NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2024 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

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Hey everybody, it's time to join NPR's All Songs Considered as we celebrate a very tolerable Christmas with a mix of seasonal songs and special guests. Yeah, we're in for like the saddest Christmas ever, stuck with Robin, who is basically a lump of coal in the shape of a man. Hear new episodes of All Songs Considered every Tuesday wherever you get podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President-elect Donald Trump is giving Congress a taste of what his second term will look like before he steps back into the White House. NPR's Barbara Sprunt reports Trump told Republicans not to support a measure that would avert

a government shutdown. After top Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk mounted a pressure campaign against a bill that would fund the government through mid-March, Trump urged Republicans to throw out the stopgap funding legislation. In a statement, he said he wants a stripped-down version of the bill that doesn't give Democrats, in his words, everything they want. House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top GOP congressional leaders have said that in divided government, you have to compromise somewhat to get things done. This leaves Congress scrambling to figure out how to pass something to avert a shutdown

with the clock ticking. Funding runs out after Friday. Barbara Sprunn and PR News, The Capitol. Well, Elon Musk's appointment to help oversee a government efficiency commission has raised conflict of interest concerns. Senator Elizabeth Warren, an antitrust hawk, tells NPR, the tech mogul should be required to comply with the same rules federal employees have to follow in light of lucrative government contracts Musk's companies hold. The federal government has many touch points with all of those companies, including lots of federal contracts worth billions of dollars and lots of ongoing investigations about whether or not those companies have followed regulations and including whether or not Mr. Musk himself

has followed the law. Democratic Senator Warren of Massachusetts speaking with NPR's Morning Edition. The UN migration agency says that 100,000 refugees have returned to Syria from neighboring countries since rebel groups overthrew Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad. NPR's Fatma Tannis has the latest from Istanbul. Half of Syria's population was displaced from their homes during 14 years of civil war. Millions of them became refugees abroad and now many want to return home. The International Organization for Migration estimates that one million people will return

to Syria between January and June of 2025. Most of the 100,000 who already returned home came from neighboring Lebanon. Some 7,000 refugees have also returned from Turkey, which hosts the largest number of Syrians in the world, more than 3 million. But the UN agency also urged caution over a sudden large-scale return of refugees, saying the system in Syria is fragile and won't bear the influx. Fatma Tanis, NPR News, Istanbul. From Washington, this is NPR News. With online shopping in full swing in the run-up to Hanukkah and Christmas, the e-retail

giant Amazon is confronting this. A strike involving thousands of unionized workers at multiple facilities across the country including major cities like New York City. The international brotherhood of Teamsters, which says it represents nearly 10,000 workers at 10 Amazon facilities, argues workers are angry Amazon ignored a Sunday deadline the union set for contract negotiations. Amazon says it does not expect the strike to affect its holiday operations. A report from the National Academies links moderate consumption of alcohol to a lower

risk of heart disease. NPR's Alison Aubrey reports the data will be used to shape new guidelines on drinking alcohol. Moderate alcohol consumption was defined as up to one drink a day for women, two for men. Committee Chair Dr. Ned Kalanj of the Colorado School of Public Health says they reviewed all the evidence and found that compared to never consuming alcohol, moderate consumption was associated with a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes.

We did find that moderate drinking is related to a lower risk of heart disease death. But they found moderate consumption was linked to a higher risk of breast cancer. Researchers say the evidence is far from perfect. Some people don't estimate their drinking accurately, and there's varying definitions of moderate drinking. Allison Aubry, NPR News. US stocks are trading higher this hour. The Dow is up 214 points.

It's NPR News.