NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-23-2024 7AM EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

NPR News: 12-23-2024 7AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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 in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The White House says President Biden has given clemency to nearly every prisoner on federal death row. The sentences of 37 men have been changed to life in prison without parole.

Biden did not change sentences for three men. Two killed people at places of worship. The third bombed the Boston Marathon. President-elect Trump says he will introduce sweeping immigration restrictions that could threaten temporary protected status. The program currently protects nearly 900,000 people. For member station KQED, Taiki Hendricks has more. Two years ago, Oksana Demidenko

fled the Russian bombardment of Kiev. Today, she lives in Richmond, California, and tracks avian flu in a state public health lab. I love my work. I love because I can help community. TPS gives permission to live and work here to immigrants whose country is experiencing war or natural disaster. The protections are granted to people already residing in the US at the time of their country's designation. But Demidenko is afraid Trump will strip that away. We don't know we have future or not. It's hard.

If it's not renewed, TPS for 50,000 Ukrainians will expire in April. For NPR News, I'm Taiki Hendricks in Richmond, California. Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan have announced that they plan to merge. This would create the world's third largest car maker behind Toyota and Volkswagen. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul. The plan is for Honda and Nissan to have a formal merger agreement by June and establish a new holding company by summer of 2026. Mitsubishi Motors, which is partially owned by Nissan, may also join the deal. Nissan has been struggling financially, and if Honda doesn't bail it

out, analysts see it as a choice target for a foreign takeover. Honda CEO Toshihiro Mibe said at a press conference that they need to pool resources to stay competitive in the world's largest car market, China, where local firms are squeezing out foreign car makers. Mibe said the merger could still fall through, or as he put it, the possibility of this not being implemented is not zero. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul. The National Institutes of Health has announced it's investing $300 million to research treatments for people who have long COVID.

Many patients say researchers haven't yet come up with a reliable treatment plan. Health reporter Sarah Boden spoke to officials at NIH. Well, the agency agrees that there's a real urgency to find treatments, but they told me that scientists need a solid understanding of the underlying biology of long COVID, which is a complicated disease that can damage nearly every organ system.

And researchers have learned a lot. For example, one NIH-funded study found that people are less likely to get long COVID if they've been vaccinated. Sarah Boden reporting. This is NPR. New York City police have arrested a suspect in the gruesome killing of a woman yesterday morning.

Authorities say the woman was apparently sleeping on a stationary subway train when the suspect set her clothes on fire. The woman died at the scene. The state of Florida is launching a new artificial intelligence tool to rapidly broadcast emergency alerts. As NPR's Debbie Elliott reports, it's designed to work even when Internet and cell service are down. Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie says the new Beacon alert system builds on the public radio emergency network, often the only line of communication in a major disaster.

Beacon combines new technology with the reliability and power of broadcast radio to deliver messages directly to the communities that need them the most. Guthrie says AI technology instantly turns information from emergency agencies into broadcast ready messages. Here's how a test sounded during Hurricane Milton. Beacon, safety first, always on. Attention residents of Sarasota County. The messages go out on AM radio, FMHD channels, and the Beacon mobile app.

Debbie Elliott, NPR News. NASA says its Parker Solar Probe is getting ready to make its closest approach yet to the Sun. It will come fewer than 4 million miles to the Sun's surface tomorrow morning. The Parker Probe is studying the outermost part of the sun's atmosphere, the corona. Scientists say it's much hotter than the sun's surface, and they are trying to find out why. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.