NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-17-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korva Coleman, Russia says top officials are going to Saudi Arabia today. The Kremlin says the Russian officials will meet with U.S. counterparts and talk about the war in Ukraine. NPR's Aya Batraoui says Secretary of State Marco Rubio has arrived in Saudi Arabia. Rubio is leading a team of White House officials today to Saudi Arabia where he will meet with Kremlin officials during their time there to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Now these talks are ahead of what could be a Trump Putin summit in Saudi Arabia

Ukraine says they're not part of the talks today But Ukraine's president is in the UAE right now and he's expected to head nest to Saudi Arabia and peers a a Batorre reporting European leaders have been left out of the talks in Saudi Arabia. They're having their own meeting today in Paris They fear the u.s. Will try to push Ukraine into taking a bad peace deal with Russia. Yesterday, President Trump said Ukraine's president would be involved in negotiations, but he did not elaborate. The nation's governors are gathering in Washington this week. NPR's Deepa Sivaram reports this comes as several states have sued the Trump administration

over its efforts to reshape the federal government and workforce. Thousands of government employees, including probationary workers or recent hires, are getting laid off as billionaire Elon Musk tries to cut government spending with his unit, the Department of Government Efficiency. Speaking alongside Musk, President Trump says Doge has found billions of dollars in waste and fraud, but didn't provide evidence for where those numbers are coming from. The website for Doge says receipts for quote savings are coming over the weekend, but haven't been posted.

14 states sued Trump and Musk for Musk's quote unchecked power over the government and its workforce. The White House for its part says that Musk is complying with federal laws. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News. Meanwhile, some federal workers getting layoff notices are staffers at the Federal Aviation Administration. A union leader who represents some FAA workers says hundreds of probationary employees have been fired at an agency that is already short on air traffic controllers.

There have been concerns about short staffing at the FAA after last month's deadly air crash in Washington that killed 67 people. The stock market is closed today for the President's Day holiday. NPR's Scott Horsley reports Asian stocks were mixed overnight. Japan's Nikkei average rose slightly

after news Japan's economy grew somewhat faster than expected in the final months of last year. Stocks were also higher in South Korea, while indexes fell in both Hong Kong and Shanghai. Investors in the U.S. will get some updates this week on the health of the housing market. The Commerce Department reports Wednesday on new home construction. That will be followed on Friday by a Realtors report on sales of existing homes. High prices and high mortgage rates have been a drag on the housing market, which has knock-on effects for appliance and furniture sales.

Mortgage rates dipped a little bit last week but are still hovering just under 6.9 percent. MPR's Scott Horsley. It's NPR. Opposition lawmakers in Argentina are threatening to impeach the country's president over his endorsement of what appears to have been a cryptocurrency scam. As NPR's Carrie Khan reports, the far-right libertarian leader promoted a crypto coin and then withdrew his backing hours after it was launched. Friday night, President Javier Millet posted on X an endorsement of a new crypto coin called Libra. The currency launched just hours before the president's post promised to strengthen the Argentine economy.

Under an hour of Millet's promotion, the coin rose to nearly $5 in value. However, soon it plunged to under a dollar. Saturday, Millet deleted the tweet, denied relation to the coin, and blamed critics for attacking him. Observers say the coin launch is a so-called rug pull where developers attract investors then bolt. Millay's crypto move echoes similar steps by President Trump, a close ally. Days before his inauguration, Trump released a namesake coin which has since plummeted

in value. Carrie Cahn, NPR News. Potent storms in the South over the weekend have killed at least 10 people. One person perished in Georgia. Nine people died in Kentucky, where flash flooding has led to more than 1,000 water rescues.

Kentucky's governor says the entire state is affected. The National Weather Service has posted extreme cold warnings for much of the central plains this morning. Temperatures are well below zero from Montana to Michigan. Wind chill readings make it feel much colder than that as far south as Oklahoma. I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News in Washington.