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National

Pope Francis surprised a St. Peter's Square, Vatican, congregation by appearing in a wheelchair toward the end of a mass for the sick and health care workers.

The big picture: It marked the 88-year-old pontiff's first public appearance since leaving on March 23 Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he was treated for double pneumonia after being admitted with bronchitis symptoms on Feb. 14.

Ahead of Easter Sunday on April 20, the holiest days of the Catholic Church's year, doctors prescribed the pope with two months of rest and recovery.

Details: Francis had no scheduled appearances on Sunday, according to the Vatican.

After the final blessing, the pope said to the cheering crowd: "Have a good Sunday, and thank you all very much."

Go deeper... Pope Francis is back home: Here's what his recovery will entail

Pope Francis is back home: Here's what his recovery will entail

Pope Francis makes 1st public appearance since leaving hospital

Sitting in a wheelchair,  the pope thanked the cheering crowd at a  a mass for the sick and healthcare workers.

 Pope Francis, seen wearing an oxygen breathing apparatus, gestures during a surprise appearance at the end of a mass for the sick and healthcare workers on St. Peter's square in The Vatican, on April 6, 2025. 

Pope Francis, seen wearing an oxygen breathing apparatus, gestures during a surprise appearance at the end of a mass for the sick and health care workers in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, on Sunday. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images

Health

Conflicts, policies and powers are intersecting and shaping the world. Breaking news and analysis of national security, foreign policy and global crises.

World

The world faces an "economic nuclear winter" if President Trump doesn't immediately pause his sweeping reciprocal tariffs, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman said Sunday night.

Why it matters: The billionaire Ackman, a staunch Trump supporter, put the market's fears about the fate of the global economy in the starkest terms possible.

What they're saying: "The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a time out and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system.   Alternatively, we are heading for a self-induced, economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down," Ackman wrote in a lengthy post to X.

Zoom out: Ackman's Sunday post follows another Saturday where he suggested the world would be better off with a pause on Wednesday's reciprocal tariffs, warning of a "potentially severe" recession otherwise.

Sunday's rhetoric, though, raised the stakes. 

Between the lines: Ackman's new post acknowledged the administration's position that decades of unfair trade practices by other nations disadvantaged the U.S.

But he said the downsides of rushing into a tariff regime were far worse, framing the current moment as an "opportunity" for Trump to pause the tariffs for 90 days and negotiate.

The alternative, he said, was that "business investment will grind to a halt, consumers will close their wallets and pocket books, and we will severely damage our reputation with the rest of the world that will take years and potentially decades to rehabilitate."

Context: Ackman endorsed Trump last summer, shortly after an assassination attempt against the then-former president at a presidential campaign rally.

In October, he made a lengthy case on social media for Trump as the better candidate.

He later said he hoped Trump's victory would lead to the "implosion" of the Democratic Party.

Go deeper: Trump tariffs based on massive error, conservative think tank says

Trump tariffs based on massive error, conservative think tank says

Ackman warns of "economic nuclear winter" from Trump's tariffs

The billionaire Ackman, a staunch Trump supporter, put the market's fears about the fate of the global economy in stark terms.

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tariffs

Latest news on Wall Street, Corporate America and financial regulation.

Business

Top stories & latest news on the Federal Reserve, real-time data, plus the biggest shifts happening in the U.S. and global economy.

Economy

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) slammed the decision to fire Gen. Timothy Haugh,  the National Security Agency director and head of U.S. Cyber Command, without any explanation as "heartbreaking" Sunday.

The big picture: Haugh, along with his civilian deputy Wendy Noble, was fired Thursday, the same day that several members of President Trump's embattled National Security Council were ousted. 

Their firings followed conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer's Oval Office visit, where she pressed Trump to fire specific NSC staffers, Axios previously reported.

Trump denied to reporters on Air Force One Thursday that Loomer had anything to do with the firings but said "she makes recommendations ... and sometimes I listen to those recommendations."

Loomer on Friday wrote that Haugh and Noble had "been disloyal to President Trump" and "[t]hat is why they have been fired."

Driving the news: The decision to boot Haugh "puts us back," Bacon, a member of the Armed Services Committee and a former Air Force brigadier general, said on CBS News' "Face the Nation." "It hurts us."

He continued, "Russia and China are laughing at us today because we just fired the absolute best leaders."

What's next: Asked if there would be hearings on reporting that the firings came after Loomer, a far-right activist who has frequented Mar-a-Lago, met with Trump, Bacon said he's sure there will be "some oversight."

As the chairman of the Cyber, Information Technologies, and Innovation Subcommittee, Bacon said he would "guarantee" the panel would have questions for military leaders and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

He predicted administration officials would defend the decision as "the president's right." But he added, "He may have the constitutional authority to do it, but it doesn't make it right."

Bacon continued, "We have an opportunity to probe into this and ask why. And I have a responsibility to make clear this was wrong ... it hurt our country."

Between the lines: Bacon has broken with the administration and party members on several recent policy debates, including on its approach to Russia, sweeping tariffs and the proposed impeachment of federal judges.

Loomer's presence in Trump's circle has led GOP lawmakers, even close Trump allies, to sound alarms in the past. That friction was present during the 2024 campaign after she shared a racist post about former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Go deeper: MAGA media tiptoes around Loomer-Trump meeting and NSC firings

MAGA media tiptoes around Loomer-Trump meeting and NSC firings

GOP Rep: Adversaries are "laughing at us" over NSA firings

"Russia and China are laughing at us because we just fired the absolute best leaders," Bacon said.

Rep. Don Bacon arrives for a meeting on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Don Bacon arrives for the House Republican Conference caucus meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 10, 2024. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

2024 will be an election year like no other, as President Biden seeks re-election amid economic uncertainty, two wars and questions about his age. His likely foe, former President Trump, faces felony charges and vows revenge on his political enemies. Meanwhile, Americans generally are dissatisfied with those choices and are divided over immigration, race, education and more.

Politics & Policy

A federal judge on Sunday slammed the government over its "grievous error" in wrongly deporting a Salvadorian national and refused to lift her order demanding he be returned to the U.S.

The big picture: The government's shocking admission that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was legally living in Maryland, was erroneously deported has sparked further concern about the questionable tactics the government has used amid its immigration crackdown.

Abrego Garcia, who had "withholding from removal" status, was removed to El Salvador because of an "administrative error," Justice Department attorneys wrote in a Monday filing.

Driving the news: An immigration judge in 2019 granted Abrego Garcia protection from return to El Salvador, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis noted in her order. But "[s]ix years later, without notice, legal justification, or due process," the Trump administration deported him.

Veteran DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni, who is listed in court documents as the acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation, expressed his frustration in court Friday over the lack of information he had received from DOJ officials regarding Abrego Garcia's arrest and acknowledged he should not have been deported.

What she's saying: "That silence is telling," Xinis wrote. "As Defendants acknowledge, they had no legal authority to arrest him, no justification to detain him, and no grounds to send him to El Salvador—let alone deliver him into one of the most dangerous prisons in the Western Hemisphere."

The risk of harm to Abrego Garcia "shocks the conscience," Xinis wrote, adding that "[d]efendants have claimed—without any evidence—that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 and then housed him among the chief rival gang, Barrio 18."

Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of gang-related crimes, despite members of the administration accusing him of having such ties.

The intrigue: Reuveni was placed on administrative leave by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over the weekend, Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed on "Fox News Sunday."

Citing her direction to "vigorously advocate on behalf of the United States," Bondi said Reuveni "did not argue" for the Department of Homeland Security in court.

"He shouldn't have taken the case, he shouldn't have argued it if that's what he was going to do," she said, comparing his behavior in the case to "a defense attorney walking and conceding something in a criminal matter."

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

The latest: Xinis ordered Friday that the administration return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. by midnight Monday.

The administration quickly appealed the Friday order and has argued there's little they can do to get him back.

Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele responded to the news of Xinis' initial order on social media with a gif of a confused-looking cartoon rabbit. 

Between the lines: Xinis' order that Abrego Garcia be returned tees up yet another high-profile battle between the executive and judicial branches as the administration lashes out against judges who have hindered its sweeping policies.

Go deeper: Trump takes Venezuelan deportation case to Supreme Court

Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout with new information. 

Trump takes Venezuelan deportation case to Supreme Court

Judge blasts government over mistakenly deporting Maryland man

The risk of harm to the man wrongly deported "shocks the conscience," Judge  Xinis wrote.

Pam Bondi looks on during a White House cabinet meeting.

Pam Bondi during a cabinet meeting at the White House on Monday, March 24. Photo: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Donald Trump

Immigration

If there was one consistent message from Trump administration economic officials Sunday morning, it was this: We're not worried about the stock market plunging, and the cavalry isn't coming to save you from tariffs, either. 

Why it matters: Investors lost more than $6 trillion Thursday and Friday as stocks sank on President Trump's sweeping new tariff plan.

Major investors like hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman fear markets could be dire on Monday if Trump doesn't do something beforehand to ease up on the trade levies.

Yes, but: Trump's economic team made clear no one should count on any last-minute relief from the reciprocal tariffs that are set to be imposed Wednesday.

"The tariffs are coming. He announced it and he wasn't kidding. The tariffs are coming, of course they are," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on CBS's "Face the Nation."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sounded the same note on NBC's "Meet the Press," when asked if Trump was open to negotiating tariffs.

"No. No, no, no. I think that we are going to have to see the path forward. Because, you know, after 20, 30, 40, 50 years of bad behavior, you can't just wipe the slate clean," Bessent said. 

Zoom out: The administration's unified stance Sunday — from Lutnick, Bessent, National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett and senior trade adviser Peter Navarro — was that everyday Americans are less concerned about market fluctuations than the media.

"Americans who want to retire right now, Americans who have put away for years in their savings accounts, I - I think they don't look at the day-to-day fluctuations of what's happening," Bessent said.

Hassett, for his part, rejected any suggestion that the market declines were part of some greater plan to bring down stocks.

"It is not a strategy for the markets to crash. It's a strategy to create a golden age for the American worker," he told ABC's "This Week."

The bottom line: Economists widely believe that the tariffs, if not lifted, will cause inflation to rise and growth to fall, and lead ultimately to a U.S. and global recession.

But Lutnick, for one, looked past those impacts and framed the tariffs as the only way to restore American manufacturing as a matter of national security.

"There is no postponing," he said. "The president needs to reset global trade."

Trump administration to markets: Don't expect a rescue

Top Trump economic officials insisted the tariffs are coming Wednesday.

Monitors at the New York Stock Exchange showing CNBC coverage of the stock market's April 2025 declines.

Monitors at the New York Stock Exchange. Photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Stock market

Stock market news

A graphic showing the Trump administration's April 2025 tariff formula, annotated. In plain language, the administration calculated a country's reciprocal tariff rate by dividing the trade deficit by total imports. The trade deficit was defined as the difference between a country's total imports to and exports from the U.S. The formula has some values that end up equaled to 1, and do not affect the calculation.

Axios Visuals: 2025-04-03-tariff-formula

Source: United States Trade Representative; Graphic: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

The formula used by the Trump administration to levy reciprocal tariffs contains a serious math error that over-inflates the impact by about a factor of four, economists at the American Enterprise Institute said.

Why it matters: The conservative think tank says the error led to tariff rates massively higher than they should have been to achieve the goals the administration sought.

Catch up quick: After announcing the tariffs last Wednesday the Trump administration released a complicated-looking formula, which it said was developed with the Council of Economic Advisers, used to determine how to set the rates. 

It turns out the formula is simply the U.S. trade deficit with each country, divided by the value of the goods the U.S. imports from that country.

The error over-inflates tariff rates by about a factor of four, AEI's economists say.

Axios

Sunday's top stories

Pope Francis makes 1st public appearance since leaving hospital

Ackman warns of "economic nuclear winter" from Trump's tariffs

GOP Rep: Adversaries are "laughing at us" over NSA firings

Judge blasts government over mistakenly deporting Maryland man

Trump administration to markets: Don't expect a rescue

Trump tariffs based on massive error, conservative think tank says

MAGA media tiptoes around Loomer-Trump meeting and NSC firings

Trump just blew up America's China policy

Bessent: "No reason" for markets to price in recession

Key safety hotlines disrupted by HHS cuts

Scoop: RFK Jr. plans Texas trip after possible second measles-related death there