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Episode Date: March 2, 2025

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Snyder. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in London, where Britain is hosting a summit of European leaders, a meeting aimed at shoring up support for Ukraine, after Zelensky was publicly berated by President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance at the White House on Friday. NPR's Joanna Kikissus is is in Kyiv where Ukrainians are rallying around their president. Ukrainians made TikTok videos and posted to social media to show their support for Zelensky. One prominent politician, Mustafa Nayyem, wrote on social media that the Trump administration hates Zelensky and Ukraine and sees Ukrainians as quote barriers to backroom deals.

At the Kiev food market, soldier Denis Sokolov says Zelensky wants what's best for Ukraine. The main difference in that Ukraine won't make a peace, but Trump won't make a deal. That's a huge difference in our politics, in our vision, to how we want to end the war. Making peace versus making a deal, he says, are two different goals. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kyiv. In an interview with the BBC this morning, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Britain, France and Ukraine have agreed to work on a ceasefire plan to present to the White House.

He said he believes President Trump wants a lasting peace but that Oval Office blowup made him uncomfortable. Israel says it's bringing a halt to the entry of all aid and supplies into the Gaza Strip and is warning of additional consequences if Hamas does not accept our proposal to extend the first phase of the ceasefire. Hamas accuses Israel of trying to derail the truce. The first phase ended yesterday. The two have yet to agree on the second phase.

Federal judge blocking President Trump from firing the head of a federal watchdog agency as NPR's Bobby Allen reports. Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the leader of the Office of the Special Counsel must keep his job despite Trump's attempt to remove him. Hampton Dellinger is a senate confirmed official appointed by former president Biden who leads an office that investigates whistleblower complaints filed by federal workers. Jackson wrote quote, it would be ironic to say the least, anonymical to the ends furthered by the statute, if the special counsel himself could be chilled in his work by fear of arbitrary or partisan removal.

The Justice Department filed papers to the court indicating it planned to appeal the decision. It could ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court. Bobby Allen, NPR News. Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo attempting a political comeback using a 17-minute video to announce a run for New York City mayor saying he's learned from his mistakes. I believe I learned from them and that I am a better person for it and I hope to show you that every day. Cuomo was forced to resign as governor more than three years ago after over sexual harassment accusations. He's joining a large field of Democrats in the race. This is NPR News.

The U.S., Canada, and several Western countries say they're worried about rising violence in South Sudan, so they're urging the warring parties to de-escalate. Fighting between the South Sudanese army and local militants in the Northeast part of the country has worsened in recent weeks. A fragile peace has held in the world's youngest nation since a brutal civil war in 2020, but tensions have continued as NPR's Emmanuel Nakamoto reports. A joint statement from the US 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 Now 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 in response to ethnic violence against marginalized communities. But the existing national defense troops have deployed in the region, fueling tensions. Emmanuel Akinwotu, NPR News, Lagos. The private space company Firefly has put a spacecraft on the moon. The landing early this morning by the craft the company calls the Blue Ghost kicked off a two-week research

mission for NASA. Firefly is based in the Austin area. It's the first private company to pull off a fully successful lunar landing. A Houston-based company put a lander on the moon last year, but it tipped over. Pope Francis skipping his weekly noontime blessing today as he continues his recovery from double pneumonia and the latest update on his condition. The Vatican says Francis had another peaceful night and is in stable condition. I'm Trial Snyder, NPR News. James Baldwin was an activist, an orator, a style icon, but on NPR's Book of the Day, we'll dissect the thing he was most known for, his writing.

That last clause kind of reads like a horror story, right? There's something deeply, deeply ominous about the way that that opening paragraph closes. Celebrate Black History Month with us as we examine some of his best works on NPR's Book of the Day podcast.