NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-24-2025 8PM EST

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

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Donald Trump is back in the White House and making a lot of moves very quickly. Keep track of everything going on in Washington with the NPR Politics Podcast. Every day we break down the latest news and explain why it matters to you. The NPR Politics Podcast. Listen every day. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The Trump administration is backing down from acquiring federal workers to respond to an email asking them to list five things they accomplished last week. MPR Shannon Bond reports some agency officials had pushed back against the email directive

announced by Elon Musk. The government-wide email sent on Saturday gave federal workers until Monday night to send their lists. But as that deadline loomed, some agencies, including the Departments of Defense, State, and Energy, told staff not to respond. Other departments gave conflicting guidance, leaving employees confused about whether and how to comply. Late Monday afternoon, the Office of Personnel Management, which sent the email, told agencies that responses are voluntary and that not responding would not be considered resignation. That contradicts claims by President Trump and his adviser, Elon Musk, that federal

workers who do not reply to the email are at risk of losing their jobs. Shannon Bond, NPR News. Speaking at the White House, besides President Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron said the two leaders agreed on European peacekeepers on the ground in Ukraine, backed up by a US security guarantee. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports Europeans say the talks went better than expected and feel Macron may have succeeded in injecting a dose of reality into Trump's view of the Russian president and his war.

The press conference was broadcast live on French television. This peace cannot mean the surrender of Ukraine and it can't be a ceasefire without guarantees, said Macron. Trump said he was sure President Putin wants a peace deal too. That wasn't the case in 2014, said Macron, switching to English. Or in 2022, when he spent seven hours with Putin just two weeks before his invasion. He denied everything, but we didn't have security guarantees. This time we'll have security guarantees, said Macron, and if Putin breaks them, he'll be going against all of us.

Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. The Trump administration is developing plans to build immigration detention facilities on U.S. military bases around the country. Prime Minister Joe Rose reports it would significantly expand the military's role in immigration enforcement. The Department of Homeland Security is asking the Defense Department for help detaining immigrants without legal status. That request is laid out in a memo from DHS that was obtained by NPR. The plan would begin with a deportation hub at Fort Bliss near El Paso that could eventually hold as many as 10,000 immigrants

and could serve as a model for as many as 10 other holding facilities on bases in New Jersey, Florida, Utah, Wyoming, and elsewhere. The request is still in the planning stages, according to a DOD official who was not authorized to speak publicly, but if activated, it could dramatically expand detention capacity to support President Trump's push for mass deportations. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Mixed clothes on Wall Street, the Dow was up 33 points, the NASDAQ fell 237 points today. You're listening to NPR. Provisional results seem to be confirming that mainstream conservatives led by Freish

Mares won Germany's national election, while a far-right party has surged to become the country's second largest. The outcome ensures Ukraine will have strong support from the European Union's second largest country. Germans also will be looking for renewal for a badly battered economy. The campaign, much like in the US, also dealt with issues of immigration and comes amid uncertainty over future US-EU relations. This week marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark meeting in biology when scientists gather to discuss the potential dangers of mixing DNA from different sources.

MPR's Noel Greenfield-Bois reports hundreds of researchers have gathered at the same spot in California. Back when the tools for combining DNA from different life forms were brand new, concerns about unintended consequences led scientists to call for an unusual moratorium. In February of 1975, they gathered in a conference center at a Silimar State Beach in California and hammered out safeguards to let lab work with recombinant DNA go forward. The anniversary is being observed this week by researchers, historians, and others who are meeting at the same place.

They're pondering the future of genetic engineering and the risks posed by advances like synthetic cells and artificial intelligence. Nell Greenfield-Boys, NPR News. Critical futures prices gained ground a bit of ongoing uncertainty over the fate of a Russia-Ukraine peace deal and how that could affect supply. Oil was up 30 cents a barrel today to settle at 70.70 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from NYU Langone.

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