NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2024 8AM EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2024

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The Indicator is a podcast where daily economic news is about what matters to you. Workers have been feeling the sting of inflation. So as a new administration promises action on the cost of living, taxes, and home prices, The S&P 500 biggest post-election day spike ever. follow all the big changes and what they mean for you. Make America affordable again. Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR. Lying from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman.

A partial federal government shutdown could happen as soon as tomorrow night. That's because congressional Republicans have reversed themselves and dropped support for a bipartisan government spending bill. They yanked support after President-elect Trump threatened them with primary challenges if they supported the bill that also funds Democratic priorities. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was at the Capitol last night talking about new spending legislation. We had a productive conversation.

I'm not going to say anything else more about it tonight because we're in the middle of these negotiations, but I think we'll be able to solve some problems here and we'll keep working on it. In an online statement, both Trump and Vance also demanded that any new spending bill deal with the looming debt ceiling. That is the limit the federal government can borrow to pay its bills. The U.S. is set to hit the debt ceiling limit at the start of January. The Teamsters union has launched strikes this morning at Amazon facilities across the country.

The union claims the online retailer has failed to bargain over a new contract. As NPR's Andrea Hsu reports, the strikes come less than a week before Christmas and Hanukkah. The Teamsters say a mix of workers, including pickers and packers and third-party delivery drivers, will be picketing seven Amazon facilities in and around Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City. Additionally, more pickets could format other Amazon facilities where workers have not yet authorized strikes. Patricia Campos-Modina, executive director of the Worker Institute at Cornell, says any disruption at this time of year could be damaging to the company. It is the holiday season. People are expecting deliveries. This is the moment that the workers have influence over the supply chain.

For its part, Amazon disputes the Teamsters' claim that it represents thousands of their workers. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. The UN migration agency says 100,000 refugees have returned to Syria from neighboring countries that since rebel groups overthrew Syria's dictator Bashar al-Assad. And Piers Fatma Tanis reports 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 three million. But the UN agency also urged caution are returned from Turkey, which hosts the largest number of Syrians in the world, more

than three 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. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A French court has convicted more than 50 men in connection with a horrific rape case. A man drugged his then-wife and invited strangers to rape her while she was unconscious. This happened for more than a decade. The French court sentenced the man to the maximum 20 years in prison, and the other

defendants also received prison terms. In a little more than a week, researchers on the U.S. East Coast have discovered three right whales that are entangled. Right whales are critically endangered. For Member Station WCAI, Eve Zukoff reports there are fewer than 400 of them left. The first whale, an adult female, was seen off the coast of Massachusetts with ropes trailing from her mouth halfway down her body. Officials say she's in better shape than a young male seen in the same area, with fishing

lines wrapping his head and back. Another male off the coast of North Carolina is entangled and unable to open his mouth to feed. Scott Landry with the Center for Coastal Studies says researchers are not surprised to see three injured whales in such a short period. The harder we work at finding whales the more we're gonna discover. Landry says a national disentanglement network is ready to free the whales if they're seen again and weather permits. For NPR News, I'm Yves Zoukoff. The Montana Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling that state policies have violated young people's right to a clean environment. This is the first youth-led climate change

case to go to trial in the U.S. The decision means Montana state agencies must consider climate effects when considering proposed development projects. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.