NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-14-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

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Lyle, from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. Lawmakers are offering praise for a top New York prosecutor who resigned rather than drop a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A top Justice Department official had ordered prosecutors to dismiss the case. NPR's Carrie Johnson reports the episode is amplifying concerns about politics infecting the DOJ. Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, says the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan took an eloquent stand for the rule of law. Danielle Sassoon quit her job and wrote a letter to DOJ saying there's no good reason to dismiss the bribery case against Eric Adams.

In fact, she wrote, prosecutors were considering adding a new charge of obstruction against him. Congressman Raskin says she raised disturbing concerns about a quid pro quo and cover-up inside the Justice Department. He's asking whistleblowers to come forward to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. A six prosecutor resigned today for a total of seven so far. Those prosecutors focus on public corruption cases.

For his part, Mayor Adams told Fox that he flatly denies any quid pro quo. Trump's Justice Department has said the prosecution was, quote, interfering with Adams' ability to cooperate with the federal crackdown on illegal immigration. Vice President J.D. Vance is meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference, pushing President Trump's message that it's time for the war between Russia and Ukraine to end and it's time for an era of lasting peace. Fundamentally, the goal is, as President Trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close, we want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that's going to have Eastern Europe in conflict just a couple years down the road.

A day after President Trump's phone call with Russia and President Vladimir Putin appeared to strike a conciliatory tone. Vance delivered a speech in Munich that dispensed with Ukraine. Instead, he slammed the US's European allies on free speech and immigration. Defense officials tell NPR that Elon Musk's government efficiency team has a target of cutting 8% of the Pentagon's more than $800 billion defense budget. Here's NPR's Quill Lawrence. The Pentagon has failed to pass an audit for seven years running.

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in his confirmation hearing that the department has grown too big, with three million troops and civilians on the payroll. But former defense officials tell NPR they're concerned that hastily made cuts often target newer, promising programs while more established and expensive systems endure. Eliminating waste at the Pentagon has bipartisan support. At the same time, Republicans in Congress have proposed increasing the DOD budget by at least 100 billion dollars. That's NPR's Quill Lawrence reporting. The Dow is down 75 points. It's NPR News. The Trump administration is laying off about

1,300 employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention according to two agency employees who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak for the agency. The reduction affecting roughly 10% of the CDC's workforce is targeting probationary employees. That's a broad category that includes recent hires and longtime staffers who recently moved to new positions in the CDC. Well, here's a tale of biblical proportions.

A man kayaking off the southern coast of Chile was briefly taken into the mouth of a humpback whale, and PRZME held reports on the viral video. The whale takes Adrian Simancas, kayak and all, into its mouth and dives back below the surface. Come, stay calm. His dad, Del, who is recording, calls to his son as he pops up after a few seconds. Unlike Jonah, who the Bible says stayed in the belly

of a great fish for three days and three nights. I thought I was dead, Simoncus tells the Associated Press. I thought it had swallowed me. Happily humpback whales have an esophagus too tiny for a man and no teeth. Instead, their baleen, bristly fibers act as a sieve to filter krill from the water. Simoncus and his dad kayaked safely back to shore with an incredible tale. Experts say such encounters are rare but have happened. Simonkas thinks the whale may have just been curious about him.

Amy Held, NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.