NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-24-2025 6PM EST

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Hamas has named four female Israeli soldiers it plans to release tomorrow in the latest round of exchanges that are part of a Gaza ceasefire deal. Israel's expected release close to 200 Palestinians, including some convicted of killings and serving life sentences. More from NPR's Greg Murray. Hamas released a statement with the names of the four soldiers, all women, aged 19 or 20. Hamas seized them in the October 2023 attack on southern Israel that ignited the war. The Israeli media reported the government was expecting a civilian

woman to be on the list. But according to those reports, Israel agreed to accept the four soldiers rather than risk delaying the exchange. Hamas still has more than 90 Israeli hostages, and Israel is holding thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The first exchange was last Sunday. Several more are planned in the coming weeks. Greg Myhre, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Speaking in an area of North Carolina ravaged by flooding, President Donald Trump today

said he is considering doing away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Trump maintaining states could do a better job of responding to disasters. Trump made his comments in Asheville, North Carolina, which was hard hit by remnants of Hurricane Aline last year. Trump is currently in California, where he's visiting areas ravaged by devastating wildfires. A federal judge is barring the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group from entering Washington D.C. Stuart Rhodes is also prohibited from entering the U.S. Capitol without the court's approval. Here's NPR's Ryan Lucas.

Oath Keepers founder and leader Stuart Rhodes was convicted by a federal jury of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Stuart Rhodes was convicted by a federal jury of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 by a mob of Trump supporters. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Rhodes to 18 years in prison and called him an ongoing threat to the country. On Monday, after taking office again, President Trump commuted Rhodes sentence to time served. And since his release from prison, Rhodes was spotted at the U.S. Capitol. Now, Judge Mehta has issued an order prohibiting Rhodes and seven other oath keepers convicted in connection with the Capitol riot from entering Washington, D.C. or the U.S. Capitol building or grounds without first obtaining the court's permission.

Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. The Trump White House says it's ending federal security protections for Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert, became the face of the effort to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He was also at times critical of the Trump administration and of those in the anti-vax movement and has received death threats. Speaking to reporters today, Trump said he would not feel any responsibility if harm befell former government officials, who he says should not be provided with federal security details. Stocks lost ground at week's end on Wall Street. The Dow was down 140 points.

The Nasdaq fell 99 points today. You're listening to NPR. The first anniversary of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's death is coming next month. MPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports Navalny's head lawyer now lives in Paris, where she spoke to a small group of mostly Russian expats. Olga Mikhailova was Navalny's lawyer for 16 years. She told the group the Kremlin continues to seek revenge by punishing Navalny's lawyers. Last week, three of his lawyers were given multi-year sentences for associating with Navalny,

whom the Russian government has called an extremist. Mikhailova escaped that fate because she was outside of Russia on vacation when the arrests were made in October 2023. She has since been granted asylum in France. Mikhailova says her biggest regret is being unable to convince Navalny not to return to Russia from Germany where he'd been recovering from a poisoning. He was arrested at the Moscow airport upon landing in January, 2021 and died in prison two years later.

Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. Last year will go down as an especially destructive one in terms of hurricanes and other natural disasters the world over. Damage from hurricanes Helene and Milton helped push total economic losses from natural disasters in the U.S. nearly 218 billion dollars. That's an 85.3 percent increase from 2023. And the LA fires will likely push this year's disaster toll even higher. The number is compiled by insurance broker Aon PLC. Worldwide economic losses from disasters last year expected to top $368 billion. Oil was up 4 cents a barrel in New York.

I'm Jack Spear, NPR News.