NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-24-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: February 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Employees across the federal government got an email over the weekend asking them to describe their work over the past week. Now as NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, some other Trump administration officials are telling employees not to reply. The email Saturday came from the Office of Personnel Management and arrived hours after Trump advisor Elon Musk said on social media that workers who didn't respond would lose their jobs. The email itself didn't say that.

Musk has been tasked with cutting the federal government, and so far the administration has fired some 20,000 federal workers. But the email caused confusion in many parts of the government after other Trump administration officials told workers they didn't have to reply. New FBI Director Kash Patel told the agency's workforce that it would review its own processes and to hold off on replying to the email. The Defense Department also told employees not to respond and the State Department said it would reply on workers' behalf.

Joe Hernandez, NPR News. The Trump administration is being criticized for the firing this weekend of several key senior military officers, including the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Detractors say the firings injected politics into the Pentagon. But Republican Representative Mike Lawler of New York says the department needed a complete overhaul. I don't know why anybody's surprised by changes at the upper echelon of the Defense Department. They're not exempt from failure or the need for a change in direction.

Retired General George Casey, meanwhile, calls the firings extremely destabilizing. President Trump has chosen former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino to be the deputy director of the FBI in a social media post. Trump said Bongino is a man with incredible love and passion for the country. Bongino has also written best-selling books and has served as a conservative pundit on TV and podcasts. The official count from Germany's national parliamentary election shows that center-right Christian Democrat candidate Friedrich Merz is poised to become the country's next chancellor. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports. Merz's center-right block emerged as the biggest vote-getter, nearly 10% ahead of the far-right

Alternative for Germany party or AFD. Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats were in third place. It is too early to tell whether Merz's Christian Democrats will start coalition talks with one other party or two. This hinges on whether two parties hovering around 5% are able to stay above that threshold, which is what parties need to enter parliament. If they don't make it, the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats would have enough votes to form a two-party coalition government.

Rob Schmitz, NPR News. The Trump administration says it's placing all but a few hundred staffers at the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave. It's also eliminating some 1,600 U.S.-based jobs. The news comes after a federal judge on Friday allowed the administration to take such action. The notices sent to affected workers have already started going out. You're listening to NPR News. At the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, Conclave won the top award, Best Cast in a

Motion Picture. And among the awards given to individual performers, there was a big surprise. Steve Futterman reports. On an evening where most of the winners were expected, there was one big surprise. And the actor goes to... Timothy Chalamet! Timothy Chalamet won the award for Best male actor in a leading role for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.

I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. The favorite had been Adrienne Brody for The Brutalist. The other awards did go as expected. Best lead female actor to Demi Moore for The Substance. The Supporting Actor Awards went to Zoe Saldana for Emilia Perez and Kiernan Kulkan for A Real Pain. Many SAG members are also Oscar members, so we may have gotten hints about who could win next week.

For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. One day after suffering a prolonged asthmatic respiratory crisis, doctors say Pope Francis remains in critical condition in a hospital in Rome. He's been hospitalized for more than a week with pneumonia and a complex lung infection. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan says the Catholic faithful are united at the bedside of a dying father. Five months after he was killed in an Israeli strike, the leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group was laid to rest on Sunday. Tens of thousands of people turned out for the funeral, which was held at a sports stadium. They filled the venue and lined the streets outside.

His death was a major blow for the Iran-backed group. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.