NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-13-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

NPR News: 01-13-2025 1AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Firefighters in Los Angeles County continue their work to contain several fires still burning there. They hope to make progress before high winds return this week. Some 150,000 people remain under evacuation orders at this hour. Many of the evacuated areas are now under curfew, but Captain Mike Lawrence of the Los Angeles Police says people are still trying to slip through. From what the reports that I'm getting is that we're detaining people hourly. So every hour we're detaining at least one or two people that are inside the area that should not be there or we're trying to vet them out whether they are private security and they got approval from LAPD and also this area still remains unsafe. Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office meanwhile says it's investigating at least 16 deaths from two massive wildfires. Among those are two members of a family in Altadena. Elise Hugh has more. Both family members

who died in the Eaton fire faced disabilities and were wheelchair-bound. 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. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to pardon January 6 protesters on his first day in office, but Trump's running mate JD Vance says otherwise, and Piers Luke Garrett reports.

Vice President-elect Vance tells Fox News not all January 6 protesters should be pardoned. If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned and there's a little bit of a gray area there. Federal prosecutors charged more than 1,500 people with crimes in connection with the January 6 attack, but Vance says nonviolent protesters should be pardoned. There are a lot of people we think in the wake of January the 6th who were prosecuted unfairly. We need to rectify that. Around 140 police officers were injured during the violent January 6th riot on the U.S. Capitol. Rioters tried to stop the certification of the 2020 election, which President Biden won. Trump still denies he lost in 2020 as he heads into the White House for a second term.

Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. They discussed the ongoing ceasefire talks underway in Qatar this weekend. Earlier this week, Netanyahu sent the head of the intelligence agency, Mossad, to Doha to be a part of those talks. One Israeli official says that both sides are very close to agreements. The launch window opened just minutes ago for Blue Origin's new Glenn rocket. The giant 30-plus story tall rocket is the result of a multi-million dollar effort to compete with SpaceX, which holds a major share of the market for Earth orbit launches.

You're listening to NPR News. The French territory of Mayotte is on red alert once again as a cyclone heads toward the islands off the east coast of Africa. Just one month ago, the same area was devastated by the worst storm to hit in almost a century. The storm had made landfall in northern Madagascar on Saturday and is moving west. Less than half of eligible seniors are enrolled in public benefit programs like SNAP. That's according to a new map from the National Council on Aging. Montana Public Radio's Aaron Bolton reports the council hopes this data will help boost enrollments.

The council looked at senior enrollment in every U.S. county for food and income assistance and a program that helps low-income seniors pay for Medicare costs. Jennifer Teague with the National Council on Aging says enrollment varies widely even within states. Her goal is to find out why. What is causing really high enrollment numbers in one county versus the county next door? Teague says her team will share what counties with high enrollment are doing to help health officials across the country boost enrollment. She hopes that'll make a difference in states like Montana, where every county is well below the national average. For NPR News, I'm Aaron Bolton in Columbia Falls, Montana.

It was a quiet weekend at the nation's movie theaters. The film Den of Thieves 2, Pantera, debuted in the top spot with $15.5 million in sales across North America. Sales were also hurt by the closing of about 10 theaters in Los Angeles because of the wildfires there. The Robbie Williams biopic, meanwhile, was a flop with just $1.1 million in sales. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.