so, how much influence do they really have?

DANIELS: Well, first, I want to zoom out from those kinds of comments and that particular divisive group that you're talking about. I think we are a global church. This is one of Pope Francis' main priorities and main points throughout his pontificate, was to highlight that we're a global church of 1.4 billion people, of which only 6 percent are in the United States. And of that 6 percent, only a small fraction have the kind of antipathy and hostility towards Pope Francis referenced in the comments that you mentioned. So I just want to put it in perspective, first of all. In terms of whether people with that kind of a hostility, in this moment of mourning that we're in, really a moment of sadness for Catholics around the world and also gratitude for the gift of Pope Francis' life and vision.

The kind of comments that you reference really don't reflect anything as widespread as it might be imagined. Some 75 percent of American Catholics, for instance, had a very positive view of Pope Francis. I think that any effort to campaign or work around a political agenda of any kind will really be met with distaste and will not be successful.

VAUSE: Very good points, and thank you for making them. The next pope will be decided by cardinals during the upcoming conclave, and whoever that might be will determine if reforms Pope Francis made to the church actually survive. And CNN's Clarissa Ward makes this point. Here she is.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If you look at the math, as it were, Pope Francis actually put in place about four- fifths of the cardinals who will be eligible to vote.

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VAUSE: Or as Axios breaks it all down, out of the 135 cardinals eligible to vote, Pope Francis elevated 108. That means 80 percent of votes will be cast by cardinals who owe their position to Francis. So did Francis stack the deck before he died, and does that actually guarantee a continuation of how he led the church?

DANIELS: You know, I'm not sure I would characterize it that way. What I would say is that Pope Francis had many different priorities, and one of those main priorities, as I mentioned, was really reflecting the global nature of our church, really reflecting the fact that his -- his effort was to go out to the peripheries and to say that we are a poor church for the poor, and in Rome we should reflect that, we should have cardinals and leaders in Rome who understand that experience.

For him, the peripheries, these far distant countries that had never had a cardinal before, were precisely the kinds of places that needed to have a voice in Rome. Those places are very different. In a global church, all sorts of cultures and contexts bring different priorities to Rome, so it's very hard to say that there's sort of one particular effort or particular vision among the 108 cardinals that you mentioned.

What I know that they all will be saying to themselves is, how do we advance the kind of spiritual renewal and structural reform that Pope Francis started in his papacy?

VAUSE: So just in terms of how all this works, a papal conclave happens no sooner than 16 days after a pope dies, which means May 6th at the earliest of this time. Is the run-up to the conclave seen as more important than the conclave itself, because that's when the lobbying actually happens?

DANIELS: Well, I think the conclave itself, of course, is where -- where these cardinals go in for prayer, for reflection about who they're going to choose in, you know, in light of the Holy Spirit's guidance to lead the Roman Catholic Church into the future. So, of course, the conclave is the central piece of what's going to happen over the next several weeks.

At the same time, I would say that the Catholic Church is a very relational church, right? It's a place where it's important to know people and it's important to listen and dialogue. That was another priority of Pope Francis. So I'm sure over these next days, we will be seeing a lot of people, a lot of cardinals coming together and talking again about what their priorities are and what they believe the Holy Spirit is calling our church -- where it's calling our church to go in these next years.

VAUSE: In the days before he was actually admitted to hospital, Francis announced that Sister Raffaella Petrini would be the next and first woman governor of Vatican City. "Politico" reported that many saw this as Francis shifting focus from making headway on reform to actually locking it in. So how much of his legacy has he been able to lock in?

[01:10:05]

DANIELS: You know, it's interesting. That was a wonderful appointment and I think something that Pope Francis was signaling there was the urgent need for women in decision-making and leadership roles in the Roman Catholic Church. We had this global listening process over the last three years called the Synod and Synodality, where from every single country around the world, this priority was mentioned.

And so while Pope Francis made several advances in this area, there's, of course, much more left to be done. And I think this was a signal that he saw this as an important step forward. His legacy, as I mentioned, is one of spiritual renewal and structural reform.

And I believe that so much of that is in place and we can't go back from it. And at the same time, of course, this is a time when cardinals are coming together from around the world. They'll be listening to others. They'll be listening to lay people and others as well. And we'll see where -- where the Roman Catholic Church goes in these next years.

VAUSE: Yes, it's a bit like a river, isn't it? You can change course, but you can't go back. Kim Daniels, thank you for being with us.

DANIELS: Exactly.

VAUSE: Really appreciate it.

DANIELS: Thank you. VAUSE: Still no claim of responsibility after a gunman opened fire at a popular tourist area in India-controlled Kashmir, killing at least 26 people. Police blame militants opposed to Indian rule for the attack, a decades-long conflict which until now has mostly spared tourists. Dozens of others were left wounded, many seriously. Officials have not been able to say if foreign nationals are among the victims.

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RAFI AHMAD MIR, GENERAL SECRETARY OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR APNI PARTY (through translator): We request to the tourists who are coming to Jammu and Kashmir that they should not panic. There is peace in the region and the government is also with us. The incident will be thoroughly investigated and we need to stay strong and united.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In the wake of the deadly shooting, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, returning home and promising the gunman would be brought to justice. More details now from CNN's Will Ripley.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is not the first time that violence has rocked the Himalayan, Jammu and Kashmir region, but attacks on this scale, targeting civilians in a popular tourist destination, that is rare.

Pahalgam, set against the Himalayas, draws visitors from across India, but now it's become the site of a suspected terror attack, with gunmen opening fire on a group of tourists. More than two dozen are dead or injured. For decades, this region has been contested, claimed by both India and Pakistan.

Armed groups have fought there, some pushing for independence, others for a union with Pakistan. In recent years, attacks have been rare, but Tuesday's violence is a grim reminder that this remains a deeply volatile area. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has condemned the attack, calling the perpetrator's agenda evil and vowing justice.

U.S. President Donald Trump has also weighed in, saying that the U.S. stands in solidarity with India. He later called Prime Minister Modi to offer condolences. Protests erupted in the aftermath, with locals turning out, expressing grief and outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIVSHANKAR RATHORE, PROTESTER (through translator): Innocent people have been killed. A newlywed couple has been killed. Bullets were fired at tourists who came here for a tour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: Now, we should point out, Pakistan is denying involvement in this, but they are likely watching very closely as tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors ratchet up yet again. Will Ripley, CNN.

[01:13:24]

VAUSE: Did the U.S. President blink? Did he back down on his trade war with Beijing? A live report on his latest remarks, ahead.

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VAUSE: Wall Street surged Tuesday, mostly after the U.S. Treasury Secretary told investors a trade war between Washington and Beijing is unsustainable, which he expects to de-escalate.

Wall Street was listening to three major indexes closing up 2.5 percent or more, recouping losses from Monday's sell-off. Surge in stocks was also fueled by remarks from the U.S. President. Donald Trump promising not to play hardball with China and believing both sides can reach a trade deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm not going to say, oh, I'm going to play hardball with China. I'm going to play hardball with you, President Xi. No, no. We're going to be very nice. They're going to be very nice. And we'll see what happens. But ultimately, they have to make a deal because otherwise they're not going to be able to deal in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The International Monetary Fund predicts Trump's tariffs and countermeasures from trading partners will hit economic growth worldwide. Now projecting global growth reached 2.8 percent this year, down from January's forecast of 3.3 percent. And the IMF expects the U.S. to see a significant slowdown.

Growth forecast for the year is now at 1.8 percent, down nearly one percentage point from the January projection. 6 (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERRE-OLIVIER GOURINCHAS, IMF CHIEF ECONOMIST: What we see is in the U.S. is the tariffs acting as a supply shock. So that's lowering output and that's increasing price pressures.

But there is also the increased uncertainty, and increased uncertainty which is related to the fact that no one is able to tell where things will settle eventually. It's very, very hard to figure exactly where this will land.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN Beijing Bureau Chief Steven Jiang joins us now live. He says there's a lot of pain, a lot of gain from Trump's tariffs, but Beijing should be pleased with what they're hearing.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: That's right. Although so far, no official response just yet to that dramatic climb down from President Trump and those equally interesting remarks by his Treasury secretary.

But I think many people both inside and outside the Chinese government would probably agree that without having to do anything, Beijing already seems to have the upper hand here in terms of public perception. Because in contrast to all these flip-flops and twists and turns from Washington, they have been standing their ground here saying they would fight this trade war to the very end.

[01:20:15]

But also not completely shutting the door for potential talks, only emphasizing that they would not negotiate under any threats or pressure. So there is little doubt the Chinese want to be perceived as the upholder of the international order and norms. They want to be seen as the adult in the room, if you will.

Remember, even when they announced their counter tariffs against the U.S., 125 percent, they said they would stop there. They would no longer play the numbers game no matter what Trump does next. I think all of this is because they have been studying Trump for a long time.

The conclusion here seems to be concessions will only invite more pressure. And the only language the President understands and respects is leverage. Now, interestingly, just a few days ago, I talked to a very well-connected source here who is familiar with the Chinese leadership's thinking.

And he said they would often notice even when the President talks nice and sweet about China, about his relationship with Xi Jinping, then you would quickly see his cabinet members come out to repeat those very hawkish views about China. So this source said, given Trump's total control over his people right now by not publicly rejecting these hostile views towards Beijing, the -- the President seems to be condoning them. And that just very much runs counter to the three things the Chinese want to see from the White House before any trade talks could happen.

And those things are sincerity, reciprocity and perhaps most importantly, consistency. John.

VAUSE: Steven, thank you. Steven Jiang live for us in Beijing.

Let's head to Portland, Oregon now and Professor Yan Liang, chair of economics at Willamette University. Welcome back. Good to see you.

YAN LIANG, KREME CHAIR PROFESSOR OF ECONOMIC, WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY: Yes, good to be with you, John.

VAUSE: So according to two sources, the Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Investors Tuesday this is going to be at a closed-door function for J.P. Morgan. He said the U.S.-China trade war is unsustainable and he expects the battle to de-escalate soon. Also, the President seemed to make a U-turn here as well, saying he was not about to play hardball with China. So did the White House actually blink here? Is this -- is this a back down? If so, did China actually do anything in particular to make it happen?

LIANG: Well, I think it's very clear that the Trump administration is backing down, right? I remember in your show a couple of days ago and we were talking about, you know, the two-stroke man who's going to blink first. And of course, at that time, I said it's not likely that Xi Jinping is going to back down for why he believed the economy is resilient. He has a toolkit, and for two, without knowing the parameters of negotiation and not trusting the credibility of Trump, Xi is not going to back down.

Well, on the other hand, I think Trump now, in a way, is caved in because of the mounting economic pressures with a very volatile stock market, rising bond yields, and also weaker dollars. And with all the complaints from Wall Street to the mainstream, the worry about price increases, inflation, and also slow growth. So I think it's clear that Trump's administration now is considering the off ramp.

And so I think Beijing is open to negotiations. So I think, you know, Trump made it clear he is going to drop down significantly, substantially, as in his word, the tariff. So I think that opens the door for more negotiations.

But I don't think it's going to be easy. I don't think it's going to be a very swift process. So I think we just have to remain, so things have to, you know, still take some time to work it out.

So if President Ironspine, as the White House press secretary liked to call it, has in fact leaked in all this, bigger picture here, where does that leave the U.S. in any kind of future negotiations, any kind of future dispute?

LIANG: Well, I think it's clear that the U.S. is not going to ask so much leverage as it thinks. You know, Trump doesn't have all the cards as he believes. And I think it's not only China. When you look at the negotiations with -- with Japan, you know, Japan made some concessions and sort of concluded first round. But you hear the Prime Minister Ishiba, talking to the domestic audience that they're not going to make all the concessions because they don't want to compromise their national security when it comes to agricultural production, protection and so on.

And you also hear the European Union, right? They're talking about, you know, working with China, that they're not going to decouple with China. U.K. also expressed the same thing, that China is the second largest economy. It's impossible to disengage. So I think, you know, it just shows that Trump doesn't have all the cards.

He may be able to bully some of the smaller countries. But even that, I think countries will, you know, get together and collectively push back. Not to mention these big countries, right, like China, like even, you know, Japan and others. I think it's just clear that Trump doesn't have all the leverage. And so he has to back down at some point and make his demands more reasonable. Over the last few days, President Trump has been gunning for the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, threatening all sorts of things, calling him a major loser.

Looking forward to his early termination, if you like. But then on Tuesday, Trump walked back those comments as well. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[01:24:59]

TRUMP: No, I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. It's a perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn't, is it the end? No, it's not. But it would be good timing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: What seems to be painfully clear here is that whenever the administration reverses course, say, on a trade war with China, implementing tariffs around the world, trying to weaken the independence of the Federal Reserve, we see a market rally.

While moving forward with those policies brings economic chaos and turmoil and major losses on the financial market. So cause and effect arguments can be often misleading. It doesn't seem that's the case here.

LIANG: Well, I mean, it's -- it's clear what Trump is doing is to create a lot of chaos and he likes to discuss uncertainty. He likes to show that he's having all the power to start a market and also calm the market. And, of course, this also presents a great opportunity for some insider trading, right, to benefit some of the billionaire friends or himself.

So I think it's clear what he's doing here. He's making all these accusations of the Fed. But then when the market tumbled, then he, you know, claw back. And so I think that is a very clear pattern that he has been doing. And in terms of the tariff, of course, it has been really erratic implementation of the policy. And, of course, the Fed is not going to listen to him and just lower the interest rate when they really worried about inflation.

The IMF has, you know, forecasted that the U.S. inflation rate will reach 3 percent, which is almost a 1 percentage point higher than the January forecast. So I think it's -- it's again, Trump likes to, you know, exert maximum pressure and see, you know, what the rivals are going to do, are going to blink or not. And when it doesn't happen, then he will back down.

So the kinds of credibility, right, is -- is running very low on his part. And clearly, you know, none of these policies other than inflicting pain and chaos in the economy and the people. It doesn't really accomplish anything that he set out to accomplish. VAUSE: Well, the IMF has a little more on the risk of a recession in the U.S. this year. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOURINCHAS: We are seeing the risk of a recession happening in the U.S. as an increased risk. We are -- according to our calculations, that risk has increased from about 25 percent, you know, back in October to a little bit, almost 40 percent now. So that's a significant increase.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Hypothetically speaking, if we could take everything that Donald Trump has done over the last 80 something days or 90 days in office and we go back to, you know, January 25, policies that were in place January 25 are reinstated.

Does that roll back the increased risk of recession? Does it roll back all of the damage done to the economy? Or is there now just a lasting effect of all this turmoil and chaos?

LIANG: Well, I think that's a great question. I think first of all, there's a question whether Trump will reverse course. And we know from the M.O. that he had is that when something that doesn't happen, oftentimes he really doubled down.

And this time around, even though he is backing down in terms of tariff, putting 90 days pause and also going to negotiate with -- with China, it still remains very uncertain how soon the tariff is going to go down and to what extent, you know, the tariff is going to go down. Not to mention, his policy unpredictability has already imposed a lot of uncertainty, not only to the U.S. economy, but to the global economy. Not to mention it really kind of damaged, right, with the U.S. credibility and its geopolitical alliances.

So I think all those damages cannot just be undone by reversing back the tariff. And so, again, you know, the IMF is very sober in -- in the analysis, even though I think that 40 percent is still an understatement. You see J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have -- sorry, and -- and Goldman Sachs have much higher probability of U.S. hitting a recession.

And even the IMF, right, even though now, you know, the U.S. growth is still downgraded. And by the way, the downgrade is the largest among the big economies. It's a 33 percent downgrade, whereas China is going from 4.6 to 4 percent.

So they still believe the U.S. economy, you know, is going to suffer a lot from this slow growth. And, you know, the long term, I think the policy uncertainty is really going to weigh on the U.S. economy, the consumer sentiment, the -- the investor confidence and its geopolitical realignment. And I think all of this will have lasting damage on the U.S. economy unfortunately.

VAUSE: All traced back to one individual all on his own. Yeah. Yan Liang, thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.

LIANG: Thank you, John.

[01:29:31]

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, in the pontiff's final days, he called for peace in Gaza. We'll look at how Palestinians there are now mourning his death.

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[01:34:53]

VAUSE: Pope Francis often lamented the unrest in the Holy Land, calling for peace between Israel and the Palestinians multiple times. An op-ed titled "The Bloodshed in Palestine-Israel Must End" was published posthumously in "The Parliament" magazine.

Pope Francis writing, "Peacemaking requires courage, much more so than warfare". He wrote about the two-state solution with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace, security and mutual recognition.

The Catholic community in Gaza is small, but then Pope Francis was more than a religious leader in a distant land. He was a beloved friend.

As CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports, Francis gave Palestinians hope.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPE FRANCIS, PONTIFF, ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: Youssef.

FR. YOUSSEF, PALESTINIAN CATHOLIC PRIEST: Good morning, Holy Father.

POPE FRANCIS: Good morning. How are you?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: For the last 18 months of his life, this was Pope Francis' nightly ritual. At 8:00 p.m., a call to war-torn Gaza.

POPE FRANCIS: What did you eat today?

FR. YOUSSEF: Chicken wings.

FR. GABRIEL, PALESTINIAN CATHOLIC PRIEST: The rest of the chicken from --

DIAMOND: From the third day of the war until two days before his death, Pope Francis spoke nightly with the Holy Family Church, forging a special wartime bond that priests and parishioners of Gaza's only Catholic Church won't ever forget.

REV. GABRIEL ROMANELLI, HOLY FAMILY CHURCH: Daily, he called us and to us to ask for peace, to pray for peace, and to give the blessing for all Gazan people and for all the Palestinians. "He spoke to us with a father's anxiety for his children", Church

leader George Anton recalled. He would reassure us, checking if we had eaten, if we had something to drink, if we had medicine, how the children were feeling, how the mothers were coping.

The relationship drew the Pope closer to the plight of Gaza's civilian population, and informed his outspoken criticism of Israel's attacks.

"Yesterday, children were bombed", the Pope decried in December. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I want to say this because it touched my heart."

The Pope also regularly called out rising anti-Semitism and demanded the release of Israeli hostages, including in his final address on Easter Sunday, in which he called for a ceasefire one last time.

Inside Gaza's Holy Family Church, one of the many communities Pope Francis touched gathers to pray for his soul and for the world to see them as Francis did.

"My message to the world is to look at Gaza with the same eyes through which Pope Francis viewed it. eyes of truth, justice, peace, love. Eyes that saw the people of Gaza as deserving of life with dignity, justice and independence."

From this small church in Gaza, a prayer against the scourge of indifference which Pope Francis called the greatest sickness of our time.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN -- Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: A congressional delegation of Democrats met with two detainees swept up in the Trump administration crackdown on immigration, one a graduate from Columbia, the other a PhD student at Tufts University, being held without charge for their views on the war in Gaza.

Mohamed Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, both legal U.S. residents, are now facing deportation. The White House accused them without evidence of being terrorist sympathizers and supporting Hamas, though neither has been charged with any crime.

On Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers traveled to Louisiana, the detention centers, where Khalil and Ozturk are being held. They say both are political prisoners used by the Trump administration to silence dissent.

Earlier, I spoke with Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley and asked whether these seemingly arbitrary detentions could open the door to anyone being swept up in future raids.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): People of conscience should be very alarmed. This is really about due process. And now where they're being warehoused, we see a violation of their human rights.

And again, what I was most struck by is that they still have hope. They still had a smile on their face despite the harrowing experiences that they endured during their abduction. And now the indignities that they continue to experience in these detention facilities in, in Basile and in Jena (ph), respectively -- some of the worst conditions you know, in our for-profit prison system.

VAUSE: In terms of the right to due process, we heard from President Trump on that today on who will be given that right and who will not. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hope we get cooperation from the courts because, you know, we have thousands of people that are ready to go out and you can't have a trial for all of these people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Instead of seeing the Constitution as the bedrock of American democracy, does this administration look at it as an obstacle for their agenda, something they have to work around?

[01:39:54]

PRESSLEY: Well, clearly.

I mean, we have, you know, Trump in his second occupancy who rejects the rule of law, doesn't respect separation of powers, co-equal branches of government, has contempt for every person who calls this country home and does not respect the Constitution. He's not just poking holes in it. He's shredding it entirely.

And so I'm not surprised by his reaction. But again, we have to stand up and reject this dystopian, lawless view for this country that Donald Trump has. We have to reject it at every single turn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, a gift from one president to another. The artist commissioned by the Kremlin to paint a portrait of Donald Trump explains his vision of this rather fetching portrayal of the U.S. President.

[01:40:41]

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VAUSE: Ukraine's president says if a ceasefire with Russia can be implemented, he's ready for talks. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with reporters Tuesday, reiterating the need for a pause in fighting before starting those discussions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): If the Russians are ready for a complete ceasefire, then after a complete ceasefire with an understanding of how long it will last, we are ready for any format of negotiations with them -- any format.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Russian President Vladimir Putin says he is open to talks with Ukraine, even saying he has a positive attitude towards a ceasefire.

These two countries have not held direct talks since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Well, from Russia with love, an exclusive look now at a portrait of Donald Trump, which was a gift from Vladimir Putin. The painting captures the moment, it seems, after an assassination attempt on Donald Trump. He's raising his fist into the air, a smear of blood across his face, a steely look of defiance as he gazes into the distance. Little wonder why he liked it.

CNN's Matthew Chance spoke to the artist.

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NIKAS SAFRONOV, RUSSIAN ARTIST (through translated text): It was very important to me to show the blood, the scar and his bravery during the attempt on his life.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the first glimpse of what we're told is a portrait gifted to President Trump by Vladimir Putin in March. You can see the Russian artist who we met in Moscow was pretty kind, showing Trump looking heroic, even trim.

SAFRONOV: He didn't break down or become afraid, but raised the arm to show he is one with America and will bring back what it deserves.

CHANCE: The painting handed to Trump envoy Steve Witkoff was clearly meant to flatter, as Trump and Putin discuss ending the Ukraine war and rebuilding ties.

And apparently it worked. Witkoff said Trump was touched at what he called the beautiful portrait.

Safronov is one of Russia's most famous artists and has painted dozens of world leaders before, the late Pope Francis and, of course, Vladimir Putin. The Trump painting, he told me, was commissioned by a patron he suspected was the Kremlin.

SAFRONOV (through translated text): I realized this could bring our countries closer.

CHANCE: Later, he says he was contacted by President Putin himself, who told him the flattering Trump portrait was an important step in Russia's relationship with the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Under growing pressure over new revelations in Signal gate 2.0. U.S. Defense Secretary seems to have decided on a strategy of denial, deflection and blame the leakers. And that includes three fired senior Pentagon aides who were actually loyalists. But as Pete Hegseth put it, once a leaker, always a leaker.

CNN's Brian Abel has details.

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BRIAN ABEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is emphatically defiant in the face of reported turmoil inside the Pentagon in a newly-reported Signal chat group that sources say included Hegseth's wife, brother and lawyer where imminent attack plans were shared.

The revelation of this second Signal chat group comes after the disclosure of a Signal chat with cabinet officials in March, where the editor in chief of "The Atlantic" was mistakenly added, in which hex shared imminent attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen.

Three sources familiar with the second chat say Hegseth also shared plans for strikes against the Houthis in this newly-disclosed group, which was reportedly created during Hegseth's confirmation for Defense Secretary and access from his personal phone, including Hegseth's wife and his attorney, individuals who under normal circumstances, would not be approved to see attack plans of this nature.

A spokesperson for the Pentagon said, quote, there was no classified information in any Signal chat. Senior Pentagon officials were fired last week amid what Pentagon spokespeople called an ongoing leak investigation, including chief of staff to the Deputy Secretary of Defense Colin Carroll, top adviser Dan Caldwell, and deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick. All three issued a joint statement denying the leak allegations.

[01:49:47]

ABEL: Hegseth went on Fox News to enthusiastically defend himself, the Pentagon and the White House.

PETE SEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: In this point, those folks who were leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president's agenda and what we're doing. And that's unfortunate.

ABEL: Press secretary Karoline Leavitt is denying that there's a search for Hegseth's replacement, calling the reports, quote, "total fake news".

At the White House, Brian Abel reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still ahead, hopes of a big cat comeback. CNN goes to the jungles of Argentina as conservationists hope to revive a lost population of jaguars.

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VAUSE: Hopes of reviving an entire population of jaguars now rest with many. CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir traveled to the jungles of Argentina to get up close and personal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEWF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: This beautiful, big cat is a wild jaguar. She's smaller than most, so they call her Mini. And a vet just sedated her ahead of a critical mission that could have a huge impact on her entire species.

The first couple times you went through this process, it must have been exhilarating.

KRISTINE TOMPKINS, CONSERVATIONIST: It's exhilarating still but so many things can go wrong.

WEIR: Mini is Set to become the first wild-born jaguar to be relocated for the purposes of conservation.

I saw you combing her hair like a -- like a mom.

TOMPKINS: Yes. It's a little like that. It's a little like that.

WEIR: Kristine Tompkins used to be the CEO of the apparel brand Patagonia. She is now an icon of species conservation and earth repair, along with her late husband, Doug, founder of The North Face, the couple was so inspired by the success of the U.S. national park system that they wanted to replicate it in South America.

Fueled by a burning desire to protect the Patagonian wilderness from the ravages of cattle ranches and soy plantations, they purchased two million acres in Chile and Argentina.

But that didn't feel right. So they decided to give it all away in the largest private land donation in history.

TOMPKINS: Crazy though it may have seemed to them then we were doing what we were saying.

WEIR: That spurred investment from the governments of Chile and Argentina to create a much larger series of parks. But many of the animals were already gone.

You want to describe the passenger behind us, Kris?

TOMPKINS: So you are sitting, I'd say eight inches from the head of a wild, female jaguar who is awake.

WEIR: If everything goes according to plan and she hooks up with all these other jaguars.

TOMPKINS: Yes. WEIR: With Chaco.

TOMPKINS: Yes.

WEIR: What a story she's going to have to tell them.

Ok, Mini the jaguar.

TOMPKINS: Ok, little jaguar.

WEIR: We are here.

[01:54:44]

WEIR: Mini's new home is here in El Impenetrable National Park. It sits within the second largest continuous forest in South America called Gran Chaco, stemming from an indigenous word meaning "hunting land" and hunt they did. Over centuries here, ranchers hunted the big cats until they were nowhere to be found. But then in 2019, Hope, a park ranger, discovered the tracks of a solitary male jaguar and then a second one a little later on.

The only problem? No females to mate with, meaning these lone males might have been the last ones left.

After a bumpy and dusty ride through the Gran Chaco forest, Mini's finally set for the first stage of her release.

She spends five months in this enclosure, adjusting to the drier forests of El Impenetrable. Now, with regulatory approval cleared, she's free.

But no pressure, Mini. If she's successfully managed to mingle with one of those two males, the region's top cat could be back.

TOMPKINS: So many species were gone. And now I can honestly say this. They're back and they're thriving. I mean, we're really proud of what we're doing and we're not going to stop it, but we need to be looking at a continental scale.

This is like the Hail Mary pass of conservation. That's how I see it. And I'm 74, so I'm not going to see the end of this, but I'm happy about that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: If that doesn't bring a tear to your eye, you don't have a heart.

Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause.

Our special coverage of the death of Pope Francis continues at the top of the hour -- Isa Soares in Rome, Rosemary Church here in Atlanta.

See you right back here tomorrow.

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