NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-23-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Donald Trump says nobody has seen anything like his first month in office. Speaking at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C., he bragged about his effort to fire thousands of federal employees and congratulated himself for what he called dominating Washington. MPR's Stephen Fowler says the annual conference was all about Trump this year. Everything is under the umbrella of Trumpism all the way down. There were panels about January 6th. Several cabinet secretaries were there

sharing how their agency or department plans to implement Trump's agenda and a lot of nods to that Doge effort and a notion pushed by Musk that they'll save so much money they can return some of it to taxpayers. MPR Stephen Fowler, HIV community groups from around the country filed two separate lawsuits against the Trump administration this week. As MPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports, the groups argue several of Trump's executive orders attempt to quote, erase transgender people from public life. Lambda Legal filed two separate lawsuits challenging three executive orders which

define sex as only male and female and limit funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The lead plaintiffs are the National Urban League and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Lambda Legal's Jose Abrego is lead counsel for both lawsuits. He addressed reporters on a press call. These orders go beyond government policy and attempt to control private thought and speech by making it impossible for organizations to function unless they comply with state-imposed ideology. He says several of the service organizations have had funding revoked or threatened for providing services like free HIV testing and substance use counseling for LGBTQ patients. Flena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News.

Voters in Germany will head to the polls on Sunday. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports from Berlin on just what's at stake. On the minds of German voters, this time around are an economic slump, an immigration crisis and the lifting of a security blanket provided for decades by the United States. The general election of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament, was supposed to come later this year. But last November, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister over how to revive Europe's largest economy.

That led to the collapse of Scholz's three-party coalition government and the call for an early election. Latest polling data shows the center-right Christian Democratic Union Party, alongside its Bavarian sister party and their candidate for chancellor, politician and lawyer Friedrich Merz, is the most likely to emerge as the top vote-getter and thus be in the position of forming a coalition government with one or two other parties. Rob Schmitz and Pierre News, Berlin. Doctors in Rome say Pope Francis remains in critical condition after he had his anismatic

respiratory crisis that required high flows of oxygen. Francis has been hospitalized for a week with pneumonia and a complex lung infection. He's also received blood transfusions after tests showed low blood platelet levels. This is NPR News. New data from the CDC show Puerto Rico reported a huge increase in cases of dengue fever last year. The island had nearly 6,300 cases of the mosquito-borne illness. MPR's Maria Godoy has more. There were nearly five times as many cases of dengue in Puerto Rico last year compared to the year before.

So many that by late March, the island issued a public health emergency. The CDC says about half of the people who came down with dengue were hospitalized and a little over 4% experienced severe illness. Eleven people died. Dengue continues to spread in Puerto Rico. Symptoms of mild dengue include fever, rash, and muscle aches. Local health authorities have extended an outbreak declaration to the end of March of this year. The CDC says people who live in or visit Puerto Rico should take steps to prevent mosquito bites, such as wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants and using insect repellent. Maria Gadoy, NPR News.

Israel has delayed the release of 620 Palestinian prisoners. They were to be released after Hamas returned six hostages on Saturday. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the delay will continue until the release of more Israeli hostages has been assured. He also said Hamas must end what he called humiliating ceremonies at the handovers. Officials in France say one person was stabbed to death and three other police officers injured in an attack near a crowded market in the eastern part of the country. An Algerian man said to have a schizophrenic profile was detained on Saturday. Police say the man is an Islamic extremist.

A 69-year-old man from Portugal was killed in that attack. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.