NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-20-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The IRS is eliminating thousands of jobs in the middle of tax filing season. NPR Scott Horsley reports the cuts are part of the Trump administration's widespread downsizing of the federal government. More than 6,000 IRS jobs are being eliminated or more than 6% of the agency's total workforce. Under the Biden administration, the IRS had added staffers in an effort to improve customer service and crack down on wealthy tax cheats.

Nina Olson, who heads the Center for Taxpayer Rights, says cutting the agency's workforce will likely end up costing the government money. The Internal Revenue Service is the accounts receivable function of the federal government. And no business would under fund their accounts receivable function. They wouldn't continue because the funds aren't coming in. The union representing IRS workers is asked to judge to halt the job cuts there and at

other government agencies. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Now the Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell has announced he's retiring and will not be seeking reelection. The scramble is underway to fill his seat. McConnell's current term ends in 2027. He chose today his 83rd birthday to make the announcement. McConnell has a distinction of having been the longest serving Senate party leader in US history. He leaves after a 40 year career in Congress. Mexico's president is warning the US

against any invasion of its territory. And Piers Ador-Peraldo reports it comes.S. designated six Mexican cartels as terrorist groups. The U.S. now considers some of Mexico's biggest organized crime groups terrorists. Mexican President Claudio Sheinbaum said this was a decision the U.S. took unilaterally. She said Mexico, like the U.S., is committed to fighting drug cartels, but through cooperation, not coercion. This designation, she said, cannot be used by the US as an opportunity to undermine our sovereignty.

Sheinbaum then proposed changes to the Mexican constitution that explicitly say the Mexican people reject foreign interventions or violation of Mexico's territory by land, sea or air. President Trump has floated the idea of bombing the Mexican drug cartels. Eder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City. The pope is spending his seventh day in the hospital as he battles pneumonia. As NPR's Worth Sherlock explains, the Vatican says he's alert and got out of bed to eat breakfast this morning. The Vatican says new blood tests showed a slight improvement

for the 88-year-old pontiff, though his overall condition remains the same. After a recent visit, Italy's Prime Minister, Georgia Maloney, said Pope Francis was alert and responsive and that they joked around as usual. She noted he hasn't lost his proverbial sense of humor. The Vatican says the pope is able to get out of bed and that he's continued with some of his work. The Pope has also previously admitted to not being

a terribly cooperative patient. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Rome. On Wall Street, the Dow is down 450 points today. You're listening to NPR. Hamas has returned the bodies of four Israeli hostages, said to include a mother and her two children, who have long been feared dead. Militants also reported to have released the body of an 83-year-old man who was abducted as part of Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Hamas says all four were killed in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes. Collecting water from fog has been happening for centuries, but only studied by science

recently. Empress Regina Barber reports on a study that attempts to harness fog to supply water for people. Alto Especial lies in the Atacama desert, and it's perfectly situated to collect fog. At about 2,000 feet in Chile, Alto Especial is the only city which is inside of the cloud. That's geographer Virginia Carter. She led a study that gathered data at various fog collection sites around the city for a year. In the past, fog collection has only been studied and used in small villages.

But for the first time, Carter and her team used computer modeling to map how much water could be collected from fog all over the region. They found that fog could supply hundreds of thousands of liters of drinking water per week, enough to supplement the water demands of under-resourced parts of the city. Regina Barber, NPR News. President Trump apparently needs assurances. The nation's supply of gold bullion really is at Fort Knox. And he says for that reason he's sending his government efficiency chief

Elon Musk to make sure. Speaking at the conservative CPAC gathering today, Musk joked they want to make sure somebody, quote, didn't spray paint some lead or something. The US has been storing gold at the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox since 1937. Recently appointed Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says there is an audit every year. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.