NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-22-2025 5PM EST

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The Vatican says Pope Francis remains in critical condition after a respiratory crisis earlier today. NPR's Jason DeRose reports the 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to a hospital in Rome last week to be treated for a complex lung infection. The Holy See Press Office says Pope Francis experienced a quote, asthma-like respiratory crisis of prolonged intensity Saturday morning.

The event required the administration of high flow oxygen. The Vatican also says blood tests have revealed a condition called thrombocytopenia, which is associated with anemia. That condition required the 88-year-old pope to undergo a blood transfusion. The Vatican press office says Francis remains alert and spent Saturday in an armchair, although he's more uncomfortable than in recent days. The prognosis, it says, remains guarded. Francis

has served as pope since March of 2013. Jason DeRose, NPR News. Hundreds of Israelis gathered in central Tel Aviv to watch a live stream as Hamas released six more Israeli hostages in Gaza today. Cheers went up from the crowd as the hostages were met by the International Committee of the Red Cross, NPR's Katlan store, reports from Tel Aviv. The six hostages included four men taking the 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel and two Israeli citizens who had been held in Gaza for around a decade. In exchange, more than 600 Palestinians are expected to be released from Israeli jails.

Four more hostage bodies are set to be returned next week as phase one of the fragile ceasefire deal comes to an end. But there will still be dozens of hostages in Gaza. Polls show a majority of Israelis want the ceasefire to continue, like 57-year-old Youav Brodai. I hope that it will continue, it will not end. I hope that somehow they will reach an agreement, because that's what we need to do.

Several far-right lawmakers in Israel's government are pushing for the war to resume. Kat Lonsdorf, MPR News, Tel Aviv. President Trump spoke at the conservative political action conference outside of Washington, D.C. today. The president used his address to tout the administration's agenda, including a plan to detain migrants at Guantanamo Bay. We have a detention facility that's actually massive. Nobody even knew it existed.

Holes thousands of, thousands of prisoners. We never used it. For four long years, you had a president who put illegal aliens up in penthouse suites in beautiful hotels on Park Avenue, on Madison Avenue, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Now you have a president who is stamping their ticket to Gitmo." Trump also applauded the confirmation of his cabinet picks, including Attorney General

Pam Bondi. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The first and only museum dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci in the United States is set to open later this year It will be located in southern Colorado The new facility will feature life-size machine replicas based on da Vinci sketches science related exhibitions and interactive displays James Bond fans in the United Kingdom are reacting to the news of Amazon MGM's takeover of the 007 franchise. NPR's Lauren Frere reports from London.

When Brits found out Amazon has taken creative control over James Bond, here's what it sounded like on talk radio here. I nearly dropped me coffee and I thought Amazon Prime, spin-off TV series. No, no, no, no. That's Francis from Norfolk, England, who said he worries about the Americanization of his beloved secret agent. A headline in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper calls Amazon's Bond takeover an assault on Britishness, and asks whether the next Bond might be drinking Kentucky bourbon that's shaken not stirred rather than martinis. Bond's creator Ian Fleming was a Brit, but it was an American, Cubby Broccoli, who brought

him to the big screen. His British-American heirs are the ones ceding control to Amazon now. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, London. Germany will hold its national election on Sunday. Opinion polls suggest the outcome will likely be a new chancellor and a new governing coalition. Immigration has emerged as one of the biggest issues among voters in recent months. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News in Washington.