NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-10-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

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Matt Wilson spent years doing rounds at children's hospitals in New York City. I had a clip-on tie. I wore Heelys, size 11. Matt was a medical clown. The whole of a medical clown is to reintroduce the sense of play and joy and hope and light into a space that doesn't normally inhabit. Ideas about navigating uncertainty. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. At least 10 deaths are now linked to the ferocious wildfires burning in Southern California. President Biden says he fears that number will rise. NPR's Tamara Keith reports Biden received another update on the

Los Angeles area fires. Biden said the fires were unbelievably destructive. It's almost like it's a battle scene. And he promised the federal government would be there to help California build back better, as he put it. But he acknowledged that he won't be president when that happens. President-elect Trump takes over shepherding the response and recovery from this disaster in just 10 days. They know every single thing we're doing about the response. My hope is that they'll have at least acknowledged we have some significant experience in this. We've done really well on it. I'm praying that they continue to focus.

Biden said Congress will need to approve additional disaster relief funding. Tamara Keith, NPR News, The White House. Trump will not be locked up, fined or face any other penalties for his felony conviction of falsifying business records in New York. At a hearing today, Judge Juan Roshon sentenced Trump to unconditional discharge 10 days before Trump's due to take office. This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of a judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional

discharge, which the New York state legislature has determined is a lawful and permissible sentence for the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump's team is trying to get his hush money payment conviction overturned. I'm totally innocent. I did nothing wrong. They talked about business records and the business records were extremely accurately counted. I had nothing to do with them any of it.

That was done by an accountant or a bookkeeper who I think gave very credible testimony and was corroborated by everybody that was asked. Trump appeared at his sentencing virtually. The Biden administration is imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia's energy industry, the move targeting what administration officials say is the largest source of revenue for Russia's war against Ukraine. Here's NPR's Jackie Northam.

Administration officials say this latest round of sanctions targets some of Russia's largest oil companies, as well as traders, oil field service providers, and liquefied natural gas projects. Administration officials say this new round of sanctions will cost Russia billions of dollars in energy reserves. The move by the Biden administration comes just days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. He's been skeptical of imposing new sanctions on Russia. The U.S. has slapped more than 5,000 sanctions and export controls on Russia since the invasion of Ukraine almost three years ago. Jackie Northam, NPR News. You're listening to NPR.

A powerful winter storm is delivering heavy amounts of snow and ice on parts of the deep south. At Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, passengers on a Delta flight had to evacuate after an aborted takeoff this morning. Remember station WABE in Atlanta, where my events has more. Officials with the Atlanta airport say just after 9 a.m. an aircraft aborted taking off. Passengers were de-planned via an emergency slot

and transported to a different concourse. At least four of those passengers sustained minor injuries according to a statement released by Hartsfield Jackson. They say only one person was transported off scene. As of Friday morning, flights to and from ATL are currently delayed at departure due to the incident and ongoing severe weather. Hartsfield-Jackson officials say they are treating runways at the airport to ensure minimal impact on operations.

They recommend following the Federal Aviation Administration for updates. For NPR News, I'm Dermot Evans in Atlanta. While the storms touched off safety warnings across areas of the Deep South not used to that kind of weather. Some residents are making the most of their day off. They broke out the sled or just about anything else that can slide to take advantage of snowy hills in the in the Atlanta area. The Associated Press is reporting that Tisha Sanders and Terrell Bryant tried to make an igloo in their front yard in Little Rock, Arkansas. And in Nashville, Tennessee, 14-year-old Sidney Lasher and Zoe Russell, well, they're turning

Snow Day off into a cashmaking opportunity. On Facebook, they are advertising an offer to shovel people's driveways. It's NPR News.