NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-18-2025 5PM EDT

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

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Imagine, if you will, a show from NPR that's not like NPR, a show that focuses not on the important but the stupid, which features stories about people smuggling animals in their pants and competent criminals in ridiculous science studies and call it Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me because the good names were taken. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Yes, that is what it is called wherever you get your podcasts. It is called Wherever You Get Your Podcast. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Fresh from El Salvador and a visit with Kilmar, Abrego Garcia, Maryland Democrat Chris Van

Holland told reporters at a Washington area airport that the man removed suddenly to a notorious maximum security prison was shocked by his apprehension and removal. Abrego Garcia told Senator Van Hollen that he did have concerns about his security at El Salvador's Seacock Prison and that nine days ago he was moved to a different facility. Van Hollen declared it's time for the U.S. to honor Abrego Garcia tearfully told Van Hollen that he wished to see his wife and son again. President Trump says the U.S. plans to finalize a rare earth minerals agreement with Ukraine next week. NPR's Greg Meyery reports the U.S. side of the deal isn't clear.

The White House and the President have been lying about this case from the beginning. They've been trying to change the subject from the beginning. As I said and the courts have said from the Supreme Court to the Fourth Circuit to the District Court what this is about is adhering to the Constitution, to the right of due process, and that's why we say bring Kilmar home so he can be afforded his rights under the Constitution. There are 36 new confirmed cases of measles connected to the West Texas outbreak. Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies reports. Five hundred and ninety-seven. That's the total of confirmed measles cases since late January,

the start of the outbreak, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services in their Friday update. Sixty-two of the patients have been hospitalized. There have been two fatalities in school-aged children. Despite claims by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the outbreak is not slowing down. Texas Health and Human Services say that due to the highly contagious nature of the virus, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and in the surrounding communities. I'm David Martin Davies in San Antonio. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson has paused President Trump's attempt to fire

nearly everyone at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She says she's worried the layoffs would violate her earlier order, stopping the administration from closing the bureau. The White House yesterday had moved to fire 1,500 people, leaving 200. Israeli airstrikes across Gaza have killed at least 25 people, including children, as the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel made his first public appearance in Jerusalem. Gaza hospitals say among the dead early Friday were 10 people in a refugee camp. This is NPR News in Washington. The U.S. government is to impose visa restrictions on more than 250 officials

of the Nicaraguan government. The UN says Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo have created a centralized and oppressive regime. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says with this latest move, the U.S. government has established visa restrictions on more than 2,000 officials in the co-presidency of Ortega and his wife. Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky has sanctioned three Chinese companies after he accused China of supplying weapons to Russia, an accusation NPR's Emily Fang says China has rejected.

Zelensky announced the sanctions on an aeronautics firm Russia, an accusation NPR's Emily Fang says China has rejected. Zelensky announced the sanctions on an aeronautics firm and two industrial component companies all registered in China. Ukraine's president had earlier released videos of two Chinese fighters Ukraine said they'd captured fighting with Russian forces. China has denied it sending fighters or weapons to Russia, saying Zelensky's allegations were groundless. But the Ukrainian sanctions are a reversal of Ukraine's studiously neutral stance towards

China, even though China has what it calls a no-limits partnership with Russia, inked just weeks before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Before that invasion, thousands of Ukrainian students studied in China, and China was Ukraine's biggest trading partner. Emily Fang, NPR News. After a year, Venice has decided to continue its so-called arrivals tax for day visitors to Venice. Started last year as a pilot program in the heavily visited Canal City, it's a five-year-old fee for passes purchased in advance. I'm Louise Givoni, NPR News, Washington.

Hey, it's A. Martinez. Even asivoni, NPR News, Washington.