NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-13-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Korova-Coleman, the National Weather Service has issued new red flag warnings about winds in the Los Angeles area. This bulletin is called a particularly dangerous situation. Some winds could gust up to 70 miles per hour. Forecasters say the winds won't be as powerful as those that fueled the L.A. firestorm last week, but they could trigger explosive fire growth. Robert Clark is a fire behavior analyst for CAL FIRE. Even though you might not see activity on our

fire currently or very isolated pockets, the possibility and the ability for fires to become active or new fire starts is high probability. The Palisades fire to the west of Los Angeles is now 14 percent contained. The Eaton fire in the Pasadena, Altadena area is about a third contained. California authorities say at least 24 people have died in the wildfires. Most of the deaths in the Los Angeles County blazes have come in the Eaton fire. Elise Hue reports on two victims who perished in Altadena. Both family members who died in the Eaton Fire faced disabilities.

Anthony Mitchell Sr. was a 67-year-old amputee. His son Justin Mitchell, who also died in the fire, had cerebral palsy. The family says the pair were waiting to be evacuated as flames reached their neighborhood. Hajim White is Anthony Mitchell's daughter. I just lost it. I started screaming, calling my husband. He was like, what's wrong? What's wrong?

I said, my daddy and brother's gone. Crews have begun search and recovery operations using cadaver dogs to locate any additional victims. For NPR News, I'm Elise Hue in Los Angeles. The Senate starts confirmation hearings this week for nominees to President-elect Trump's cabinet. Trump's choices to lead the Justice Department, Defense Department, CIA, and the State Department are among the first to appear before Senate committees. And Pierre's Luke Garrett has more.

On Tuesday, Pete Hegseth, Trump's choice for defense secretary, will take questions from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Hegseth, a former Fox News host and combat veteran, has been meeting with senators for weeks as he faces allegations of excessive drinking and sexual misconduct. Despite this, Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas tells Fox News that all of Trump's picks, including Hegseth, will get confirmed. Yes, some of them are outside the box, but I do think we have the votes. On Wednesday, Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, Secretary of State nominee Marco Rubio,

and CIA Director nominee John Radcliffe all face Senate committee hearings. Once the committees advance the nominees, the full Senate will then vote on each candidate who need a simple majority for confirmation. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. President Biden is scheduled to deliver a major foreign policy speech this afternoon at the State Department. He's expected to discuss the work he's done to strengthen U.S. ties with its allies and boost U.S. leadership around the world. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 151 points. This is NPR.

South Korean authorities say they believe about 300 troops from North Korea have been killed in combat in Ukraine. They say South Korea's spy agency estimates another 2,700 have been injured. At least two North Korean troops have been captured by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he's willing to return them to North Korea if North Korea's leader helps set up a prisoner exchange. On the heels of the US Surgeon General's report on alcohol, many experts support revising the current guidelines for alcohol. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports scientists and doctors are reviewing the evidence to better understand the risks of alcohol. If you choose to drink alcohol, the standard advice has long

been to limit consumption to up to one drink a day for women, two for men. But many experts now say this amount of daily drinking may be too high. Dr. Ashish Didwania of Northwestern University is among them. My guidelines would be drinking less than seven drinks a week. Some research points to an increased risk of certain cancers, including breast cancer, with as little as three to six drinks per week. In Canada, the recommendations are that people should consume no more than two drinks per week to avoid alcohol-related harms.

Alison Aubrey, NPR News. The private space company Blue Origin scrubbed its overnight launch of its new rocket, the new Glenn. Mission managers said they're checking a technical issue. The managers kept resetting the launch clock before finally deciding to scrub the attempt. No new launch date has been set.