NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-16-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

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This message comes from NPR sponsor Paramount Pictures' new film, September 5. Based on the true story of reporters covering the Munich Olympics, when the unthinkable happens, four outsiders will report from the inside, now playing in select theaters everywhere January 17. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Officials in Gaza say at least 83 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since mediators announced an agreement yesterday to end more than 15 months of war there. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports an Israeli security cabinet vote that would allow for a ceasefire to begin has been pushed to tomorrow. Israel says Hamas demanded last-minute changes to the deal after mediators announced it was

done. Hamas denies that. Meanwhile, the Israeli military says it struck approximately 50 targets across Gaza in the past day, killing at least one Hamas member responsible for the 2023 attack on southern Israel. Civilians were also killed, including 23 children, according to Civil Defense. MPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, says many there are anxious that the fighting will get worse before it gets better. Kat Lonsdorf, MPR News, Tel Aviv.

Firefighters are still trying to get the upper hand on the two largest fires in southern California. The Cal Fire website says a Palisades fire is 22% contained and containment on the Eaton fire is up to 55%. In a new analysis, University of California researchers say the deadly LA fires have been made more catastrophic due to climate change. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports at least two dozen people have died. Thousands of homes and businesses have been destroyed in the last week. UCLA climate scientists are linking climate change to the extreme dryness in the Chaparral Hills in and around Los Angeles. Their research shows that when the brush fires ignited last week, vegetation was 25% drier

than it would have been without factoring in climate change. Scientists say these fires would have still been dangerous, but maybe not quite as big, or have seen the intensity or rapid growth. This marks a change in communication lately in the scientific community, which had shied away from tying any one disaster to climate change.

But scientists now are pinning specific events like heat waves, hurricanes, and fires directly to rising global temperatures as a result of human activity. Kirk Ziegler, NPR News. Death rates from cancer have fallen dramatically but NPR's Yukinoguchi reports an American Cancer Society report also points to disturbing trends in the rising incidence of the disease in younger people. There have been dramatic changes in the treatment and diagnosis of many kinds of cancer that

have pushed the mortality rate down by over a third since 1991. But those gains are threatened by alarming increases in cancers among young people. For reasons not well understood, cancer rates among women under 50 are now 82% higher than their male counterparts. Huge racial disparities also persist. Black and Native Americans are far more likely to die of certain cancers than their white counterparts. Some, such as cervical cancer, are preventable if monitored regularly.

Yukinoguchi, NPR News. It's NPR. The government is suing Southwest Airlines over chronic flight delays, and it is seeking more than $2 million in civil penalties. A flight is considered chronically delayed if it operates at least 10 times a month and in more than half of those cases runs at least 30 minutes late. Frontier Airlines and JetBlue Airways have also been heavily fined for chronic delays. Vehicle safety advocates are concerned that the automaker Tesla could face less scrutiny under the Trump administration.

President-elect Trump takes office Monday. Tesla CEO Elon Musk helped Trump return to the White House. Here's NPR's Joel Rose. Federal regulators have opened several investigations into Tesla's full self-driving mode and other advanced driver assistance systems. Now, safety advocates fear those investigations may be in jeopardy under the Trump administration, along with a requirement that Tesla and other automakers must report all crashes involving those systems to regulators. Tesla officials don't like the crash reporting requirement. They argue it's unfair, even misleading, saying it makes the company's safety records seem

worse than it is. Tesla tells drivers that they must always pay attention to the road, even when automated systems are engaged. But safety advocates say some drivers are still overestimating what that technology can do. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. US stocks are trading lower this hour. The Dow is down more than 100 points at 43,115. The Nasdaq has fallen 117 points and the S&P 500 membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org.

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