NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-21-2025 11PM EST

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

NPR News: 01-21-2025 11PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

OK, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts. You wish you could get more of all your favorite shows and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. Two major police organizations say they're discouraged by recent pardons by Presidents Biden and Trump. NPR's law enforcement correspondent, Martin Castee, reports. In an unusual joint statement, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal

Order of Police say they're not happy with recent clemency actions for people convicted of harming law enforcement officers. The most dramatic case of this was President Trump's pardon of nearly all the people arrested or convicted of crimes during the assault on the Capitol four years ago. Michael Fanon was a DC cop caught up in that, and he's angry. You know, at the end of the day, the whole idea of backing the blue and the intern is all just crap. The joint statement also cites clemency actions by President Biden, which include the commutation of the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist convicted of killing two FBI agents 50 years ago.

Martin Costi, NPR News. A number of states are suing the Trump administration over an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship in the US. 18 states and two cities filed one lawsuit today in Massachusetts. Scott Greenstone at member station KUOW has more on the other states that

have filed in Washington state. Washington state will be joined by Oregon, Illinois and Arizona in the lawsuit. Washington attorney general Nick Brown said he's also filing an emergency order to block any federal agency from denying citizenship to babies born in Washington state. The president's executive order claiming to end birthright citizenship in the United States is plainly and obviously illegal. Washington State will not abide by such harmful and unjust action.

Republicans in Washington State have claimed this lawsuit is a distraction or a, quote, craven political move. For NPR News, I'm Scott Greenstone in Seattle. It's snowing in the deep south, including Macon, Georgia, which has not seen snow in seven years. Grant Blankenship of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports. Snow's just beginning to fall when homeless outreach workers from the United Way of Central Georgia stop in one of the large encampments on their list.

Anybody home? Hey there. Stanley's alone in a cluster of tents when Pam Pinkston tells him about where he can go get warm. They've extended shelter hours in the actual shelter. Jake Hall leads this work. He says the weeks-long forecast worked to his advantage. Past two weeks we've been sending bus passes out into the system. Hall's glad there's some slack still in the shelter system here, but he's worried too about the people still unsheltered in the cold to come. For NPR News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Macon, Georgia.

On Wall Street, all three major stock indexes posted gains that dial up 537 points. The NASDAQ added 126, the S&P 52. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News. Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper arm has offered Prince Harry and a veteran lawmaker sizable settlements to resolve a lawsuit involving a long-running phone hacking scandal. As NPR's David Folkenflick reports,

the trial would have cast a harsh light on top Murdoch executives, including one who's now publishing The Washington Post. The case involves allegations that for years, the Murdoch tabloids hacked into voicemail messages and otherwise illegally got access to confidential information. Washington Post publisher Will Lewis was a top Murdoch executive 14 years ago when the scandal was at its peak.

Harry and politician Tom Watson say Lewis helped to orchestrate the destruction of millions of emails and lied to police. News UK and Lewis deny that and Lewis is not a defendant in the case. Harry had said he would not settle because he wants to make sure the Murdoch papers are publicly held to account. Yet he'd be on the hook for Murdoch's huge legal fees if he does not win a judgment greater than the settlement Murdoch offered. David Folkenflick, NPR News, London. than the settlement Murdoch offered. David Fulkenflick, NPR News, London. The Baseball Hall of Fame will welcome three new members this summer.

Japanese superstar Ichio Suzuki, who played most of his career with the Seattle Mirators, missed being a unanimous inductee by just one vote. Pitcher Cece Sabathia, who was a star for the Yankees, and hard-throwing Houston Astros pitcher Billy Wagner, who's one of the game's great relief pitchers, will be inducted. They'll join 1970s legends Dick Allen and Dave Parker, who were inducted earlier by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee in December.

Suzuki will be the first Japanese-born player ever to be inducted in Cooperstown. From NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025? down. From NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan.