NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-11-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 11, 2025

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dualisa Icautao. California firefighters are getting help from Canada and Mexico as teams of first responders make their way to the Los Angeles area this weekend to help fight terrifying fires. At a briefing earlier, LA Mayor Karen Bass updated reporters on how fire victims are being assisted. FEMA teams are on the ground providing in-person support, helping Angelenos apply for disaster relief at the Westwood Recreation Center and Ritchie Valens Park.

The Small Business Administration is now offering home disaster loans, business disaster loans, and economic injury disaster loans. More strong winds are forecast this weekend. Here's LA County Fire Chief Anthony Moroney. These winds combined with dry air and dry vegetation will keep the fire threat in Los Angeles County high.

At this hour, the Palisades Fire, the largest of the California blazes, is only 11 percent contained, but firefighters are making progress on the Kenneth Fire. Thousands of Southern Californians have lost their homes to wildfires this week. What's next for each varies, but Rachel Miro from member station KQED reports some survivors are planning to weather the near future together. Jumi Paul and her 11-year-old daughter were already driving away from the eaten fire when the official evacuation order came over their phones. A neighbor provided the heads up hours earlier.

Paul says her cul-de-sac at the edge of the forest has been tight-knit since the pandemic, and that sense of community has continued in another difficult moment. We're talking about meeting up on a regular basis to help each other clean up and maybe have some community meals and rebuild our neighborhood together. For now, Paul and her daughter are fighting refuge in a hotel south of Altadena, but they've received an offer on a place to stay across town rent-free.

For NPR News, I'm Rachel Myhro in Pasadena. The short video app TikTok is waiting to hear from the Supreme Court after the court heard arguments yesterday on a law that could ban the app in a little more than a week. NPR's Bobby Allen reports lawyers for TikTok are calling the ban an unprecedented violation of the First Amendment. TikTok's lawyers pleaded with the court to step in and block the law banning the app. The company's legal team argued TikTok is cordoned off from China and therefore, they say, suppressing the speech of 170 million American users is not justified.

But Chief Justice John Roberts said as long as bite dance is TikTok's corporate overlord, Americans are vulnerable to Chinese propaganda and spying. It seems to me that you're ignoring the major concern here of Congress, which was Chinese manipulation of the content and acquisition and harvesting of the content. The court is expected to rule soon on whether the start date will be delayed and whether the ban is constituted. President Biden's approval rating as he leaves office is lower than his predecessors. That's according to a new poll.

The Associated Press and the Norick Center for Public Affairs in Chicago poll finds that even among supporters of his party, about four in 10 adults described his presidency as average. Among independents, only 23 percent of those surveyed said they approve of how Biden is handling his job, and among Republicans, a mere 8% approved the quality of Biden's presidency. The survey was conducted in early December among more than 1,200 adults. A new study is raising concerns about the hundreds of U.S. hospitals controlled by private equity firms. Researchers at Harvard Medical School find patient satisfaction declined.

From member station WBUR, Priyanka Dyal-Makluski reports. Many patients said their experience at hospitals worsened after private equity takeovers, and they reported staff were less responsive. Dr. Rishi Wadhera co-authored the study and says it adds to a growing body of evidence pointing in the same direction. When private equity takes over a hospital, things generally get worse for patients.

He says as private equity grows, there really is an urgent need for greater transparency, monitoring and regulatory oversight. Lawmakers are paying attention. The Senate Budget Committee this week published a bipartisan report saying private equity investors are making millions on hospital deals while patients suffer. For NPR News, I'm Priyanka Thial-McClusskey in Boston.