NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2026 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. Affordable Care Act subsidies expired today, meaning higher health care premiums for millions of Americans. Those subsidies, which Congress created during the pandemic, helped lower or eliminate the monthly premium for those who bought the insurance on the health care insurance marketplace. Senator Peter Welch says Vermont is one of the states that will see some of the highest premium jumps, and he says people are scared. Swiss investigators are ruling out an attack as the cause of a deadly fire during a New Year's Eve party at the population. The number of people injured or killed has surpassed 100. Esmey Nicholson has more. The city hall.

Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor and the first mayor. of South Asian descent. Millions of Americans who bought their health insurance under the Affordable Care Act are bracing for much higher premiums. ACA subsidies expired last night. Sarah Bowden has more. Preliminary data from December show that enrollment is down a bit compared to last December, but overall, it is higher than expected. That could change over the course of this year. Cynthia Cox is a researcher at the Health Policy Think Tank KFF. She says it's kind of like the difference between putting groceries in your shopping cart and actually purchasing those groceries.

So you don't actually own those groceries until you paid for them, the same thing with health insurance. You can sign up, you can pick a plan, but until you pay for it, it's not your health plan. In most states, the final deadline to sign up for a plan for 2026 is January 15th. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Bowden. President Trump says he won't send National Guard troops to Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon, for now. Oregon Public Broadcasting's Bryce Doyle has more, saying that it might bring an end to a months-long saga

that unfolded around the ice facility in Portland. The president's announcement came as hundreds of people visited downtown Portland for New Year's Eve. Among them was Holly Romero, a retired yoga instructor. Honestly, I feel safer because, you know, once the military starts going against the civilians, then it's fascism. It's called what it is. Stephen Martin, a fertility clinic specialist, had a different view.

I'd like to have a larger presence because the city is unsafe, especially at night. State and local leaders were locked in a court fight with the president for months. Trump tried to send the National Guard to protect the ice facility in Portland, but a federal judge blocked him from doing so. Governor Tina Kotech called the news, quote, a big win for Oregonians and for the rule of law. For NPR News, I'm Bryce Dole. You're listening to NPR.

Our news. Archaeologists have found what they say is the oldest known cremation pyre used to burn the body of an adult. And here's Nell Greenfield-Boyce reports it was found in Africa and it 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. Betty Boop and Blondie are joining the titles entering the public domain this New Year's Day. The first cartoons that featured Boop and the first Blondie comic strips debuted in 1930. And with the passage of 95 years, their U.S. copyrights expired yesterday. The first novels featuring Teen Detective Nancy Drew and the first book featuring Agatha Christie's investigator, Miss Marple,

also became public domain, as do films, including the Marks Brother, animal crackers. Meanwhile, nine new Mickey Mouse cartoons are also becoming public domain today two years after Steamboat Willie made the first version of him public. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News, in Washington.