NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-18-2025 6PM 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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Kilmar Abrego-Garcia, the man mistakenly sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador

where he expressed concerns for his security, has been moved to a different facility. Senator Chris Van Hollen related the news to reporters upon returning from a visit in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia. He called on the Trump administration to return the man to the U.S. to receive due process. President Trump is backing up his Secretary of State's comments on the U.S. potentially pulling away from peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. NPR's Deepa Shivaram reports.

President Trump says he hopes Russian leader Vladimir Putin isn't stalling on a deal and reiterated that he wants to see a deal get done. But he left the door open on the U.S. pulling out of helping secure a peace deal. If for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say you're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people, and we're going to just take a pass. But hopefully we won't have to do that. If the U.S. isn't involved in negotiating an end to the war, it's unclear if any other nation would be able to step in.

Deepa Sivaram, NPR News. The State Department annually releases human rights reports on every country around the world. This year, those reports will look different. NPR's Graham Smith has details. Internal State Department documents reviewed by NPR show the Trump administration is dropping multiple categories of human rights abuses from its annual country reports. No longer will the U.S. call out governments for violations against the freedom to privacy, the right to free and fair

elections, or the right to peacefully assemble. More than 20 kinds of violations are being stripped out, according to these documents, to comply with recently issued executive orders from the White House, among them violence against minorities and disabled people and serious government corruption. Human rights defenders tell NPR they're concerned the U.S. is abandoning its post as a supporter of personal freedoms and that this will send the wrong message to authoritarian governments. Graham Smith, NPR News. An escalating trade war may soon make Chinese goods harder to find in the United States.

NPR's John Ruich has more from a massive trade fair in Canton, China. At the Canton Fair in southern China, tens of thousands of Chinese companies display products and customers from around the world come to wheel and deal. But if you ask about trade with the U.S., it's grim. Monica Liang is a sales manager at a company that makes juicers and blenders. Customers from the U.S. have halted orders, she says, and products are piling up in warehouses. Some here expressed optimism that China and the U.S. would strike a deal and avert disaster. But until then, few seem to be selling goods across the Pacific.

And many say they're looking for new markets altogether. John Ruech, NPR News, Guangzhou, China. Wall Street, all exchanges close today for Good Friday. This is NPR. Amid heightened tensions between federal judges and the Trump administration, the federal judiciary is calling on Congress to spend more on security for judges. Two federal judges appointed by Republican presidents wrote a letter to congressional appropriators. They advise that heightened online security screenings, such as scrubbing personal information, is underway for more than five dozen judges handling lawsuits against the Trump administration.

Festivities are underway in Massachusetts for the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington and Concord at the start of the Revolutionary War. From member station WBUR in Boston, Miriam Wasser reports. ["The Star-Spangled Banner"] Every year, reenactors in full costume and with 18th century muskets recreate the so-called shot heard around the world in Lexington and the battle at the Old North Bridge in Concord.

But this year's celebrations are gonna be different and a whole lot bigger. Local officials are expecting hundreds of thousands of history buffs from around the country to attend. There will also be a live reenactment of Paul Revere's famous horse ride, big parades, several Fife and drum cores, and a skydiving performance

by the US Army's Golden Knights parachute team. For NPR News, I'm Miriam Wosser. The 129th running of the Boston Marathon takes place on the 250th anniversary of Patriots Day in Boston on Monday. This year's marathon has more than 30,000 entrants from 128 countries. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.