NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-01-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

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Hey, it's Amartines. I work on a news show. And yeah, the news can feel like a lot on any given day, but you just can't ignore las noticias when important world-changing events are happening. So that is where the Up First podcast comes in. Every single morning in under 15 minutes, we take the news and boil it down to three essential stories so you can keep up without feeling stressed out. Listen to the up-first podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. A potential deal between the US and Ukraine to pave the way for an end to its war with Russia is now up in the air. As NPR's Asma Khalid reports, this follows a heated public discussion on Friday between President

Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump accused Ukraine's president of being disrespectful and unthankful for American support. The meeting became so heated that Zelensky left the White House earlier than expected. Zelensky was in town to finalize a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukrainian minerals, but that deal was not signed. And Trump later told reporters that Zelensky does not want to make peace. But after Zelensky left the White House, he didn't interview with Fox News' Brett Baer and insisted he does.

We want peace. That's why I'm in the United States. That's why I visited President Trump. But he also repeatedly made it clear he wants security guarantees from the U.S. so that Russia will not reinvade Ukraine. Asma Khalid, NPR News, The White House. Federal employees have received a second email from the Office of Personnel Management asking them to describe what work they've done over the past week. A similar earlier request is already under legal scrutiny.

The email late Friday night asked the employees to share five bullet points on their accomplishments over the week. Egypt says talks to further the ceasefire agreement in Gaza between Israel and Hamas have opened in Cairo. That says the current phase of the deal is set to expire this weekend. And Piers Kat Lonsdorf reports from Tel Aviv. Egypt says that, quote, intensive discussions

on the next stage of the ceasefire deal are underway. Israel confirmed it has sent a delegation to Cairo. Qatari officials are also present, mediating for Hamas, which says it remains committed to the deal. President Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Wittkopf is also expected in the region soon. The first phase of the ceasefire deal, which has lasted almost six weeks, ends this weekend, although Israel has expressed interest in extending it while details of the next phase continue to be hammered out. Phase two would see more hostages and Palestinian detainees released, as well as further withdrawal

of Israeli troops from Gaza. More humanitarian aid would also be allowed into Gaza, which has been critical in recent weeks. Kat Lonsdorf, MPR News, Tel Aviv. There has been no indication yet of the effectiveness of the 24-hour economic blackout that was held on Friday. The activist group, the People's Union USA, encouraged Americans to not spend any money

to resist what the group's founder has described as the evil influence of billionaires, big corporations, and both major political parties. Consumer spending has dropped by the most since February of 2021. Data released on Friday show that happened even as incomes rose. Economists say ongoing tariff threats from the White House and major government job cuts are both responsible in part for the spending drop and they say tariffs will likely push prices higher.

This is NPR News. The pioneering free video calling app known as Skype will be shut down in May, that's according to Microsoft, which has owned the service since 2011. And Pierce Scott Newman has more. Remember this sound? Skype was founded in 2003, and for a few years was at the top of its game, providing video calls that seemed to many like something out of science fiction. It was later bought by eBay, then sold to Microsoft.

Along the way, there came a bevy of imitators, apps such as FaceTime and WhatsApp, and video conferencing options like Zoom. Now Microsoft says it's winding down Skype, and will pull the plug in May to concentrate on its Microsoft Teams platform. Scott Newman, NPR News. Health officials in Texas say the number of people with measles in the rural western part of that state has reached 146. That's an increase of 22 since Tuesday.

20 people have been hospitalized so far with at least one death reported. The cases are being reported across nine counties. Austin, meanwhile, has now reported its first confirmed case of the disease in more than five years. A police officer who was shot to death last weekend inside a Pennsylvania hospital was remembered on Friday as a dedicated public servant who did not hesitate to run toward danger Hundreds of people including fellow officers filled the living ward community church in the town of Red Lion for the funeral of officer Andrew Duarte he died after dragging to safety a fellow officer who was also shot I'm Dale Willman and PR news

There's been a lot of attention on loneliness lately. 16% of Americans report feeling lonely all or most of the time. The former Surgeon General even declared a loneliness epidemic. On It's Been a Minute, we're launching a new series called All the Lonely People, diving deep into how loneliness shows up in our lives and how our culture shapes it. That's on the