NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-20-2025 5AM EST

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. Amos has released the bodies of what it says are four Israelis who were taken hostage in the October 7th attack in southern Israel 16 months ago. They include the bodies of a mother and her two young sons. The bodies are scheduled to undergo forensic testing to confirm their identities. Autopsies will be performed to determine the cause of death. In exchange, Israel is expected to release hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.

The releases are part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli military court is charging a group of soldiers with severely abusing a Palestinian detainee from Gaza. This marks the second time Israel has accused soldiers of wrongdoing in the war with Hamas, as NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv. This was one of the most prominent cases of abuse that Israeli authorities have investigated during the Gaza War. According to the indictment over the summer, five soldiers severely abused the Palestinian detainee while he was blindfolded with his hands and legs bound, beating him, puncturing

a lung, breaking his ribs, and stabbing his bottom with a sharp object, tearing his rectum. This took place at a detention center in Israel. The detainee underwent multiple surgeries. The Israeli military court is pressing charges of causing severe injury and abuse under aggravating circumstances. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. President Trump is escalating his criticism of Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelensky. On social media yesterday, Trump referred to Zelensky as a dictator, a day after Trump falsely suggested Ukraine started the war with Russia.

As NPR's Lexi Shapil reports, some Senate Republicans are distancing themselves from the president's comments. A group of Republican senators are reiterating their support for Ukraine, including North Carolina's Tom Tillis, who was in Ukraine just days ago to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion. He says he's concerned about anything that suggests a moral equivalency between Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's a very bad person, needs to be stopped. He's going to metastasize across Europe if we don't.

Democrats, meanwhile, slammed Trump for his comments, saying he's parroting Russian propaganda. Lexi Schepitl, NPR News, The Capital. Trump's special U.S. envoy to Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, was in Kiev yesterday for talks with Zelensky about negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine. That followed talks in Saudi Arabia involving Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a delegation from Moscow led by Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. As the Trump administration continues efforts to downsize government, there are multiple reports that the IRS will be laying off more than 6,000 employees before

the end of the week. It was first reported by the New York Times. This is NPR News from Washington. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating yesterday's midair collision of two small airplanes at the Marana Regional Airport in Arizona. It left two people dead. The NTSB says one of the single-engine planes crashed and burned. The other, a Cessna, landed safely. The family of Bobby Hall says the Hall of Fame hockey player was suffering from chronic traumatic brain condition when he died in 2023. Steve Funderman has more. CTE is a neurodegenerative brain condition that comes from repeated trauma to the head. After his death, at his request, Bobby Hall's family donated his brain to Boston University's

CTE Center. Tissue analysis revealed Hall was suffering from stage 2 CTE. Hull played for 23 years, mostly in the 1960s and 70s for the Chicago Blackhawks. It was an era when most players didn't wear helmets. Advocacy groups have filed lawsuits against the National Hockey League. There have been some settlements involving millions of dollars. Last year, the Players Union formed an advisory committee to help players better understand CTE.

For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman. Italy's premier, Georgia Maloney, says Pope Francis was alert and responsive when she visited him at the hospital in Rome, where he's being treated for pneumonia in both lungs. The Vatican says the 88-year- old Pontiff's overall condition remains the same though blood tests are showing some improvement. The Pope was able to get out of bed and eat breakfast today. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News in Washington.