NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-19-2025 6AM EDT

Episode Date: April 19, 2025

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Do you remember when discovering a new artist felt like finding buried treasure? At All Songs Considered, NPR's music recommendation podcast, we put that kind of magic back into discovering new tracks. We're here to make the hunt for new music easy, delivering you the cream of the crop from every genre. We'll help you make music feel fun again, only on All Songs Considered from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. The Trump administration is reclassifying 50,000 federal workers to make it easier to fire

them. The move follows mass firings under Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, as NPR's Danielle Kertz-Lehmann reports. Danielle Kertz-Lehmann The Office of Personnel Management proposed a rule that would move the reclassification process forward. Trump will still have to sign another executive order to implement it. The policy is also known as Schedule F, and it would remove federal civil service protections

from around 2% of the federal workforce, according to the White House. Those workers would instead be at-will employees who serve at the pleasure of the sitting president. The president wrote about the policy on social media on Friday saying, quote, if these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the president or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News. Danielle Kutuznick, NPR News. The Supreme Court is ordering the Trump administration to temporarily halt plans to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

The brief order overnight came in an emergency appeal filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of migrants being held at an immigration facility in North Texas. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Trump administration has redirected government websites about COVID-19 to a White House page. Here's MPR's Rob Stein. 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 trueins 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. Today marks the 30th anniversary of the nation's deadliest act of domestic terrorism. Grayson Wheeler with member station KOSU reports on how Oklahoma City plans to commemorate the bombing that destroyed the Alpha P Murrah Federal Building in 1995.

People will gather across the street from where the Murrah Building once stood to hear remarks from community members and former President Bill Clinton. The crowd will observe 168 moments of silence, one for each person killed in the attack. OKC Mayor David Holt tells KWTV that he sees the anniversary on two levels. One is to honor those who were killed, those who survived, and those changed forever, but also to share lessons of the event forward with people who maybe weren't even alive. And that's a growing number of people every day.

Next weekend, thousands of runners will race in the OKC Memorial Marathon, which funds the OKC National Memorial Museum. For NPR News, I'm Grayson Wheeler in Oklahoma City. This is NPR, a government agency that's a major source of funding for science and engineering research is canceling numerous grants. The National Science Foundation says the projects are not aligned with agency priorities. Details from NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce. In 2010, Congress told the NSF to support efforts to expand the participation of women

and individuals from underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. But NSF now says it's ending funding for projects that involve diversity, equity, and inclusion. The agency says projects designed to boost participation need to be broad engagement activities that don't favor or limit the participation of any particular groups. NSF also announced it will not support any research with the goal of combating quote misinformation or quote disinformation, saying it's a matter of free speech rights. Nell Greenfield-Boise, NPR News.

Federal authorities are expected to take over the investigation into last night's crash of a small airplane in Nebraska. The Dodge County Sheriff's Office says three people were killed when the plane crashed into the Platte River south of Fremont and that the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will oversee the investigation. Vice President J.D. Vance is in Rome on this Easter weekend. He is to meet with the Vatican's Secretary of State today after meeting with Italian

Prime Minister Giorgio Malone and attending Good Friday services in St. Peter's Basilica. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News from Washington. Want to know what's happening in the world? Listen to the State of the World podcast. This is NPR News from Washington.