NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-22-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

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Americans are living longer than ever before. On the Sunday story from Up First, we look at a growing number of people using these extra years to find new meaning. You get to the point where you start asking, what did you do in your life that was significant? A look at the transformative power of human passion and finding your purpose in the third act of life. Listen now on the Up First podcast from NPR. the third act of life. Listen now on the Up First Podcast from NPR. Lyle from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Department of Justice is directing federal prosecutors across the United States to investigate state or local level obstruction of the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, according to a new internal memo cited by multiple news outlets. One of the cities the Trump White House is targeting

for potential mass deportation rates is Chicago. As Mawa Iqbal of member station WBEZ tells us, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker vowed to protect people residing in his state without legal status. Pritzker says he still has not heard any concrete plans from President Trump. He reiterated at a press conference that people with criminal convictions who don't have legal status should be deported.

However, he says the threat of deportation is looming over Chicago's immigrant neighborhoods, some of which he visited Monday. I was in businesses yesterday that were relatively empty because people are afraid to show up. Because even documented immigrants, even citizens who are from another country but now are citizens of the United States have relatives who are undocumented. They're afraid. The Chicago City Council last week blocked an ordinance that would allow Chicago police to work with federal immigration authorities.

For NPR News, I'm Mawa Iqbal in Springfield, Illinois. The administration's ordering all federal employees in diversity, equity, and inclusion roles be placed on paid leave by 5 p.m. tonight Eastern. Representative James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, spoke to CNN about it. President Trump and I, and I think at least 50 percent of Americans, feel that this is a duplicative service within the federal government, an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. The move calls for agencies to develop a reduction in force action against the employees following

President Trump's executive orders ending DEI programs in federal government. Israel has launched a new operation in the occupied West Bank with arrests and deaths reported among Palestinians. But about 50 miles away in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas is holding for the fourth day. Here's NPR's Aya Batraoui. From the southern city of Rafah to the edges of northern Jabalia, the Gaza Strip lies in ruins, the result of more than a year of war and sustained Israeli

airstrikes. Palestinians are able to see now what's left of their homes in areas Israeli forces have withdrawn from. But there's little reprieve here. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, turning cities into gray mounds of rubble as far as the eye can see. Gaza's health ministry says more than 47,000 people were killed by Israeli fire in the war.

Local health officials say they've recovered around 150 bodies from the rubble and decay of different parts of Gaza since the ceasefire began Sunday, and they estimate more than 10,000 bodies remain missing under the rubble. Eyal Batraoui, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. Red flag warnings for critical fire danger remain in effect in Southern California through tomorrow. The region's projected to get some badly needed rain this weekend as emergency crews still

try to gain full containment of wildfires that cause widespread destruction over the last couple of weeks, but rain poses new threats, landslides, and toxic ash runoff. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has ordered crews to begin preparations to help shore up hillsides and install barriers to better protect fire ravaged communities from runoff. Federal law ensuring homeless students have equal access to education is falling short in rural parts of the Midwest. Kayvon Mansuri has details. A Midwest newsroom investigation found that rural public school districts struggle to

identify homeless students who qualify for school services under the McKinney-Vento Act. Part of the reason is a lack of funding and capacity to recognize housing instability. That can mean students staying at a hotel or on a friend's couch. Tara Bach is Missouri's homeless education coordinator. Our urban school districts might have a team of people working on McKinney-Vento. Those rural school districts probably just have one designated person and it's probably also the superintendent or the principal or someone else holding other roles. Last year, the federal government allocated 1299 million of McKinney-Vento funding for

homeless students in the U.S. For NPR News, I'm Kevon Mansory in St. Louis. U.S. stocks are trading higher this hour with the Nasdaq now up more than 300 points or 1.5%. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.