NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-22-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to put thousands of U.S. agency for international development staff on administrative leave. MPR's Fatma Tanis has the latest. Unions representing agency employees lost their bid to challenge the administration's moves to dismantle America's aid agency. Two weeks ago, Judge Carl Nichols had issued a pause on the moves to put most of the agency's staff on administrative leave and bring back foreign service officers who

are posted overseas, many in conflict zones, within 30 days. The unions argued that dismantling the agency would put its overseas staff in danger and cut them off from communication and resources. Judge Nichols said the unions failed to prove irreparable harm to the employees and removed the temporary block. The administration has significantly downsized USAID. Only 600 people out of the more than 10,000 will be allowed to continue working. Fatma Tanis, NPR News. NPR has confirmed that the U.S. Census Bureau has stopped work on producing statistics that

could help protect the rights of transgender people because of an executive order by President Trump. As NPR's Hansi Leung reports, the change came after Trump issued an order targeting gender identity. The federal government's largest statistical agency has taken steps to remove questions about a person's gender identity from at least four surveys, including the National Crime Victimization Survey. That will become less useful for tracking crimes against transgender people, former Census Bureau Director Robert Santos tells NPR in his first broadcast interview since

resigning this month. It's really essential to be able to gather that because it's a survey about victims of crimes that aren't reported. Because of President Trump's executive order targeting gender identity, the Bureau has also suspended research on producing more comprehensive statistics about LGBTQ plus people that the Justice Department has said is needed to help enforce the Civil Rights Act and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Anzila Wong in Pure News, Washington. Republican Congressman Glenn Grossman represents a solid red district in eastern Wisconsin, and he

was there Friday for a town hall with constituents. As Wisconsin Public Radio's Nick Rommel reports, many of them were not happy. Grossman spoke to about 100 people at a local government office in Oshkosh. He praised one of President Donald Trump's recent executive orders. The crowd reacted immediately. He's gotten rid of birthright citizenship. Oh, really? Outside, in the snowy parking lot, around 50 people couldn't get into the venue

after it reached capacity. One of them was John Kelnhofer, who said he was worried about billionaire Elon Musk's power within the Trump administration. I've been getting more and more politically involved and I can finally continue as long as this stuff keeps happening. He said it was his first time going to one of his congressman's town halls. For NPR News, I'm Nick Rommel in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Wall Street closed sharply lower by the closing bell on Friday. And you're listening to NPR News. A body released by Palestinians overnight has been confirmed to be Shiri Bebas. She was the Israeli mother whose two young sons also died in captivity. Hamas had originally said her remains were returned on Thursday, but those remains were of an unidentified Gaza woman. Her family has confirmed the identification. Major League Baseball is testing out a new automated challenge system in spring training.

Pitchers, catchers, and batters may all challenge an umpire's calls on balls and strikes. And the review is powered by an automated strike zone. Amperes Becky Sullivan has more on our story. On Thursday during a spring game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Chicago Cubs, an ordinary fastball in the first inning became history when Cubs pitcher Cody Petit tapped his head after the umpire called a ball. That triggered the Major League's first ever ABS challenge as it's called. The Jumbotron showed the computerized replay of the pitch and that it was in fact a strike after where the Dodgers' Max Muncie had good humor

about getting the short end of the historic challenge. It was a pitch that I definitely thought was a strike. He balled it and I look out and the pitcher was seemed very excited to challenge that one and when he challenged it I knew it was going to get overturned and I went oh man I'm gonna be the first one on this. That's great. The soonest the challenge system could appear in the regular season is 2026. Becky Sullivan in PR News Phoenix. Police in Berlin have arrested a man who's suspected in a stabbing attack at the city's Holocaust memorial. One man was seriously injured in that attack. Police have released no motive for the incident. The stabbing took place just two days before a national election takes place on Sunday. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.