Hostage bodies returned to Israel. War of words between President Trump and Ukraine's leader. Assessing flight safety after recent air disasters. Correspondent Peter King has the CBS World News Roundup for Thursday, February 20, 2025:
Today we discuss Hamas's killing of the Bibas children and the choices facing Israel as the next phase of the hostage/cease-fire deal approaches. We then move on to Donald Trump's allergy to allies and his view of global security. Give a listen.
Introducing the newest thing in higher (and we really mean higher — like look UP) education: The Flying Pig Academy. A dream of The Village Square (with support from Florida Humanities) for many years, it’s finally aloft. The division in American society is big and seems impossible at times to address.
The first, second and third rule? Like buying a house: location, location, location OR local local local.
This is easier to fix than you thought.
The Village Square is a proud member of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.
Funding for this podcast was provided through a grant from Florida Humanities with funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Florida Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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.
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.
Whether it's on the apps or in real life it can be hard to meet romantic partners. We explore what it's like to be dating right now in the Bay Area. This episode is brought to you by the team over on KQED's The Bay podcast.
This story was reported by Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz and Christopher Beale, with support this week from Brian Douglas. The Bay episode was produced by Jessica Kariisa and Dana Cronin. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.
I’m sure you remember the images of Kfir and Ariel Bibas.
They were just nine months and four years old when they were kidnapped by Hamas along with their mother, Shiri, on October 7, 2023. It was impossible to look at the image of her shielding them, her eyes full of terror, the children clinging to her, and not think of the Holocaust.
For more than 500 days, people around the world prayed for the safe return of these babies. Our hopes were raised on February 1, when the fourth member of the family—Yarden Bibas—was liberated after 484 days in Hamas captivity.
But as this episode goes live, Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas won’t be returning home alive. Hamas instead will hand over their remains.
How can Israel live alongside an enemy that kidnaps and murders babies? And what does it mean for us to live in a world, where people in the West tore down posters of the Bibas children.
My friend, Commentary magazine senior editor Seth Mandel, explains why in The Free Press:
“In a better world, the faces of the Bibas children would be everywhere at all times. In the world in which we live, by contrast, posters with those faces get torn down from bulletin boards. . . . The crimes against the Bibas family are indeed the symbol of the anti-civilizational menace that is Hamas—but also of the cowardice of the political and cultural leaders of the enlightened West. . . . It is impossible for the rest of us to pretend that we didn’t see a chunk of society, whether in person or online, rush to cross that line and cheer on the people who kidnapped two babies . . . .Kfir became a symbol because he is the answer to every relevant question about this conflict. His case is the war boiled down to its essence. Kfir is the dividing line. In a better world, there’d be no one standing on the wrong side of it.”
Before the devastating news of the Bibas children broke, Bari sat down with Matti Friedman, Free Press correspondent in Jerusalem. They happened to talk on the very day that Kfir and Ariel’s father, Yarden, was released after being kept in unimaginable conditions. Now Yarden confronts the nightmare that his entire family was murdered.
Bari and Matti talk about the toll of this war, why returning the hostages is so fundamentally important to the future of Israel, about the rise of anti-Jewish hate, and about how to be American, Jewish, and Zionist all at the same time, and how Jews are waking up to a new reality in 2025.
If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today.
Go to groundnews.com/Honestly to get 40% off the unlimited access Vantage plan and unlock world-wide perspectives on today’s biggest news stories.
In the early 20th century, David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale, and his wife Sydney Bowles had seven children, six girls and one boy.
The sisters all achieved notoriety for entirely different reasons.
They were, how can I say, different from each other. Very different. Several of them found themselves associated with some of the most important individuals of the mid-20th century.
Learn more about the Mitford Sisters and their very different lives on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
We’re talking about how the U.S. and Ukraine went from being key allies to pointing fingers.
Also, President Trump is expanding his power, and temperatures have hit more record lows.
Plus, what a report found about America’s readiness for the World Cup and Olympics, all about Microsoft’s scientific breakthrough, and a new budget iPhone that supports artificial intelligence.
Those stories and even more news to know in about 10 minutes!
Join us every Mon-Fri for more daily news roundups!
When a young child goes missing at a family gathering, a pack of cousins sets out into the woods to find her. Idle Grounds follows this group of children as they search their late grandmother's property and wonder whether something sinister might lurk there. Krystelle Bamford says her new novel dips into the New England Gothic genre, inspired by the darkness that bubbles underneath the daylight of the adult world. In today's episode, Bamford speaks with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about the author's own New England upbringing, the magic and mystery of childhood, and the potential dangers of nostalgia.
To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookoftheday
