NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2024 8AM EST

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

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Every weekday, Up First gives you the news you need to start your day. On the Sunday story from Up First, we slow down. We bring you the best reporting from NPR journalists around the world, all in one major story, 30 minutes or less. Join me every Sunday on the Up First podcast to sit down with the biggest stories from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. All across U.S. state capitals today, presidential electors will meet

to cast their electoral votes in the 2024 election, in line with the U.S. Constitution. It will formalize president-elect Donald Trump's victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. At the same time, some so-called fake electors from the 2020 presidential election are casting real votes today on behalf of their states for Trump.

NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports these Republican electors still face criminal charges related to efforts to overturn presidential election results from four years ago. Eight of the Republican electors this year for President-elect Donald Trump have been indicted in Michigan and Nevada. Four years ago, they sent false certificates to state and federal officials claiming that Trump had won those states' 2020 electoral votes.

Those documents became part of the failed attempt to overturn those election results that culminated in the January 6th insurrection. Now in Michigan, cases against six of those returning electors are working their way through state court after the Democratic Michigan attorney general announced charges last year. In Nevada, state prosecutors filed new forgery charges this month against two returning electors. There are also ongoing prosecutions in Arizona and Georgia against pro-Trump electors from 2020 who are not set to cast their state's electoral votes today. Anzila Wong and PR News. Authorities in Madison, Wisconsin are trying to learn why a 15-year-old girl apparently shot and killed a fellow student and a teacher yesterday at the Christian school she attended.

Six other people were wounded. Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes says the girl then apparently took her own life. Barnes says investigators are trying to trace the handgun found at the scene. We tried to determine the origin of that weapon, who purchased it, and how it got from a manufacturer all the way into the hands of a 15-year-old girl. These are questions that's going to take some time to answer, and we fully intend, we're fully committed to getting the answer to that. He spoke to CNN. Israeli officials are in Qatar negotiating the terms of a ceasefire in Gaza.

NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv the ceasefire could begin before President Biden leaves office. An official familiar with the Gaza ceasefire negotiations says mediators are the closest they've been to finalizing a deal in more than a year. Speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks, the official says the ceasefire would begin before President Biden leaves office and would last around six weeks.

Israel would release Palestinian prisoners and detainees. In exchange, Hamas would release some of the Israeli hostages, all the women, men above the age of 50, and hostages with medical conditions. The official says Israeli troops would partially withdraw from areas of Gaza, Israel would boost humanitarian aid, and both sides would continue talks to free the remaining hostages and end the war.

Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, stock futures are lower. This is NPR. Authorities in Russia say a bomb hidden in a scooter has killed a top Russian general and his aide in Moscow. The general was accused of overseeing chemical and biological warfare in Ukraine. Yesterday, prosecutors in Ukraine charged him with using banned chemical weapons there. Rescuers in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu are searching for people trapped in the rubble of buildings.

An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 hit the island damages widespread. That includes the U.S. Embassy in Vanuatu. The building is substantially damaged. The embassy says all its personnel safely evacuated. About one-third of practicing psychologists do not accept health insurance and Piers Kadia Riddle reports that is according to a recent survey just released of over 800 psychologists. Many psychologists say they would like to take insurance but the administrative hassles around it take too much time and

the reimbursement rates are too low. Marnie Schoenberg is a psychologist with the American Psychological Association. So you have to be able to have access to health insurance in the first place if you're going to address mental health and you're going to try to improve mental health in a country. Schoenberg says it's not only patients who suffer under this dynamic. Psychologists want to treat a range of people from different socioeconomic backgrounds, not just middle-class people who can pay out of pocket for the care. They say treating everyone makes them better therapists.

Katie Ariddle, NPR News. Weather forecasters say the Pacific Northwest will get another storm today. Winter storm watches and advisories are posted from Washington State to Wyoming. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.