NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-14-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

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Hi, from MPR News in Washington, I'm Shae Stevens. Additional federal, state and local fire resources are arriving in the Los Angeles area as another round of powerful winds threaten to spread ongoing wildfires. Cal Fire Battalion Chief Christian Litz says crews are scouring the region for hot spots while containing and removing any isolated heat sources. We always plan to keep the fire as small as possible, but we always prepare for something different, especially with the winds coming on. We could have change of the environment for us, so we're preparing to respond to anything

new. We have resources identified that could respond quickly and keep new starts small. The week-old fires have claimed at least 24 lives and destroyed thousands of homes. Kelly McEvers visited a Red Cross shelter that's housing older victims of the Palisades Fire, the largest in the Los Angeles region. Sarah James is 76. She's worried that she's so sleep deprived she's stopped making sense. I close my eyes and think that I'll go to sleep instead of they pop open in 20 minutes

and I'm wide awake. Her cop mate at the shelter, Francoise Myra, who's 64, says she's pretty sure her house is gone. She doesn't even know where to start to rebuild her life. She's having trouble logging into her account. My password book is in ashes at home. I wrote it all down. My password book was in ashes at home. I wrote it all down. My password book was like two inches thick.

Volunteers here say older people who were already struggling with physical and mental health are struggling even more now. For NPR News, I'm Kelly McEvers in Los Angeles. After months of legal wrangling, the Justice Department has released its final report on the special counsel probe of President-elect Donald Trump. It finds that Trump would have been convicted of illegally trying to overturn the 2020 election. The charges were dropped after the November 2024 election, and Smith resigned last week. In response on his social media platform, Choose Social, Trump called special counsel

Jack Smith a deranged person who failed to successfully prosecute a case against his boss's political opponent. US Israeli and Hamas officials are under pressure to finalize a Gaza ceasefire before next week's inauguration. NPR's Kat Lundorf reports. An official with knowledge of the talks not authorized to speak publicly told NPR this week is the most dramatic week of the entire war, as far as ceasefire talks are concerned. Talks about a ceasefire, which would see Israeli hostages released in exchange for Palestinian

detainees, have fallen apart several times before in recent months. That same official told NPR that Trump's team has made it clear to Israel they want a deal or a quote declaration of principles by the time Trump takes office. Both Trump and President Biden have representatives in Doha. In a recent call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden stressed the need for a quote immediate deal. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. This is NPR.

In his final report, special counsel David Weiss slams President Biden for claiming his probe of Hunter Biden was politically motivated. Weiss says that no other president has maligned public servants within the Justice Department. Hunter Biden was convicted of felony gun charges and pleaded guilty to tax evasion before being pardoned by his father. Starbucks says it's making a policy change. As NPR's Giles Snyder reports, the coffee chain is now requiring people to make a purchase if

they want to hang around in its stores. The change is a shift from the open door policy that was put in place seven years ago. In 2018, two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks where they'd gone for a business meeting. The incident was caught on video and led Starbucks to begin allowing people to linger inside stores or use restrooms without buying anything. But the company says it has struggled with disruptive behavior at some stores. In 2022, safety issues led Starbucks to close 16 locations around the country. Starbucks says its new code of conduct will prioritize paying customers as being put in

place as part of an effort to boost a dip in sales. New CEO Brian Nicol has said he wants to return Starbucks to its community coffee house roots. Trial Snyder, NPR News. South Korea is condemning North Korea for firing another short-range missile as Japan's foreign minister was visiting Seoul. South Korea says the missile was fired off the northeast coast and traveled 155 miles. Some observers are calling it an attempt to get President-elect Trump's attention before his inauguration next week. This is NPR News.