NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

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Okay, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts, you wish you could get more of all your favorite shows, and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. Russian gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine have ceased marking the end of an era in the European Union. Ukraine's President Vladimir Zelensky refused to allow further transit, which he said were

fueling Russia's war machine. He had given the EU a year to prepare for the closure of the pipeline, BBC Central correspondent Nick Thorpe reports. Slovakia is the most upset. It will not only lose cheap gas, but lucrative transit fees, as the gas used to supply Austria, Hungary and Italy. Instead, more expensive US, Qatari and Norwegian liquefied gas, LNG, will satisfy EU gas demand. Russia has lost an important market, but Russian President Vladimir Putin says EU countries

will suffer most. Some Medicare beneficiaries will soon save a lot of money at the drugstore. NPR's Sidney Lumpkin reports a new cap on out-of-pocket drug expenses takes effect later this week. 2025 is the first year Medicare will have a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug spending. It starts on January 1st and will limit out-of-pocket expenses over the course of the year for drugs

on your plan's Part D formulary. This typically includes drugs purchased at the pharmacy but not drugs administered in the hospital. A KFF analysis found that it will save millions of beneficiaries money every year, but it will especially help a small subset of patients who spend well over $2,000 a year on expensive drugs for chronic conditions. The cap passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The law also included Medicare drug price negotiation, which will continue in 2025, as well as caps

of $35 a month for insulin. Sydney Lepkin, NPR News. The Biden administration is proposing to protect a stretch of northeast Nevada from energy development for the next 20 years, NPR's Nate Perez reports. The move would protect nearly 300,000 acres of Nevada's Ruby Mountains from future oil, gas, and geothermal drilling. The region is popular for fishing and bird watching, and it's the ancestral homeland of the Tomoac tribe of Western Shoshone Indians who had requested the protection.

The Biden administration has made several announcements protecting public lands since the November election. President-elect Donald Trump could reverse many of the announcements once he's in office. For now, the announcement protects the land from fossil fuel extraction for two years, and it opens a 90-day window for public comment. But some environmentalists were not satisfied. In a statement, the Center for Biological Diversity called the protections incomplete, pointing out it does not ban gold mining.

Nate Badez, NPR News. Officials in Puerto Rico say it may take up to two days to restore power to the island after the Commonwealth was without power Tuesday, now impacting 1.3 million customers. You're listening to NPR News. Court filings show that federal prosecutors in Norfolk, Virginia are attempting to keep 36-year-old Brad Spofford behind bars while they investigate what the FBI calls a discovery of the largest collection of finished explosive devices they've ever found. Stafford was arrested on a single gun-related charge earlier this month when they came upon a stockpile of more than 150 pipe bombs and other explosives.

In the court filings, prosecutors say they also found photographs of President Joe Biden that Spatford had been using for target practice. His lawyers say there's no evidence he ever used the pipe bombs and he has no current record. The men's basketball team at Dartmouth is dropping its bid to form a union. The move comes close to the buzzer between the outgoing Biden administration and what is likely to be a more hostile National Labor Relations Board. NPR's Scott Horsley reports. The union-friendly Biden administration had given a green light to the Dartmouth players, who voted 13-2 last spring to join the Service Employees International Union. Dartmouth appealed that decision, though, insisting the team members are student athletes, not employees.

And with the incoming Trump administration set to reshape the National Labor Relations Board, that argument could get a friendly reception. Rather than risk an adverse ruling that could jeopardize future organizing efforts, the union and the players are dropping their petition. The union says it will continue to advocate for Dartmouth's varsity athletes and double down in its support

for a league-wide players' association. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.