NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-24-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Federal agencies are pushing back against a request from the Trump administration to federal workers asking them to report back on what they did last week by 1159 tonight. NPR's Andrea Hsu reports numerous agencies have told their employees not to respond. The email over the weekend from the Office of Personnel Management told federal employees to reply with approximately five bullet points, listing what they accomplished last week and copying their managers.

On Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk, an advisor to President Trump, suggested in a post on X that workers could lose their jobs if they didn't comply. Since then, leaders of federal agencies, including the FBI, the Energy Department, the Department of Defense, and many others, have instructed their employees not to respond to the email. They note that departments are responsible

for reviewing the performance of their personnel and will coordinate any response when and if required. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. A dozen world leaders are in Ukraine's capital today to mark three years since Russia's full-scale invasion. They will not include France's president, Emmanuel Macron, because a leader will be at the White House attempting to convince President Trump

Russia poses an existential threat to the U.S.'s longstanding allies in Europe. In Kiev, NPR's Joannica Kistis reports Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is demanding his country be at the table for negotiations involving the fate of his country. Zelensky says he wants a European representative at the negotiating table along with the U.S., Russia and Ukraine.

He also said he is still working on a deal with the United States that could exchange hundreds of billions of dollars of critical raw materials for security guarantees. He rejected earlier versions of the deal because the terms would leave Ukraine deeply in debt. He said, I am not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv. Grammy-winning artist Roberta Flack has died at the age of 88, a representative for Flack did not share a cause of death, but the singer had been battling ALS. And Piers Glen Weldon has this remembrance. Roberta Flack is the only solo artist to win the Grammy for Record of the Year two years

in a row. First in 1973 for the first time ever I saw your face, and again in 1974 for Killing Me Softly with His Song. Killing me softly with his song Telling my whole life with his words Flack trained in classical piano at Howard University and was discovered at a Washington, DC nightclub where she accompanied herself singing jazz, blues, and pop standards. Flack channeled deep wells of emotion in hit songs like Where is the Love, The Closer I Get to You, and Making Love. Glenn Weldon, NPR News.

From Washington, this is NPR. The Vatican says Pope Francis remains in critical condition but was able to rest well last night. The 88-year-old pontiff has been hospitalized in Rome for nearly two weeks with a complex respiratory infection. His illness included bronchitis, then pneumonia. Around the world, people have been praying for the pontiff's recovery. Among the well-wishers, the cast of the film Conclave, the drama about the secretive election of the new pope won best ensemble cast at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles last night. Major League Baseball is testing out a new automated challenge system in spring training. Pitchers, catchers, and batterers may challenge an umpire's calls on balls and strikes.

NPR's Becky Sullivan reports a review is powered by an automated strike zone. 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 yeah when he challenged it I knew it was going to get overturned and I went oh man I'm going to be the first one on this. That's great. The soonest the challenge system could appear in the regular season is 2026. Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Phoenix. At last check on Wall Street the Dow was up 171 points at 43,599. It's NPR.