NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-10-2025 8AM EST

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

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Consider This is a daily news podcast and lately the news is about a big question. How much can one guy change? They want change. What will change look like for energy? Drill, baby drill. Schools? Take the department education closer. Healthcare?

Better and less expensive. Follow coverage of a changing country. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. On Consider This, the afternoon news podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington on Korova Coleman, multiple fires continue to burn in the greater Los Angeles area. There are at least five major blazes, and officials say at least 10 people have been

killed. The Palisades Fire northwest of the city has burned more than 30 square miles. The Eaton Fire in Pasadena has burned more than 20 square miles and that fire is fully uncontained. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna says first responders are still conducting rescue missions. The majority of the people they are having to rescue out of homes and vehicles are individuals that chose not to evacuate, not only putting themselves in danger, but putting the first responders in more significant danger. A new blaze broke out yesterday afternoon.

The Kenneth fire has already burned more than a thousand acres. It's more than one-third contained. L.A. police have arrested a person to question them about how that fire started. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance has resigned from the Senate. The now former Ohio senator stepped down from office before he and President-elect Trump take their new oaths of office on January 20th. And Piers-Claudia Chrysalis has more.

In his resignation letter, Vice President-elect Vance told Ohio Governor Mike DeWine that it has been quote, a tremendous honor and privilege to serve the people of Ohio in the Senate for the last two years. The move will give DeWine, a Republican, extra time to appoint someone to fill Vance's seat until a special election in 2026. Even in his short tenure, Vance had already become the state's most senior senator. Vance's resignation will also narrow Senate Republicans' majority to 51 members, giving Majority Leader John Thune a tighter margin over Democrats for the time being. Kluyere Rizales, NPR News.

Israeli officials have identified a body recovered from Gaza as one of the hostages taken in the Hamas attack in October 2023. This comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken says a ceasefire that would release some of the hostages in exchange for some Palestinian detainees is, quote, very close. And B.S. Kat Lonsdorf reports from Tel Aviv. The body was identified as 23-year-old Hamza El- El Zayedni, a member of the Bedouin Israeli community who was taken along with his two children and father from a kibbutz in southern Israel where he worked. His children were released as part of the hostage exchange

in 2023. El Zayedni's body was found by Israeli forces alongside his father's in a tunnel in southern Gaza earlier this week. Meanwhile, the wife of another Israeli hostage released a video in Arabic, asking for Hamas to prove her husband is still alive. She cited a chronic verse about the humane treatment of captives. There are 98 hostages currently in Gaza, according to Israel. More than a third of them are thought to be dead.

Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. President-elect Trump will be sentenced today in a New York courtroom. He was convicted last May of 34 criminal counts related to falsifying business records to conceal an affair. Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court narrowly rejected Trump's effort to block his sentencing. The high court noted the New York trial judge says he is not inclined to impose penalties on Trump, such as a jail term or fines.

A federal judge has struck down an effort by the U.S. Department of Education to expand federal protections for transgender students. NPR's Corey Turner has more. For half a century, Title IX has banned discrimination in schools based on sex. At issue in this decision is a rule the Biden administration released last spring interpreting the law to also protect sexual orientation and gender identity. The rule had been hailed by LGBTQ plus advocates, but was challenged by 26 conservative-led states that argued the president had exceeded his legal authority.

In this latest ruling, a federal judge in Kentucky agreed, striking down the rule nationally and writing that it, quote, turns Title IX on its head. Before this decision, the rule had already been blocked in half the country. Corey Turner, NPR News. The Labor Department will release its latest reports on the nation's jobs numbers today. Forecasters expect hiring was slower at the end of last year but still steady. They expect employers added about 150,000 new jobs in December. That is similar to hiring numbers that were reported over the past six months.

I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News from Washington.