NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-17-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova Coleman, the Kremlin says it's sending top Russian diplomats to meet their U.S. counterparts today in Saudi Arabia. Russia says they'll discuss establishing peace in Ukraine. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in Saudi Arabia, but his schedule has not been publicly disclosed. The president of Ukraine is not there, nor are any European officials. The leaders of eight European nations are holding an emergency meeting in Paris today. And Pierce Eleanor Beardsley reports, the Transatlantic Security Alliance that's been

in place since the end of World War II is being upended. In speeches in Brussels and Munich over the last week, top Trump officials made it clear to European leaders that they can no longer fully depend on the US and must ensure their own security. Europeans were also blindsided by President Trump's hour and a half friendly call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Finnish President Alexander Stubb quoted Soviet leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to sum up the changes.

There are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen, he said. In Paris, European leaders will look for ways to increase defense spending, defend Ukraine and Europe's interests in negotiations, and ensure the stability of any peace deal. Eleanor Beardsley in PR News, Paris. It's been about a month since President Trump took office. He's working to deport migrants illegally in the U.S. There's been pushback since the administration said immigration agents don't have to avoid sensitive places such as schools.

Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, says immigration agents are only doing that in certain circumstances. 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 a high school who's wanted for drug distribution or strong arm rotaries, 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 let him escape back into the community. He spoke to CNN.

Powerful storms in the South left 10 people dead over the weekend, mostly in Kentucky. From member station WUKY, Karen Czar reports Kentucky has been hit by flooding. That's the sound of water rushing down rock ledges along a highway in Eastern Kentucky. Lieutenant Brandon Smith with the Hazard Fire Department was out with his Swift Water rescue team on Saturday when they got a call on the radio from the department's second rescue crew. They were having to abandon the fire department because water had rolled so quickly and then

it got into our station. Lieutenant Smith said their temporary emergency staging area became the Pizza Hut in downtown Hazard. For NPR News, I'm Karen Zarr in Hazard, Kentucky. U.S. stock markets are closed today in observance of the President's Day holiday. This is NPR. The union that represents some workers at the Federal Aviation Administration says that the Trump administration has started firing workers at the FAA. The union chief says several hundred probationary employees started getting termination letters late Friday night and more could be fired this week.

He says this is going to make workloads that much harder on FAA workers who are already overstretched. Meanwhile, about a thousand employees have been laid off at the National Park Service. workloads that much harder on FAA workers who are already overstretched. Meanwhile, about a thousand employees have been laid off at the National Park Service. NPR's Emma Bowman reports that she spoke with one park ranger who says he lost 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. Gib says he has other skill sets, but that this job was his passion. Emma Bowman, NPR News. The Vatican says Pope Francis will need to remain hospitalized. He was admitted to a Rome hospital last Friday for the treatment of bronchitis. It has been getting worse. The Vatican now says the Pontus respiratory tract infection is

presenting a complex clinical picture for doctors. They say he rested quietly overnight. This is NPR.