NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-18-2025 7PM EDT

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

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These days, there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Louise Schiavone Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Kilmar Abrego-Garcia says he was shocked when he was picked up and sent to El Salvador's notorious Supermax prison. Senator Chris Van Hollen, just back from El Salvador, told reporters the Trump administration is obliged to return Abrego-Garcia for due

process. The Trump administration is expanding its pressure campaign to force Harvard University to crack down on campus activism. Now international students are at issue. NPR's Adrienne Florido has the latest. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has demanded that the school turn over the records of foreign students who have been disciplined for participating in campus protests or illegal activity. In a letter obtained by NPR, Noem gave the school until April 30. If it doesn't comply, she said the government will revoke Harvard's permission to enroll foreign students. The administration has been widening its crackdown

on foreign students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. Last week it sent Harvard a list of demands, including ones it said were aimed at forcing the school to police anti-Semitism. Harvard refused to comply. As punishment, the government has frozen billions in federal funding. Adrienne Flaherido, NPR News. A federal judge has blocked mass layoffs at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. NPR's Laurel Wamsley reports. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson halted the Trump administration's

attempt to lay off most of the staff at the Consumer Finance Watchdog, saying the action may violate a court order. A day earlier, reduction in force notices were sent to more than 1,400 employees at the Bureau. A three-judge panel ruled last week that the CFPB could conduct a reduction in force if it made a, quote, particularized assessment to determine which employees were unnecessary to the Bureau's duties. CFPB's union challenged the layoffs in court,

arguing the agency had not done the careful assessment required, and the Bureau wouldn't have enough staff to perform its duties. The ruling is the latest turn in the Trump administration's effort to gut an agency created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Laurel Wamsley, NPR News, Washington. The Trump administration has redirected government websites about COVID-19 to a White House page dedicated to a controversial theory about the virus source. NPR's Rob Stein has more.

The original federal websites had provided the public with basic information about COVID-19, such as vaccines, treatment, and testing. But those sites are gone and now direct visitors to the White House website and a page titled Lab Leak, The True Origins of COVID-19. That theory argues the virus escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan, China and then spread around the world. Most scientists believe that the virus most likely originated naturally in a wild animal and then spread to people in a market located in Wuhan. Rob Stein, NPR News.

This is NPR. The federal government is taking control of a long-stalled project to renovate New York's Penn Station. From Member Station WNYC, Stephen Nesson reports. Penn Station is owned by Amtrak, but the agency has been working with the MTA on plans to redevelop the station. The MTA leases part of it for its Long Island Railroad commuter trains and has already renovated part of the train hall it uses. The MTA has been planning a $7 billion rehab of the rest of the space, which is dark, dingy, and has very low ceilings,

and is used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. But no one has agreed to a plan. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy slammed the MTA, saying the agency is inefficient and wastes money. New York governor Kathy Hochul has been in negotiations with President Trump over Penn Station and calls it a win for New Yorkers who won't have to spend any money on the project now. For NPR News, I'm Stephen Nesson in New York. India continues to detain an American man who defied restrictions and visited the remote North Sentinel Island in the Indian Ocean to reach out to an isolated tribe. Mikhailo Viktorovich Polyakov, a 24-year-old YouTuber from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested

March 31, two days after he arrived on the island. He left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering for the tribe. He suspected of violating Indian laws that carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Visitors are banned from traveling within three miles of the island, whose population has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News. Having news at your fingertips is great, but sometimes you need an escape.

And that's where Shortwave comes in. We're a joy-filled science podcast driven by wonder and curiosity that will get you out of your head and in touch with the world around you. Listen now to Shortwave, the science podcast from NPR.