NPR News Now - NPR News: 03-02-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: March 2, 2025

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On the Embedded Podcast. No, no. It's called denying a speech and mis-speech. It's misinformation. Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. These are not conspiracy theories. These are reality. I spent the year following him down the rabbit hole, trying to get him back. Listen to Alternate Realities on the Embedded Podcast from NPR, all episodes available now.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is hosting a meeting today in London for European, Canadian and Ukrainian leaders on the next step towards ending the war in Ukraine. They've been rattled by Friday's stormy meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump and Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. Starmor told the BBC the UK will work on a ceasefire plan to present to the US. We've now agreed that the United Kingdom along with France and possibly one or two others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting and then we'll discuss that plan with the United

States. So in those calls on Friday night through the meeting yesterday into the calls again last night, I think we've got a step in the right direction. In the U.S., Secretary of State Marco Rubio told ABC that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be involved in the process. No one here is claiming Vladimir Putin is going to get the Nobel Peace Prize this year, or that he should be the man of the year of the humanitarian association. What we're arguing here is he has a very large country, they're in full war footing,

they're cranking out weapons now at a war footing pace, and we need to figure out is there a way to get them to stop the war, and the only way you're going to do that is to get Russians engaged in negotiations. Meanwhile, Ukraine is concerned that it will get cut out of the negotiating process altogether. NPR's Greg Myrie has more. Ukraine's big fear is that the negotiations will largely take place between the U.S. and Russia, and then Ukraine will be pressured to accept a bad deal. And this would be a real reversal from the Biden administration,

which isolated Russia and said there would always be no negotiations, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine. NPR's Greg Myrie. People gathered at national parks all over the country this weekend to protest the firing of 1,000 national park employees. Some 90 miles east of Los Angeles, hundreds joined the protest. Madison Aumont of member station KVCR reports. Six Rangers were fired last month at Joshua Tree as part of the Trump administration's push to downsize the federal workforce. At the rally, Nick Graver, who's a biologist at the park, says the cuts could make it harder to protect the rare Joshua trees.

We don't have that many Joshua trees to lose, and our parks are understaffed, and our public lands are understaffed. We're going to lose huge areas of desert. Graver also worries that there won't be enough rangers to respond to emergencies, especially when temperatures soar in the summer. According to an email obtained by KVCR, the park had 38 open positions which will now not be filled. For NPR News, I'm Madison Aumann at Joshua Tree National Park. And you're listening to NPR News in Washington. And you're listening to NPR News in Washington. An international non-governmental organization

placed a full-page ad in the New York Times today asking Americans to give money to make up for deep cuts in U.S. foreign aid. The International Rescue Committee said a private donor paid for the ad, designed to highlight the severe consequences of the cuts. The U.S., Canada, and several Western countries say their word about rising violence in South Sudan between the South Sudanese army and local militants in the north-northeast part

of the country. Fighting has worsened in recent weeks. NPR's Emmanuel Okinloutu reports. A joint statement from the U.S. Embassy in South Sudan, as well as the embassies of Canada, France, and other European countries, said they are deeply concerned over clashes and the risk of increased violence in Upper Nowe State. Human Rights Watch says violence there has already reached alarming levels, threatening to plunge the region into deeper crisis.

A peace deal to end the civil war called for a unification process of various armed groups into the army army in response to ethnic violence against marginalized communities. But the existing national defense troops have deployed in the region, fueling tensions. Emanuel Akiwatu, NPR News, Lagos. A private lunar lander touched down on the moon today. Firefly Aerospace became the first private company to put a spacecraft on the moon without it crashing or falling over. The uncrewed Blue Ghost carried experiments for NASA.

Scientists say it began transmitting pictures from the moon within a half-hour of landing, including one picture that showed the Earth, a blue dot in the blackness of space. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.