Consider This from NPR

The cardinals have elected a new pope: Robert Prevost, a cardinal born in Chicago. He has taken the name Leo XIV. He is the first American pope in the history of the Catholic Church.

NPR's Scott Detrow has been in Rome all week. He talks through what we might expect from Pope Leo XIV with NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose, and former, longtime NPR Rome correspondent Sylvia Poggioli.

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Newark Liberty International Airport has been a mess the past week, with hundreds of flights cancelled and hundreds more delayed. It was triggered in part by an incident on April 28, when air traffic controllers for the airport experienced a radar and communications blackout. They were unable to reach approaching planes.

There were no accidents, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later told reporters that the outage lasted for 30 seconds.

After that incident, several air traffic controllers took time off to deal with the stress and trauma. That, on top of bad weather, a runway that's closed for repair and an already short-staffed air traffic controller corps, led to a lot of disruption.

David Grizzle, the former chief operating officer and head of air traffic control for the Federal Aviation Administration, says what happened at Newark isn't surprising, given decades-old staffing and technology issues. He explains what it would take to fix air traffic control in the U.S.

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On the eve of the conclave to elect a new pope, some of the biggest questions hanging in the air have to do with LGBTQ Catholics. Will the church continue the path of outreach charted by Pope Francis, softening its harsh positions? Will it allow LGBTQ Catholics to fully participate in the church?

Rev. James Martin, an American Jesuit priest, has built a ministry aimed at making gay, lesbian and transgender people feel more welcome in the Catholic church and advised Francis on the issue. He says Francis himself changed the church, but so did the many LGBTQ Catholics who have come out — changing the church at the level of the family and parish. That trend, he says, will continue.

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President Trump's rapid-fire spending cuts have affected communities all over the country–including strongholds of his supporters.

One of them is Rising Sun, Maryland. The town had won two FEMA grants designed to mitigate the effects of catastrophic flooding. And though the area voted overwhelmingly to support Trump's re-election, his administration has now cancelled the program that funded those grants.

Across the state in the Trump-voting town of Emmitsburg, Maryland, a similar scenario is playing out. The town is home to the National Fire Academy–a sort of national war college for training firefighters in America. In March, the Trump administration abruptly cancelled classes at the academy. NPR's Frank Langfitt reports that locals are concerned about how that will affect the town's economy–and emergency preparedness across the country.

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Days before the beginning of the conclave to select the next pope, NPR's Scott Detrow is in Rome. He speaks with Sylvia Poggioli about the rituals and ceremonies involved in the upcoming election at the Vatican.

We also hear from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, about this moment for the Catholic Church, and what it's like being a seasoned veteran of the conclave process.

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Over the past few months, world leaders and diplomats have talked about grand plans for ending the war in Ukraine. But what about daily life there right now?

For our reporter's notebook series, we'll get on the ground with NPR correspondent Joanna Kakissis, who's been living and working in Ukraine for almost the entire war. We'll hear how everyday Ukrainians have adapted to a new normal. People go to work and kids go to school, but most nights Russian attacks continue.

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The U.S. has sent people it has detained — people it calls terrorists — to a prison overseas — indefinitely.

This is true in 2025, after the Trump administration deported at least 261 foreign nationals to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.

And it was also true two decades ago, following the attacks of Sept. 11, after the U.S. government began to house captured Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in the military prison at the U.S. Naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

During the George W. Bush administration, John Yoo wrote the legal justification for the treatment of Guantanamo detainees, now widely referred to as "the torture memos."

Yoo argues that there are key legal differences between what the Bush administration did – and what the Trump administration is attempting in El Salvador.

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Americans are rushing to car dealerships as they worry about what President Trump's tariffs will do to car prices in the coming months. New vehicle sales have been increasing steadily this year, and they jumped in March, according to market research firm Cox Automotive. That's the month when President Trump announced upcoming auto tariffs.

Shoppers are racing to buy cars this spring because they believe that prices are going to go up in the summer and fall. And experts say if tariffs remain in place, that's likely.

It's a gamble President Trump is making – with the hope his tariff strategy will lead domestic car companies to make more vehicles at home.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly talks with Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley, who was at Ford's Kentucky truck plant, about Trump's tariffs, and Ford's future.

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President Trump is pushing the boundaries of executive power in nearly every area of policy. From his trade war, to immigration, to education, to the reductions in the federal workforce.

Many of his actions are direct challenges to the Courts and to Congress. Those two branches of government are designed to act as checks on the president.

Trump has governed largely by unilateral executive action... and left lawmakers on the sidelines.

NPR's Juana Summers talks with political correspondents Mara Liasson and Susan Davis about the changing power dynamic.

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An NPR investigation has been following President Trump's efforts to retaliate against his perceived enemies since he returned to the Oval Office in January.

NPR's Tom Dreisbach found that Trump's targets are already facing the consequences - including criminal investigations, attempted deportations, and firings.

Trump has used government power to target more than 100 people or institutions across American society – and they're all feeling the consequences.

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