NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-22-2025 10AM EDT

Episode Date: April 22, 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. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. The Vatican says Pope Francis' funeral will be this Saturday.

In his final Easter address, the pontiff called the situation in Gaza dramatic and deplorable after a year and a half of war. NPR's Anas Baba reports the Pope was a constant source of comfort to Gaza's Christians. Up until his last moments, Pope Francis reached out and spoke up for Palestinians in Gaza. George Anton is a leader at the Holy Family Church, Gaza's only Catholic church. He said that the Pope called the congregation every evening, blessing them over speakerphone, asking if they had enough food or if they were safe in the church where they are sheltering from Israeli bombing. Anton said the last call was made the day before he died.

How are you? Anton said the Pope asked. I'm praying for you. Pray for me. I need your prayers. Anton said we feel orphaned now. The pope was a shield for Christians in Gaza. Today, he said, less than 600 Christians remain in Gaza. Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City. NPR has learned that the White House may be looking for a new defense secretary. That's after Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth used the messaging app Signal

to share sensitive information about U.S. military strikes on Yemen, this time with his family. This is the second time Hegseth used the Signal chat to do this, and it was on a personal cell phone. Hegseth denies that any of the shared information was classified. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified, coordinations for media coordination and other things.

That's what I've said from the beginning. At the beginning, it was left-wing reporters from the Atlantic who got a hold of it and then wanted to create a problem for the president. This is what it's all about, trying to get at President Trump and his agenda. He spoke to Fox News. A note, NPR's CEO Catherine Maher is the chair of the board of the Signal Foundation, which supports the messaging app. Stocks opened higher this morning, regaining some of the ground lost in yesterday's selloff. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow

Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 600 points in early trading. The partial rebound in the stock market comes amid new warnings of economic fallout from President Trump's trade war. The International Monetary Fund predicts the combination of Trump's tariffs and economic uncertainty will cut into global growth this year. The IMF has downgraded its growth forecast for the United States by nearly a full percentage point. Economists say the trade war will lead to lower productivity and higher prices in the

U.S. Trump wants the Federal Reserve to cushion the slowdown by lowering interest rates, but so far the central bank's been cautious for fear of rekindling inflation. Trump's attacks on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have rattled financial markets, contributing to Monday's sharp drop in the stock market. Scott Horsley in Per News, Washington. This is NPR. Harvard University is suing the Trump administration. This is to stop the White House from trying to freeze billions of dollars in federal funding. Harvard claims the administration is trying to control academic decision-making. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement refused an urgent request from a former Columbia University

graduate student to be with his wife in labor. ICE denied the request by Mahmoud Khalil. His wife delivered their son yesterday in New York. The Trump administration is trying to deport Khalil. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is proposing to lay off more than 1,600 city employees. From LAist News, Frank Stoltz reports the mayor is trying to deal with a shortfall of nearly a billion dollars. The layoffs would likely cut across a wide swath of city departments from recreation and parks to street

services. They are necessitated in part because of last year's big pay raises for city employees, which will add about 250 million dollars in costs to next year's budget. As costs have increased, revenues are headed down because of the weakening economy. City officials are predicting President Trump's trade tariffs are likely to make things even worse. The Los Angeles City Council must approve a budget by June 1st. For NPR News, I'm Frank Stolz in Los Angeles.

The Department of Homeland Security says a thief stole the purse of Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday night. She was at a Washington, D.C. restaurant having dinner with her family. She's lost her passport, agency badge, and about $3,000 in cash. Again on Wall Street, the Dow is now up 1.5%. This is NPR.