AURN News

Pope Francis, who just delivered his Easter blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, has died. Less than 24 hours after that final moment, the 88-year-old pope—who broke centuries of tradition and opened the church to the edges of society—passed away early Monday at his Vatican residence.

He was the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit, and the first in over 1,200 years to come from outside of Europe. But what set the pope apart was his posture—always leaning toward the poor, the forgotten, the outcast.

He called out President Donald Trump’s deportation policies. He called for action on climate. He challenged the church to confront its own sins. And just yesterday, he smiled and waved from the popemobile like he had years left to give.

Now begins a global period of mourning and the search for the next leader of the Catholic Church.

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60,000 families could lose their homes as a key federal housing program runs dry. Created to help survivors of abuse and homelessness, it now faces extinction. Will Congress step in before it’s too late?

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Prince died on April 21, 2016, but his legacy lives on. From “Purple Rain” to his endless vault of unreleased music, he reshaped pop, rock, and soul. We look back at the genius who defined a generation.

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When Biden dropped out of the 2024 race, Kamala Harris expected his full support. But a new book reveals he stalled—and she had to plead for his endorsement. Go inside the chaos, power struggles, and elite resistance that nearly tore the Democratic Party apart.

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The FDA is reeling from mass layoffs ordered by RFK Jr., gutting teams that keep our food and drugs safe. Now the agency is outsourcing critical safety work. Experts call it a dangerous move that puts lives at risk.

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On this day in 1969, members of Cornell’s Afro-American Society took over Willard Straight Hall to protest racism, judicial bias, and the university’s slow movement on Black studies. The occupation followed a burning cross found outside Wari House, a residence for Black women.

A violent clash with white fraternity members escalated tensions, prompting the students to arm themselves for protection. The image of them emerging with rifles made national headlines, drawing comparisons to wartime unrest.

The event sparked decades of change: the establishment of Africana Studies, new cultural living centers, and reforms in university governance. The takeover permanently reshaped Cornell’s identity, marking a pivotal chapter in campus and civil rights history.

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(AURN News) — According to a new best-seller, President Joe Biden’s closest advisers were aware of his cognitive decline long before he ended his re-election bid, but insiders say they continued to dismiss concerns—both internally and publicly. In “Fight,” journalists Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes detail how staffers, elected officials, and donors were kept in the dark or actively misled about the president’s condition.

“We detail this in a great deal in the book,” Parnes told AURN News. “You see President Biden at fundraisers, at a small fundraiser with a very small amount of donors there, and he needs fluorescent tape on the ground to sort of lead him from place to place. That’s more common in rallies and bigger arenas—not so common in someone’s house.”

Parnes continued: “Eric Swalwell from California comes face to face with him at a congressional picnic at the White House in 2023—so a year before the debate—and Biden, who ran against him in 2020, doesn’t recognize him. And Swalwell needs to cue him as to who he is.”

The book also recounts numerous moments like this, including a makeup artist who was assigned to travel with Biden to maintain a consistent appearance for public events.

“But clearly the White House was well aware of this sort of optics problem they had,” Parnes said.

Allen described what he says was a broader pattern of misinformation. “I think it’s deeply harmed,” Allen said of Biden’s legacy. “I think the country broadly—and certainly many of the Democrats we spoke to—felt like the inner circle around Biden had gaslit them about his condition to start with. You go through the various things: it felt like they were gaslit about the economy, particularly inflation.”

Allen said even internal staffers were misled about campaign data. “We even talked to campaign officials who said that they felt like they were being gaslit by the very top of the campaign,” he said. “They were being told things that simply weren’t true throughout the process, including where the race stood.”

Harris herself, according to the book, believed she would win on election night.

“Ultimately, Kamala Harris believed—at the end, on Election Day—that she’s going to win because her team has been telling her that she’s going to win,” Allen said.

The book describes these moments as not only frustrating but dangerous for a campaign that needed honesty, not spin. “They just kept gaslighting everyone,” Allen concluded.

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Chaos erupted today at Florida State University after a mass shooting left six people injured—one of them in critical condition.

It happened in broad daylight near the school’s bustling student union—a place typically packed with students grabbing food or prepping for finals.

Police say the suspect, who is now in custody, was armed with multiple weapons, including a handgun, a shotgun found inside the union, and another firearm discovered in the car. The suspect was also reportedly shot, though it's unclear by whom.

As of this report, FSU remains under a shelter-in-place order. Law enforcement is sweeping buildings. Students are being urged to call loved ones and stay away from the area. Classes and all events are canceled through tomorrow.

This marks Florida's sixth mass shooting this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive. There have been at least 30 in the state each year over the past five years.

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According to the Daily Tar Heel, Frank Brown, Ph.D., UNC’s first Black full professor and dean in the School of Education, died in March at age 89.

A pioneering scholar, Brown authored over 300 publications and held leadership roles at multiple universities. He secured funding for UNC’s first Black Cultural Center, became the first Black vice president of the American Educational Research Association, and was the inaugural dean of a doctoral-granting school at UNC.

Colleagues like J. John Harris III and Linda Tillman praised his mentorship and advocacy for Black scholars.

Brown’s work centered on desegregation post-Brown v. Board of Education, and his influence extended globally, including speeches at Oxford and the World Conference on Rights to Education.

Rest in power, Frank Brown.

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A federal judge just delivered a blow to Elon Musk’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. Labor unions sued to stop DOGE from accessing sensitive Labor Department systems, arguing that it violates the Federal Privacy Act.

Why? Because those systems hold deeply personal information—medical and financial records of millions of Americans. Think Social Security numbers, employment histories, and even disability claims.

Judge John Bates said the lawsuit can move forward. Even if the sphere literally encompasses only one row of millions in a data set, it amounts to an intrusion, like peeking into someone's home, he said.

Not all of the union's arguments stuck. Claims against Health and Human Services for healthcare privacy breaches were tossed out.

But the bigger question remains—does DOGE, a team not created by Congress, even have the legal authority to poke around agencies like Labor?

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