NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-14-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. President-elect Trump's Romney-to-be Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing. Hegseth began his opening statement last hour but was soon interrupted by the first of at least three protesters. The protesters have been escorted out of the confirmation hearing. NPR's Tom Bowman reports Hegseth says he plans to restore the warrior ethos to the Pentagon.

Hegseth is a National Guard combat veteran and a former Fox News host. In his opening statement, he takes on his lack of experience for the job, saying his biography is not like other defense secretaries who have come from the top ranks of politics, industry, and the military. Hegseth says it's time to place someone with quote dust on his boots at the helm of the

Defense Department, calling himself a change agent. Hegseth has complained about what he calls a woke military that is based on quotas and not merit, and he has opposed women in ground combat jobs, something that's been allowed for nine years. Hegseth says he will make sure warriors are fully qualified on their weapons and insist that generals and admirals are chosen on merit. Tom Bomen, NPR News. Forecasters have issued their most serious warnings for wind in the Los Angeles area

today. This could make uncontained wildfires worse. The Palisades Fire burning west of L is now 17% contained. The Eaton fire in the Pasadena-Altedena area is more than a third contained. President Biden is urging Congress to quickly approve federal disaster aid. But House Speaker Mike Johnson claims without offering evidence, California officials mishandled the situation. He wants to put limits on the assistance. I think there should probably be conditions on that aid. That's my personal view. We'll see what the consensus is. I haven't had a chance to socialize that with any of the members over the weekend because we've all been very busy, but

it'll be part of the discussion. Democratic lawmakers say any disaster response for any part of the country should not be linked with political conditions. The Justice Department has released its report on Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. As NPR's Kristen Wright reports, it does not include a second part of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation. The separate, unreleased volume of Smith's report focuses on Trump's handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.

Prosecutors charged the former president with keeping the documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort and refusing to return them to the government. Florida District Judge Aileen Cannon ordered the Justice Department to hold off on releasing that part of Smith's report for now. Trump's two former co-defendants in the classified documents case are asking the court to block its release because of their ongoing litigation. After Trump was re-elected in November, the Justice Department dropped the cases against him, citing long-standing department policy prohibiting federal prosecutions of sitting

presidents. Kristin Wright, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is up about 55 points. It's NPR. NPR has learned that negotiators are close to a ceasefire deal for Gaza. A proposed agreement would reportedly see an exchange of Israeli hostages for some Palestinian detainees. It would also include a six-week pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Scientists in Canada are investigating whether bacteria can be programmed to break down plastics. As Michigan Public's Lester Graham reports, pieces and fibers of plastic that end up in wastewater plants can pass through into streams and rivers. Using what's known as bacterial sex, a team at Ontario's University of Waterloo engineered bacteria often found in wastewater plants to try to break down plastics. In one lab experiment, the bacteria degraded 40% of a plastic cup lid in four days. PhD candidate Aaron Yip is one of the researchers. My hope is that this technology can be a platform to get rid

of microplastics in different types of environments, so wastewater treatment plants being one of them and perhaps in the far future in the oceans or lakes. Yip says the next step is to determine what's left behind after bacteria destroy the plastic and whether it or the bacteria pose a risk to the environment. For NPR News, I'm Lester Graham. The launch of Blue Origin's New Glenn space rocket is now set for Thursday at the earliest. The 320-foot rocket tried to blast off from Cape Canaveral in Florida yesterday, but the launch was scrubbed. That's due to ice buildup. The rocket will carry a prototype satellite into space. Billionaire Jeff Bezos is the founder of Blue Origin.

I'm Korva Kuhlman, NPR News in Washington.