NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-21-2024 3AM 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. On this vote, the A's are 85, the A's are 11. The 60 vote threshold having been achieved, the bill is passed. Early this morning, the U.S. Senate passed another short-term funding deal.

If it's signed by President Biden later today, he will temporarily fund government operations and provide more money for disaster relief. But it does not remove the debt ceiling cap which Donald Trump had demanded. The last-minute vote actually took place after a midnight shutdown deadline. relief, but it does not remove the debt ceiling cap which Donald Trump had demanded. The last minute vote actually took place after a midnight shutdown deadline. Democratic Senator Patty Murray of Washington blamed the delay vote on interference by President-elect Donald Trump and businessman Elon Musk, who both made demands of Republicans this week. The only reason it took so long and this much chaos to get here is that House Republicans

chose chaos and chose to follow the whims of the richest man in the world. The fact the federal government faced the prospect of a shutdown was in part due to Elon Musk. The billionaire owner of the social media site X has used his considerable platform to speak out about Republican-backed plans. NPR's Stephen Fowler has more on Musk's influence. Musk is not an elected official, but his proximity to President-elect Trump and high-profile posting helped sink a bipartisan funding bill announced earlier this week.

He called it, quote, criminal, an attack language that went beyond spending to keep the government open. Musk also threatened to support primary challengers to anyone that voted against his wishes. The social media frenzy caused by the world's richest man has added more conflict to an already narrow Republican House majority that has had issues governing. Stephen Fowler, NPR News. The Senate Friday confirmed the 235th judicial nominee of President Joe Biden.

About two-thirds of his appointments are women, and a majority are people of color, including Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson. Biden has now appointed one more judge than Donald Trump did during his first term of office. Police in Germany say a driver has killed at least two people and injured dozens more after driving into a busy Christmas market Friday evening local time.

As Villamarks reports, an extensive police operation has placed the country on high alert. The prime minister of the German state of Saxony-Anhalt said the suspect was believed to be a 50 year old originally from Saudi Arabia with German broadcasters showing video of a man's arrest at gunpoint. Eyewitnesses told local news the scene was chaotic in the aftermath of a dark BMW plowing into a crowd around 7 p.m. local time. Just last month the German Interior Minister had warned people to be vigilant at Christmas markets after a high-profile terrorist attack at one several years ago and a stabbing attack

in a public square this August in the town of Solingen. For NPR News, I'm Bilym Marks. Guatemalan police say a complaint made in November led to a raid this weekend on a compound owned by an extremist ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect. They took at least 160 minors and 40 women into custody. The complaint had mentioned possible crimes including rape, forced pregnancies, and mistreatment of minors. The sect has run into legal problems in a number of countries. You're listening to NPR News.

Justin Trudeau's tenure as Prime Minister of Canada may be coming to an end. An opposition that's backed his government for many years now says it will offer a vote of no confidence when the Parliament reconvenes next month. Trudeau's Finance Minister left abruptly on Monday and is facing rising discontent over his leadership. The U.S. Department of Education has found that the Philadelphia Public School District did not adequately protect Jewish students from claims of anti-Semitic harassment, including Nazi salutes, swastikas, and using slurs.

Carmen Russel Szluchanski, a member station, WHYY has more on her story. The Department's Civil Rights Office found that students, teachers, and administrators allegedly engaged in anti-Semitic behavior, but the school district did nothing to stop it. The district entered into an agreement to rectify the problem, including a better system of recording incidents. Andrew Goretzky, regional director of the Philadelphia chapter of the Anti-Defamation League, says that's a start. We know that occurrences are significantly under-reported due to fears of retaliation,

an issue that's also affirmed in this report that's not been fully addressed. The school district did not respond to a request for comment. For NPR News, I'm Carmen Russo-Suchanski in Philadelphia. The University of California school system has reached an agreement with the Federal Education Department over complaints stemming from protests on campuses last spring. Jewish and Muslim students say they faced discrimination and harassment during the protests over the war in Gaza. The complaints said the schools had failed

to respond effectively to that harassment. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.