NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-16-2024 2AM EST

Episode Date: December 16, 2024

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Doha Alisa Ikaotow. For the first time since Syrian rebels began their push toward the capital nearly two weeks ago, students in Damascus went back to class on Sunday. And Perzadil Alshachi reports. It's time for students to gather at the Al-Sharif al-Radi Elementary School in Damascus. Normally, the students sing the Syrian national anthem at the assembly. Today is the first day they won't. Some parents look worried as they drop off their children.

Ibrahim al-Khudr stands at the school's gate making sure his seven-year-old daughter makes it through the school doors. There is some fear because things are chaotic right now, Khudr says. The school custodian stacks up framed pictures of President Bashar al-Assad and his father who ruled before him. He runs them to the trash. Third stars have been carefully added to the center of the old Syrian flag scattered around the school. In the new Syria like the old, symbols are important. Hadil Al-Shalchi, NPR News, Damascus. President-elect Donald Trump attended the Army-Navy football game Saturday with Florida Governor

Rick DeSantis and Pete Hegseth, his pick to lead the Department of Defense. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordonez explains the significance of this move. It's a big demonstration that Trump is continuing his support for Hegseth, a former Army major and Fox News host who has been fighting really just a bunch of terrible headlines and Hexeth has made some progress especially on Capitol Hill and with moderate Senate Republicans. I mean he's kind of shifted on some of his more extreme positions such as softening his stance on women in combat. On De Santos, Ordonez said Santos is likely to have a Senate seat to fill, provided that

Florida Senator Marco Rubio wins confirmation as Secretary of State. The Federal Reserve is holding its last meeting of the year this week. As NPR's Rafael Nam reports, many investors on Wall Street are expecting policymakers to cut interest rates for a third consecutive time. The Fed has a delicate task heading into 2025. Policymakers have already cut rates twice starting in September, and Wall Street is betting they will do that again this week.

But after that, the outlook becomes more uncertain. That's because inflation may be easing, but it's still above where the Fed would like it to be. And the economy has remained pretty healthy. So the Fed believes it can afford to go slow in cutting rates. That has analysts thinking this may be the last rate cut for now, with the Fed then growing more cautious as CEDA says is economic conditions. Rafael Nam, NPR News. A rare confidence vote is set for Monday afternoon in Germany. If Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses, Germany will hold an early election in February.

This is NPR News. A political strategist for President-elect Donald Trump, Alex Bruzowitz, collapsed while delivering a speech to the New York Young Republicans Club gala late Saturday. Unverified videos posted on social media show the 27-year-old slurring his words at a podium, then falling. Some attendees said later that Bruzowitz had a brief fainting spell. South Korea's Constitutional Court will begin preparations Monday for reviewing the impeachment of President Yoon Song-yeol. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul that South Korea's parliament voted to impeach

him Saturday for declaring martial law earlier this month. The court's justices' meeting is to discuss dates for hearings and procedures for reviewing evidence. They have six months to either uphold the impeachment, in which case Yoon will be removed from office, or overturn it, in which case he'll be reinstated as president. In 2017, the court took about three months to confirm the impeachment of then-president Park Geun-hye. Yoon is also being investigated on charges of insurrection. Prosecutors summoned Yoon for questioning last week, but he didn't comply. In a phone call with President Biden on Sunday, acting President Han Do-k Soo reassured him that the U.S.-South Korea alliance will

remain steadfast. Anthony Kuhn in PR News Seoul. It was something she's always wanted to do as a child, sing on Broadway. That Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson, the first black female jurist on the high court performing Knight on Juliet.