NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-12-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. Firefighters in Southern California are concerned about the return of potentially strong winds that could fan the flames of the wildfires burning in and around Los Angeles. The National Weather Service says critical fire weather will continue into Wednesday. Thousands have lost their homes and what's next for each berries. But Rachel Myro from member station KQED reports that some survivors are planning to weather the near future together. Chew me Paul and her 11 year old daughter

were already driving away from the Eaton 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 knitknit 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 Miro in Pasadena. President Biden had planned to be in Rome to present Pope Francis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, the country's highest civilian award, but he decided to cancel the trip to monitor the wildfires in California. Here's MPR's Osamu Collett. MPR. President Biden has been continuing to speak with local officials on the ground. Last week, when fires began erupting, he declared a major disaster declaration, which is something that allows the federal government to step in and provide help. And he's been insisting

that the federal government is going to stick around in California for as long as it takes. This is all happening at a big moment of political change here in Washington. Today marks the beginning of President Biden's final full week in the White House before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration. Overseas to South Korea, where President Yoon Seok-yul will not attend the first hearing of his own impeachment trial, according to his attorney. MPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul that the first formal hearing is scheduled for

Tuesday. South Korea's parliament voted to impeach Yoon for his brief declaration of martial law last month. Now it's up to the Constitutional Court to uphold or overturn the impeachment. But Yoon's lawyers say that because Yoon is wanted on separate criminal charges of insurrection, attending the impeachment hearing could jeopardize his safety, implying that he could be arrested. Yoon remains holed up in his residence, protected by the presidential security detail, which

blocked police and investigators from executing an arrest warrant. If Yoon is absent on Tuesday, the hearing will be rescheduled for Thursday, and if he doesn't show up then, the proceedings can go ahead without him. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. And from Washington, you're listening to NPR News. The French island territory of Mayotte is on red alert again. Another cyclone is heading towards the islands off Africa. After making landfall in northern Madagascar yesterday, Maat is still recovering from a

cyclone that hit a month ago. That storm described as the most devastating to hit Maat in nearly a century. Voters in Croatia casting ballots today in a presidential runoff election. Incumbent President Zoran Milanovic is favored to win. Milanovic easily won the first round of voting last month, but fell short of the 50% he needed to claim victory over seven other candidates. He is a critic of Western military support for Ukraine. Ships that transport everything from coffee cups to clothes across the ocean are often so large, no one notices when they collide with a whale.

But new research could help reduce those collisions, Northwest Public Broadcasting's Courtney Flatt reports. Courtney Flatt, Reporting, Northwest Public Broadcasting, New York, New York, New York Wails often get killed by ocean-going ships. So research published in the journal Science combined worldwide shipping data with whale migration routes. The study looked at blue, humpback, fin, and sperm whales. It found they're at risk all over. Wherever you have coastlines, port, and migratory animals is where you have this conflict. That's Sean Hastings.

He's with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Hastings says voluntary programs off the California coast ask ships to slow down, and they've helped a lot. The study found most whale ship hot spots could be covered if the shipping industry put the brakes on 2.6 percent of the ocean's surface. For NPR News, I'm Courtney Flatt in Richland, Washington. And I'm Chyle Snyder. This is NPR News.