BLACK HAWK
Two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a training incident on Wednesday night in Trigg County, Kentucky, officials said in a statement. The Black Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division were on a "routine training mission" when they crashed at about 10 p.m. local time, Army officials said. "The command is currently focused on caring for the servicemembers and their families," Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for the Fort Campbell Public Affairs Office, said in a statement. Gov. Andy. Beshear of Kentucky said he received "early reports of a helicopter crash and fatalities are expected." The Kentucky State Police and Division of Emergency Management were responding, he said in a statement. "We will share more information as available," Beshear said. "Please pray for all those affected." Trigg County, where the crash occurred, is about 25 miles northwest of Fort Campbell, a military installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border. 

POPE FRANCIS
Pope Francis has been diagnosed with a respiratory infection, according to the Vatican Press Office.  He was taken to The Gemelli University Hospital in Rome, where he will be required to stay for several days to receive "appropriate medical treatment," the press office said.  It is unknown what type of respiratory infection the pope has or what type of care he will need.

NASHVILLE SCHOOL SHOOTING
The First Lady attended a candlelight vigil Wednesday night for the victims at the Covenant school shooting. Nashville Mayor John Cooper and a member of the city council hosted the "Nashville Remembers" event.

BUDGET
The White House continues to put pressure on House Republicans to release a budget plan and show Americans what spending cuts they want to pursue in negotiations with President Biden.  Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said all they have seen and heard so far from Republicans are “excuses after excuses after excuses” and she called on the House GOP to be “transparent to the American people.”  Jean-Pierre kept up the drumbeat that Republicans voted 3 times during the Trump Administration to raise the debt ceiling without conditions and should do the same now to avoid a government default.  On Tuesday, Biden called on House Republicans to release their budget plan before Congress leaves for Easter recess

SENATE
-The Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal two 20-year-old congressional authorizations which allowed the use of military force against Iraq. The measure passed the Democrat-led Senate in a bipartisan 66-30 vote and now heads to the Republican-controlled House.
-Also in the Senate, Pennsylvania's John Fetterman is expected to return to Congress the week of April 17, after the upcoming two-week recess, according to a source familiar with the matter. The Democratic lawmaker, who suffered a stroke during his campaign, checked himself into an impatient facility on Feb. 15 while suffering from depression.

RUSSIA/NEW START
After White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Tuesday that the U.S. had stopped sharing some nuclear data with Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that all forms of START notifications, including warnings about test launches, have been suspended.  This might seem rather ominous on its face, especially considering the growing tension between the United States and Russia since the latter's invasion of Ukraine last year.  Late Wednesday, State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel downplayed worry over those remarks, saying U.S. diplomats had yet to receive any official communication from Moscow indicating a shift, brushing it off as just the latest incidence of saber-rattling. Beyond not having received word from Russia, perhaps a bigger reason U.S. officials are keeping cool heads is that the New START isn't the only treaty out there that requires the countries to give each other advance notice when they launch a missile. There's also the Reagan-era 1988 Ballistic Missile Launch Notification Agreement, which "provides for notification, no less than 24 hours in advance, of the planned date, launch area, and area of impact for any launch" for intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.  So far, Russia appears to be adhering to those terms.