NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-18-2024 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

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Hi, it's Terri Gross from Fresh Air. I just interviewed Billie Eilish and Finneas about many things, including how Billie's signature baggy clothes came from watching hip-hop videos. Instead of being jealous of the women who get to be around the hot men, I would be jealous of the hot men. And I wanted to dress like them and I wanted to be able to act like them. Find this Fresh Air interview wherever you listen to podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. There's some momentum in ceasefire talks for Gaza, but there are also mixed feelings about what it could mean if Israel and Hamas agree to a step-by-step plan to end their 14-month

long war. NPR's Michelle Kellerman has more. Families of the hostages held by Hamas are sounding worried that the deal will bring only some of the 100 hostages home in exchange for Palestinian detainees released from Israeli jails and their loved ones may be left behind. Palestinians fear that the ceasefire and hostage deal will be temporary and they won't be able to return to their homes in the north. A source close to the negotiations tells NPR that the step-by-step plan will get women and elderly hostages out first, with a six- to seven-week ceasefire to allow vital aid into Gaza. Meanwhile, a right-wing member of Israel's cabinet, Betzalel

Smotrich, says it would be a mistake to release any Palestinians or remove troops from northern Gaza. Michelle Kelliman, NPR News Tel Aviv. Last night, people in Madison, Wisconsin, mourned the victims from a shooting at a religious school. A teenager shot and killed two people and injured six others on Monday before killing herself. Michael Johnson is the president and CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County,

home to the city of Madison. We come together to begin the healing journey for our children and to support one another in this face of another school shooting that has hit our community. The police chief of Madison has issued a clarification. Originally, police said a second grader called 911 to report the shooting. The chief says that was an error. A review finds a second grade teacher is the one who alerted police to the shooting. The Federal Bureau of Prisons will pay more than $116 million to over 100 women.

They say they were sexually assaulted at a now closed federal women's prison in Northern California. From member station KQED, Dana Cronin reports. The civil settlement for alleged abuse at FCI Dublin is the largest ever paid by the U.S. government to a group of sexual assault survivors. That's according to Jessica Pride, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit. This is an affirmation that sexual abuse of female prisoners will not be tolerated in this society.

Pride says each woman will receive between $500,000 and $1.6 million. In a statement, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said it is, quote, dedicated to appropriately addressing the consequences of sexually abusive behavior at FCI Dublin. For NPR News, I'm Dana Cronin in San Francisco. D.P. Policymakers for the Federal Reserve and their two-day meeting today, they could lower interest rates by another quarter percentage point, but they're also watching inflation that has not slowed down as much as they would like. You're listening to NPR News. The Pentagon says it has sent back

three detainees who were held at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Two were repatriated to Malaysia. A third was sent to Kenya. The two Malaysian detainees worked with an al-Qaeda affiliate responsible for deadly bombings in Southeast Asia. The third belonged to Al-Qaeda's branch in East Africa. In the 1950s, scientists exposed meat to a dose of radiation they expected would kill all forms of life. Instead, they found what researchers think is the most radiation-resistant organism on Earth.

NPR's Jessica Young reports scientists might finally know its secret. The organism is known by its nickname, Conan the bacterium. And researchers at Northwestern University and the Uniformed Services University have found what could be responsible for its radiation resistance. And it is in the combination of three components, manganese ions, phosphate, and peptides, which creates a complex that is more radiation resistant than the sum of its parts, says co-author of the paper, Brian Hoffman. So something new that forms when you put the pieces together, which makes it better than one or the other,

is that the combination, they interact with each other. Researchers hope that this discovery could lead to ways to protect humans from radiation, from exploring deep space or from radiological emergencies. Jessica Young, NPR News. The Biden administration may loan a California utility up to $15 billion. Pacific Gas and Electric says it wants to use the money to expand hydro power capacity and its battery storage. It can also upgrade how much electricity is transmitted over its power lines. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.