NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-08-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

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The Indicator is a podcast where daily economic news is about what matters to you. Workers have been feeling the sting of inflation. So as a new administration promises action on the cost of living, taxes, and home prices, The S&P 500 biggest post-election day spike ever. follow all the big changes and what they mean for you. Make America affordable again. Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR. Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens.

California Governor Gavin Newsom and the City of Los Angeles have declared a state of emergency in the Pacific Palisades area. A massive wildfire there is being fueled by strong Santa Ana winds. More than 30,000 people are under mandatory evacuation orders, as NPR's Giles Snyder reports. After returning from a trip up the canyon, Governor Newsom said he found people who had not yet left their homes. And the fact that people were still not evacuated, still did not heed the warning, were just

coming down the canyon, is a reminder of h is, but escaping to safet evacuations have led to t have abandoned their cars The cause of the fire is started just as a Santa A got going. The National W the storm could be life-threatening, and that winds have the potential to down trees and power lines.

Trial Snider, NPR News. Members of Congress and members of the Biden administration honored Jimmy Carter Tuesday in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, where the former president's flag-draped coffin lies in-state. A final funeral for Carter will be held Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral, where President Biden is to deliver a eulogy. The nation's 39th president died on December 29th at the age of 100. President-elect Donald Trump held a press event at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday to lay out plans for his second administration. Trump says the U.S. should regain control of the Panama Canal, saying the agreement that returned the shipping channel to Panama had been violated. He also wants

the U.S. to acquire the Danish territory of Greenland and suggested he could use economic pressure to do so. We need Greenland for national security purposes. I've been told that for a long time, long before I even ran. I mean, people have been talking about it for a long time. Trump says Greenland is needed for U.S. national security reasons. The Israeli military has launched a series of raids in the occupied West Bank after gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying Israelis. NPR's Kat Lundsdorf reports.

Three Israelis were killed and eight others wounded in the attack. In response, Israeli forces raided several Palestinian towns and conducted at least one airstrike in what it called, quote, counterterrorism activity. It said at least three Palestinians were killed. Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza began 15 months ago. Israeli military raids occur almost nightly, while Palestinians have carried out scores of attacks against Israelis. Israeli settlers have also increased attacks on Palestinians Responding to the events Israeli cabinet member Betzalel Smotrich said parts of the West Bank quote Need to look like Jabalia an area in northern Gaza that has been devastated by Israeli forces

Kat Wandsdorf NPR News Tel Aviv This is NPR News NPR News, Tel Aviv. This is NPR News. Two Americans are among seven people arrested in Venezuela on suspicion of being foreign mercenaries. President Nicolas Maduro says the detainees also include two Colombians and three other people he says had been in Ukraine. The announcement comes days before Maduro is scheduled to be sworn into a new term and

over a year after his government released dozens of prisoners, including ten Americans. Pope Francis has named the first woman to head a major office in the body that governs the Catholic Church. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports that it's part of an ongoing push to give women more leadership roles. Pope Francis has appointed an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to head the department responsible for all the Catholic Church's religious orders.

Brambilla will oversee the work of some 600,000 Catholic nuns and over 100,000 priests from the Church's many religious orders, including the Jesuits and the Franciscans. It's part of an effort to bring more women to top-ranking posts of the Vatican, but critics say it's not enough. As well as the nun Brambilla, Pope Francis has also appointed a male co-leader, a cardinal, to the same role. Experts say this may be because the head of this office has to be able to celebrate mass and perform other sacramental functions that, currently, the Church says only men can do. Ruth Sherlock and PPR News, Rome.

Mark Cruz and Arlington, Texas are prepping roadways for a possible snowstorm ahead of Friday's Cotton Bowl. A developing storm system threatens to carry an Arctic blast in Texas, Oklahoma and in other parts of the South. I'm Shea Stevens. This is NPR.