NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-16-2024 10AM EST

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

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Hey, it's Peter Sagal, the host of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Now, if you like Wait, Wait, and you're looking for another podcast where the hosts take self-deprecating jabs at themselves and invite important guests on who have no business being there, then you should check out NPR's How to Do Everything. It's hosted by two of the minds behind Wait, Wait, who literally sometimes put words in my mouth. Find the How to Do Everything podcast wherever you are currently listening to me go on about it. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has released his first statement since the fall of his regime a week ago. That's when rebel forces stormed the Syrian capital, Damascus. And Perz Hadeel al-Shalchi has more. In a statement posted on the Syrian presidency's Telegram account, President Bashar al-Assad said his departure from Damascus was quote, neither planned nor did it occur in the final hours

of the battle. Assad said that as the rebel forces entered the capital on December 8th, he moved to a military air base in the port city of Latakia in coordination with Russian allies. Assad goes on to say that upon arrival at the base, it was clear that his army had withdrawn from all battle lines and all their positions had fallen. He said Moscow then arranged an immediate evacuation that evening as the base came under drone attacks. The statement was dated December 16th from Moscow. Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Damascus. ABC News and its parent company Disney will pay 15 million dollars to settle a lawsuit with President-elect

Trump. Earlier this year, ABC host George Stephanopoulos incorrectly asserted in an interview Trump and Bound found liable for rape. Last year, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape. The judge in the case said that what happened fit the commonly understood definition of rape but not the narrow one under New York law. And Pierce David Folkenflink says some would have expected Stephanopoulos and ABC to clarify the remarks at trial, but instead they settled.

Well, it remains a mystery why they didn't clarify, but why did they settle? They say they're happy to be past it. We don't know exactly, but this is a major amount of money, particularly for a public figure. It also comes at a time as a number of news organizations and a number of owners and leaders of news organizations appear trying to make peace with Trump. You think of the killed endorsements of Vice President Harris in the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post. You know, a top executive over ABC News was seen at Mar-a-Lago meeting with a key incoming figure in the new Trump administration.

NPR's David Falkenfleck reporting. Stocks opened higher this morning as investors wait for new forecasts from the Federal Reserve this week. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 80 points in early trading. Fed policymakers hold their last meeting of the year this week. Another quarter point cut in interest rates is considered a near certainty. But investors will be listening to what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and his colleagues have to say about next year. On average, members of the Fed's rate-setting committee were projecting back in September

that rates would drop by another full percentage point in 2025. Those future rate cuts could be scaled back, however, if inflation turns out to be more stubborn than expected. The latest economic news from China points to lackluster growth in the world's second-largest economy. Retail spending in China slowed last month, while home sales declined and factory output was flat. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street, the Dow is now up 83 points. This is NPR. France is rushing teams and supplies to its territory in the Indian Ocean, the island

of Mayotte. It's near Madagascar, and it was hit by a powerful cyclone over the weekend. The death toll is at least 14 people, but authorities fear that number could climb into the hundreds. The cyclone has since made landfall in the Eastern African nation of Mozambique. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing a no-confidence vote in the German parliament today. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports from Berlin,

Scholz is expected to lose that vote. Scholz's fractious three-party coalition government collapsed in early November when the chancellor fired his finance minister in a dispute over how to revitalize Germany's stagnant economy. That left the remaining two partners without a majority in parliament. Schultz is expected to lose the vote of confidence in this minority government, paving the way for a national election on February 23rd. Polls show the center-right Christian Democratic Union Party with a firm lead going into a winter election season.

Rob Schmitz and PR News, Berlin. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Kitaji Brown Jackson played a bit role on Broadway Saturday night. She appeared in a walk-on role in the musical Anne Juliette. Show me the meaning of being alone, baby. It's a modern retelling of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Brown Jackson has previously expressed her love of theater, and she said that writing in her college application, she had aspired to become the first black female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage.

I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.