NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-26-2024 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, Ankora Vakulman, Syria's Interior Ministry says 14 of its forces have been killed in an ambush by loyalists of the former Assad regime. It happened in an area dominated by the minority Alawite community. NPR's Diye Hadid reports from Damascus, it is widely seen by other Syrians as loyal to the Assads. This is among the most serious violence between Syrians since rebel forces led by Muslim group HTS overran Damascus in early December, toppling the decades old Assad regime. The interior ministry said the 14 men were ambushed while, quote, performing their duties.

It came after protests raged across Syria in areas dominated by Alawites who were angered by a video that showed militants desecrating an Alawite shrine and killing the men who worked there. Facebook groups for Syrian minorities shared video that claimed to show at least some interior ministry gunmen in Alawite areas using slurs to refer to their community. They also shared a video of a man bleeding on the street as gunmen shout at other men. Deah Hadid andR News, Damascus. President-elect Trump says there are issues he'll take up the day he's sworn into office. That includes immigration. Trump says he wants to overturn

the constitutional right of citizenship given to people born in the U.S. The move appears to be aimed at those born in the U.S. who became citizens by birthright but whose parents are living illegally in the U.S. Juliet Jalat birthright, but whose parents are living illegally in the U.S. Juliette Gillatt is with the Migration Policy Institute. It's a nonpartisan think tank that examines migration trends worldwide. She says one effort considered by Trump allies could affect all Americans who want to get a passport.

The incoming Trump administration is saying that they might start requiring that applicants for passports or other federal documents that are issued to citizens prove that at least one of their parents was a U.S. citizen or a legal immigrant when that person was born. She spoke to NPR's morning edition. This month, Congress passed a major bill to help military veteran caregivers. As NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, the bill will cost about a billion dollars over the next decade.

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The measure had been held up since last spring because it also expands access for veterans to get reimbursed for private medical care outside VA. In the incoming Trump administration, use of private care outside the VA system is expected to increase. Quill Lawrence, NPR News. On Wall Street, the Dow is down about 27 points. This is NPR. Today marks the 20th anniversary of a massive earthquake and tsunami that rolled across the Indian Ocean. More than 230,000 people were killed in about a dozen countries, mostly in Southeast Asia.

The tsunami was so powerful, it rolled across the ocean and crashed into East Africa, killing some 300 people in Somalia, Tanzania, and Kenya. In Nigeria, at least 10 people are dead and more injured after a military plane bombed two villages in the country's north. Local officials say the strike was an accident, but military officials insist only armed militants were killed, as NPR's Jewel Bright reports. Officials in Nigeria's Sokoto state say the military jet dropped several bombs on Gidan Bisa and Runtsua villages in the north of the state.

A spokesperson for the state government says the airstrike was targeting armed groups operating in the area but accidentally hit civilians. Nigeria's military have refuted these claims, saying instead that only militants and their accomplices were killed in the strike. There have been no reaction from Nigeria's federal government to the conflicting accounts of the incident. Riot groups have previously accused Nigeria's military of indiscriminately attacking civilians in its fight against armed groups, a charge the military has denied.

Jewel Bright, NPR News Lagos In the US last evening, celebrants marked the first night of Hanukkah by lighting the national menorah in front of the White House. Speakers at the event discussed hopes for peace during this holiday, including in the Israel-Hamas war. They also cited the need to come together in the U.S. in unity to address anti-Semitism. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.