Missouri tornado kills 5; Pope leads Holy Thursday service; RFK Jr. challenging Biden in 2024 | Hot off the Wire podcast

On this version of Hot off the Wire:

» Authorities say five people were killed when a tornado tore through an area of rural southeastern Missouri before dawn on Wednesday. The twister caused significant destruction in and around the small communities of Glen Allen and Grassy, about 50 miles south of St. Louis.

» Pope Francis has begun the first of two major Holy Thursday ceremonies. Francis is presiding at mid-morning Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

» More than 150 Catholic priests and others associated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore sexually abused more than 600 children over the past 80 years.

» A New York City drug dealer has pleaded guilty to providing “The Wire” actor Michael K. Williams with fentanyl-laced heroin, causing his death.

» Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and scion of one of the country’s most famous political families, has announced he will run for president. The 69-year-old’s campaign to challenge incumbent President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination is considered a long shot.

» In sports, the Bucks wrapped up the NBA’s No. 1 seed, the Nuggets have the West’s top seed, the Rays remained baseball’s only unbeaten team and Purdue’s Zach Edey won the Wooden Award.

From the original version of Hot off the Wire:

» The Midwest continued to deal with severe weather weather across the Midwest and South, while the East was seeing unseasonably warm weather and the West was unusually cold.

» Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won new pledges of military and economic cooperation on a state visit to staunch ally Poland.

» Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who is being sought for war crimes for deporting children from Ukraine, says they were taken for their safety and Moscow is coordinating with international organizations to return them to their families. 

» Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday repealing Michigan’s abortion ban from 1931 that made it a crime to assist in an abortion.

» Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb on Wednesday signed a bill that bans all gender-affirming care for minors in the state, joining at least 12 other states that have enacted laws restricting or banning such care. 

» President Joe Biden will travel to the United Kingdom and Ireland next week in part to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday accord.

» First lady Jill Biden will represent the U.S. at the coronation of King Charles III next month, President Joe Biden told the royal during a Tuesday call, the White House said. No sitting U.S. president has ever attended a British royal coronation.

» Republican state Rep. Dan Knodl has won an open Wisconsin Senate seat, creating a GOP supermajority in the chamber that could be used to impeach Gov. Tony Evers and other office holders.

» Klaus Teuber, creator of the beloved Catan board game in which players compete to establish settlements on a fictional island, has died after a brief illness, according to a statement from his family. He was 70.