NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-06-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Congress has certified the 2024 election for Donald Trump. NPR's Miles Parks reports the proceedings were routine and calm, a clear contrast to four years ago. In 2021, more than 100 Republican lawmakers objected to the presidential election results, all motivated by Donald Trump's lies about the election process. This time around, not a single lawmaker objected during the certification. As president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris oversaw the counting of the electoral votes and the certification of the state of California has received 226 votes. Trump will be inaugurated in two weeks on January 20th, Miles Parks and PR News Washington.

As Trump's victory was certified, the Washington D.C. area was busy digging out of heavy snow. Snowplows, like the sound of this, when courtesy of Kevin Donahue, were in full force, so was snow play. Snow! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

Whoa! What did that feel like? That felt amazing! D.C. resident Michael Lippen getting pelted in a snowball fight. Snow totals could reach up to a foot by tonight. Hundreds of thousands of people from Missouri to Virginia were hit with power outages. At least four deaths were reported as well.

Many public and private sector employees were advised to remain home. Schools were closed. President Biden will carry out one of his final duties as Consular-in-Chief. This hour, the outgoing leader visits New Orleans to meet with families directly affected by the New Year's Day terror attack in the city. A man plowed his vehicle into a crowd. Authorities say the ISIS-inspired U.S. National killed 14 people before he was killed by police. TikTok will be going to the Supreme Court this week. NPR's Bobby Allen reports the viral video app is asking the court to overturn a law that could ban

the service in two weeks. Lawyers for TikTok are hoping the high court will strike down a law Congress passed in April outlawing TikTok unless it cuts ties with China. But the Justice Department is expected to tell the Supreme Court the law is a necessary national security measure. TikTokers, meanwhile, are going viral with videos about downloading virtual private networks or about moving to other platforms. So basically, if TikTok gets banned in the United States, you can use a VPN and set your VPN's location in a different country to still use TikTok as long as TikTok is available in that country. Like, are we going to YouTube? Because I don't want to go to Instagram. That's TikTok users, Katie Kahnz and Jacqueline Couch.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to save TikTok, but he has not explained how. Bobby Allen, NPR News. From Washington, this is NPR News. A bus carrying Israelis in the occupied West Bank came under attack today. At least three people died. Several others were wounded.

The prime minister of Israel vowed to punish those responsible. Gaza's Hamas has not claimed responsibility, but it praised the attack, which took place a day after the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the West Bank. U.S. Steel and Japan's Nippon Steel are now suing the US federal government for blocking their roughly $15 billion merger. Last Friday, President Biden issued an order to block the takeover of US Steel as a matter of national security.

President-elect Trump also opposes the merger. Hollywood handed out its annual Golden Globes last night. NPR's Manda Lita El Barco was there and she reports on one of the surprises of the ceremony. Actress Demi Moore plays an aging Hollywood star chasing her youth in the horror film The Substance. Moore surprised everyone at the Golden Globes and herself when she won as best female actor in a film, musical or comedy. She told the crowd this was her very first acting award after 45 years in the business. And as I was at kind of a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out of the box, absolutely bonkers script come across my desk called The Substance.

And the universe told me that you're not done. With the Golden Globes kicking off awards season Demi Moore is no longer being underestimated mandalita barco NPR news US stocks in the day mix the NASDAQ closed up 243 points a Dow is down 25. It's NPR news