Up First from NPR - Zelenskyy Visits DC, Tate Brothers In Florida, USAID Standoff, AOC and DOJ

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

The Ukrainian President is arriving in Washington to discuss a deal involving his country's rare earth minerals, social media influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate were charged with human trafficking in Romania and have now arrived in Florida, and the Supreme Court weighed in on a case involving frozen funds at USAID. Also, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez asks the Justice Department if she is under investigation. Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Ryland Barton, Russell Lewis, Catherine Laidlaw, Janaya Williams and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams, Christopher Thomas and Paige Waterhouse. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

All right, we made it. It's Friday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington, D.C. He's expected to meet with President Trump to sign a development deal for Ukraine's rare earth and mineral deposits. What is he hoping to get in return? I'm Amartinez, that's Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. The Tate brothers face criminal charges in Romania for sexual abuse and human trafficking. The social media influencers were allowed to leave that country and arrive yesterday in Florida. We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty and I think my

brother and I are largely misunderstood. Did their support of President Trump influence Romania to lift travel restrictions? And foreign aid organizations haven't been paid for five weeks. Lawsuits seeking the release of funds from the Trump administration have just landed in the Supreme Court. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day. On the Embedded Podcast.

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Public media counts on your support to ensure that the reporting and programs you depend on thrive. Make a recurring donation today to get special access to more than 20 NPR podcasts, perks Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky is here in this city today. He's expected to have his first meeting with President Trump since the inauguration. The two leaders are supposed to sign a preliminary deal to give the U.S. access to Ukraine's natural resources. However, it's not clear that the deal will offer Ukraine future security guarantees, which the country says it needs to protect itself from Russia. Joining us now to talk about all this is NPR's Joanna Kakissus. She's in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital.

Good morning, Joanna. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us about this critical raw materials agreement. What does it include and what does Ukraine get out of it? Well, Michelle, the idea of swapping revenue from Ukraine's natural resources for continued US support came from Zelensky himself last year as part of his proposal to end the war.

Zelensky says the deal on the table today is a framework rather than a final agreement, and it says the US and Ukraine will jointly develop deposits of rare earth metals and critical minerals, these are used in high tech devices, and also develop deposits of oil and gas. I spoke about all this with Yuriy Sokhii as an advisor to Ukraine's minister of strategic industries. We will need the U.S. to continue to be our strategic partner. So we need to rebuild our country after we end the war.

And this agreement is going to work towards that goal. Now this agreement establishes a fund to help Ukraine recover should the war end. The fund would be managed by both countries, with Ukraine committing 50% of revenues earned from state-owned natural resources. Now this raw materials agreement has gone through many drafts and you've told us that Zelensky rejected early versions. Why is that? Well, Zelensky said earlier agreements would have used revenue to pay back aid Ukraine

has already received from the U.S. In the current version, the terms are more favorable to Ukraine and the revenue appears to go to future U.S. investment in Ukraine. Zelensky says he's pushing for security guarantees to be added to any final agreement. I think, Joanna, I think people will remember that Trump called Zelensky a dictator last week and now Trump has moved to warm relations with Russia, which invaded Ukraine. This is very difficult for Zelensky. So are Ukrainians expecting anything positive from this meeting?

Well, Michelle, Ukrainians, I spoke to say it is a victory that this meeting is happening at all. I said he's a financial consultant who is deputy director of Dragon Capital in Kiev. He's been following this deal very closely and he said today's meeting gives Zelensky a chance to talk to Trump in person before Trump meets Russian President Vladimir Putin. So I do not think that President Zelensky will enjoy this trip personally, which he just has to do it. It was told by Queen Victoria, just close your eyes and think about England, so close your eyes and think about Ukraine.

And he said this is also a crucial opportunity for Zelensky to reset Ukraine's relationship with the Trump administration. The stakes seem really high for this meeting, Joanna. Are Ukrainians worried it could go poorly? Yes, I heard that fear from many Ukrainians, including Anna Kolesnik. She's a communications manager in Kyiv. God help us not to lose a lot, meaning our territories, our raw materials, our mines, and to gain as much benefits from this meeting. Because she says these days it feels like the US,

Ukraine's most important ally, seems to be threatening to take things away. It's friendship, it's support, and that leaves Ukraine in a vulnerable position. That is. And Piers, do you want to kiss us in Kiev? Do you want to thank you? You're welcome. Andrew and Tristan Tate, brothers who faced charges in Romania for sexual abuse and human trafficking are now in Florida.

Yeah, they arrived yesterday by private jet after their travel restrictions were lifted by Romanian authorities. Andrew Tate is a self-described misogynist with millions of followers on social media. He and his brother are vocal supporters of President Trump. And there are questions about whether the Trump administration may have played a role in relaxing their travel restrictions. And here's Greg Allen joins us now from Miami to tell us more about this. Good morning, Greg. Hi, Michelle. So just like A just said, why are we talking about Andrew Tate? He has a big following on TikTok and X, popular with some young men, where his sort of displays of masculinity and his extravagant lifestyle. So bring us up to date on what he's charged with.

Well, you know, he and his brother face charges both in Romania and in the United Kingdom for being part of a criminal enterprise that allegedly lured women to Romania where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate also faces a rape charge. In December, a Romanian court said that the case against the Tates couldn't go to trial though because of procedural and legal mistakes that had been made by prosecutors. The case does remain open though and the brothers are supposed to be available to return to Romania to face charges when the time comes. But many are skeptical they will return now. We'll see. Here's what Andrew Tate had to say yesterday after arriving in Fort Lauderdale. We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty. And I think

my brother and I are largely misunderstood. There's a lot of opinions about us, a lot of things that go around about us on the internet. We've yet to be convicted of any crime in our lives ever. We have no criminal record anywhere on the planet ever. Tate says the charges against him and his brother are false and they're based on lies that he says have been concocted by the media. So for people who haven't been following this story, Greg, tell us again, who is Andrew Tate and how did he become so famous on social media? Right, well, you know, he's a former kickboxing champion who first became well known nearly

10 years ago in the British version of the reality show Big Brother. He rose to fame though through social media, Twitter, now X, YouTube and TikTok, where he posts about his success and his lifestyle. He's drawn a lot of attention with the outrageous and offensive way in which he's talked about women. A couple years ago he got into an online fight with environmental activist Greta Thunberg, you might recall, when he bragged about his 33 Lamborghinis and other big cars and their enormous emissions, as he called them. Now he's been in Romania for several years living there. The case against him involves seven women who say they were misled and transported to Romania where they were then sexually exploited. And he faces those similar charges in the

United Kingdom. Do we know whether the Trump administration did play a role in getting their travel restrictions relaxed so they could come to the US? The Financial Times reported last week that members of the Trump administration pressed remaining authorities to lift the travel restrictions. President Trump was asked about that at the White House yesterday and he said he didn't know anything about it. Here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis was also asked about it yesterday whether he had any advance notice that Andrew Tate and his brother were headed here and he said no. He also had this to say. Florida is not a place

where you're welcome with that type of conduct in the air and I don't know how it came to this. We were not involved. We were not notified. I found out through the media. The Senate says it's up to the federal government, not the state, to decide whether to allow the Tate brothers to enter the country and he said Florida's Attorney General is looking at what jurisdiction the state may have over any of the charges that are outstanding. Now both Andrew and Tristan Tate are U.S. British citizens. Interestingly, President Trump is expected to be at Mar-a-Lago just up the highway this weekend, and there's no indication yet of whether or not the Tates might be invited for a visit. That is, and here's Greg Allen in Miami. Greg, thank you. You're welcome. We've reported extensively on how President Trump has spent his first five weeks in office

trying to expand executive power. His attempt to slash the federal workforce has drawn various lawsuits trying to stop him. Two cases that have just arrived at the Supreme Court could offer some early clues on whether The attempt to slash the federal workforce has drawn various lawsuits trying to stop them. Two cases that have just arrived at the Supreme Court could offer some early clues on whether his methods will hold up. They involve some $2 billion in unpaid bills. NPR's Frank Langford has been tracking the matter. He's with us now.

Good morning, Frank. Hey, good morning, Michelle. So we've been covering these cases at NPR. They are about the U.S. US Agency for International Development or USAID. Just remind us of the details. Yeah. Trump officials at USAID, you remember, they cut off funding to thousands of aid recipients. This began January 20th when Trump took office. And the idea was they were going to review contracts to see if they were aligned with Trump's America First agenda. Now, this hit

these organizations incredibly hard. They had to furlough people, some were at the risk of going bankrupt, and so they ended up suing to get paid. Now a lower court ordered the government to pay up and gave a deadline. Still the government would not pay. On Wednesday night, the Trump administration was about to blow through this deadline, so it appeals to the Supreme Court and Chief Justice John Roberts, he pauses the case, hands the government a temporary victory and naturally that got a lot of attention. So those are the details. Everybody wants to get paid what they are owed. But are there bigger stakes here and if so, what are they?

Yeah, definitely. These are among the first cases in front of the Supreme Court that involve the President's attempts to expand executive power, like you were just saying. And after all, in these cases, the government had effectively refused to pay money that Congress had already appropriated and the government clearly owes, and that this judge had told it to pay. And the government says in one of its filings that it thinks the lower court exceeded its authority in doing that. And so people are watching very closely now to see how the Supreme Court responds to all of this.

What do legal analysts make of this case? You know, Michelle, they point out that people's interest really perked up with the Supreme Court's initial ruling in favor of the government. And now the court, of course, it's got a conservative supermajority. Trump appointed three of those justices. Now, Stephen Vladeck, he's a law professor at Georgetown. He's an expert on federal law. And he was writing about this in his sub stack. And he thinks Roberts, you know, may have just been trying to give the justices some time to make a reasoned decision rather than one right up against the clock.

And Vladek says at a superficial level, quote, it's obvious to him that the government should ultimately lose these cases. And that's because the government's, you know, not allowed to just not spend money appropriated by Congress. As we said, I think often on these shows, on the US system of government, Congress has the power of the purse. However, Trump says he wants to change the law so that the president can impound money approved by Congress.

So what is the government telling the court right now? Yeah, the government says, it's actually changed its tune a little bit. It says it is committed now to paying what it owes, but it needs to do what it's calling a payment integrity review to make sure that all these invoices are legitimate. But remember, you know, the government did unilaterally halt these payments and it could have restarted them at any time.

Where's this headed next? Yeah, the plaintiffs have to file a response to the government today. Legal scholars think the justices are going to move quickly to try to resolve the case because, you know, almost none of these AID which organizations they're getting they've been paid. It's been five weeks and every day their financial situations are only getting a lot worse. That is NPR's Frank Langford. Frank, thank you. Happy to do it, Michelle. Thank you. Happy to do it, Michelle. We are also following this story today.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a challenge to the Justice Department to disclose if she's under investigation. The New York Democrat held an online seminar earlier this month encouraging constituents to know their rights. That attracted attention from President Trump's border czar. Tom Homan told Fox News he had asked the Justice Department if she was helping immigrants without legal status to avoid deportation. Ocasio-Cortez told our co-host Steve Inskeep she intended to ask the Justice Department about it. So let's hear a bit of their NPR video interview. I was

informing all of my constituents of their constitutional protections and in particular, their constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure in the United States. Holman was upset, I suppose, because he felt that you were giving advice to people who were here illegally. Were you? I was giving advice to all of my constituents. Yeah. He said he was going to report to you or even that he did reach out to the Department of Justice.

Have you heard from the Department of Justice? I have not, and I intend on reaching out to the Department of Justice to inquire. Really? What would your question be for the Department of Justice? Well, there is a member of the Trump administration who is threatening and seeks to open an inquiry and are you going to do it? After the interview, Ocasio-Cortez sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, which she shared with NPR.

The letter asks if Bondi had, quote, yielded to political pressure, unquote, to investigate elected officials for their speech. We reached out to the Justice Department for comment and we have not yet gotten a response. And that's Up First for Friday, February 28th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Ian Martinez. It's time for the Oscars. And this weekend on the Sunday Story, NPR's pop culture happy hour team joins us for their

predictions on who will take gold or simply leave empty handed. That's on the next Sunday story from Up First. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rylan Barton, Russell Lewis, Catherine Laidlaw, Janae Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Butch, Ben Abrams, Christopher Thomas, and Paige Waterhouse. We get engineering support from Arthur Lorenz,

and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Thank you for joining us. Want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks? Amazon Prime members can listen to Up First sponsor free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get up first plus at plus dot NPR dot org. That's plus dot NPR dot org 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 It's Been A Minute podcast on NPR. Technologist Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.