NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-01-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: March 1, 2025

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Planet Money is there. From California's most expensive fires ever. That was my home home. Yeah. I grew up there. It's ashes. To the potentially largest deportation in U.S. history. They're going to come to the businesses. They're going to come to the restaurants. They're going to come here. Planet Money. We go to the places at the center of the story. The Planet Money podcast from NPR. Live from NPR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Gile Snyder. President Trump canceled an event with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign a deal that would have shored up US support for Ukraine after that meeting in the Oval Office. It turned hostile yesterday. Here's NPR's Lexi Schepitl reporter. Trump and Zelensky were expected to sign a deal on rare earth minerals, one that Trump had touted as an important step toward ending the war between Ukraine and Russia. But a meeting between the two leaders quickly became heated.

Your country is in big trouble. Wait a minute. No, no. You've done a lot of talking. Your country is in big trouble. I know. You're not winning. You're not winning this. You have a damn good chance of coming out okay because of us. Repeatedly, Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance told Zelensky he should be thankful for U.S. support and accused him of being disrespectful after he questioned the prospects of diplomacy with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Lexi Shapil and PR News, Washington. A Chapnick, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington

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Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington Post, The Washington 7,000 jobs and PR's Ashley Lopez reports that these cuts come at a time when staffing at the agency set a 50-year low. In an effort to comply with President Trump's executive order to shrink the federal workforce, the agency says it plans to reduce its quote bloated workforce down to 50,000 employees. Max Richmond with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare says these workers provide essential services to Americans, including survivor and disability benefits as well as retirement services.

They're already struggling for years now of not having sufficient staff. The program has been underfunded, understaffed for a very long time. In a statement, Richmond says staff cuts could have grave implications for the 70 million Americans who depend on the agency's services. Ashley Lopez, NPR News. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is warning that without the work of USAID, the world would become less healthy, safe and prosperous. These cuts impact a wide range of critical programs, from life-saving humanitarian aid to support to vulnerable

communities recovering from war or natural disasters, from development to fight against terrorism and illicit drug trafficking. Guterres cited aid programs that reached some 1 million people in Ukraine last year, 9 million in Afghanistan, and 2.5 million in northeast Syria. USAID was one of the first targets of the Trump administration's federal workforce. Kodzko-Terres told reporters that the reduction runs counter to U.S. interests globally and that he is hopeful that the Trump administration's decisions can be reversed. This is MPPR News. A jury in Illinois has found a 73-year-old man

guilty of murder and hate crime charges for a 2023 attack that left a six-year-old Palestinian American boy dead and severely wounded his mother. Authorities alleged the family was targeted because of their Islamic faith and the war between Israel and Hamas. Joseph Suba faces life in prison. A late week rally on Wall Street left the Dow Jones Industrial Average in positive territory, but NPR's Scott Horsley reports it was not enough to erase losses for the market's other major indexes. The Dow jumped more than 600 points on Friday after the Commerce Department reported a slowdown in inflation.

According to the department's yardstick, which is closely watched by the Federal Reserve, consumer prices in January were up just 2.5 percent from a year ago. Many people are worried, though, that President Trump's threatened tariffs could rekindle inflation. An index of consumer confidence showed the biggest one-month drop in three and a half years. It's not clear that drop in confidence will translate to a drop in spending, but investors are feeling jittery. While the Dow rose nearly 1% for the

week, the S&P 500 index dropped nearly a percent, and the tech heavy Nasdaq tumbled almost three and a half percent. Scott Horsley in Pear News, Washington. Oh, Francis is said to have had coffee with his breakfast this morning and read newspapers following that setback as he recovers from double pneumonia. In his latest update, the Vatican said the night passed peacefully after doctors yesterday put him on non-invasive mechanical ventilation to help him breathe following a coughing fit in which he inhaled vomit. Francis has been hospitalized for just over two weeks. This is NPR News.