Zelenskyy Visits DC, Tate Brothers In Florida, USAID Standoff, AOC and DOJ

Up First from NPR

NPR

Daily News, News

4.5 • 52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2025

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	All right. We made it. It's Friday.
0:07.5	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.
0:16.8	What is he hoping to get in return?
0:18.9	I'm A minute. That's Michelle Martin. and this is up first from NPR News.
0:25.9	The Tate brothers face criminal charges in Romania for sexual abuse and human trafficking.
0:31.3	The social media influencers were allowed to leave that country and arrive yesterday in Florida.
0:36.5	We live in a democratic society where it's innocent until proven guilty, and I think my brother
0:40.0	and I are largely misunderstood.
0:42.1	Did their support of President Trump influence Romania to lift travel restrictions?
0:46.1	And foreign aid organizations haven't been paid for five weeks.
0:49.6	Lawsuits seeking the release of funds from the Trump administration have just landed in
0:53.2	the Supreme Court.
0:54.4	Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
1:03.1	This message comes from Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies.
1:07.8	Sending or spending money abroad, hidden fees may be taking a cut.
1:12.0	With Wise, you can convert between up to 40 currencies at the mid-market exchange rate.
1:17.4	Visit wise.com. TNCs apply.
1:20.9	Ukraine's president, Vladimir Zelensky, is here in this city today.
1:24.4	He's expected to have his first meeting with President Trump since the inauguration.
1:28.3	The two leaders are supposed to sign a preliminary deal to give the U.S. access to Ukraine's natural resources.
1:34.2	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.
1:41.9	Joining us now to talk about all this is NPR's Joanna Kekisa. She's in
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.