NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-17-2025 6PM EDT

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

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Since Donald Trump took office in January a lot has happened. The White House Budget Office ordered a pause on all federal grants and loans The impact of the Trump administration's tariffs is already being felt in President Trump's efforts to radically Remake the federal government. The NPR politics podcast covers it all. Keep up with what's happening in Washington and beyond with the NPR politics podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News in Washington and beyond with the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Police in Florida say a man is in custody after shooting eight people on Florida State University's campus, killing two.

NPR's Greg Allen reports the suspect, the son of a sheriff's deputy, apparently used her gun in the shootings. Police identified 20-year-old Phoenix Eichner as the person responsible for the shootings, which left two dead and six people injured, one critically. Leon County Sheriff Walter McNeil said Eichner is an FSU student and the son of a longtime sheriff's deputy. Unfortunately, her son had access to one of her weapons, and that was one of the weapons that was found at the scene. Police recovered at the scene that handgun and a shotgun that they don't believe was used in the shooting.

Eichner didn't surrender when he was confronted by police and was shot and wounded. FSU's president said the community is heartbroken at the violence, but would support each other and get through it together. Greg Allen, NPR News. The Supreme Court now says it's agreed to hear oral arguments next month over the legality of a Trump administration executive order calling for an end to birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants and foreign residents. Justice is in an unsigned order for now left in place a lower court order that blocked the policy from taking

effect. Consolidating the appeals, the Supreme Court says it will hear our arguments on May 15th. Birthright citizenship is a right enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution. President Trump is again pressuring the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates and also suggesting he plans to replace Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Here's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. In a social media post, Trump criticized Powell for not having lowered interest rates recently, a move central banks use to boost the economy. He then wrote, quote, Powell's termination cannot come fast enough.

Trump appointed Powell to the chairmanship in 2018 and President Joe Biden reappointed him in 2022. Powell's current term is up in May 2026. In a Wednesday speech, Powell said that there might be both higher inflation and slower growth amid Trump's tariffs. Those two goals are in tension. Fixing one could mean making the other worse. Powell said it's unclear which the Fed would focus on. While Fed policymaking is independent of the president, Trump has many times criticized the Fed's choices under Powell. Danielle Kurtzlaven, NPR News.

Much like the way the Trump administration has been ratcheting up tariffs, it now says it is escalating its fight against the country's oldest and wealthiest university. After raising more than two billion dollars in grants to Harvard, the administration now says it will seek to revoke the university's ability to host international students who make up about 27% of the campus. The administration is also vowing to withdraw the school's tax-exempt status. Harvard this week became the first major university to openly defy the administration demand, aimed at cracking down on activism, which the administration says it's seeking to tie

to anti-Semitism. On Wall Street, the Dow was down 527 points today. You're listening to NPR. Ukraine says there's been significant progress and talks on a future minerals deal with the US. NPR's Stravonika Kissel reports from Kyiv. Ukraine has rejected initial proposals by the Trump administration because the terms that have left Ukrainians in debt for generations. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svitidenko, who is leading negotiations, wrote on her

Facebook page that the talks are still ongoing but moving in a positive direction. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed her report in a video address. If everything moves quickly and constructively, Zelensky said, the deal will produce economic results for both Ukraine and America. The Trump administration has been pushing for Ukraine to use mineral revenue to pay back previous U.S. military aid. Bloomberg News is reporting that newer drafts of the minerals deal do not acknowledge past U.S. military aid as a debt owed by Ukraine. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kyiv. Some users reported difficulty loading both the app and the desktop site. Others noted support issues. Spotify did not immediately provide more information on the outage. Critical futures prices moved higher today amidst the most for a possible trade deal between the US and the European Union. Oil was up $2.21 a

barrel, $64.68 a barrel. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. These days there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.