NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-26-2025 9AM EDT

Episode Date: April 26, 2025

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These days, there is a lot of news. It can be hard to keep up with what it means for you, your family, and your community. Consider This from NPR is a podcast that helps you make sense of the news. Six days a week, we bring you a deep dive on a story and provide the context, backstory, and analysis you need to understand our rapidly changing world. Listen to the Consider This Podcast from NPR. Giles Snyder Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. In Rome today, Pope Francis' casket greeted by a chorus at the basilica where he is being laid to rest. Tens of thousands lined the streets to see Francis' casket driven there. And in St. Peter's Square, the Vatican says some 250,000 gathered for his funeral service. Dozens of foreign leaders were there, including President Trump, who met with Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky. Here's MP R. Stepa Shiborom. Trump and Zelensky's meeting today in Vatican City comes as negotiations to end the Russia-Ukraine war are potentially closing. Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, that the two sides should meet at high levels and finish off a deal. It was the first time Trump and Zelensky have met since their February meeting in the Oval Office that ended with Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticizing the Ukrainian president

who abruptly left the White House. President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Russian leader Vladimir Putin yesterday. He's now in Oman for more talks on Iran's nuclear program. Trump administration restoring the status of hundreds, possibly thousands of international students whose records it had eliminated from a crucial government database. NPR's Adrian Florido reports that those deleted likely would have had to leave the country soon.

Adrian Florido, NPR The SEVIS database is how immigration agents track student visa holders while they're in the country to ensure they're complying with requirements. If you're not in the database, it's harder to keep your legal status. In recent weeks, the government deleted records for thousands of students, many of them sued, saying it was over minor infractions like arrests that resulted in no charges. But now the Justice Department has announced the government will restore those students' records, at least until it devises a formal policy for removing them. A lawyer for one student called it a sigh of relief. The legal fights to protect

international students from deportation will continue. Adrian Flodivo, NPR News. Talking taxes now, large-scale job cuts at the IRS do not appear to have affected this year's tax filing season. NPR's Scott Horsley reports a tax collector has processed slightly more returns so far than at this time last year. More than 140 million people filed tax returns by the week of the April 15th deadline, and so far about 98 percent of those returns have been processed.

That's slightly ahead of last year's pace, even after the IRS laid off thousands of workers this spring. Refunds also appear to be going out on schedule. More than 60 percent of tax filers get money back from the government. The average refund this year is more than $2,900. About one in six taxpayers waited until the last week to file, but that's not unusual and doesn't appear to have caused any backlog. Many more job cuts are looming at the IRS, though. That's likely to inhibit the agency's ability to

go after wealthy tax cheats. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News. Now to East Africa, where the Ugandan government says its latest Ebola outbreak has come to an end. At least two people died in the outbreak, including a four-year-old child, Emmanuel Lagunsa, reports from Nairobi. Ugandan authorities announced the end of this latest outbreak of Ebola after 42 days of no new reported cases in line with the World Health Organization WHO guidelines. The last patients were discharged in March. This is the ninth Ebola outbreak in Kampala since 2000.

Uganda neighbors the Democratic Republic of Congo which has had dozens of outbreaks including one several years ago that killed nearly 2,300 people. The WHO has placed neighboring countries under strict surveillance for the virus, which is highly infectious and often fatal. The strain in the latest Uganda outbreak has no approved vaccine. For MPR News, Ami Manoli Gunza in Nairobi, Kenya. Wisconsin's Democratic governor is accusing the Trump administration of attempting to undermine the judiciary. Governor Tony Evers' remarks follow yesterday's arrest of a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a man

to evade federal immigration authorities. Judge Hannah Dugan was released, but is facing charges including concealing an individual to prevent his discovery and arrest. Attorney General Pam Bondi says her arrest sends a strong message that lawmakers will be prosecuted. Los Angeles tonight, the American Film Institute is to hand its top award to director Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola will be the 50th recipient of AFI's Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at the Dolby Theater. I'm Giles Snyder.

This is NPR News from Washington. The scary new movie Sinners from the director of Black Panther finds Michael B. Jordan playing twin brothers. This is NPR News from Washington.