NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-20-2024 11PM EST

Episode Date: December 21, 2024

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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. The Senate is about to vote on a plan to avoid a government shutdown less than an hour from now. The House passed the package earlier tonight.

After voting down to previous measures, the bill would temporarily fund federal operations and offers more money for disaster relief. House Speaker Mike Johnson is confident the measure will pass. In January, we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to D.C. and to the White House, and we will make a sea change in Washington. President Trump will return to DC and to the White House, and we will have Republican control of the Senate and the House. Things are gonna be very different around here.

This was a necessary step to bridge the gap, to put us into that moment where we can put our fingerprints on the final decisions on spending for 2025. Police in Germany say a driver has killed at least two people and injured dozens more after driving into a busy Christmas market Friday night. As Villa Marks reports, an extensive police operation has now placed the country on high alerts.

Officials in the city of Magdeburg said at least 15 people were seriously injured and one of those killed was a child after a dark BMW plowed into a crowd at high speed around 7pm local time. After previous fatal incidents at Christmas markets in recent years, the country's interior minister had warned people to maintain great vigilance this year without pointing to any specific intelligence. That's Villain Marks reporting. A Russian official says a Ukrainian attack on a town in Russia's Kursk border region has killed six people, including at least one child. The Russians say the attack used missiles supplied by the U.S. just hours before authorities

in Ukraine said a Russian ballistic missile attack on Kiev killed at least one person and wounded 12 others there. Reporters Without Borders is urging Apple to remove a new artificial intelligence feature after it circulated a false headline. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, the Press Freedom Group says the tech giant's AI service is unreliable. Apple intelligence is the tech company's AI feature, which summarizes news notifications and headlines.

The tool falsely said the suspect in the murder of the UnitedHealth CEO had shot himself when that was not true. To reporters without borders, that was enough proof that Apple's AI service is, quote, too immature to produce reliable information for the public and should not be allowed on the market. The group is calling on Apple to pull the AI feature, saying the risk of pushing false information to millions of people is high. Apple did not return a request for comment. When it introduced Apple intelligence in June, it said the tool can deliver useful and relevant alerts to users processed by AI. Bobby Allen, NPR News. Workers at Starbucks stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle have begun a five-day strike. They're protesting lack of movement in their contract talks with the company that

began back in April. Workers United, which is the union that represents the workers, says the walkout has affected ten stores so far, but it could spread to hundreds of stores across the country by Christmas Eve. You're listening to NPR News. The political fate of Canada's Prime Minister is up in the air this weekend after an opposition party that's backed his government for years Now says it will vote no confidence in the government when Parliament resumes Justin Trudeau has been facing rising discontent over his leadership and his finance minister left the government last Monday Parliament will not reopen there until late next month

Once again the union representing Starbucks workers has launched a strike in three major cities. It could soon grow across the country. Uninise baristas and the coffee chain have been in strained negotiations to try and reach the company's first collective bargaining contract and that union is pushing for a better wage offer and Parasalina Seljuk has more. More than two years after Starbucks workers began joining the Starbucks Workers United, the union and the coffee giant this spring finally began negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. The union now represents baristas at more than 500 locations and its members plan to strike for five

days through Christmas Eve starting in Los Angeles, Seattle and Chicago. Workers say it's the last resort to push the company to offer a quote viable economic package with a bigger commitment to raise wages. The workers point to a new hire of a CEO from Chipotle with a compensation package worth more than a hundred million dollars. Starbucks officials for their part say the union's wage demands are not feasible and accuse the union of prematurely ending negotiations. Alina Seluk, NPR News. On Wall Street, stocks finished on an up note today. Alina Seluk, NPR News.