NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-16-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

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Oh, oh, oh, Santa here coming to you from the North Pole. We're the elves in our podcast division of just completed work on this season's best gift for public radio lovers. NPR Plus. Give the gift of sponsored free listening and even bonus episodes from your favorite NPR podcasts, all while supporting public media. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Many of the U.S. senators who will decide whether to confirm or reject President-elect Trump's nominees for his incoming administration are hearing this week from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has come under heavy criticism from medical groups over controversial public health policy positions, including a possible challenge to polio vaccines, according to a New York

Times article. Today, Trump defended his decision to select Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, said, I don't like mandates. I'm not a big mandate person. So, you know, I was against mandates. Mostly Democrat governors did the mandates and they did a very poor thing. You know, in retrospect, mandates mostly Democrat governors did the mandates and they they did a very poor thing It was you know retrospect they made a big mistake Trump Ed Mar-a-Lago He had just announced a commitment by Softbank CEO to invest 100 billion dollars over four years in the US economy

police in Madison, Wisconsin are investigating a shooting at abundant life Christian school in a brief the department says, quote, multiple injuries have been reported and that it remains an active and ongoing investigation. Abundant Life Christian School was founded in 1978 and according to its website serves 200 families in a, quote, Christ-focused context for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In other news, sales of electric vehicles went up by around 10% in November according to Cox Automotive. Analysts and dealers say some shoppers are trying to lock in savings from tax credits while they can. Here's NPR's Kamila Dominovski. EV sales have gone up,

but not spiked as much as you might think. Used EV dealer Alex Lawrence in Utah says that's because for every shopper racing to snag these tax credits. There are still many, many, many, many, many, more people that don't even know this exists. The federal tax credits are worth up to four grand for used cars and up to $7,500 for new vehicles. And buyers can get that discount upfront

at the time of purchase, even use it as a down payment. The future of the credit is uncertain. It would require an act of Congress to completely eliminate it. But the Trump administration could also just make it harder to get. Kamila Dominovski, NPR News. Germany's headed toward a snap election in February. Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence today in parliament. Here's NPR's Rob Schmitz. Today's vote puts an end to Scholz's fractious government at a time when Europe's biggest economy is under strain from Russia's war in Ukraine and from increased competition

from China. Schulz's defeat paves the way for the dissolution of parliament ahead of early elections scheduled for February 23rd. Going into the short winter election campaign, the center-right Christian Democratic Union Party is polling first, followed by the far-right AFD party and Schulz's own Social Democrats. The collapse of Schulz's three-party coalition government came in early November when Schulz fired his finance minister after months of debate over how to revitalize Germany's stagnant economy.

That's Rob Schmitz reporting. It's NPR News. Deposed Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad is speaking out for the first time since insurgents overthrew his authoritarian government nearly two weeks ago and he fled to Russia. In a new post on Telegram, Assad says his departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur during the final hours of the battles. The former Syrian president accuses Syria's rivals of spreading misinformation that he says is aimed at recasting, quote, international terrorism as a liberation revolution for Syria.

In the U.S., coffee prices are spiking and not only here, but also around the globe because of extreme drought and other unusual weather in top growing countries. And as Alina Selyuk says, the price of coffee in the futures market has been trading at near record highs. Brazil is the top grower of the world's most popular coffee bean called Arabica. Vietnam is the top grower of the second most popular bean called Robusta. And over the past year, Vietnam faced drought, followed by heavier than usual rains, and then Brazil had one of the worst droughts with rains delayed.

Scientists say climate change is shifting weather patterns in those regions. Futures prices for both types of beans have soared. Robusta this year has doubled in price, Arabica this week passed a 50-year high, and both have lately gone up and down, hovering around record levels, fueled in part by financial speculators. Brands like Nescafé and Folgers have already raised their retail prices in response. Alina Seluk, NPR News. The Dow is down 40 points, the S&P has risen 28, the Nasdaq is up 229 points. This is NPR News.