NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-07-2024 5PM EST

Episode Date: November 7, 2024

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, it's Aisha Harris from Pop Culture Happy Hour. If you love NPR podcasts, you'll want the new NPR Plus podcast bundle. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of NPR Plus podcasts with sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes. Plus, you'll be supporting public radio. Check it out at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Hurst. People charged and convicted for their role in the violent January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol are celebrating President-elect Trump's victory. As NPR's Tom Dreisbach reports, they're counting on Trump to make good on his promise to issue
Starting point is 00:00:40 pardons. The FBI calls the January 6th attack an act of domestic terrorism. 140 police officers were injured, some severely. Trump calls January 6th a day of love and has promised to pardon defendants on day one. John Pierce has worked as a defense attorney in many cases. We're certainly going to seek pardons for all of our defendants regardless of what they were charged with or convicted of. So we're going to start putting together packets of information with respect to each defendant to try to push those through as quickly as we can. Defense attorneys are also asking the courts to pause ongoing cases until after Trump's
Starting point is 00:01:15 inauguration. Trump is expected to halt any further January 6th prosecutions. To date, more than 1,500 people have been charged. Tom Dreisbach, NPR News. Firefighters are working to contain a fast-moving and destructive wildfire in Southern California. In Piers Nathan Rott reports, the fire is zero percent contained and strong winds are making it that much harder. The mountain fire burned more than 14,000 acres in a single day, fueled by dry vegetation and howling Santa Ana winds.
Starting point is 00:01:47 Local officials say they're not ready to say how many homes and structures have burned, but it's believed to be in the dozens, mostly in the town of Camarillo, north of Los Angeles. The National Weather Service says strong winds are in the forecast again today, making containment efforts difficult for firefighters. A red flag warning is in effect for Ventura County, where the fire's burning through this evening. Nathan Rott, NPR News, Ventura, California. The Federal Reserve lowered short-term interest rates this afternoon. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the central bank cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point.
Starting point is 00:02:23 This is the Fed's second interest rate cut in as many meetings, and it should make it somewhat cheaper to borrow money to buy a car, grow a business, or just carry a balance on your credit card. The move comes as inflation has inched closer to the Fed's target of 2 percent. The central bank is also responding to signs of a slowdown in the job market. The Fed wants to keep borrowing costs high enough to curb inflation inflation but not so high as to trigger a jump in unemployment. Interest rates are projected to keep falling in the coming year although perhaps not as fast as previously expected. President-elect Trump's call for sweeping tariffs and
Starting point is 00:02:56 widespread deportations could put upward pressure on prices making inflation a little more stubborn. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Wall Street in mixed territory by the closing bell, the Dow down a fraction at 43,729. The Nasdaq up 285 points, it's up one and a half percent. The S&P 500 gained 44. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The political situation in Georgia continues to cause concern for the country's political partners in Europe. Terry Schultz reports some European Union leaders are warning that Georgia's path to becoming a member of the bloc will remain frozen unless the government makes reforms after disputed elections.
Starting point is 00:03:41 The leaders of France, Germany, and Poland have issued a statement saying they cannot support opening Georgia's EU membership negotiations unless the current government quote reverses its current course of action and demonstrates tangible reform efforts. The European Commission has already said Georgia's progress toward membership is de facto halted after October parliamentary elections which put the anti-Western Georgian Dream Party in power. The process was marked by numerous irregularities and voter intimidation. The government also angered the EU with a law branding Western-backed NGOs and media outlets as foreign agents.
Starting point is 00:04:14 This week, European and EU lawmakers called for sanctions on a top official of the Georgian Dream Party and for a review of EU visa liberalization with Georgia. For NPR News, I'm Terri Schulz in Brussels. Federal health officials are calling for more testing and treatment of workers on farms with bird flu. This comes after a study showed that some dairy workers had signs of infection even when they didn't report feeling sick.
Starting point is 00:04:39 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says blood tests of 115 workers on farms in Michigan and Colorado show that eight workers had antibodies that indicated previous infection. The findings suggest the virus may be spreading more widely. Officials say the risk to the public remains low. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.

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