NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2024 5PM 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 Jack Spear. President-elect Donald Trump and House Republicans have agreed on a short-term spending bill just days out from a potential government shutdown. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, it comes after Trump urged Republicans to scrap their bipartisan effort.

Elena Moore Leaving an afternoon meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson, multiple House Republicans told reporters they had reached an agreement and plan to hold a vote tonight. The new deal has sign off from Trump, who says in a post on Truth Social that the agreement includes funding for disaster relief and lifts the debt limit until 2027. That said, this agreement was reached amongst Republicans, and it's unclear whether there's Democratic buy-in, which will be necessary given that party still controls the Senate said this agreement was reached amongst Republicans and it's unclear whether there's Democratic buy-in, which will be necessary given that party still controls the Senate and the White

House. Alana Moore and Pure News, the Capitol. This suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare's CEO, Brian Thompson, is back in New York, facing additional federal charges of murder by firearm and stalking, along with the other charges laid out in previous indictments in New York and Pennsylvania. Luigi Mangione, taken by helicopter from Pennsylvania where he was being held after his arrest, Mangione threw his lawyers, waived extradition.

With the latest charges, the 26-year-old Mangione, who was accused of gunning down Thompson on New York City Street earlier this month, now faces the possibility of the death penalty. Thousands of Amazon workers are expected to join strikes around the country. The Teamsters Union is pressing the retail giant to recognize its unionized workers. A note, Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters. The strikes have gotten underway during the holiday shopping rush. NPR's Alina Soluk has more. Workers at seven Amazon facilities were expected to lead the strike.

The Teamsters Union named warehouses and delivery hubs in areas around the cities of Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. The union says it's setting up picket lines at hundreds more Amazon facilities, though it's not clear how many workers exactly plan to walk off their jobs. It's also not clear how long the strike will go. The union only said more than a day. Amazon for now says it's not seeing any impact on operations. It continues to focus on getting shoppers their holiday orders. It also alleges strike participants are outsiders rather than staff. Amazon has for years refused to recognize unionized workers, let alone negotiate a collective

bargaining contract with them. Alina Seluk, NPR News. In its latest snapshot of the economy, the government says it appears growth accelerated a bit more in the July through September quarter than initially thought. Government Today reporting the nation's gross domestic product, that's the total output of goods and services from the U.S. borders, expanded at a 3.1% annual rate during the third quarter. It means the U.S. economy has now topped 2% in growth in eight of the last nine quarters.

Stocks stabilized a bit after yesterday's major sell-off, prompted by concerns about the future of Federal Reserve interest rate cuts. The Dow was up 15 points. The NASDAQ closed down 19 points today. You're listening to NPR. Dozens of data centers located in Ireland may be starting to wear out their welcome with locals. That's because with the country making itself something of a computing hub for big firms like Amazon, Google and Meta, they are now consuming more electricity than all of the urban homes there combined.

It's led to fears of rolling blackouts on the part of Ireland's grid operator and a halt to any new data centers near Dublin until at least 2028 huge buildings house large numbers of powerful servers and last year consumed about 21% of Ireland's electricity South Korea's spy agency estimates a hundred North Korean troops have been killed in combat in Russia about a thousand injured MPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul, the US and Ukraine have made similar claims, but none are presenting conclusive evidence. South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported to a parliamentary intelligence committee

that the North Korean troops suffer from a lack of combat experience, especially in fighting against drones. It adds that the casualties include several high-ranking officers. Ukrainian video footage purports to show drones swooping down on soldiers running through snowy fields. But it's not clear from the videos

to which country the troops belong. Ukraine claims that North Korea has deployed some 11,000 troops to Russia's Kursk region, where they're trying to retake territory occupied by Ukraine. Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has admitted to the deployment. Anthony Kuhn in NPR News, Seoul. The U.S. population this year posted its strongest growth rate in 23 years, much of that due to immigration. The government says total U.S. population now surpasses 340 million

people. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.