Trump and Zelenskyy Feud, DOGE Savings Claims, Hamas Releases Four Hostage Bodies

Up First from NPR

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Daily News, News

4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

A look at the roots of the difficult relationship between President Trump and President Zelenskyy. DOGE says its saved taxpayers billions of dollars. How do these claims stack up against the evidence? And Hamas returns the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7, 2023 attack.

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Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Padmananda Rama, Didi Schanche, Reena Advani and Janaya Williams. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott and our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I finally got a good night's sleep.
0:02.3	Really? How come? How? How? How? How? I'd you do it. Well, I mean, it wasn't enough hours.
0:06.1	No, I slept. I slept. Well, what you do is you sleep badly for several nights in a row.
0:11.9	And then you're so tired. You crash. You crash. Yeah. Exactly. Works every time.
0:17.4	Well, I get that. Not quite every time.
0:22.0	President Trump is pressuring Ukraine's president with personal attacks. Trump called
0:26.0	Zelensky a dictator. Zelensky accused Trump of spreading misinformation. They both agree
0:30.8	the war in Ukraine should end, so why are they so far apart on how to get there? I'm Steve
0:34.6	Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News.
0:40.6	Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency claims to have trimmed billions of dollars from
0:45.7	the federal budget. What Musk and Doj are doing is more cosmetic symbolic changes that won't't save money but might sound good.
0:57.7	Our correspondent added up the receipts and found a different number.
1:01.4	What's the real bottom line?
1:03.0	And Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages today.
1:06.7	What's known about them and the circumstances in which they died?
1:09.5	Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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	...

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