NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2024 5AM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder. In Tel Aviv this weekend, thousands were back on the streets calling on the Israeli government to negotiate the release of hostages still held by Hamas, more than a year after the October 7th attack in which more than 1,200 civilians were killed.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken says negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza are intense. He made his comments in Jordan at the end of a Middle East trip that focused mostly on the situation in Syria, as MPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. Blinken huddled with Arab leaders in Jordan to agree on some basic principles for a new Syrian government after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Our message to the Syrian people is this, we want them to succeed and we're prepared to help them do so. Speaking about the war in Gaza, Blinken says U.S. officials are trying to get a ceasefire

and hostage deal over the finish line. This is the moment to finally conclude that agreement. He says Israel has achieved its core military objectives, degrading Hamas so that it can't repeat the kind of attack it led on Israel on October 7th of last year. Hamas still holds 100 hostages, seven of whom are Americans. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Secretary Blinken also said U.S. officials are in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that led the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.

Blinken is the first U.S. official to publicly acknowledge the contacts. U.S. and other countries have designated the group known as HTS as a foreign terrorist organization. Some San Francisco residents woke up Saturday morning to a notification from the National Weather Service warning of a possible tornado during a windy and rainy storm in the Bay Area. Lakshmi Sara, Member Station KQED, reports. The warning is now over, but the National Weather Service says it's the first time non-coastal parts of San Francisco have ever been under a tornado warning. Radar showed a thunderstorm capable of producing a

tornado with winds of 45 miles per hour. Dalton Berenger is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Most of the issues that we're going to deal with with tornadoes are going to be landfalling water spouts. So in this case, it kind of looked like that was the case with the storm. That's why we issued the tornado warning. Beringer said San Francisco airport measured an 83 mile per hour wind gust early Saturday morning. For NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Sinha. Weather service says a tornado struck San Francisco 20 years ago, but no advance warning was given, likely because there was no clear signature on radar. Storms across the U.S. this weekend brought a major ice storm to Iowa and eastern Nebraska,

leading to treacherous driving conditions. More than 33 inches of snow reported near Orchard Park, New York. This is NPR News. People in the French Indian Ocean Territory of Maillot say conditions there are apocalyptic. After Cyclone Cheadle tore through the islands, at least two deaths have been reported, but with whole neighborhoods apparently flattened, a higher number of casualties is feared, the BBC's Will Leonardo reports. Cheadle slammed into Maillot on Saturday, the worst storm to hit the islands for almost

a century. Videos have shown whole neighborhoods of shacks, common housing for Mayotte's 300,000 residents, torn down by extreme winds with people picking through the rubble. 8,000 kilometers away in Paris, France's new Prime Minister François Bayreau held an emergency response meeting. His interior minister spoke of an emerging tragedy on Mayotte. He said it would take days to establish how many people had been killed. Thankfully, the airport is still said to be able to receive military planes, but communication is patchy and people have been struggling to contact

relatives. The BBC's Will Leonardo reporting. In New York last night, Colorado's Travis Hunter was presented with college football's highest honor, the Heisman Trophy. First I want to say thank God man. I never thought I would be in this position. It's crazy. Your belief take you a long way. It's actually crazy man. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hunter excelled this season on both offense and defense playing as both a receiver and at cornerback. He received 552 first-place votes and joins the late running back

Roshan Salam in 1994 as the only Colorado players to win the Heisman. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.