NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-19-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: January 19, 2025

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The indicator from Planet Money is diving into the world of batteries. Not the kind you buy at the grocery store. We're talking really big batteries, the kind that can power thousands of homes. This technology came seemingly out of nowhere. We're digging deep into the battery industry in three back-to-back episodes. Listen to the indicator from Planet Money podcast on NPR. on NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump returned to Washington, D.C. tonight for a series of events ahead of Monday's inauguration.

As NPR's Franco Ordonez reports, Trump arrived as the city scrambles to adjust to a cold front. Snow is predicted for the D.C. area on Sunday and frigid temperatures on Monday, and that is upended inaugural plans. President-elect Trump will kick off a weekend of celebration at a dinner with the vice president and cabinet picks at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, then watch fireworks with supporters. On Sunday, he'll visit Arlington National Cemetery for a ceremony where he'll lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

He'll later hold a rally at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington. The cold weather forecast prompted Trump to move the inauguration ceremonies from outside in front of the U.S. Capitol to indoors inside the Capitol Rotunda. The scheduled parade down Pennsylvania Avenue is also moving inside to the Capitol One Arena. It'll be the first time the inauguration is being moved indoors since Ronald Reagan's second inauguration in 1985. Franco, Ordonez, NPR News. Eight years after the Women's March in Washington, D.C. that took place before President-elect

Trump's first election, the organizers of that march held another event on Saturday. The People's March was bringing attention to reproductive and LGBTQ rights as well as environmental issues. Meenie Timuraju is the president of Reproductive Freedom for All. She says the next four years will see some horrible extremism. Look at these extremist appointees that Trump's already named. Look at the hearings last week. They're already out there lying on their records. They're already out there threatening our fundamental freedoms. So we have a very clear job to do. When Trump lies, we fight back.

TikTok has shut down its U.S. servers, making the social media app inaccessible to most Americans. As MPR's Bobby Allen reports, the video sharing app says it had no choice but to switch off its servers unless the Biden administration assures the company it won't enforce a law that bans the app in the U.S. The Supreme Court upheld the law. That means if the app stays up and running, companies that work with TikTok could start to face steep financial penalties.

Many on the app are grieving with tongue-in-cheek videos. Others like TikTok user Charlotte Parler, are criticizing the government. What do you mean that you're about to ban an app headquarters in Los Angeles? What do you mean you're gonna ban TikTok but you're not gonna force Meta to stop selling our data to foreign entities? TikTok is based in the Los Angeles area, but the company's corporate owner, ByteDance, is in Beijing, and officials in Washington fear the Chinese government could covertly manipulate the act. Biden officials say enforcement of the law will be up to the incoming Trump administration. Bobby Allen, NPR News. President-elect Donald Trump, meanwhile, says he'll most likely give TikTok 90 days to work

out a sale to avoid a U.S. ban. You're listening to NPR News. Three people were killed and at least a dozen others injured in Ukraine's capital of Kiev on Saturday after an early morning missile attack by Russian forces. NPR's Joanna Kokissis reports that she heard the loud buzzing of drones over the city, which were quickly followed by the sound of Ukraine's air defenses responding. It was the second deadly strike on Kiev this month. Along with the drones, Russia launched four high-speed Iskander ballistic missiles at

the capital. Two hit Kiev before authorities could sound the air raid siren. One missile pounded a huge crater into a central district, setting ablaze cars and buildings, including the local McDonald's, a popular hangout. The attacks also damaged a water main, causing flooding. Meanwhile, in the southern city of Zaporozhia, another Russian strike injured 10 people. A previous strike this month on the city killed 13. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, CAVE.

Kenya has deployed another 217 police officers to Haiti. They're part of a Kenya-led multinational force aimed at curbing gang violence in that Caribbean nation. The violence has left more than 700,000 Kenyans homeless in recent years after gunmen destroyed their homes, and more than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, according to UN figures. Former French resistance activist and author Genevieve Calderot has died. She was 108 years old. She was among the last survivors of the groups that fought the World War II occupation of France by German troops. France's president offered condolences to all of those who were illuminated by her presence.

Calderot is reported to have died on Thursday in southwestern France. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. Consider this is a daily news podcast and lately the news is about a big question. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.