NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-18-2024 3PM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

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Ho ho ho! 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. U.S. stocks are down sharply this hour after the Federal Reserve announced that it had lowered its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point. Forecasters had expected it. It is the central bank's third rate cuts in September

and should make it cheaper to borrow money to buy a car, expand a business, or carry a balance on your credit card. But this also signals that there may be fewer rate cuts in the new year. The Dow is down 488 points. S&P has fallen 79. The Nasdaq is off 321 points. All major market indices are down 1% to 1.6%. In other news, a deadly shooting Monday at a Bended Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin left the parents of children who attend the school reeling. NPR's Meg Anderson spoke to one mother whose three children attend the school. Julie Bollos felt terror as soon as she heard there was an active shooter at her kid's school.

A 15-year-old student had shot and killed a teacher and a student and then died by a parent's suicide. As Bollos waited to be reunited with her kids who were not harmed, she felt a sense of unity with other loved ones, a feeling she's felt before. Bollos went to school near Columbine in Colorado. A close friend was shot and survived in the school shooting there in 1999. Going through the Columbine experience, it just really pulled everyone together. She says it feels daunting to think about sending her kids back to school. Right now,

she's just trying to hold on to that sense of community. Meg Anderson, NPR News, Madison. Military officials in Ukraine say there have been fierce clashes today with Russian forces mounting nearly 140 assaults. Battles are still underway around Povorosk, a key coal mining and transportation hub. NPR's Brian Mann has more from eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian officials say Russia launched 27 attacks against villages on the outskirts

of Pokrovsk, battles that continued after dark in the bitter winter cold. Pokrovsk is a vital position for the Ukrainians, but Russia's been making steady advances. In a statement, Ukraine's general staff said the defense forces are holding back the onslaught. But heavy fighting is also underway in Kursk, an area of Russia occupied by Ukrainian forces and in other areas along the front. This comes as Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Brussels looking for more aid from European and NATO leaders. Writing on social media, Zelensky said Europe Europe needs a strong, united position to ensure lasting

peace. Brian Mann, NPR News, Pavlerod, Ukraine. The Dow is down nearly 500 points or more than 1% at 42,950. The S&P has now fallen 1.4%. The Nasdaq is down nearly 2%. This is NPR News. In New York, an appeals panel is hearing oral arguments today over a controversial state court ruling that threatens state-level voting rights acts around the country.

NPR's Hunzi Lo Wang reports that ruling found that New York's legal protections against racial discrimination and voting violate the U.S. Constitution. 8 states have passed state voting rights acts, and advocates are pushing for more as critics of the federal voting rights act keep chipping away at that landmark law in court. Last month, the New York judge struck down that state's voting rights act for violating the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. Similar challenges to the constitutionality of other states' laws have been unsuccessful. While the appeals panel reviews the judges ruling, another

New York court is holding a trial for the first-ever lawsuit to challenge a map of voting districts using a state voting rights act. That case was brought by a group of black, Latino, and Asian American voters in National County, New York, where voting is racially polarized. The voters argue Republican officials approved a map that dilutes their collective voting power. That's Hansi Le Wang. The FBI's recent advice telling Americans to stop sending plain text messages on their phones surprised a lot of consumers and led to questions.

Here's NPR's Bill Chappell. The FBI says the standard texting systems we use every day are far too vulnerable to hackers in China. Texts on Apple and Android phones can be secure, but only if everyone is using the same system or has the right options turned on. If you think that sounds complicated, so do experts. Here's Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. She recommends using apps like Signal or WhatsApp and to keep your phone's software up to date.