NPR News Now - NPR News: 02-28-2025 5AM EST

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dave Mattingly. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is due at the White House today for talks with President Trump about ending Russia's war with Kiev. Trump told reporters at the White House yesterday he believes Russia and Ukraine will reach a peace agreement and he hopes it gets done quickly. Trump added, if it doesn't happen quickly, it may not happen at all. Trump's comments followed a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

While in Washington, Zelensky is expected to sign an economic agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals. A federal judge in California says the Trump administration's mass firings of probationary federal government employees is illegal and should be halted. As NPR's Andrea Shue reports, the judge is also ordering the Office of Personnel Management to rescind some of its directives on employee dismissals.

Several labor unions and civic organizations sued the Trump administration saying its Office of Personnel Management had violated the law by ordering agencies to fire probationary employees en masse. In court, the government argued that it was merely an ask, not an order. U.S. District Judge William Alsup rejected that argument, noting that the firings happened suddenly and across so much of the government. Because of standing issues, he issued only partial relief to those agencies whose firings affect the civic groups that join the lawsuit. They include the VA, the Small Business Administration,

the National Park Service, the National Science Foundation, and others. He scheduled another hearing in two weeks. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. The Justice Department has released more documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender. As NPR's Ryan Lucas reports, much of the information was already known to the public. The documents include flight logs from Epstein's private plane, an evidence list, a contact book, and a masseuse list, the last two of which are heavily redacted.

There are no major revelations contained in the materials, and most of the files were already known to the public. Epstein was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. He died by suicide shortly after that in a federal lockup while awaiting trial. The Justice Department says it intends to release the remaining Epstein documents after reviewing them and redacting them to protect the identities of Epstein's victims. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. A report from the Israeli military

acknowledges security failures ahead of the deadly attack by Hamas in southern Israel in October of 2023. The attack left nearly 1,200 people dead. More than 250 others were taken hostage, triggering more than a year of war in Gaza. The report cites what investigators call glaring intelligence failures. More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed since the October 7th attack. This is NPR News. There are protests across Greece today as well as a general strike to mark two years since the country's deadliest rail accident.

Fifty-seven people were killed when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train. Demonstrators say they don't believe everyone responsible for the crash has been held accountable. Rail officials were charged, but not politicians. Airline flights, rail service and ferries in Greece are at a standstill. Other transportation is severely disrupted. In Canada, the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has been re-elected. As Dan Karpanchuk reports, Ford's campaign highlighted U.S. tariffs President Trump plans to impose on Canada, as well as Mexico and China, beginning next week.

An almost unheard of result. Three consecutive majorities for Doug Ford. He called the election asking the people of Ontario for a strong mandate to deal with the tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump. Ontario's steel industry and auto sector would be hit hard by those tariffs. And Ford's own party analysts have said half a million jobs could be at stake in the province. Ford's Conservatives needed 63 seats for a majority. There are at least a dozen seats ahead of that. The opposition parties tried to reframe the election to be about health care, housing and affordability. Ford says he will still be Premier in four years when Trump leaves office. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpanchuk in Toronto. The software company Autodesk says it plans to lay off more than 1,300 employees, or about 9 percent of its workforce.

That company is based in California. I'm Dave Mattingly, NPR News in Washington.