NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-13-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman, California authorities say at least 24 people have been killed in the Los Angeles wildfires. Another red flag warning for wind is up for parts of the region. These could gust up to 50 miles per hour. Thousands of structures have been damaged or lost. California Governor Gavin Newsom says his teams are already starting recovery work. He says investigators are checking each damaged structure. And then we're looking right now at debris removal and you're looking at Herculane effort. I'll give you an example.

We were just with the inspectors. They say it's a little different world now today with batteries, not just car batteries, but battery packs, people with solar, those Tesla wall batteries and the like. So the hazmat side of this is made a little bit more complicated, which is fine, we'll work through that. He spoke to CNN. The governor says debris removal could take between six to nine months. The Biden administration is issuing a new rule today to control the export of semiconductor chips used in artificial intelligence.

And as Asmahallid reports, the new rule puts more restrictions on the sale of these chips, and it comes as power in Washington changes. President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn into office next Monday, and his administration could adjust or possibly even scrap this last-minute policy change. But one of the few areas of bipartisan consensus

in Washington these days is competition with China. And the Biden administration sees the fight for how artificial intelligence develops as part of that. Under the new rule, a handful of close U.S. allies will continue to have unrestricted access to advanced computing chips. But a number of other countries will face limits. The administration sees this as an attempt to close China's backdoor access to these

chips. Already, some in the tech industry are pushing back at the idea of more regulation. Asma Khalid, NPR News. The U.S. Senate starts confirmation hearings for President-elect Trump's Cabinet this week. Trump's picks to lead the Justice Department, Defense Department, CIA, and the State Department are among the first nominees to sit before Senate committees. And Pierre's Luke Garrett has more. Luke Garrett 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 Hexeth, 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. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Another tropical storm has swept by the French island territory of Mayotte that's off East Africa. It's only been a month since a powerful cyclone killed scores of people in Mayotte and destroyed much of the island's infrastructure. The tropical storm is now sweeping south of Madagascar. Lebanon has a new president and he is facing several challenges. Lebanon's economy contracted by nearly 6% last year,

inflation topped 200%. But it appears Emily Fang reports from Beirut, first, the president must form a government. It's been more than two years since Lebanon has had a president. But last week, under pressure from the US and Saudi Arabia, Lebanon elected the current commander of the army, Joseph Aoun, as its new leader.

And this week, Aoun begins the task of setting up his government that conforms to Lebanon's special power-sharing agreement between the country's diverse groups. For example, the president is by convention a Maronite Christian and the prime minister a Sunni Muslim. One of the top contenders for prime minister is the current caretaker prime minister Najib Makati, who is friendly with both the U.S. and the Iran-backed fighting group Hezbollah. The other is Nawaf Salam, who heads the International Court of Justice. Emily Fang and Peer News, Beirut. The private space company Blue Origin has scrubbed its overnight launch of its new rocket, the new Glenn. Managers said they're checking a technical issue but did not reveal any other details.

The managers kept resetting the launch clock before deciding to scrub the attempt overnight. No new launch date has yet been set. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.