NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-26-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 26, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The Syrian government says 14 of its troops were killed in an ambush by loyalists of the former Assad regime. The attack took place in an area dominated by the minority Alawite community, which is widely seen by other Syrians as loyal to the Assads. NPR's Diye Hadid reports from the Syrian capital, Damascus. 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. Dhiya Hadid, NPR News, Damascus.

The Finnish government is calling for additional measures against Russia's so-called shadow fleet of registered cargo vessels. Authorities say one of the ships may have damaged a power cable in the Baltic Sea. Terry Schultz reports police have seized and boarded the vessel, which is now being held, in Finnish waters. The Finnish border guard escorted the Eagle S oil vessel into Finnish waters on Wednesday after a power cable linking Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea went out when the ship crossed over it.

Police say they're treating it as a case of aggravated vandalism. The ship is believed to be part of a fleet Russia uses to transport oil in violation of international sanctions and which, Finnish Prime Minister Petter Jorpoh notes, may serve other malign purposes. This underlines the danger of the shadow fleet for the Baltic Sea. We need to find new, strong measures to tackle this." In total, four cables were broken or damaged in this latest incident, but Finnish authorities confirmed the electricity supply

and telecommunications connections are working. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz. President-elect Donald Trump has a long list of issues when he takes office. Ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the U.S. is one of them. Julia Gillette is with the Migration Policy Institute. She says the issue seems to be gaining traction. I think that as unauthorized immigration has risen at certain periods of time, there's been more attention to what rights unauthorized immigrants have in the United States and the right to have a child who's

Automatically a US citizen is one of those rights birthright citizenship has been enshrined in the Constitution since 1868 when the 14th amendment was ratified. This is NPR news Japan Airlines flights are resuming their schedules after they were hit by a cyber attack this morning. The breach caused delays for passengers traveling both domestically and internationally and briefly shut down ticket sales. The airline says there's no indication that customer information was leaked. Anyone cuddling with their pup this holiday season knows humans have a close relationship

with dogs. But how far back can that bond be traced? Reporter Emily Kuang has more on the latest findings from the world of archaeology. The animals known as canids, that includes wolves and dogs, were likely domesticated in Eurasia. And people who crossed the Bering Strait thousands of years ago likely had canines by their side. New evidence from bones found in Alaska supports this theory. Specifically, a 12,000-year-old leg bone excavated in Fairbanks that was filled with fossilized salmon protein.

Salamons are not naturally available in big quantities in a place like Fairbanks. Lead author Francois Lanois, based at the University of Arizona in Tucson, says it's more likely this wolf was fed salmon at the hands of its human companions. For Impure News, I'm Emily Kwong. MasterCard says retail sales between November 1st and December 24th rose 3.8 percent this year. Online sales were up 6.7 percent slightly from last year. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 12 points. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.