NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. The sugar bowl game has been postponed until tomorrow, as authorities in New Orleans scrambled to determine why a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the early hours of the morning, killing at least 10 people. NPR's Martin Costee says the FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. FBI Assistant Special Agent Althea Duncan says the driver of the truck was a 42-year-old Texan and an Army veteran named Shamsuddin Jabbar. He was driving a Ford pickup truck, which appears to be unrented.

An ISIS flag was located on the trailer hitch of the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations. Pete Slauson, Reporting For You, NPR News. Police say they had parked a squad car across the entrance to Bourbon Street, but the truck got around it by driving up on the sidewalk. They say Jabbar drove through the crowd, crashed the truck, and was killed in a firefight with officers.

Martin Kosty, NPR News. There's no end in sight to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that began nearly 15 months ago with Hamas's ambush of southern Israel. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reports, the new year has brought more attacks between Hamas and Israel, and ceasefire talks are stalling. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, air raid sirens wailed in southern Israel as Hamas fired two rockets across the border. They caused no damage or injuries.

Hamas said it was avenging Israeli strikes killing civilians. Israel's military ordered residents of a part of central Gaza to evacuate, warning it would strike where rockets had been fired. On New Year's Day, Israeli strikes have killed more than a dozen people, including children, according to Gaza health officials. There were some New Year's Eve parties in Israel, where there's an attempt at normalcy, despite Israeli hostages held in Gaza. In the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the New Year mood was muted because of the war. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

Minimum wage hikes take effect in 21 states today. As NPR's Andrea Schue reports, a third of U.S. workers now live in states with a minimum wage of $15 an hour or more. The latest states to hit a $15 minimum wage are Delaware, Illinois, and Rhode Island. The new wage floors there and elsewhere are expected to raise the wages of more than 9 million people, according to the Economic Policy Institute. Women make up almost 60 percent of workers getting raises on January 1st. Hispanic workers make up more than a third. Most full-time minimum wage earners are expected to earn about $400 more per year. Researchers say the additional earnings are meant to ensure workers don't lose ground as prices rise.

But in many states, including those that follow the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, workers don't have that protection. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. After almost three years since Russia invaded Ukraine, Kyiv halted Russian gas supplies to European customers through its pipeline network. This after a transit deal expired at the end of 2024. Russian natural gas kept flowing through the country's pipeline network to Europe under a five-year agreement even after Russia's 2022 invasion.

Before the war, Russia supplied nearly 40% of Europe's natural gas through those pipelines. By 2023, that figure dropped to around 8% as users switched to liquefied natural gas from the US and from Norway. The moon may be getting a lot of visitors from Earth in 2025. As Joel Pelko reports, several missions are set

for launch in the next two months. The missions include landers, rovers, and orbiters. Firefly Aerospace has a lander mission called Blue Ghost. It's carrying several payloads, including Lunar Planet Vac, a device that will suck up lunar dust. Intuitive Machines expects to send its second lander to the moon. The first attempt in 2024 was a partial success, although the lander apparently tipped over shortly after touching down. The rocket carrying the lander is also set to deliver lunar trailblazer into lunar orbit. That mission will map and characterize the water on the moon. And Japan intends to send a lander called Resilience and a micro-rover called Tenacious

to what's known as the Sea of Cold on the Moon's northern hemisphere. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palca. And I'm Janene Herbst. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington.