NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-20-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: April 20, 2025

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On Trump's terms, we have followed the first hundred days of this administration. Tariffs very strongly work. Trade war. Get ready. Elon Musk and Doge. We will make mistakes. Deportations, litigation. I don't know who the judge is.

He's radical left. Those first hundred days are coming to a close, but the pace of the news will likely continue. Follow NPR's coverage of President Trump trying to do things no other president has on Trump's terms from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen is demanding that the Trump administration bring Kilmar Obrego-Garcia back to the U.S. They've been ordered by the Supreme Court to facilitate his return. So the folks who are fools and the folks who are thumbing their nose at the Constitution are President Trump and his administration.

Ben Holland speaking to NPR's Weekend Edition this morning after meeting with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. The administration has admitted that it made a mistake but has no plans to return him. Violent storms have prompted tornado warnings rolled through the central U.S. last night. Parts of central and southern Oklahoma were hit with flash flooding. Two people reported dead in the city of Moore, Oklahoma,

and local media are reporting on storm damage in the town of Ada. Thousands of protesters were back on the streets across the country this weekend, demonstrating against the Trump administration. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, people are feeling the effects of major changes to the federal government, as Elizabeth Caldwell at Membrotation KWGS reports.

More than 200 people gathered at a busy Tulsa intersection to protest everything from the crashing of the stock market to social security cuts. April Nesbitt is a biology professor at East Central University. She drove more than two hours from Ada because a federally funded internship program was eliminated for her science students. Some of them have worked on cancer meds, some of them have worked on disease studies. It has to be healthcare related. Everything is healthcare related. I've had students who worked on antibiotics and discovering novel

antibiotics. LESLIE KENDRICK-KLEINNESBITT says the students will have to find other jobs for the summer, which will most likely not be focused on science. For NPR News, I'm Elizabeth Caldwell. Now to the Vatican, where Pope Francis greeted thousands in St. Peter's Square this Easter Sunday, though he did not lead Mass as he recovers from pneumonia. Reporter Megan Williams is at the Vatican. From the balcony above a flower-filled St. Peter's Square, a frill, Pope Francis greeted thousands. Cari fratelli e sorelle, buona Pasqua. Though too weak to lead Mass or deliver his Urbi et Orbi, the traditional address to Rome

and to the world, it called for a Gaza ceasefire, food for the starving, the release of Israeli hostages and peace in Ukraine, Sudan and the Congo. After five weeks in hospital, the 88-year-old pope is still recovering. But Vatican observer Christopher White says, He's always tried to be close to the people and even as a very sick and recovering pope, he's doing that today. After the service, Francis greeted crowds from his pope mobile. For NPR News, I'm Megan Williams at the Vatican.

And you're listening to NPR News. NASA's oldest serving astronaut is back on Earth. And touchdown. Soyuz MS-26 is home at 8.20 p.m. Central Time. NASA commentator marking the moment when the Soyuz spacecraft carrying Don Pettit touched down in Kazakhstan early this morning. Pettit returned to Earth on his 70th birthday, alongside two Russian cosmonauts. NASA says Pettit and his Russian crewmates

spent 220 days aboard the space station, orbiting the Earth more than 3,500 times. It was Pettit's fourth space mission. Following medical checks, NASA is to fly Pettit to the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Actor and musician Jack Black has made British pop history of a sort, as Vicki Barker reports from London. As the character Steve in the video game spin-off film, A Minecraft Movie, Jack Black sings the praises of chicken cooked in molten lava, as he shows the other protagonists around the alternate universe, the overworld.

Lava attack! And now the jingle has become the shortest ever single to reach the UK top 40. At 34 seconds, it beats the previous record holder by two seconds. When it comes to pint-sized pop hits, Black has form, as the Brits would say. Another song from a video game film spinoff, 2023's Peaches, reached number 28 in the UK, all 95 seconds of it. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News from Washington.