NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-22-2024 11PM EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Health officials in Gaza say they're under a quote, unprecedented attack by Israeli forces in the north of the enclave. At least 22 people are dead so far, including women and children. One hospital director says his facility is being constantly hit and is taken to social media begging for international assistance. And Piers Kerry-Kahn has more. The director of one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza says the facility has been shelled by

sniper fire and drones. The director of Kamal Adman Hospital says the attacks have come with no warning and no protection for patients and civilians. He insists there are no military targets or fighters within his hospital which he says has hundreds of patients and civilians there including babies in the neonatal unit. Israel says Hamas militants operate in hospitals and schools endangering civilians. In a statement to NPR, the Israeli military says its forces have been operating in the vicinity but not within the hospital's premises. In the past 48 hours, more than 50 Palestinians were killed in Gaza,

according to the health ministry there. Carrie Conn, NPR News, Tel Aviv. A government shutdown was averted this weekend, but as NPR's Marla Iason reports, the process suggests President-elect Donald Trump may have a hard time next year passing spending bills through the House. Before Republicans finally came up with a bill that could pass, 34 Republicans helped defeat the bill Trump wanted, a bill that would have, among other things, raised the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is the amount of money Congress allows the government to borrow to pay for spending Congress has already approved. Trump's plans, including tariffs, tax cuts, and deportations, are estimated to add as much as $7 trillion to the national

debt, and Trump didn't want the debt ceiling in his way. But even if Trump doesn't care about deficits, there are still about three dozen Republicans in the House that do and that means Trump may have difficulty convincing Congress to approve all the expensive things he wants to do next year. Mara Eliason, NPR News. Police in New York City have a man in custody following the death of a woman in a subway car earlier today. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the woman may have been sleeping when she was set on fire.

Officers who were on patrol on an upper level of that station smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate. What they saw was a person standing inside the train car, fully engulfed in flames. With the help of an MTA employee and a fire extinguisher, the flames were put out. Unfortunately, it was too late and the victim was pronounced on the scene. The man was identified by three teenagers after they saw video of the incident that was released by the police. Police in Texas have identified John Darrell Schultz as the man who led officers on a chase before crashing his pickup truck into a mall in Killeen, Texas. Five people were injured when they were hit by the truck. The officers traded gunfire with him before he was shot and killed. This is NPR News. The Biden administration

says a weakened Iran could build a nuclear weapon. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says he's briefing President-elect Donald Trump's team on the risks. Iran has suffered setbacks to its regional influence from Iran's attacks on its allies, including Hamas and Hezbollah. And Sullivan says Israeli attacks on Iranian facilities have reduced Iran's conventional military capabilities. One New England state is leaning into its role as a filming location for many holiday films. Connecticut Public Radio's Chris Polanski has more on that state's new Christmas movie trail. The trail is a tourism push by the state of Connecticut, a self-guided tour of taverns and town squares and more. Each

stop was featured in a Christmas movie filmed over the last decade. Ellen Wolf is the state's brand director. You can just pick a movie and watch it with a steaming cup of hot cocoa a la Hallmark style and then step into the shoes of your favorite actors and relive those special scenes from the movies right here in Connecticut.

Wolf says the industry is a big moneymaker for Connecticut, attributing millions of dollars in revenue to holiday movie production. For NPR News, I'm Chris Polanski in Hartford, Connecticut. Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain has reopened. The fountain has been seen in countless movies and many people who visit it also toss a coin into its pool. That generates an estimated $1.5 million each year, which is donated to a Catholic charity. The fountain was closed for three months because of ongoing renovations. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.