NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-08-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

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What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025? We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year. Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Two fires are now raging out of control in Los Angeles, where hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders. Powerful winds are pushing the flames into residential areas, as NPR's Liz Baker reports. A fire that started in Eaton Canyon rapidly expanded to threaten residents of Altadena and Pasadena, doubling in size in just one hour.

And the Palisades fire has grown, too, advancing on parts of Santa Monica and Malibu, vastly expanding the area under evacuation order. Firefighters are struggling to get any edge on these fires, especially as winds continue to grow stronger, complicating air operations. The National Weather Service has deemed this a particularly dangerous situation. In other words, conditions are as bad as they can possibly get when it comes to fire weather and will be at least through Wednesday. The City of Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency. Off-duty LA firefighters have been called back into service to help. Liz Baker, NPR News. Vice President Kamala Harris says White House officials are receiving ongoing updates on

the situation in Los Angeles. A final funeral for Jimmy Carter will be held Thursday at the Washington National Cathedral. After arriving at the U.S. Navy Memorial, a horse-drawn caisson carried the former president's black draped coffin to the U.S. Capitol, where he lies in state. Vice President Harris was among those gathered in the Capitol Rotunda Tuesday to honor Carter. James Earl Carter Jr. loved our country. He lived his faith. He served the people. And he left the world better than he found it.

Harris said that Carter's work in office and decades later spoke louder than any tribute. President-elect Donald Trump says he will not rule out using military or economic coercion to gain control of the Panama Canal or Greenland. Trump also declared plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico. NPR's Jackie Northam has more on Tuesday's wide-ranging press conference at Mar-a-Lago. For the past few weeks, President-elect Trump has talked about acquiring other countries, couching his desire for U.S. territorial expansion in terms of national security. During his latest press conference, Trump said the U.S. needs to control the Panama

Canal because of its strategic economic role. The Panama Canal is vital to our country. It's being operated by China. China. Trump also vowed to tear off Denmark at a very high level until it gives up control of Greenland, which is a natural resource-rich autonomous territory of Denmark. Trump said he'd use economic force to compel Canada to merge with the US. He added He added that the U.S. already basically protects Canada. Jackie Northam, NPR News.

U.S. futures are slightly higher in after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. Facebook and Instagram will no longer use a third-party fact-checking program. Meta, the parent of the platforms, is switching to a system called Community Notes, allowing users to weigh in on postings. Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg says the company tried to address concerns about misinformation, but he says third-party fact-checking became too politically biased, resulting in a loss of trust. His announcement came four years after Facebook banned President-elect Trump.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid what is expected to be his final official visit to Japan and at an awkward time. The trip follows President Biden's plans to block the Japanese firm's acquisition of U.S. steel. And Pierce Anthony Kuhn has more from Seoul. A foreign ministry statement said that Blinken and his Japanese counterpart Takeshi Iwaiya discussed the U.S. steel deal and reaffirmed the importance of U.S.-Japan economic relations. Nippon Steel's CEO Eiji Hashimoto says his firm has no intention to abandon the deal. Nippon Steel is filing a federal lawsuit against the ban, the first time a Japanese company has ever sued the U.S. government. Japan is the largest source of foreign direct investment in the U.S.

and it hosts some 55,000 active-duty U.S. troops. When is an ally not a partner? The Japan Times puzzled in an editorial last month. It concluded, apparently, when a Japanese company seeks to purchase an iconic U.S. corporation. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Again, U.S. futures are slightly higher in after hours trading on Wall Street. Asia-Pacific markets are lower. This is NPR News. 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.