NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-24-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

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What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025? We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year. Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Donald Trump's un-battled nominee for defense secretary has been approved by the Senate, with Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a 50-50 tie. Pete Hegseth was dodged by doubts about his qualifications, as well as allegations of sexual assault, public drunkenness, and financial mismanagement of two veterans' nonprofits.

More from MPR's Tom Bowman. Those who have led the Department of Defense since 1947 have come from the highest ranks of politics, industry, or the military. Pete Hexeth is an Army National Guard combat veteran and former Fox News host, but he calls himself someone with dust on his boots who will be a change agent at the Pentagon, a place he claims has focused on woke politics and diversity at the expense of war fighting. Of late, Hexoth has changed his long-held stance against women in ground combat saying women can serve in those roles as long as they meet the standards but he says the fitness requirements are lower for women and has vowed a review.

Tom Bowman, NPR News. President Donald Trump traveled to North Carolina and California today. North Carolina Trump talking to residents who suffered losses due to flooding the remnants of Hurricane Helene and in California Trump promised to work with Governor Gavin Newsom to respond to the LA wildfires. After a tour Trump said the damage was far worse close up. I don't think you can realize how how rough it is how devastating it is until you see it. I didn't realize, I mean, I saw a lot of bad things on television, but the extent of it, the size of it, we flew over it in a helicopter,

we flew to a few of the areas and it is devastation. Speaking later with first responders and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, Trump proposed waiving federal permits to allow people to rebuild more quickly. Trump has criticized California's response to the wildfires and earlier today talked about eliminating FEMA letting states handle response. The Trump administration is calling for an extension to a ceasefire in Lebanon to give Israel more time to pull out. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports.

Israeli troops were due to leave southern Lebanon by this weekend, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says this will depend on the Lebanese Armed Forces taking over parts of southern Lebanon and pushing Hezbollah further north. President Trump's national security spokesman Brian Hughes says the goal is to ensure that Hezbollah does not have the ability to threaten the Lebanese people or their neighbors in Israel. To achieve that, he says, quote, a short temporary ceasefire extension is urgently needed. His written statement adds that President Trump is committed to ensuring that Israeli citizens can safely return to their homes in the north while also supporting Lebanon's

new government. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, the State Department. A mostly quiet trading day on Wall Street with stocks coming off a bit from their record highs the Dow is down 140 points. This is NPR. Four more hostages will be released by the militant group Hamas over the weekend. Hamas confirming the hostages set to be released tomorrow are female soldiers. Under a ceasefire deal as paused the 15-month long war in Gaza, Israel would release 200

Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the four, including 120 militants serving life sentences after being convicted of carrying out deadly attacks. The four Israelis have been held since the start of the war in Gaza in October of 2023. The Minnesota Supreme Court today tossed the question of who controls the Minnesota House back to the state's legislative branch. Democrats have been boycotting the opening weeks of a session over a power fight. Remember, station Minnesota Public Radio Clay Masters reports. The order is a partial win for Democrats because justices on Minnesota's high court agreed

with the Democratic secretary of state and the party's leaders in the House over what constitutes a quorum. That's 68 members out of the chamber's 134 seats, just over 50% of the entire chamber. Justices declined to go further and order a specific resolution to the impasse that's kept the Minnesota House in limbo for the last two weeks. In November, voters elected a split House of Representatives with 67 Democrats and 67 Republicans. But a judge ordered one Democrat could not take his seat because he did not properly live in the district he planned to represent.

Republicans have been holding floor sessions and committees without Democrats present. For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters in St. Paul. Critical futures prices move slightly higher today. Oil up 4 cents a barrel to $0.7466 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Wyse, the app for doing things in other currencies.

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