NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-15-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: February 15, 2025

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NPR covers the stories that shape our world. Whether you're here for news or culture or good conversation, we're proud to be here for you. Federal funding helps keep the public radio network strong and available to all for about a dollar and sixty cents per person each year. Visit ProtectMyPublicMedia.org to learn more about safeguarding public media's future. Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dale Willman. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk say they want to cut anything that they believe represents

excessive government spending and one of the next targets is the Defense Department. MPH's Tom Bowman says the Pentagon is standing by for news of any potential cuts. There's uncertainty at the Pentagon and some fear because there's no sense of either the personnel or budget cuts coming in. Of course, what if you're a senior officer carrying out the Biden policies involving DEI? Does that mean you get replaced? Already the Trump administration fired the top officer at the Coast Guard, Admiral Linda Fagan, citing leadership failures but also what they say was excessive focus on DEI. A union, meanwhile, representing U.S. Forest Service employees says the agency has fired about 3,400 workers just after the Trump administration's so-called fork in the road deadline for federal

workers. Wyoming Public Radio's Caitlin Tan reports. Many U.S. Forest Service workers showed up to work only to be fired shortly thereafter, said Dennis Lcewicz with the Forest Service Council, a national union. He says probationary employees were let go, including those in trail and road maintenance, logging, and even fire suppression. We are losing wildland firefighters right and left, and they're not going to be here come this fire season.

The Department of Agriculture, which runs the Forest Service, has not confirmed the number of job cuts or whether they include firefighters. A written response from the department says it supports President Trump's directive to, quote, optimize government operations. For NPR News, I'm Caitlin Tan in Laramie, Wyoming. A Texas judge has ordered a doctor in New York to stop prescribing abortion medication to patients in Texas. As Olivia Aldridge of Member Station KUT reports, the ruling sets the stage for a legal battle

between states and conflicting laws. Texas's attorney general sued New York doctor Margaret Carpenter in December, saying she violated Texas law by providing abortion pills via telemedicine to a woman who terminated her pregnancy in Texas. Carpenter did not appear for a hearing in the case this week, which resulted in a default judgment. Her absence was in accordance with New York's shield law aimed at protecting doctors from out-of-state prosecution. Drexel

University law professor David Cohen lobbied for shield laws like New York's. We anticipated these kinds of actions and the shield laws were written in anticipation of them. The Texas AG will need to ask New York to enforce over $100,000 in penalties against the doctor. Experts expect the case could reach the Supreme Court. I'm Olivia Aldridge in Austin. Hamas militants have named the next three Israeli hostages who were scheduled to be

released as part of the ongoing ceasefire deal with Israel. The group's lack of disclosure until now had threatened the fragile peace underway in the region. Under the terms of the deal, Israel will also release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. You're listening to NPR News. Kenya is repatriating more than 20 of its citizens rescued from Myanmar where they've been working in illegal telecom centers. They're among the more than 260 people rescued from criminal gangs which have been trafficking

thousands of people and forcing them to work in illegal online operations. Emanuel Igunse reports from Nairobi. It's still not clear how the men, half of whom are Ethiopians, ended up thousands of miles away in Myanmar. Thai authorities believe they are victims of criminal gangs, which have been operating along the porous Thai-Myanmar border. The gangs have been accused of trafficking thousands of people and forcing them to work in slave-like conditions, sometimes for years. The Democratic Karen Buddhist Army, a Myanmar rebel group, says it found the men and handed them over to Thai authorities.

Kenyan officials say they had begun the repatriation process and won its citizens against the criminal gangs. The Thai prime minister has intensified a crackdown on the online scum centers along the Thai-Myanmar border. For NPR News, I'm Emanuel Ligunza in Nairobi, Kenya. Pitbull will perform a pre-race concert when the Daytona 500 hits Daytona Beach, Florida on Sunday. Captain America is expected to make an appearance as Grand Marshal and President Trump may also

be in attendance. The start time for what's been labeled the Great American Race has been moved up to 1.30 p.m. Eastern time because of a threat of rain later on Sunday. Stocks closed mixed on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down 165 points. The NASDAQ closed up by 81 points. And the S&P 500 closed down by just a fraction.

I'm Dale Willman, NPR News in New York City.