Associated Press via Politico; Pope Leo XIV celebrates first Easter vigil, calls for harmony and peace in a world torn by war
"Pope Leo XIV, carrying a tall, lit candle through a darkened and silent St. Peter’s Basilica, ushered in Christianity’s most joyous celebration with his first Easter vigil service as pontiff Saturday night, urging that Easter would bring harmony and peace to a world torn by wars."
"As Leo XIV approaches his first Easter as pope, a new era of American military might cloaked in religious righteousness is presenting him with a challenge: How to confront a vision of God being articulated by the Trump administration and its supporters that sounds radically different than the view of the Vatican, spiritual epicenter of the world’s largest Christian faith.
The administration’s depictions of a warlike God who picks sides have startled some in the Holy See, while Leo has felt compelled to counter them. He has done so repeatedly in recent weeks, most pointedly on Palm Sunday, saying God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”"
MSTYSLAV CHERNOV, Associated Press; Names on a list: Fleeing Mariupol, one checkpoint at a time
"The absence of information in a blockade accomplishes two goals.
Chaos is the first. People don’t know what’s going on, and they panic. At first I couldn’t understand why Mariupol fell apart so quickly. Now I know it was because of the lack of communication.
Impunity is the second goal. With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted. If not for us, there would be nothing.
That’s why we took such risks to be able to send the world what we saw, and that’s what made Russia angry enough to hunt us down.
I have never, ever felt that breaking the silence was so important."
Mark Sweney, The Guardian; Keyboard warriors: Ukraine’s IT army switches to war footing
"And so far, the plans to maintain digital resilience have helped defy expectations about the level of disruption expected from the full-scale invasion by Russian forces...
“Not everyone is good with a gun,” says the IT Ukrainian Association’s Vasyuk. “People should be used as efficiently as they can. We are fighting with guns, with laptops, we will keep on going.”"
