NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-18-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

NPR News: 02-18-2025 4PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The U.S. and Russia say they are restoring embassy staffing in each other's capitals and working toward ending the Kremlin's nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine. Today's high-level meeting in Saudi Arabia underscored President Trump's shift away from the last three years of U.S. policy that sought to isolate Russia over its 2022 invasion of its neighbor. The stakes are high for Ukraine, but it was not invited to today's talks. Meanwhile, NPR's Emily Fang is monitoring China's reaction to warming relations between

the U.S. and Russia, one of Beijing's main international partners. Emily Fang, NPR Newsletter, China expressed ambivalence about the meeting between the U.S. and Russia. The summit is happening in Saudi Arabia, bypassing Beijing, which has repeatedly offered to host such a meeting to broker peace in Ukraine. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said it welcomed the US-Russia talks. But Russia, which China signed a quote unlimited partnership with in 2022, on the eve of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, is deeply important to Chinese foreign policy. China has bought up a lot of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine is deeply important to Chinese foreign policy.

China has bought up a lot of Russia's oil and gas after European sanctions hit, and it's facilitated trade and machinery and electronic components that Russia needs. And the prospect of closer ties between two historically antagonistic countries, the U.S. and Russia, could destabilize China's foreign policy calculations. Emily Fang and Peer News. A Delta Airlines plane remains flipped over on a snowy tarmac in Canada. Canadian and US investigators are on site to investigate what caused the plane to crash land and catch fire at Toronto Pearson International Airport yesterday afternoon.

The president's CEO, Deborah Flynn, says the airport's operating but with delays. We do expect that the investigators on site will be reviewing the aircraft on its current configuration on the runway for the next 48 hours. And we are looking to get to support that investigation and the removal of that aircraft off the runway, at which point we can do our inspections and then return that runway into service. All 80 people on the Delta Regional Jet got out of the plane. Officials say 19 sustained injuries, but nothing life threatening. At least 14 people are dead from flooding and freezing temperatures over the last four

days in Kentucky. Karen Zahr of Member Station WUKY has more. Crews on Black Hawk helicopters and Swiftwater rescue boats have been working around the clock since late Saturday, evacuating Kentuckians from flood water. Governor Andy Beshear was on the ground in Eastern Kentucky Monday, where nearly 300 people were rescued from two apartment complexes. I was there at Little Sandy at the airport with these families getting off thankful that they were safe and really grateful for the National Guard of our

state of Tennessee of Indiana. Beshear said there are still people unaccounted for and it could be days before there is an accurate count. It's NPR. Pope Francis is still in the hospital with a respiratory tract infection. Doctors are now describing as a, quote, complex clinical situation. Today, the Vatican said that the Pope has pneumonia. And Piers Ruth Sherlock reports a priest in Gaza says the pontiff has nonetheless kept in touch with the parish in Gaza from his hospital bed. Father Gabriel Romanelli says in an interview posted on Vatican News that Pope Francis, though hospitalised, called at the same time he always calls.

The Pope has maintained his near daily contact with the Catholic Church in Gaza throughout the recent war. Romanelli says in his recent call from hospital, Pope Francis asked how he and the refugees gathered around him were and sent them his blessing. The 88 year old Pontiff has been suffering from a respiratory infection for more than a week and has been hospitalized for several days. Father Romanelli says the Pope sounded a little more tired than usual and that the Pontiff acknowledged his bronchitis. But Romanelli says his voice was clear and he listened well. Ruth Sherlock, MPI News, Rome. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is at risk of being ousted as he fights corruption allegations. New York Governor Kathy Hochul was slated to meet with Manhattan leaders

today after signaling she might use her authority to remove her fellow Democrat from office. Adams continues to deny bribery charges as well as claims that he agreed to collaborate with the Trump administration's crackdown on migrants in exchange for the Justice Department's decision to drop its case against him. The Dow is closed up slightly. This is NPR News.