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

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The White House says President Trump will visit the Middle East next month. NPR's Deepa Sivaram reports the trip will include stops in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. NPR's Deepa Sivaram The trip will last a few days in mid-May. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt says the President's trip will be an effort to strengthen ties between the U.S. and those countries in the Middle East, and he'll take part in bilateral meetings. Saudi Arabia has been a key player in negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Last month, delegations from the U.S., Ukraine, and Russia

all met in Riyadh to discuss steps toward reaching a ceasefire. Saudi Arabia was the first foreign country Trump visited in his first term. It was meant to be Trump's first foreign trip of this term, but now the president will head to Vatican City this weekend to attend Pope Francis's funeral. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News, The White House. Representative Robert Garcia of California says he and other lawmakers made good progress on the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia during a recent trip to El Salvador. Garcia has been held in El Salvador in prison since he was sent there by the Trump administration last month. Democratic lawmakers saying when we met with the U.S.

ambassador in both classified briefings and other conversations, we made the case that we are very clear about our intentions to continue pressure there. Elon Musk says he'll limit his time with the White House's cost-cutting efforts starting next month. As NPR's Bobby Allen explains, it comes after Musk's company, Tesla, posted worse than expected numbers for the quarter. On a Tesla earnings call, Musk said establishing Doge within the federal government is mostly done and that he expects to soon work just a day or two per week on White House matters.

Musk, the executive of Tesla, has been operating as a special government employee, allowing him to work for 130 days in government. But his future in the White House beyond that has always been unclear. President Trump has supported the efforts of Musk, but his hard charging approach defying norms and procedures has frustrated others in the administration. Still, Musk said he plans to be involved in government in some fashion for as long as Trump allows.

Musk's announcement came as Tesla reported that its quarterly profits have dropped 71 percent. Bobby Allen in PR News. The International Monetary Fund and its latest forecast for global growth is projecting significant slowing with almost all the blame being laid at the doorstep of the Trump administration and its tariff fight with other countries. I'm if chief economist Pierre Olivier Gorin-Trousse today cited confusion over the policy. fight with other countries. I'm EF Chief Economist Pierre Olivier Gorin-Trousse today, citing confusion of the policy. Beyond the abrupt increase in tariffs, the surge in policy uncertainty is a major driver

of the economic outlook. If sustained, the increase in trade tensions and uncertainty will slow global growth significantly. GI Memphis now predicting the global economy will grow at just a 2.8% rate this year, down from the previous forecast of 3.3%. Stocks jumped in a widespread rally today, recouping some of their losses from yesterday. The Dow was up more than a thousand points. The Nasdaq rose 429 points. This is NPR.

Supreme Court has signaled a majority of justices appear willing to support the religious rights of Maryland parents who want to remove their children from elementary school classes using books with LGBTQ characters. Cave Center is on the Montgomery County school system in Maryland where conservative justices appear ready to side with some parents who sued the school system after it stopped allowing them to pull their children from lessons that included the books. School Board had introduced the storybooks as part of an effort to better reflect diversity in the district.

Twice a year, Record Store Day encourages fans to hit their local stores in search of exclusive titles and rarity issues. NPR's Stephen Thompson reports the event has made its presence felt on the billboard charts. Independent record stores around the world took part in the most recent Record Store Day, held April 12th. Now a dozen Record Store Day titles have cracked the Billboard 200 albums chart. Some titles hitting the chart, like a picture disc vinyl edition of a Fleetwood Mac album

from 1975, contained no new music. But others packaged live performances or added b-sides. One album, Post Malone's Tribute to Nirvana, put a streamed performance on vinyl for the first time. Tribute to Nirvana enters this week's Billboard albums chart at number 106. Stephen Thompson, NPR News. Crude oil futures prices followed stocks higher today. Oil was up a dollar and 23 cents to settle at 64.32 a barrel in New York.

I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders all at a fair exchange rate. No markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.