NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2026 4AM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shays Stevens. Minimum wage employees in the New York City area will see a bump in their pay starting today. Bruce Convisor has more from New York. The minimum wage for New York City adjacent Westchester County and all of Long Island is now $17 an hour, a 50 cent increase. For the rest of the state, the minimum wage remains $16 an hour, but starting in 2027, minimum wage increases statewide will be indexed to inflation. In New Jersey, the minimum wage is already indexed to the consumer price index. The pay there has inched up more than 40 cents to 1592 per hour, but there is a carve-out for agricultural workers and those working in small businesses.

Their minimum will increase to just 1523. Connecticut's minimum wage is increasing to $16.94. Their minimum is also indexed to data from the U.S. Department of Labor. For NPR News, I'm Bruce Conveiser in New York. New data show a surge in flu cases. The CDC estimates there have been 7.5 million such cases so far this season, up from some 4 million flu cases reported in the previous week. NPR's Gabriella Immanuel has details. One big factor driving the surge is a new strain called subclade K. It's caused huge numbers

of cases from Australia to Japan to the UK. Florian Kramer of the Ikin School of Medicine at Mount Sinai says genetic changes in the strain. mean the flu vaccine isn't great at recognizing the virus. Because it changed, there's less immunity to it, and that's allowing the virus to spread very quickly and extensively. However, early data from the UK suggests that the vaccine is still quite effective at keeping people from getting so sick they end up in the hospital. And the new strain doesn't seem to be more severe or dangerous.

And researchers say current treatments still work against it. Gabriela Immanuel NPR News. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky says his nation is not prepared to sign a weak-beast deal that would only prolong its war with Russia. In a New Year address heard here through an interpreter, Zelensky says Ukraine wants the war to end but not at any cost. The peace agreement is 90% ready. 10% remains, and that's far more than just numbers.

Those 10% contain, in fact, everything. Those are the 10% that will determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live. 10% to save millions of lives. EU senior policy chief Kaya Kalas has added her support for Ukraine, which denies launching a drone attack on President Putin's residence. A fire broke out at a ski resort bar in the Swiss Alps today, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries during a New Year celebration. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. This is NPR. The Trump administration is freezing monthly funding to help low-income families pay for child care.

More than 800,000 families were receiving that aid as of 2019. The latest numbers available. Science magazine says the unstoppable growth of renewable energy is its 2025 breakthrough of the year. NPR's Julia Simon has more. Across the world, from Pakistan to Nigeria, every day. citizens are no longer turning exclusively to polluting fossil fuels to get reliable electricity. They're turning to solar panels and batteries. Much of the renewable technology comes from cheap exports from China. According to Energy Think Tank Ember, 2025 was the first year

the renewable energy surpassed coal as a source of electricity. The implications for the climate are huge, particularly for China, the world's biggest polluter. Because of the growth of renewable energy, China's planet heating emissions have been flat or falling for the last 18 months. And Chinese exports of solar, wind, and battery technologies mean other countries are reducing their emissions too. Julia Simon, NPR News. Sachs Global, which owns Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and other companies, is seeking bankruptcy protection. The holding company missed its first debt payment linked to its acquisition of Neiman markets in 2024 and has struggled to boost demand in the United States amid inflation. Hudson Bay Company

created Sachs Global as part of a debt restructuring last August. I'm Shea Stevens. This is NPR News.