7. State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) predicts that all remaining votes in Alabama’s 2025 Senate session will require cloture to overcome Democratic filibusters, signaling that many bills, including tax cuts, may fail due to time constraints. The strategy, endorsed by Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth, follows a contentious Senate session where Republicans used cloture to pass six bills, but now Republicans will leverage their supermajority to push through required priorities by limiting debate and killing broadly supported legislation.

6. Fighting is back on in Ukraine after an Easter “truce“, and a failed attempt by Ukraine to get a 30-day truce. President Donald Trump warned that the U.S. will withdraw from brokering a Russia-Ukraine peace deal unless significant progress is made soon, expressing frustration with the lack of advancement in negotiations. Speaking at the White House, Trump emphasized he is not being “played” by either side. Obviously, the media is declaring this is just what Putin wants.

5. U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Huntsville) called for abolishing NPR’s $600 million federal appropriation, arguing that the outlet operates as a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party and promotes biased narratives. Strong’s stance aligns with a broader Republican pushes to defund public broadcasting, citing NPR’s coverage as evidence of liberal overreach, though NPR defenders argue it provides essential journalism for underserved communities. The proposal faces an uphill battle in Congress, with no clear timeline for action, but reflects growing conservative frustration with federally funded media amid polarized political discourse.

4. The Department of Homeland Security revoked the visas of 15 international students at Auburn University as part of a broader Trump administration immigration crackdown, and the university is pledging to provide legal and academic support to affected students. The revocations, primarily targeting students from India and China, lack clear explanations, raising concerns about the decision – which could be cleared up by the federal government if it wanted to.

3. The first Latin American pontiff, Pope Francis, died Easter Monday at age 88. His aggressive liberal actions and stances on immigration, “climate change,” LGBTIA@2L!S+, and Israeli conflict with Hamas (he put a keffiyeh in a Nativity scene) often clashed with conservative factions within the Catholic Church. His death, announced by Cardinal Kevin Farrell, followed a battle with double pneumonia, marking the end of a 12-year papacy.

2. President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan criticized President Joe Biden’s and Vice President Kamala Harris’s immigration policies for releasing an alleged MS-13 gang member from ICE detention. Homan claimed it and all of the other releases endangered communities and fueled violent crime. But the deportation of the wife-beating, gang-banging, human-trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador sparked Democratic backlash and that continued through the weekend. U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) repeatedly avoided confirming or denying whether Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, arguing that focusing on the allegation distracts from the Trump administration’s violation of his due process rights. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito dissented in a deportation case “literally in the middle of the night,” arguing the court’s late-night order to block a Trump administration immigration action was rushed and lacked transparency, undermining the judicial process, which would seem to be hard to do. The case, involving challenges to Trump’s mass deportation plans, saw the majority temporarily halt the policy with a 7-2 ruling with Alito warning that such interventions could embolden legal challenges to executive authority.

1. Protests under the “No Kings” banner erupted across the U.S., including in Alabama, some said “Hands Off” and others said “economic blackout” targeting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their perceived influence over government. Marchers decried Trump’s policies and Musk’s role in the Department of Government Efficiency in the latest of a string of never-ending protests. Demonstrators, numbering in the hundreds in cities like Birmingham, expressed fears of authoritarianism, fascism, and democracy being deleted. They are calling for Trump to be removed when they are really just upset about his agenda.