NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-23-2025 3PM EDT

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

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Climate change is drying up some water supplies and making others undrinkable. That's why Here and Now, Anytime is covering the hunt for fresh water. From a pipeline in the Great Lakes to the science of desalination to extreme recycling that turns sewage into clean drinking water. That's Here and Now, Anytime, a podcast from NPR and WBUR. That's Here and Now, Anytime, a podcast from NPR and WBUR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The markets remain in positive territory after President Trump said he would not fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and might relax some tariffs on China. At the White House, Trump signaled U.S. pursuit of a, quote, fair deal with China. They ripped us off for many, many years. And those days are over. We're gonna make a lot of money for our people. We'll be able to lower taxes substantially and we're gonna be proud

of ourselves. They're not gonna be a laughing stock. Well China's rallying international support or attempting to do so against President Trump's tariffs today it convened a United Nations meeting on US bullying. Washington hit back in branding the meeting as performative and without credibility. A historic procession in St. Peter's Basilica, which received Pope Francis' casket this morning. The pontiff who died Easter Monday at the age of 88

now lies in state in the Basilica. The public has been given three days to pay their final respects before his funeral on Saturday. World leaders will attend, including Presidents Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs has created a task force to root out anti-Christian bias at the VA. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports it's part of a Trump administration executive order.

Quill Lawrence, NPR Secretary, Doug Collins sent a memo to the VA's hundreds of thousands of staff nationwide encouraging them to report instances of bias against Christians. He asked that staff inform the new task force with names, dates, and locations of any instance where Christians are adversely affected for displaying religious symbols or expressing Christian views. The memo says hormone therapy, abortion, and vaccine mandates are examples of things Christian staff may abstain from.

The lead Democrat on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Richard Blumenthal, said the VA memo lacks any factual basis or rationale and the task force, quote, raises the specter of dividing the veteran community and favoring some religions over others. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. The Kingdom of Jordan has banned a popular political movement accusing members of the group of plotting against the country. Here's NPR's Jane Araf. Jane Araf The Muslim Brotherhood is the most influential opposition movement in the country with its political wing dominating parliament. Jordan

has now closed its offices and confiscated its assets. The government last week arrested 16 Brotherhood members. It said we're plotting attacks inside Jordan. The group denied the alleged plot. The Muslim Brotherhood is banned in most Arab countries as a threat to existing governments. The Brotherhood says it pursues its goal of an Islamic state through peaceful means. Jane Araf, NPR News, Amman. From Washington, this is NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR News. U.S. states are reviving plans to tie health insurance for low-income Americans to work. Thirteen got approval to do this during the first Trump administration.

Alex Olgan with details. Arkansas wants to make Medicaid, the joint federal and state health insurance program, contingent on work. For the 200,000 healthy adults who depend on this coverage, the prospect of losing it if there is a disruption in their work is scary. 31-year-old Summer Neal works at a pizza place and relies on Medicaid to pay for drugs to control pain caused by the chronic autoimmune disease lupus. If they cut Medicaid, pardon my language, I'm quite frankly screwed and I'm going to be in pain for the rest of my life. Arkansas tried this in 2018 and more than 18,000 people lost health insurance coverage before a judge stopped it. The state is now awaiting the

green light from the Trump administration to try again, as are Ohio and Arizona. For NPR News, I'm Alex Olgan. A critical water sharing treaty between nuclear armed neighbors India and Pakistan is now suspended. India's Modi government announced its response to a deadly cross border militant attack in which Pakistan's government is accused of being complicit. Local authorities and Indian Administrator Kashmir say unidentified gunmen ambushed a group of tourists yesterday. Twenty-six people died, 17 others were wounded. U.S. stocks trading higher this hour, the Dow is up nearly 1 percent, the S&P has climbed more than 1.5 percent, and the NASDAQ now up 2.6 percent. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.