NPR News: 02-15-2026 3AM EST
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On Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, it's not so much we get to talk to celebrities, it's that we get to talk to celebrities about other celebrities, like we did with actor Nathan Lane. I remember having to tell George C. Scott that I was leaving the show to do this musical, and he said to me, you're leaving me to do a f***ing magic show? Listen to Wait, Wait in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. For the third time in three months, the federal government is in a partial shutdown. Congress could not agree on a spending bill to continue funding for the Department of Homeland Security before a Friday night deadline. Air travel could be affected because TSA screening agents will not be paid until funding is restored. But NPR's Ron Elving says one part of DHS will remain in full force.
There's plenty of money on hand for ICE to continue operations, even as other parts of the Department of Homeland Security have to shut down or cut back. That's because ICE got a huge war chest from the last big funding bill, the one Trump called the One Big Beautiful Bill. This may be one reason he liked it so much. So Democrats know this won't keep ICE from operating, but they hope it will call attention to the relationship between ICE and DHS and put more heat on the administration of the overall agency.
That's NPR's Ron Elving reporting. Congress, meanwhile, is in recess for the next week. The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny likely died from poisoning by a rare frog toxin. That's according to a study by five European countries into his death in a remote Russian prison two years ago. NPR's Charles Maines has more.
The findings were announced by the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and based on samples from Navalny's remains smuggled out of Russia. The report says analyses conclusively confirm the presence of epibatidine, a toxin found in poisoned dart frogs in South America, but not native to Russia itself. The report says Russia's government had the, quote, means, motive, and opportunity to issue the poison while Navalny was in prison. Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalna, said the new findings confirm what she and her husband's supporters have always insisted. Navalny was murdered on order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin maintains the opposition leader died from natural causes.
Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.
A tense security relationship between the U.S. and China could be ratcheting up.
What are the implications of the federal government shutdown?
The CIA has released a new video message in Chinese as part of ongoing U.S. intelligence efforts to recruit informants in China. NPS Emily Fang reports.
In the video, the CIA tries to persuade Chinese citizens that party officials only look out for their own interests. Asking viewers if they are worried about corruption and want to help their own country. It says working for the U.S. would ultimately benefit China. U.S. officials have repeatedly accused China of being behind numerous hacking operations against U.S. businesses and agencies and of collecting data on Americans through unorthodox ways, including through social media platform TikTok. But U.S. intelligence agencies have less insight into China now. Many of the CIA's previous spies and informants were caught and executed starting in 2010, according to reporting from The New York Times. Emily Fang, NPR News.
And you're listening to NPR News. A cold weather system heading into northern California could bring a foot of snow to lower-lying areas starting Sunday afternoon. And for those at higher elevations, including in the Sierra Nevadas, meteorologists say they could see from six to even eight feet of snow. The National Weather Service is warning of potentially major travel impacts during the holiday weekend. In Italy, the U.S. men's hockey team has won a second straight game at the Winter Olympics. Steve Futterman has our details.
The American team got off to a slow start, but came on strong after that to defeat Denmark 6-3. Early on, the heavily favored U.S.
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