NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-17-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

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Wait, wait, don't tell me. Fresh Air, Up First, NPR News Now, Planet Money, Ted Radio Hour, Thru Line, the NPR Politics Podcast, Code Switch, Embedded, Books We Love, Wildcard, are just some of the podcasts you can enjoy sponsor-free with NPR+. Get all sorts of perks across more than 20 podcasts with the bundle option. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. A shooting on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee today left several people injured. And Pierce Greg Allen has more. The shooting began just before noon near the Student Union in Tallahassee. Police responded quickly and evacuated students to safety. Tallahassee Memorial Hospital says it's

received six patients, one in critical condition and the rest in serious condition. NPR's Greg Allen reporting. The Supreme Court today deferred any ruling on President Trump's claim that there's no automatic guarantee to birthright citizenship in the Constitution. The court says it will hear arguments on May 15th with a decision expected this summer. The Trump administration has revoked or terminated the visas of dozens of international students attending universities in the D.C. area. For Member Station WAMU, Jackson Sineberg has more.

Jackson Sineberg Nearly every major university in the D.C. region has reported students having their visas revoked or terminated. The numbers of students affected range from the single digits at the Catholic University of America and Howard University to double digits at Georgetown and George Mason universities. Connor Martin is editor of the Georgetown Voice student paper. He says students are concerned about the lack of information about why visas are being terminated. I think there's a large sense of fear.

The cancellation of student visas comes as part of a larger immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. For NPR News, I'm Jackson Sidenberg in Washington, D.C. Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 40 people in the past 24 hours with multiple strikes targeting families sheltering in tents. That's according to Gaza's Health Ministry. And here's Ayah Batraoui has more. Overnight, Israeli attacks targeted three displaced families sheltering in makeshift tents,

two of them in northern Gaza and one in the south. Gaza's health ministry says 23 people were killed in those separate attacks. The Aburruz family was hit hardest, losing 10 people who burnt to death when their tent was struck in a sandy area called Moessi that Israel's military has told people to shelter in. Video from the incident shared by rescue crews shows a tent engulfed in fire. The death toll in Gaza from the past 18 months of war has surpassed 51,000 people killed by Israeli fire, a third of them children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry's public records. Ayah Batraoui, NPR News, Dubai. President Trump is pushing Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates, as the European

Central Bank did, for them to try to combat aftermath of Trump's tariffs. At the White House briefing today, Trump slammed Powell. I'm not happy with him. I let him know it and if I want him out, he'll be out of there real fast, believe me. But Trump appointed Powell a Republican, and his term doesn't end until next spring. Powell says Trump's new tariffs are likely to cause at least a temporary rise in prices, discouraging the Fed from cutting interest rates any further. Wall Street's trading in mixed territory at this hour.

The Dow is down 391, NASDAQ up nine. You're listening to NPR News. Scientists are reporting success using stem cells to treat Parkinson's disease. And Piers John Hamilton reports on two new studies in the journal Nature. The study showed that two different kinds of stem cells began making the chemical messenger dopamine after being transplanted into the brains of Parkinson's patients. In one study, 12 patients received either a low or high dose of neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells.

Dr. Lauren Studer of Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York says over the next 18 months, scientists used a standard rating scale to assess symptoms like tremor. You would expect every year to get two to three points worse. And actually the high dose group, they got about 20 points better. A team in Japan reported similar success using a different type of stem cell treatment. Researchers caution that it will take larger studies to confirm the results. John Hamilton, NPR News. In Texas, the State House voted this morning to create one of the biggest taxpayer-funded

school voucher programs, a big victory for private school choice activists, and it's a significant defeat for Democrats and teachers unions who worry that the vouchers will negatively impact public school budgets. The state Senate passed a similar bill, and now the two chambers will have to work out the details before the program, capped at $1 billion in its first year, heads to the governor's desk, where Greg Abbott is expected to sign it. The money can be used for private school and costs associated with homeschooling. This is President Trump and congressional Republicans are trying to get a national federal tax credit for private school vouchers passed.

I'm Janene Hurst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce. And I don't know, maybe this is a little out of listening to NPR News from Washington.