NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-25-2024 9AM EST

Episode Date: December 25, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiaffone. An Azerbaijan Airlines plane carrying 67 people on board has crashed in Kazakhstan, according to Kazakh officials. Authorities say at least 29 people had survived the crash and were taken to the hospital. NPR's Fatma Tanis has more. The plane was flying from Baku in Azerbaijan to Grozny in Russia when it notified the airline that it was making an emergency landing in Kazakhstan. The plane then caught fire and crashed, according to Kazakh authorities.

Dozens of emergency units were deployed to the site to recover bodies and help survivors. Most of the passengers were from Azerbaijan, but there were also citizens from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on board. The passengers were from Azerbaijan, but there were also citizens from Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan on board. The government of Azerbaijan says it has launched an investigation into the cause of the crash. Fatma Tanis, NPR News. President-elect Donald Trump is promising to expand capital punishment after President Biden this week commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal

death row to life imprisonment. The pardons do not include cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder, and three federal inmates still face execution. Advocates against the death penalty praised Biden's move in general, but some are not completely satisfied. Abraham Bonowitz is the executive director of Death Penalty Action. We're absolutely grateful for what President Biden has done, but he needs to finish the job.

Every person that's left on the federal and the military death throes is being handed over to Donald Trump for execution. And one of the motivations that the president articulated in his statement was that he understood that and wanted to head that off. But he's left seven people for Donald Trump to execute, which Donald Trump has promised to do. For his part, Trump has not specifically explained which additional offenses he wants to make punishable by death.

Stocks rallied on the day before Christmas, raising hope it could be the start of what investors call a Santa Claus rally. NPR's Rafael Nam explains. It was a shorter trading day but stocks gained strongly with the S&P and the NASDAQ up by over 1%. Stocks traditionally have done well in the last five trading sessions of the year and in the first two of the new year, hence the nickname Santa Claus Rally. And now traders are hopeful we could see one this year. Stocks had surged after the election of Donald Trump in November, but they have given up some of those gains in December.

The bump on Christmas Eve, though, has investors hoping for a stronger end to the year in Wall Street. Rafael Nam, NPR News. Heavy mountain snow in the West and freezing temperatures that have preserved snow that fell this week in parts of the Northeast are delivering a white Christmas to lots of Americans today. This is NPR News in Washington. The family of the late cinematographer Helena Hutchins says they are pursuing their civil suit against actor Alec Baldwin, despite this week's development in the case. New Mexico prosecutors announced Monday they will not pursue an appeal of a court's decision to dismiss the charge in the death of Hutchins during a rehearsal on the set of the movie Rust outside Santa Fe in October 2021. Nearly 40% of adults

say they're stressed about the possibility of political discussions coming up at the holidays. NPR's Katie Ariddle reports. Katie Ariddle A recent report shows that most Americans plan to avoid political discussions over the holidays. Dr. Vale Wright is with the American Psychological Association. That's the group that conducted this survey. She says not talking about hard stuff at these moments is understandable. It's not selfish and it doesn't mean you don't care about the issues. Possibly to evade these uncomfortable conversations, nearly 40% of adults said they were avoiding family members they disagree with this holiday season altogether.

Katie Arrettel, NPR News. American Airlines flights were back in the sky yesterday after a technology glitch at the airline led the FAA to ground their planes briefly. Americans say the problem was caused by vendor technology in its flight operating system. Aviation analytics company Sirium said flights were delayed across Americans' major hubs with only 37% leaving on time. 19 flights were canceled. The timing couldn't have been worse coming at the peak of pre-Christmas travel. The pilot's union said that in general there appeared to be no chaos. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News.