NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-21-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova Coleman, the Israeli military has positively identified the bodies of two young boys kidnapped by Hamas when the war started in October 2023. But Israel says the body purported to be their mother is in fact unidentified and not her. And Piers Hadil Al-Shalchi reports questions remain about how they were killed. The Palestinian militant group Hamas has maintained that Ariel and Kvir Bebas, who were four years old and nine months old at the time of their kidnapping, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on November 2023. But while Israeli officials positively identified the young boy's bodies, they said the children were not killed in an airstrike and instead by their captors. The Israeli military did not specify how they were killed. The military also said the body Hamas claimed to be their mother Shiri Bebas

was in fact of quote an anonymous unidentified body. Hamas is expected to release six live Israeli hostages on Saturday in exchange for more than 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. Hadeel Alshalchi, NPR News, Jericho. President Trump has celebrated Black History Month while his administration continues to eliminate diversity and equity programs across the federal government. NPR's Franco Ardoño reports on the apparent contradictions. Standing alongside golf icon Tiger Woods, President Trump announced a new quote garden

of American heroes to be created to honor great Americans including black Americans such as Rosa Parks, Aretha Franklin, Frederick Douglas and Jackie Robinson. We pay tribute to these heroes and to so many others, but not simply because they're black heroes but also because they are truly American heroes who inspire all of us, very much so. But the celebration comes amid his administration's war on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and policies calling them discriminatory and contrary to the ideals they espouse. Trump has signed multiple executive orders to that end.

Franco, Ordonez, and Parnes, the White House. The Trump administration can proceed with firing thousands of federal workers. A federal judge ruled yesterday his court does not have jurisdiction over a lawsuit filed by unions. The unions have filed a different lawsuit. NPR's Lauren Summer reports about 200 workers have now been fired at the federal disaster agency FEMA. Those FEMA staff come from every part of FEMA.

And I talked to Michael Cohn, who was FEMA's chief of staff under the Biden administration. And he says the agency was already understaffed. We've been behind at FEMA as far as our recruiting goals. And now to let go a whole year's worth of people who have been hired is only going to put the agency in jeopardy. Last year during Hurricane Helene,

FEMA had to use employees from other federal agencies to fill the gap because the need was so great from disaster survivors. You're listening to NPR. The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Brian Thompson, in New York last year will appear in a state courtroom today. Luigi Mangione is facing several murder accounts and another account of an act of terrorism.

He's pleaded not guilty. Today's hearing is for lawyers to provide a status update on the case. Canada beat the United States last night to win the Four Nations hockey tournament. President Trump's terror threats against Canada and his desire to annex that country gave an edge to the hockey matchup. Rob Lane reports. The game began with American fans booing a performance of the Canadian national anthem. Those jeers are a retort to Canadian fans' booing

of the star-spangled banner earlier in the tournament. Canadian fan Grace Chipman says the tensions between the fan bases reflected growing antipathy between the two countries. I think there's a lot of Americans who don't understand how concerned and offended Canadians are and we've been friends with the U.S. for so long, friendly neighbors, that it's pretty offensive to be called the 51st state. Canada won the game in overtime with a final score of 3 to 2. For NPR News, I'm Rob Lane.

A top European Union trade official met with Trump administration officials yesterday in Washington. Trump has also pledged to put tariffs on goods imported from the EU. European officials say they're stressing the need for fair trade. The National Weather Service says an Arctic air mass will persist over the central and southern US today. It's cold in Florida. Wind chills in parts of northern Florida are about 17 degrees this morning. This is NPR.