NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-13-2024 9PM EST

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Tens of thousands of Syrians gathered in the country's capital today for the first Friday prayers since rebel insurgents drove out the authoritarian president. Iberia Zadeel Al-Shalchi reports the mood was joyful at the mosque, considered to be the most famous shrine in Damascus. Standing in the middle of the courtyard of Al-Umayyad mosque in Damascus it's not only a day for Friday prayers it's also a day of celebration. Thousands of Syrian men and women have gathered here today some of them say for security reasons they could never even enter it before the fall of President

Bashar al-Assad and this is their first time. The Imam calls on people to celebrate and to leave the mosque in a calm and orderly fashion. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi reporting from Damascus. A federal appeals court is rejecting TikTok's request to pause the start of a law next month that could ban the widely popular app from operating in the US. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports,

TikTok is vowing to take its fight to the Supreme Court. Earlier this month, a panel of federal judges in Washington, D.C. sided with the Biden administration that a law banning TikTok nationwide is legal because it protects U.S. national security interests. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a tech company in Beijing. The law banning TikTok starts January 19th unless ByteDance fully divests from the app, which the company says is not going to happen. Now, the same court has denied TikTok's request for the start date to be delayed. The one wild card in TikTok's future is President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to rescue TikTok, but has not explained how.

According to the company, TikTok is used by some 170 million Americans, half the U.S. population. Bobby Allen, NPR News. People who have been in foster care tend to graduate from college at a much lower rate than the general student population. One program for community college students in Virginia aims to change that. Megan Pauli from Member Station BPM reports. The Mostly Privately Funded Great Expectations program started over 15 years ago and provides financial and emotional supports to current and former foster youth like Alexandria Davis.

It feels like they saved my life in a way. Through the program, she received emergency funding to deal with a difficult housing situation, as well as a monthly stipend for other needs. Without the help, Davis says, I think I would have dropped out of school because I would go back into that same cycle of realizing, hey, I can't afford this. The program is in every community college across the state, and nearly 10 percent of those in the program have graduated with a two-year degree, which is more than double

the graduation rate some studies in other states have found. For NPR News, I'm Megan Pauley in Richmond, Virginia. This week the government released inflation numbers ahead of next week's Federal Reserve meeting. On Tuesday, the Commerce Department releases its monthly snapshot of sales at the retail level. Later in the week the National Association of Realtors will put out its latest update on home sales. On Wall Street the Dow was down 86 points. You're listening to NPR. Sell by, use by, best buy. Those are common phrases on food packaging, but many consumers

are confused about what they actually mean. USDA and FDA are working to change that, as we hear from NPR's Maria Godoy. For the most part, food date labels are supposed to indicate when food is freshest, not when it's gone bad. But that's what many consumers think they mean, and that leads to a lot of food waste. The average American family spends at least and that leads to a lot of food waste. The average American family spends at least $1,500 a year on food that gets tossed out and it often ends up in landfills where it emits methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The USDA and FDA are asking the public and the food industry to weigh in on food date

labels as part of a national strategy to reduce food waste. The agencies have previously asked food companies to voluntarily standardize the use of date labels. While many companies have complied, there's still lots of different labels and lots of confusion about what they mean. Maria Godoy, NPR News. Under legislation introduced this week that is nearing a final vote, millions of people that have their full Social Security benefits restored. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer began the process of looking to push through what's been dubbed the Social Security Fairness Act, affecting about 2.8 million

people. Legislation would eliminate a provision that reduces Social Security payments to some retirees who also collect a pension from jobs that aren't covered by the retirement program. That includes state and federal workers, including teachers, police officers, and U.S. postal workers. Crude futures prices rallied at week's end, oil up $1.27 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.