NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-19-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. In a potential showdown, groups that receive foreign aid have urged a judge to find Trump officials now running USAID in the State Department in contempt of court. More from NPR's Frank Langford. The groups want the judge to enforce an order he made last week telling the Trump administration to reopen the flow of money to thousands of programs around the globe. The groups say the sudden cutoff of funding has caused layoffs and devastated their organizations. They added that USAID's refusal to reopen the taps was a, quote, brazen act of defiance.

However, USAID argues that it has the right to cancel most of its foreign aid contracts. It says it's reviewing them, looking for waste and fraud and to ensure they're aligned with Trump's goals. The agency says it has already terminated nearly 500 contracts, including some that focused on DEI as well as quote, democracy promotion. Frank Lankford, NPR News. A U.S. appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling blocking the Trump administration from doing away with automatic birthright citizenship. Today's decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit

Court of Appeals marks the first time an appellate court has weighed in on President Trump's executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, something that's guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution. It sets up a case whose fate may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. French President Emmanuel Macron gathered fellow European leaders to discuss the war in Ukraine today and growing tensions with the U.S. MPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports. Macron said the allies want a solid and durable peace

in Ukraine with robust and credible security guarantees and that Ukraine must be part of any peace talks. Macron will meet with President Trump next week in Washington. Trump is also meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. European leaders defended Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Trump called him a dictator. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Trump's comments were false and dangerous, and Germany's foreign minister called them completely absurd.

Starmer said it was perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during a war, just as Britain had during World War II. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. In Kentucky, at least 14 deaths are now linked to severe weather and major flooding there. As Karen Zahr of Member Station WUKY reports, now the concern is snow and ice. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshears says the focus now is making sure everyone has shelter during the snow storm. Two people died from hypothermia earlier this week. It's cold right now. It's going to get dangerously cold tonight and into tomorrow. The governor is asking everyone to stay home if they can and be patient. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a long tunnel.

Temperatures aren't expected to rise above freezing until Saturday. For NPR News, I'm Karen Zarr in Lexington. On Wall Street, the Dow was up 71 points. The NASDAQ closed up 14 points today. You're listening to NPR. The city of New Orleans is requiring more security for parades this carnival

season. That's because of the New Year's Day attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people and injured dozens more. But as the Gulf States newsroom's Drew Hawkins reports, more security at Mardi Gras this year means more costs for parade organizers. The City of New Orleans covers the security costs for larger, more traditional parades, But independent walking crews that march through different neighborhoods pay for it themselves through membership fees. These are regular New Orleanians, you know,

they're school teachers, they might be retired. Yvonne Garrett is captain of Crew DeVu, a local walking parade. She says their extra security costs should be covered by the city. One walking parade, the Intergalactic Crew of Chewbacca's, says they got a bill that was more than twice what they paid last year. City officials haven't said how much extra they're paying for security this Mardi Gras

to make sure people can stay safe. For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in New Orleans. Device maker Apple is out with another version of its popular iPhone 16 as it seeks to expand its market including the market for AI assisted devices. New iPhone E being unveiled today is the fourth generation of a model that's being sold at a lower price than standard iPhone models. The iPhone 16e will have a chip needed to run Apple's AI features with a starting price of about $600, that's several hundred dollars below the standard model, nearly half the price of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. Critical futures prices gained ground today oil up 40 cents a barrel to end the session

at $72.25 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.