NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-16-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

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If you need a break from headline whiplash, listen to NPR's All Songs Considered. On our latest installment of music to calm the nerves and recalibrate your day, we reflect on the goodness of others and the enduring power of love through the songs of Max Richter, Leah Bertucci, Ruichi Sakamoto, and more. Listen to new episodes of All Songs Considered every Tuesday, wherever you get podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Senator Chris Van Hollen flew to El Salvador today to check on the Maryland man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.

Van Hollen met with El Salvador's vice president, was denied access to Kilmore Arbrego Garcia, NPR's Lou Gerdesmore. 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 Arbrego 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 Salvadorian 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, end quote. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says he is shutting down an office at the State Department that was reporting on Russian and Chinese disinformation. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports Rubio argues it was a ploy to crack down on conservative voices in the U.S.

In a statement, Rubio says he has closed what used to be called the Global Engagement Center. He says the office cost taxpayers more than $50 million a year. It was renamed at the end of the Biden administration after Republicans moved to defund the office, accusing it of silencing and censoring Americans. That ends now, Rubio says in his statement. The office was set up to monitor disinformation campaigns by U.S. adversaries, including Russia, China and Iran. During the Biden administration, it reported on the English language news channel Russia Today's influence operations, which led to U.S. sanctions.

Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Consumers boosted their spending last month in part in an effort to get ahead of the Trump administration. Tariffs retail sales were up 1.4%. Tech stocks drove Wall Street to another sell-off today. Chip maker NVIDIA issued a warning about the cost of President Trump's trade war. More from NPR's Maria Aspin. NVIDIA is the third largest U.S. company by market value thanks to its booming business of supplying the chips for artificial intelligence processors. But now President Trump is imposing new restrictions on how chip companies export their products,

especially to China. Nvidia warned investors that these new rules will cost it $5.5 billion, while rival AMD also said it's bracing for financial pain. Shares of both companies plunged. More broadly, investors were also spooked by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who warned that the central bank could face a quote, challenging scenario in trying to safeguard the U.S. economy from the impact of Trump's wide-ranging tariffs. Maria Aspin, NPR News, New York.

The Dow dropped nearly 700 points. This is NPR. In the atmosphere of a distant planet, scientists have detected chemical signatures that could suggest the presence of life. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce explained, some scientists are excited, others 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.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says children in the U.S. are of making them without life. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says children in the U.S. are being diagnosed with autism at what he termed an alarming rate. The Secretary directly contradicting researchers by saying autism is preventable and promising extensive studies to try to determine whether any environmental factors may be contributing to the developmental disorder. Kennedy's announcement comes on the heels of a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that estimates one in 31 USF children may have autism, an increase from the last survey. Autism is not considered a disease but a complex disorder that affects the brain. Critical futures prices closed higher today in New York.

I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.