NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-21-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Korva Coleman, Israeli authorities say a body returned yesterday by Hamas is not the hostage who the militants say that it was. Four bodies were handed over yesterday. One of them was supposed to be that of hostage Shiri Bebas, but it wasn't. Israel says the body does not belong to any known hostage. The handover is part of the ceasefire deal. Six living hostages are also supposed to be handed over tomorrow, and scores of Palestinians are supposed to be released from Israeli prisons.

NPR's Hadil Al-Shelchi says currently that is still scheduled to happen. NPR talked to an Israeli official who's familiar with the matter, but they weren't authorized to speak publicly. And we were told that Israel is actually inclined to move ahead with Saturday's prisoner exchange. They said Israel just doesn't want to jeopardize the release of the Israeli hostages this weekend. But then the official also said Israel is going to take advantage that Shiri Bebas' body wasn't returned as a point of negotiation to ask for more hostage releases. And Piers Hadil El-Shelchi reporting.

Many of the 178 Venezuelan migrants recently sent to Guantanamo Bay have now been repatriated. NPR's Jasmine Garst reports. A spokeswoman for DHS said 177 migrants have been sent back to Venezuela and one brought back to an immigration facility in the U.S. The move to hold migrants at Guantanamo was controversial. In recent days, immigrants' rights lawyers went to court to seek access to the detainees. The Trump administration alleged that many were members of the international criminal organization Tren de Aragua, which has been recently designated as a foreign terrorist organization. But in an

official statement from the Colonel running the operation, it is now revealed that 51 of the detainees were considered low threats. Jasmine Garst, NPR News, New York. A federal judge has ruled against labor unions that sued to try to stop the Trump administration's layoffs of federal employees. NPR's Ryland Barton reports. The union sued to stop three Trump initiatives, firing federal employees on probationary status, plans for large-scale reductions in the federal workforce, and the deferred resignation program. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper said he didn't have jurisdiction over the claims

and that unions would have to bring their claims before an independent agency that governs labor issues in the federal workforce. The judge did note that the first month of the administration has been defined by executive actions that have caused, quote, disruption and even chaos in widespread quarters of American society. Several other lawsuits over Trump's actions continue. Federal courts have had mixed decisions so far. Rylan Barton, NPR News.

The man accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last year in New York will appear in a state courtroom today. Luigi Mangione is facing several murder counts and another of an act of terrorism. He's pleaded not guilty. Today's hearing is for lawyers to provide a status update on the case. This is NPR. New York Governor Kathy Hochul says she will not remove embattled New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office. She says she will work to create guardrails around him.

Adams has been accused of corruption, charges he denies. The Trump administration has moved to drop the case against him. Several federal prosecutors have quit, alleging the administration is doing this in exchange for Adams' help on immigration. That's been denied by the administration. Scientists say that for centuries, people have collected water from fog. But this practice has only recently been closely examined. MPR's Regina Barber reports on a study that attempts to harness fog to supply water for a lot more 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. The National Weather Service says an Arctic air mass will persist over the central and southern U.S. today. It got cold in Florida. Wind chills in parts of northern Florida fell to about 17 degrees earlier this morning. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.