NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-18-2025 11AM EDT

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. could, quote, move on if a peace deal is not reached soon between Ukraine and Russia. Rubio is in Paris for talks about the war. It's not clear if he means dropping U.S. efforts to get a truce or if the U.S. would walk away from commitments to Ukraine. A federal judge has again blocked Doge staffers operating inside the Social Security Administration from accessing sensitive personal information. NPR's Stephen Fallow reports the data is on millions of Americans. U.S. District Judge Ellen Lipton-Hollander wrote late Thursday that the legal issue isn't

with the work that Doge wants to do inside the Social Security Administration, but rather how they want to do the work. Last month, Hollander issued a temporary restraining order blocking Doge staffers from sensitive social security databases because they couldn't explain why they needed unfettered access to personally identifiable information. And granting the preliminary injunction, the judge said that's a question the Trump administration still can't answer. Stephen Fowler, NPR News.

Authorities in Tallahassee, Florida have arrested a suspect in yesterday's deadly mass shooting at Florida State University. Two people were killed and six others wounded. The suspect is a student and the son of a sheriff's deputy. Officials allege his mother's former service weapon was used in the attack. NPR's Greg Allen says the incident began around noon Eastern time. A campus-wide alert went out that an active shooter was reported near the Student Union building. Police responded quickly and began evacuating students. It set the whole campus into lockdown. By 3 p.m. yesterday law enforcement said the campus had been secured and the threat was over. Police say the shooter didn't

surrender when they confronted him and he was shot and wounded. NPR's Greg Allen reporting. The National Weather Service says critical fire weather conditions persist in the southwest today, especially New Mexico. Windy and dry conditions could help fuel wildfires there. Hamas says that Israel's latest proposal for a temporary ceasefire does not meet its criteria for permanently ending the war. Meanwhile families of Israeli hostages are demanding that the Israeli government agree to a deal that frees them all in one phase even at the cost of ending the war. And Piers Ehebetraoui reports.

Israel's ceasefire offer would have released half the living hostages still held in Gaza and eased a weeks-long blockade on the territory where aid groups say food is running out. Crucially, it would have also halted for six weeks Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives that Gaza's health ministry says have killed around 1,700 people since the last ceasefire ended a month ago. Israel's proposal, however, had a new explicit demand that Gaza be disarmed with Hamas giving up its weapons. The group's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said in public remarks, Hamas is prepared

to release all Israeli hostages for a complete end to the war and Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. But he said resistance is a quote, natural right of all people under occupation and said weapons are linked to that. This is NPR. The State Department releases annual reports on the state of human rights in other countries. NPR has reviewed internal State Department documents that show the Trump administration will no longer track more than 20 categories of human rights abuses in these reports.

It won't check for violations of privacy rights or whether there's been violence against minorities or people with disabilities. And it won't track whether other countries are observing their citizens' right to free and fair elections. China's Foreign Ministry has rejected as quote, groundless, Ukrainian President Zelensky's accusation that Beijing has supplied weapons to Russia. And Piers Awen-Tsao has more. The statement came a day after President Zelenskyy alleged at a press conference that China was sending weapons and gunpowder to Russia, and even producing weapons on Russian territory.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded at a regular news briefing, saying China has never provided lethal weapons to any party involved in the Ukraine conflict. He said, quote, China's position on the Ukraine issue has always been clear and, quote, we've been actively working to promote a ceasefire and push for peace talks. Ling added that China opposes what he called groundless accusations and political manipulation, pointing out that Ukraine itself has said most components in Russian weapons come from the United States and other Western nations. Alwin Tao, NPR News, Beijing. This year's NBA Finals open tomorrow. The top seed in the NBA's Western Conference is the Oklahoma

City Thunder. The top seed in the Eastern Conference is the Cleveland Cavaliers. This is NPR.