NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-25-2025 12PM EDT

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

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Lyle from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Ukrainian capital is observing an official day of mourning for the lives lost when Russia carried out drone and missile attacks on Kiev early yesterday. Officials say at least 12 people were killed and as many as 90 were injured in the assault. In an interview with CBS's Face the Nation, the Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, was asked about the civilian toll and why the Kremlin continued its attacks,

even though Ukraine says it's ready for a ceasefire. If this was a target used by the Ukrainian military, the Ministry of Defense, the commanders in the field have the right to attack them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he will support a peace deal but put forth by his allies, but he is firmly opposed to official recognition of Russian control of Crimea. However, eager to mediate a peace deal, President Trump says Crimea will stay with Russia. Both Trump and Zelensky are among the world leaders expected to be in Rome tomorrow for

Pope Francis' funeral. The Pope, who died Easter Monday at the age of 88, will not be laid to rest in the grottoes of the Vatican, as has been the tradition. He wanted to be entombed at the St. Mary Major Basilica, housing an icon of the Virgin Mary that Francis visited 126 times during his papacy. And Piers Ruth Sherlock has more. This church of St. Mary Major has been in Rome for 16 centuries. According to the tradition, the Virgin Mary inspired the construction of this church, appearing in a dream to an aristocrat Giovanni and to Pope Liberius, and she asked for a church in Hona in a place

that she would miraculously reveal. The miracle of the snow's hail in August that landed on this hill is recalled every year and during the liturgy there's a shower of white petals that falls from the ceiling. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. The Trump administration is restoring funding to a landmark study of women's health. Here's NPR's Rob Stein. The Department of Health and Human Services says the administration is reversing a decision to slash funding for the Women's Health Initiative, which has been following tens of thousands of women for decades.

An HHS spokesman says the decision was made because the National Institutes of Health, which funds the study, was able to exceed savings by cutting other research contracts. The decision to cut the project had shocked medical researchers because the study has been responsible for a series of landmark discoveries about women's health. Rob Stein, NPR News. U.S. stocks are mixed this hour. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 142 points at 39950. You're listening to NPR News.

A judge in Wisconsin has been arrested for allegedly obstructing an immigration arrest operation. Judge Hannah Dugan, now in her ninth year as a Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge, is accused of unlawfully misdirecting federal law enforcement officers away from her courtroom so that a Mexican citizen who was a defendant in her courtroom, could leave through a side door. That man is now in custody. Digital publisher Ziff Davis is suing chat GPT maker OpenAI for copyright infringement.

NPR's Bobby Allen reports it's the latest legal battle over the artificial intelligence company's data collection practices. Ziff Davis runs digital sites like Mashable, PCMag, and CNET. In a federal suit, it says OpenAI's web crawling bots hoovered up millions of its articles without consent or payment to make ChadGPT smarter. The suit asks for financial damages and for OpenAI's datasets with copyrighted material to be destroyed.

The action comes a month after a federal judge advanced the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI over copyright infringement. The legal landscape around AI is unsettled, but OpenAI argues it trained CHAT GPT under a legal doctrine known as fair use, which allows material to be used without permission in certain circumstances. Bobby Allen, NPR News. University of Miami quarterback Kam Ward is pick number one in the 2025 NFL draft selected by the Tennessee Titans. Well, I'm feeling great.

Finally, you know, got to live out my dream for a night. I'm excited to do it with a good organization like Tennessee, and you know, I'm just ready to get to Nashville, get to know my teammates. That's Ward on ABC's Good Morning America. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington. On the next Thru Line from NPR News in Washington.