NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-13-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Cora Coleman, Los Angeles authorities say at least 24 people have been killed by the firestorm that struck the area last week. It was fueled by destructive winds that gusted up to 100 miles per hour. The two major fires burning on both sides of L.A. are still not contained. Now, the National Weather Service has issued a bulletin called a particularly dangerous situation. Steve Futterman reports that means powerful winds are returning. Officials here in Southern California say they are ready, they are prepared for these new winds.

Many fire crews and engine companies have been pre-positioned in places that are thought to be vulnerable to either new fires or a reigniting of these previous fires. And another important thing to consider, even though these winds the next three days will be strong, there's no doubt they will be strong. They are not expected to be as strong as the winds last Tuesday and Wednesday, which really resulted in most of the damage. Steve Fetterman reporting.

Rental home prices in LA are spiking as the fires force thousands to look for new housing. From member station LAist, David Wagner reports one listing on Zillow shows the rent on one property increased nearly 86 percent since September. The furnished four-bedroom home in Bel Air was listed Saturday morning, days after the fires broke out, for $29,500 per month. That's up from $15,900 in September. The home's rental agent, Fiora Aston with Compass, said she told her client, People are desperate and you can probably get good money and you should move out. She has a second home. So she moved into her second home. The listing was taken down a few hours after the interview.

Journalists for the New York Times and the LA Times are spotting other listings with huge price jumps, and housing policy experts say the fires will likely drive up rents for a long time to come. For NPR News, I'm David Wagner in Los Angeles. 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 U.S. 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 Makhati, 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, NPR News, Beirut. You're listening to NPR. Officials in Japan have issued a tsunami advisory for parts of Japan's southeastern coast. This comes after a strong earthquake rocked the region today.

The U.S. Geological Survey says its magnitude was 6.8. There are no initial reports of damage or injuries. 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 Ma'at and destroyed much of the island's infrastructure. A new study finds that saber teeth, like those of now extinct saber-toothed cats, were highly specialized for biting prey. NPR's Jonathan Lambert explains how this specialization might have led to their demise.

Canine teeth have two main jobs. Be sharp enough to puncture and slice things, but durable enough not to break. Saber teeth are extreme canines, so large and elongated that researchers were puzzled as to how they didn't break. To figure it out, researchers analyzed the strength and biting ability of canines from nearly 100 different species. The study, published in Current Biology, found that saber teeth were extremely optimized for puncturing prey, likely at the expense of durability.

That degree of specialization may have made it harder for saber-toothed predators to adapt to changing environments, the researchers say, potentially leading to their extinction. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. A winter storm has pulled away from the southeastern U.S. coast. Forecasters say it dumped several inches of snow last week on Texas and Oklahoma. Parts of Arkansas got about a foot. At one point, thousands of customers lost power. This is NPR.