NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-22-2025 8PM EST

Episode Date: January 23, 2025

NPR News: 01-22-2025 8PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This is Eric Glass. In this American life, sometimes we just show up somewhere, turn on our tape recorders, and see what happens. If you can't get seven cars in 12 days, you gotta look yourself in the mirror and say, holy, what are you kidding me? This car dealership trying to sell its monthly quota of cars and it is not going well. I just don't want one balloon to a car. Balloon the whole freaking place so it looks like I'm circus.

Real life stories every week. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. Some federal judges in Washington are sharply criticizing President Trump's decision to pardon more than 1500 people who were charged in connection with the deadly January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. NPR's Tom Dreisbach has more. The judges at the Washington, D.C. federal courthouse handled all of the January 6th cases. Now, some of those judges have used legal filings to push back against Trump's pardons and defend their handling of these cases. District Judge Tanya Chutkin said, quote, no pardon can change the tragic truth of what happened. Or, she said, whitewash the terror

of that day. Senior Judge Beryl Howell described the rioters as, quote, poor losers for the reaction to the 2020 election. She said allowing them to get away with their crimes raises the specter of future lawlessness. Trump has defended his pardons and commutations for even violent rioters by saying that they were treated unfairly. Tom Dreisbach, NPR News. And the Trump administration is suspending all refugee admissions to the U.S. and that includes Afghans who helped the U.S. during America's longest war. And here's Michelle Kellerman has more. The State Department has told agencies that help resettle refugees that all arrivals have

been suspended and previously planned travel should be canceled. The move leaves thousands of refugees already cleared to move to the US in limbo. The ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Jean Shaheen is urging the Trump administration to reconsider. She's expressed alarm that more than 1,600 Afghans who were cleared to resettle in the U.S. have had their flights canceled. She says the U.S. should not turn its back on them or on others in need, including refugees fleeing violence in Sudan and Burma. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department.

A rare winter storm still has a grip on the Deep South. MPR's Debbie Elliott reports both frigid temperatures and snowfall amounts are setting records. The ice and snow have snarled traffic, closed ports and schools and shut down air travel across the Gulf Coast. New Orleans is deploying Mardi Gras clean-up equipment to plow snow from the French Quarter. Several places in South Louisiana registered more than 10 inches of snow, including 13.4 inches in Grand Coteau and 10 inches in Brow Bridge. Gulf Shores,

Alabama got nearly 9 inches, as did towns in the Florida Panhandle, breaking records that date to the late 1800s. Sub-freezing temperatures are also in the record books. The National Weather Service says it was warmer in Anchorage, Alaska, than it was in Atlanta, New Orleans, and Jacksonville, Florida. Debbie Elliott, NPR News, Orange Beach, Alabama. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has become the latest leader to propose a cell phone ban in the state's schools. She announced the proposal today. NPR's Janaki Mehta has more. Starting next fall, students in the state of New York may have to give up their cell phones while they're at

school. Governor Hochul says the ban is based in part on research that shows the damaging effects of phones and social media on children's mental health. Kids are being besieged with addictive algorithms, toxic social media, and cell phones that just can be so manipulative that it becomes addictive like a drug. The approach is gaining bipartisan traction.

At least 24 states have enacted or proposed restrictions on phones during school hours. The New York State United Teachers Union has endorsed Hokel's proposal, which would require legislative approval before going into effect. Janaki Mehta and PR News. Just as the trial was set to begin, Prince Harry has agreed to a settlement with Rupert Murdoch's UK tabloids that includes a full apology from the Sun for unlawful information gathering and phone hacking. The settlement avoids what could have been a weeks-long trial and ends a years-long battle to hold the newspapers accountable for invasions of privacy. The amount of the settlement wasn't released.

In addition, the company apologized to former Member of Parliament Tom Watson, now a member of the House of Lords, for surveilling him from 2009 to 2011 when he was investigating the Murdochs for Parliament. U.S. futures contracts are trading mixed. Dow futures up a fraction. NASDAQ futures down about two-tenths of a percent. This is NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies, sending This is NPR News.