NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-22-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

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Want to know what's happening in the world? Listen to the State of the World podcast. Every weekday we bring you important stories from around the globe. In just a few minutes you might hear how democracy is holding up in South Korea, or meet Indian monkeys that have turned to crime. We don't go around the world, we're already there. Listen to the State of the World podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington on Cva Coleman, the Vatican says the body of Pope Francis will be moved tomorrow to St. Peter's Basilica for several days of public mourning. Roman Catholic cardinals have set the pontiff's funeral for Saturday.

Pope Francis is the only pontiff to take the name of St. Francis of Assisi. He is the Roman Catholic patron saint of animals and ecology. NPR's Jeff Brady reports, Francis also pushed for action on climate change during his 12-year papacy. Pope Francis' 2015 climate encyclical did not mince words. Quote, the earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth. The letter called on rich countries to help poorer ones and inspired new religious organizations focused on climate to form. Kristiana Zenner is a theology professor

at Fordham University. The Catholic Church now has to be seen as an entity that is concerned about care for creation and people's faith lives together. I don't think that can be erased. More than 8,000 families, schools, groups, diocese, and other organizations have pledged to take actions in response to Francis' climate encyclical.

Jeff Brady, NPR News. Harvard University is suing the Trump administration. This is to prevent the loss of more than $2 billion in federal funding. And Piers Janaki-Metta prepared this report. 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 PR News. Four Democratic representatives have gone to El Salvador to check on the status of Kilmar Obrego-Garcia. The immigrant was illegally deported from Maryland last month. The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.

President Trump has failed to do so so far, but is claiming Abrego Garcia is a criminal. Florida Congressman, Maxwell Frost, says Abrego Garcia's lawyers denied that, and he never got to demonstrate his innocence in court. This isn't just about him. This is also about every single person in the United States. The Constitution applies to all people in our country.

Due process applies to all people in our country. It's one of the things that sets our country apart. Officials in El Salvador also rejected the four lawmakers' request to visit Rodrigo Garcia yesterday. You're listening to NPR. NPR has learned 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 was the second time Hegseth used the Signal chat to do this, and it was on a personal cell. The White House has rejected this reporting as, quote, fake news. A note, NPR CEO Catherine Marp is also the chair of the board of the Signal Foundation, which supports the app. The Federal Trade Commission is suing ride-sharing company Uber. The FTC claims that Uber deceived customers about a subscription service known as Uber One. NPR's Bobbi Allen reports.

The FTC says Uber automatically signed people up for a premium service known as Uber One. The lawsuit claims Uber never received some customers' consent, failed to deliver promised savings and made it difficult for people to cancel. For instance, the FTC says Uber requires 12 different actions in the app to cancel and that it was impossible to opt out within 48 hours of a billing date. Regulators say such a process violates federal consumer protection laws. An Uber spokesman says canceling is clear, simple, and follows the spirit of the law. The FTC action comes as both Meta and Google are in federal court facing government lawsuits

that could force the breakup of the companies. Bobbi Allen, NPR News. Researchers with the European Space Agency are studying how to grow food in space. They want to send a small pilot food production plant to the International Space Station in two years. They'll experiment with growing food cells in space. This is NPR.