NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-27-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

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Technologist, Paul Garcia is using AI to create photos of people's most precious memories. How her mother was dressed, the haircut that she remembered. We generated tens of images and then she saw two images that was like, that was it. Ideas about the future of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. of memory. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. As the Gaza ceasefire continues to hold, Qatar says a deal has been reached for the release of an Israeli civilian hostage in return for Palestinians returning to North Gaza. Arbel Yehud will be released along with two other hostages before Friday. President Trump, meanwhile, was talking about Gaza on Air Force One yesterday and said, quote, You're talking about

probably a million and a half people and we just clean out that whole thing. He also suggested that Jordan or Egypt should take in Palestinians from Gaza. And Paris Kat Lonsdorf reports on reactions to those comments. This is not U. S policy right now. He said this in the context of talking about how destroyed Gaza is and that Palestinians should be removed in order to rebuild it. And in answer to a question he said that it could be a permanent move. Much of the Israeli government has been pretty quiet about this idea this morning. Hamas, on the other hand, strongly rejected it saying that the whole reason Palestinians endured this war was to stay on their land.

That's NPR's Kat Lonsdorf. Some Republican lawmakers are defending President Trump's decision to fire a number of independent inspectors general on Friday night. They oversee government agencies. As NPR's Alaina Moore reports, it comes even as Trump may have sidestepped oversight law by failing to notify Congress 30 days in advance. GOP allies like South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham acknowledged Trump should have notified Congress before firing the Inspector General. Still, he told CNN's State of the Union that he backs the president's move.

The question is, is it okay for him to put people in place that he thinks can carry out his agenda? Yeah. He won the election. What do you expect him to do? Just leave everybody in place in Washington before he got elected? This makes perfect sense to me. It comes a day after Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, demanded

more information from Trump on the firings, saying in a statement, quote, there may be good reason the IGs were fired. We need to know that if so. Alaina Moore, NPR News, Washington. Rain was falling on Southern California on Sunday and it's offering good and potentially bad news to those who are fighting the region's deadly wildfires. Fire Battalion Chief Brent Pasqua says the rain will help to control the fires but if there's too much rain it could also lead to mud

slides. This rate right now is really good it's it's gonna soak the ground for us it's gonna you know any hidden hot spots that we're still out there tackling, it's going to help with that. It's when the rate goes up and we start getting it really quickly that you're going to see that mud flows, and that's what we don't want. Flood watches are in effect for several burn areas until 4 p.m. on Monday. The movie Flight Risk, starring Mark Wahlberg, took the number one slot this weekend in North American movie theaters. The flick, which was directed by Mel Gibson, brought in a modest $12 million. Both critics and moviegoers have rated the movie as a bomb. The Disney film Mufasa that

was in second, bringing in $8.7 million in its second week of release. This is NPR News. The UN has designated today as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. It comes as there is an increase in anti-Semitism around the world. Law professor Getschen Kestenbaum says there are a number of things that can be done to honor those who were killed. Think about how others are being treated, are facing identity-based discrimination and violence and ways that you as an individual can act to combat those forms of discrimination and violence. In the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, government forces and their allies

defending the city of Goma appear to have collapsed and M23 rebels, backed by Rwanda, are all ready to take control. Emmett Livingstone reports. First, there was the sound of distant artillery strikes, then later heavy gunfire inside the city. Congolese forces defending the city of Goma in eastern Congo appear to have crumbled after days of intense combat. The M23 told Congolese soldiers they must hand over their arms to the UN peacekeeping force

and present themselves at the city stadium at 3am local time. Congolese officials haven't yet responded. Hundreds of European private military contractors working for Congo's army have cut a deal with the rebels, according to security sources, and are waiting to evacuate. Sporadic gunfire can still be heard in the city, but the provincial leadership has fled. Goma residents are expecting to wake up to new masters in the morning, while the wider region holds its breath for what's next. For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone in Goma.

I'm Dale Willman, and you're listening to NPR News. You're listening to NPR News.