NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2026 2PM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. Well, there's a New Year's Day block party at City Hall this hour for the new mayor of New York City. Mayor Zaron Mamdani and first lady Ramaduaji. Zaraamam Dani just before he was set to be sworn in for a second time, this time by Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. And introduced in part by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, To the most prominent faces of the country's far-left progressive movement. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist as the first Muslim person elected mayor of New York City.

He used to lay out his priorities for the city, centered around the affordability promise that catapulted his campaign to election victory. Israeli forces started the new year by arresting dozens of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank overnight. the Israeli military did not comment or provide additional information. When asked by NPR about the arrests, Israel has been carrying out what it calls counter-terror raids almost daily in Palestinian cities and towns. Noot Muslim reports. Palestinian authorities say at least 50 people were arrested from different parts of the West Bank, many taken from their homes in the middle of the night by Israeli forces.

Head of the authority that tracks arrests, Abdelah Zaghari, told NPR, many of those arrested were former detainees, including a woman who was recently released. The Palestinian Prisoners Commission says more than 9,000 Palestinians are currently in Israeli custody, most of whom are being held without charge. For NPR news, this is Nuhamusle reporting from the West Bank. Authorities say dozens of people are presumed dead after a fire broke out at a popular ski resort town in Switzerland overnight. Terry Schultz reports more than 100 people suffered serious injuries. Swiss authorities say the fire broke out in a bar at the Cromontana ski resort in the heart of the Swiss Alps about 1.30 a.m. during New Year's Eve festivities. Victims are believed to be from several different countries. In a press conference, officials downplayed early reports that an explosion had caused the trouble.

tragedy and said it's too early to conclude whether appropriate fire safety measures were in place. Firefires and first responders were called in from around the region. Local hospitals are completely full authorities, say, and patients are being transferred to nearby facilities. They're appealing to everyone in the area to be particularly careful to avoid accidents that would put more strain on medical and emergency services. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz. The Associated Press is reporting that about 40 people are believed to have died and more than 110 others have been injured in the fire. It's NPR News.

Federal workers have filed a class action suit against the Trump administration. They argue that a policy that drops coverage for gender affirming care in federal health insurance programs is discriminatory. The ban implemented by the Office of Personnel Management is in line with administration actions that have narrowed protections for transgender people. Archaeologists have found what they say is the oldest known cremation wire used to burn the body of an adult. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce reports that it was found in Africa and dates back nearly 10,000 years. At the base of a mountain in Malawi, archaeologists uncovered a big pile of ash and in the middle was the burned bones of a small adult woman. Jessica Sarazo-Roman is an anthropologist with the University of Oklahoma.

She says it's rare to find any evidence of cremation in hunter-gatherer communities that lived in the Stone Age. And cremation pires, the wooden structures used to burn bodies, are almost never preserved. They are very difficult to find in the archaeological record. In the journal Science Advances, she and her colleagues say, the large amount of wood collected suggests this cremation was a communal effort. And the cremated woman's head is missing, suggesting it might have been kept as a relic. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. As of today, the Oracle of Omaha is no longer CEO. Warren Buffett has handed the reins at Berkshire Hathaway to Greg Aple, but the celebrated investor will stay on as chairman.

This is NPR News.