NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-02-2026 1AM EST

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

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Hello, and happy new year. It's Michelle Martin from Morning Edition. Thank you to everyone who donated during our end-of-year fundraising campaign. 2025 dealt a big blow to NPR and local stations with the loss of federal funding for public media, but we are so heartened by the outpouring of support, and we will get through this together. Thank you for keeping NPR strong, moving into 2026 and beyond. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay-Stevens. Swiss authorities say it is too early to speculate on a cause for the deadly fire. They claimed at least 40 lives at a ski resort bar.

President Guy Parmalen calls it one of the worst tragedies in his nation's history. As NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports, a social media video appears to show flames spreading across the bar. There's also what seems to be a promotional video from last year for the bar, and that shows female staff wearing biker helmets striding through the place carrying sparklers stuffed into air. alcohol bottles. People have also been asking whether last night the bar was overcrowded. So there's clearly lots of questions to be answered in this investigation. For now, officials are saying the priority is to identify the bodies of the victims, and they say that that could take quite some time. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reporting. Venezuela's president says he is open to

cooperating with the United States on combating drug trafficking and other issues. Nicholas Maduro made the comments in a pre-recorded interview aired on State TV. The BBC's Zubair Ahmed has more. The left-wing Venezuelan leader is feeling the pressure. Since September, U.S. forces have carried out numerous strikes on boats in both the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, targeting what Washington says are drug smugglers. In the interview, President Maduro said he was open to negotiating an agreement to combat

drug smuggling, but he refused to. to confirm or deny President Trump's recent claim of a U.S. attack on a docking facility that reportedly served Venezuelan drug trafficking boats. The U.S. has not yet responded. The BBC's Zubair Ahmed. United Nations agencies working in Gaza, along with several international aid groups, have issued a joint appeal for Israel to reverse a new ban on dozens of groups that provide food, shelter, and health care to Palestinians.

Ayyabatrawi has details. Eight-year-old Nour's in new cries in pain. As a physician at this Doctors Without Borders Clinic in Gaza City changes her dressing for severe burns sustained in the war, she's among what the Gaza Health Ministry says is more than 170,000 Palestinians wounded in Israeli attacks. NPR's Anasbaba visited the clinic's waiting room, which was packed with the wounded and sick.

But it faces closure now. After Israel banned doctors without borders and around 40 other aid groups from bringing aid or staff into Gaza. Israel says the decision is based on new security and transparency requirements aid groups fail to meet. Doctors Without Borders says it treated a million patients in Gaza in 2025, half the population. They say Palestinians will be deprived of essential care if aid groups lose access to Gaza. A.O. Petrawee, NPR News.

On Asian market shares are mostly higher, but down a fraction in Tokyo. This is NPR. Some 19 states have raised their minimal. The bottom rate varies by state, but the highest is $17.13 an hour in Washington State and $16 an hour in Hawaii. The federal minimum wage remains at $7.25 an hour or less than $15,000 a year for a full-time worker where it's been since 2009. Human rights groups say forced deportations of Afghan migrants from Iran and Pakistan is putting the lives of women and girls at risk. Advocates are focusing on the case of one woman in particular as Schwedda Desai reports from Mumbai. The young woman goes by one name, Nahid.

Advocates say last week she was detained by Pakistani police. She works with the Global Charity Network Alliance for the Education of Women in Afghanistan. It's in defiance of the country's Taliban rulers who ban most girls from study beyond grade 6. Victoria Fontan, co-chair of the Alliance, says the network fears Nahid will be persecuted in Afghanistan for a work in educating women. They also fear Nahid may be forced to reveal information about the charities that are educating women and girls. The UN reports that in 2025, more than 2 million Afghans have left or were forced to leave Pakistan and neighboring Iran. For NPR news, I'm Shweta Desai in Mumbai.

At least seven people, including a 21-year-old paramilitary volunteer, have been killed in the latest unrest in Iran. The deaths are the first fatalities during protests triggered by a troubled economy and currency instability. This is NPR News. Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered. That's NPR's Music Recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week. Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again.

Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts.