NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-17-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

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Whatever your job is, wherever you're from, NPR is a resource for all Americans. Our mission is to create a more informed public. We do that by providing free access to independent, rigorous journalism that's accountable to the public. You, federal funding for public media, provides critical support of this work. Learn more about how to safeguard it at ProtectMyPublicMedia.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. As American and Russian officials prepare to meet in Saudi Arabia this week to try to end the war in Ukraine, European leaders who've so far been left out of negotiations are meeting

in Paris. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports that the Europeans are stunned by the Trump administration's approach. The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark will come together to reassess the rapidly changing situation. Europeans thought they could work with the new Trump administration on negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. But comments this week by Trump officials in Europe confirmed their worst fears, says

security expert Ellie Tenenbaum with the French Institute for International Relations. That they were going to be bypassed by the United States to negotiate a peace deal over the head and strong-arming Ukraine into a bad deal. Europeans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky say Europe must have a seat at the table when decisions about Europe are being made. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. The Trump administration's border czars responding to widespread criticism over federal immigration

raids across the country since Trump took office in January. But Tom Homan says those concerns are unwarranted. We're not raiding schools, we're not raiding churches, we're not raiding college campuses. But if we have a significant public safety threat or national security, let's say for instance an MS-13 member who's a senior in high school who's wanted for drug distribution or strong arm rotteries, we will go to that school and arrest that MS-13 member with the help of the local authorities. It's not about raiding schools, it's about arresting one bad guy where we know he is and not letting him escape back into the community. Holman was speaking on CNN today.

The Trump administration has reversed the firings of hundreds of people who are working on the nation's nuclear weapons programs. The Associated Press is reporting that more than 300 employees were laid off late Thursday at the National Nuclear Security Administration, but by late Friday night the agency's acting director rescinded all but 28 of those dismissals. Heavy rains are causing flooding in much of Kentucky, including areas destroyed by a once-in-a-century flood in 2022. At least eight deaths are blamed on the storms.

John McGarry of Member Station WEKY reports. There's little rest for weary first responders in much of Kentucky this weekend. In the southeastern county of Floyd, Emergency Management Director Brian White says there have been a lot of rescues, but no reported injuries or deaths. Some makers of our issue declarations

evacuated some local localized towns and stuff and we got like a law enforcement out helping mitigate the process and all this and that to get people up to higher ground that'll leave their residence in some danger right now. White says several trees and power lines are down too. For NPR News, I'm John McGarry in Versailles, Kentucky. And this is NPR News. About 1,000 National Park Service employees were fired over the past week. These recent cuts to the federal workforce have targeted probationary workers and are all part of the Trump administration's overall plan to shrink the federal government.

NPR's Emma Bowman spoke to one park ranger after he lost what he calls his dream job. Brian Gibbs got the news on Valentine's Day. He was an environmental educator at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa, an ancient Native American burial site. The park holds a lot of meaning for him. This is home. It's the first place I told my spouse that I loved her. It's the first park that I took my son to. But he says the public stands to lose a lot more. You're losing people who are teaching youth such as myself, you know, the value of protecting and preserving these places for current and future generations. I mean, that's what the Park Service is founded on. That's their mission. Gibbs says he has other skill sets, but that this job was his passion.

Emma Bowman, NPR News. The papal thriller The Conclave won Best Picture today at the British Academy Film Awards. The Brutalist director Brady Corbett, meanwhile, won a BAFTA for Best Director, while Brutalist star Adrienne Brody took the prize for Best Actor. Mikey Madison won Best Actress for her role in Anora while the best supporting actress award went to Zoe Saldana in Amelia Perez and Kiernan Culkin was named best supporting

actor for A Real Pain. There was no dominant winner though with both the brutalist and the conclave, women of four BAFTA awards each. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. Technologist Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.