NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-21-2025 8PM EDT

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

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You have your job, but you also have a life. And you're not just one thing. Neither is the Here and Now Anytime podcast. Every weekday, we break down the biggest story of the day and something else, like a new trend everyone's talking about. It's Here and Now Anytime, a daily podcast from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. For some younger Catholics, Pope Francis, who died this morning at the age of 88, was a church leader they thought of as their own, concerned about the environment, the poor, and peace.

And here's Jason DeRose has more on how some say they will remember him. At St. Monica's Catholic Church in Santa Monica, California, 29-year-old Daniel Trin is an active member. After falling away from the church, Trin became interested again because of Francis' emphasis on serving the most vulnerable. Just the fact that he picked Francis as his pope name, St. Francis, he was born very rich, but he gave up everything so that he could help those who were in need. Trin says Pope Francis led him to think about the kind of person he wanted to be, a person

who lives out his faith in loving service to others. Jason DeRose, NPR News, Santa Monica. Harvard is suing the Trump administration, continuing its fight against efforts to pull billions of dollars in federal funding from the university. And Piers Janaki-Metha has more. Piers Janaki-Metha The lawsuit alleges the government is trying to, quote, leverage to gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard. This comes after Harvard refused to comply with a long list of demands from the Trump administration to overhaul its admissions, hiring and other policies, including diversity, inclusion and equity programs. The administration fired back by freezing more than $2.2 billion in federal funding

and threatening to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status. In the past week, it has also threatened to eliminate visas for international students at Harvard. Now, the nation's oldest university is taking on the White House in court. Harvard's President Alan Garber said the consequences of the Trump administration's attack would be, quote, severe and long-lasting. Janaki Mehta and Pierre News. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is once again on the defensive.

And Pierre has confirmed that he used his personal cell phone last month to provide his wife, brother, and his lawyer with classified information about airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen. This was on the same day that Hegseth provided similar information in a signal chat with senior U.S. officials, as well as a journalist who was mistakenly placed on that call. And Pierre's Tom Bowman has more. Tom Bowman Hegseth was at the White House Easter egg roll today and did not address the second signal chat directly, but instead said anonymous

sources, disgruntled former employees were behind this. He said they, quote, slash and burn people and ruin the reputations. President Trump, at the same event, praised Hegseth and called the story false. Danielle Pletka In the past four weeks, four senior advisors to Hegseth have left abruptly and suggested that Pentagon infighting is hurting President Trump. White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt, slammed NPR's reporting on this issue as fake news. US futures contracts are trading higher at this hour. Dow futures are up about 0.2% this after Wall Street was sharply lower by the close. You're listening to NPR News.

The Education Department says next month it will resume garnishing tax refunds and government benefits for people in default on their student loans. It ends a five-year pause on collections because of the pandemic. And wage garnishments restart this summer. More than 5 million borrowers are in default, failing to make a payment on their loan for at least 360 days before the government stopped referring past debt to collection agencies during the pandemic. And millions are in delinquency at least 60 days late on their payments. The rise in delinquencies corresponds to an end of the 12-month grace period that allowed borrowers to ease back and to repayment after the pandemic pause. The

agency says less than 40% of student loan borrowers are current on their loans. There's concern that therapists don't have privacy because of overcrowding of VA facilities. NPR's Katia Riddle has more. Katia Riddle The memo appears to mandate that VA therapists have private spaces. It follows reporting from NPR suggesting clinicians at the VA would have to conduct telehealth therapy sessions with headsets and shared offices. Lynn Buffett is with the American Psychological Association. The organization raised alarm about privacy. Confidentiality between the patient and the clinician can be protected with things like

four walls and a door so that people aren't seeing who's with the therapist or hearing what's being said. Hosting the VA has said repeatedly that veterans will be guaranteed private therapy sessions. Katie Arrett, NPR News. On Wall Street at the closing bell today, the Dow was down nearly 2.5 percent, NASDAQ down 2.5 percent. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. You want to follow whatPR News from Washington.