NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-23-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Donald Trump delivered the keynote address Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, also known as CPAC, and PR's Stephen Fowler reports. During a lengthy keynote that resembled his campaign rally speeches, Trump said in one month he's already delivered on his campaign promises, including deportations. The illegal alien criminals are being sent home. We're draining the swamp and we're restoring government by the people, for the people. Trump also spoke extensively and supportably about the Doge efforts to cut government spending

and shrink the size of the federal government. The theme of this week's CPAC highlighted Trump's influence over the conservative movement at home and abroad with speeches from cabinet secretaries, advisors, and global leaders hyping his achievements. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Washington. The Trump administration is refusing to support a UN General Assembly resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Instead, it's proposing its own text, which doesn't criticize Russia.

As NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports, a vote on both of the resolutions is set for Monday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls it a simple historic resolution to support a path to peace. He says the UN should affirm that this conflict is awful and that the UN can help end it. Ukraine and the Europeans had proposed a much longer text that reminds the world that Russia is violating the U.N. charter by invading its neighbor, it calls on Russia to withdraw and return all civilians, including children, who were forcibly deported to Russia. The U.S. text simply acknowledges tragic losses, with no language saying Russia started the war and calls for a quick end to the conflict. Russia's ambassador to the U.N. called it a good move by the Trump administration to offer

a rival text. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, Washington. Pope Francis remains hospitalized and critical condition after suffering a respiratory crisis on Saturday that required high flows of oxygen. The 88-year-old pontiff has been hospitalized for more than a week. NPR's Ruth Sherlock is just outside the Vatican where she says the mood is somber. Here at St. Peter's Square just after the news breaks that Pope Francis is in a critical condition in hospital, I find a group of young teenagers standing in a

circle praying in a quiet murmur. They're praying for the Pope's health, they say, but also for his salvation, for a direct ascent to heaven should he pass away. The group's leader, Don Marco, tells me if he had to summarise Francis' papacy, it would be in one word, mercy. He says this Pope tried to break down the trappings of the Vatican, the idea of the Vatican as a wealthy, powerful empire, and bring it back to simpler Christian roots. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News. The Trump administration has sent emails to federal government employees demanding that they detail what they did at work last week or risk losing their jobs.

The responses are expected by Monday night. The emails came shortly after Elon Musk posted on social media that a refusal to respond would be viewed as a resignation. Employees at a number of agencies have confirmed that they've received the email. James Bond fans in the United Kingdom are reacting to the news of Amazon MGM's takeover of the 007 franchise. NPR's Lauren Freyer 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. Sudan's Rapid Support Forces has signed a charter with allied political armed groups to establish what the document calls a government of peace and unity. The RSF, which has been fighting government troops for almost two years, now controls most of the western Darfur region as well as parts of the Kordofan region. The UN has already expressed concern about such a government.

I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.