NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-24-2024 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Ukraine is struggling to stop Russia's advance in the eastern part of the country. Facing a manpower shortage, the Ukrainian army is turning more and more to remote-controlled drones. NPR's Brian Mann visited a drone command post near the front lines. Russia has been grinding forward in the Pokrovsk region, fielding more troops and artillery. Ukraine's smaller force is using drone units to fight back. NPR was able to watch live video feeds as attack drones bombed Russian units, led by a soldier who goes by the call

sign PIP. We're doing this every day, non-stop, 24 hours. Drones haven't stopped Russia, but a military drone technician who gave his name as Yuri for security reasons said Ukraine is making Russia pay a huge price in soldiers killed and wounded. We try to take out as many as we can before they reach our positions. If Pokrovsk falls it will be Russia's largest victory in months. Brian Mann, NPR News, near Pekrovsk. Starbucks workers at more than 300 cafes across the nation have walked off the job.

The strike began on Friday in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle. It has since expanded to stores in Portland, Boston and Dallas. NPR's Alina Seljuk says Starbucks Workers United are trying to reach an agreement for the first collective bargaining contract. It took more than two years for Starbucks and the union to finally begin negotiating a contract this spring. Now the union has staged an escalating strike over what it says is a lack of progress and the company's wage offer. The strikes began in three cities and were slated to peak right before Christmas with more than 5,000 Starbucks workers planning to walk off their jobs nationwide. The union

points to the compensation offer to the new Starbucks CEO worth more than a hundred million dollars. Unionized workers demand a bigger commitment to raise their wages now and over time. Starbucks for its part argues it was the union that prematurely ended negotiations and that the unions demands are not feasible. Alina Seluk, NPR News. Scientific research in the US relies heavily on scientists from other countries including more than 500,000 who are working under temporary visas. NPR's John Hamilton reports those visas became harder to get during Donald Trump's first term in office, and they're likely to face new scrutiny the second time around. You have some tech firms like Box, you know, the cloud computing firm, that are making

the case that H1P visas are good for the U.S. economy. Universities are saying very little. I contacted at least half a dozen major research institutions over the past few weeks and they pretty much declined to comment. That's NPR's John Hamilton reporting. Stocks are trading higher on Wall Street at this hour. The Dow is up 217 points. This is NPR News. The US military is tracking an unidentified object over the North Pole. NPR's Jeff Brumfield reports it's not a drone or a UFO. The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, says it's spotted a sleigh moving rapidly south filled with presents for good girls and boys. NORAD has had an eye on Santa since 1955.

That's when a small child called a military red phone designed to warn of a nuclear attack and asked to speak to Santa Claus. It turns out a local business had accidentally published the phone number in an advertisement for children who wanted to talk to jolly old St. Nick in the years since NORAD has made tracking Santa an annual

tradition. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. Bethlehem is marking its second Christmas since the war in Gaza broke out. Major Square is typically filled with tourists visiting the traditional birthplace of Jesus, but the town remains quiet this year. Mayor Anton Salman says the message of Bethlehem remains the same. Always the message of Bethlehem is a message of peace and hope. And these days we are also sending our message to the world, peace and hope,

but insisting that the world must work to end our suffering as Palestinian people, to end the occupation. The number of visitors to Bethlehem has plunged from about 2 million in 2019 to fewer than 100,000 in 2024. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.