NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-16-2025 11PM EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

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You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing. Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast. Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about. It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR and WBUR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen has visited a Salvadoran prison where a mistakenly deported Maryland man is being held.

But NPR's Luke Garrett reports that Van Hollen was not allowed to see the U.S. detainee. Senator Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, told reporters in El Salvador that the Trump administration is in violation of the Supreme Court, which ordered the White House to, quote, facilitate, end quote, the return of Abrego Garcia. The United States Embassy here has told me they've received no direction from the Trump administration to help facilitate his release. Van Hollen also met with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, who denied the senator in-person or phone access to Abre his release. Van Hollen also met with Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa, who denied the senator in person or phone access to Abrego Garcia.

President Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt, criticized Van Hollen for the trip. She called Abrego Garcia a terrorist and said, quote, he will never live in the United States again. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. California leaders are asking a federal court to halt President Trump's tariffs, arguing in a lawsuit that he exceeded his authority by imposing them. From Member Station KQED, Marisa Lagos reports from San Francisco. Governor Gavin Newsom says the 10 percent across the board tariffs, as well as higher tariffs levied against Mexico, Canada, and China, are not legal and are hurting both businesses and consumers.

He appeared at a family-owned almond farm in California's Central Valley Wednesday morning. No state is poised to lose more than the state of California. So that's our state of mind. That's why we're asserting ourselves on behalf of 40 million Americans. The suit argues Trump needs congressional authorization for actions with such broad economic consequences. White House spokesman Kush Desai responded in a statement saying Newsom should be focusing on California's problems.

For NPR News, I'm Marisa Lagos in San Francisco. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promising research on the causes of autism, saying that cases are rising at an alarming rate. Kennedy calls autism a preventable disease, while researchers say it is a complex disorder that affects the brain. Studies have found no single cause,

although scientists say there are genetic factors. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says new tariffs are likely to cause a temporary rise in inflation, which remains above the central bank's 2 percent target. With a solid economy and low unemployment, Powell says policymakers are holding off any decision on interest rates until they get more clarity. We'll get the initial reading on first quarter GDP in a couple of weeks. The data we have in hand so far suggests that growth has slowed

in the first quarter of this year from last year's solid pace. Despite strong motor vehicle sales, overall consumer spending appears to have grown modestly. Paul says prices rose at an annual rate of 2.3 percent during March. This is NPR. A massive power outage has left Puerto Rico's 1.4 million residents in the dark. Hotels were near capacity and using generators as thousands of tourists prepare to celebrate Easter on the island. Hundreds of thousands of residents are without water. The cause of the outage is unclear, although Puerto Rico has struggled with repeated outages

since a 2017 hurricane damaged its aging power grid. In the atmosphere of a distant planet, scientists have detected chemical signatures that could suggest the presence of life. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boish reports, some scientists are excited while some others are skeptical. The planet orbits a star about 124 light years away. Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to study the tiny fraction of starlight that filtered through its atmosphere.

Their analysis detected an abundance of sulfur-based gases that, on Earth, are made only by life, such as marine microbes. Astronomer Nikhu Madhusadan is with the University of Cambridge. To be very frank, it was astounding. I had never imagined that this is what we would see. He says this planet could be an ocean world teeming with alien life, but the detection of these gases needs to be confirmed, and there may be unrecognized ways of making them without life.

Nell Greenfield, Boyce, NPR News. US futures are higher in after hours trading on Wall Street. On Asia Pacific markets, shares are hired. This is NPR News. You want to follow what's happening in Washington, D.C., but you don't want to be scrolling This is NPR News.