NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-29-2024 7AM EST

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

NPR News: 12-29-2024 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 Giles Snyder. Tens of thousands of customers remain without power from Texas to Georgia after severe storms swept

through the region yesterday, damaging homes and flipping vehicles. Several tornadoes are reported to have touched down in the Houston area, including at least one south of the city near the Visoria County Town of Alvin Emily Trevino was there. It really didn't stick around.

It was just like so sudden and shocking. At least two people were killed in the tornado outbreak and six others injured. Non-profits that help undocumented communities have shifted to disaster aid. After three major hurricanes hit the Southeast this year, many undocumented people don't qualify for federal disaster aid.

As NPR's Nate Perez reports. Only U.S. citizens, a person born in the U.S. territory, a green card holder, or refugee can apply for FEMA's cash aid after an extreme weather event. Michael Mendez teaches environmental policy and planning at the University of California Irvine. He says, micro organizations step in to help undocumented people when federal, state, and local governments ignore these communities. So they were forced to become disaster organizations on top of the other missions and programmatic work. With human-caused climate change increasing the intensity of hurricanes, nonprofits will

need to grow to assist communities most vulnerable to weather disasters. Nate Perez, NPR News. A death toll from the crash of a passenger plane in South Korea is rising. Officials now say at least 177 people were killed after the plane skidded off a runway, slammed into a concrete wall, and burst into flames. Emergency workers were able to pull two survivors to safety,

but two people remain missing. Authorities are investigating a possible bird strike as a potential cause of the crash. South Korea's Transport Ministry says the flight data recorders have been recovered. In Canada, the airports in Halifax was temporarily closed last night after a plane had trouble landing. The CBC is quoting a passenger as saying that one of the plane's tires did not deploy properly. The plane skidded down the runway and part of it caught fire. UNICEF says more than 473 million children live in areas affected by conflicts. That's a record high. The conflicts

span the globe from Haiti to Lebanon, from Myanmar to the Democratic Republic of Congo. As MPR's Gabriella Emanuel reports. UNICEF says there are more conflicts now than at any point since World War II. And since the world's population has more than tripled since then, the total number of kids affected is at an all-time high. Joe English is with UNICEF. Everywhere where we have data,

the numbers are worse than they have ever been. Growing up in a conflict zone makes a child more likely to be out of school and malnourished, he says, and there are often long-lasting impacts on a child's mental health. Gabriella Emanuel, NPR News. This is NPR. A former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Svaryia Mikhail Kavalashvili is president today amid a political crisis that has brought thousands of Georgians to the streets. Kavalashvili is a former soccer player, allied to Georgia Dream, which retained control of

parliament in October elections that the opposition says were rigged with Russia's help. The outgoing president refusing to step down, saying she is the only legitimate president. Voters in Croatia going to the polls in the first round of her presidential election today, eight contenders in the running, including incumbent President Zoran Milanovic, who is often compared to Donald Trump. He is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine. The election expected to go to a second round next month. Broadway, no stranger to star casting, but the musical and Juliet took a different approach, casting TikTok influencer Charli D'Amelio, not in a lead role,

but in the ensemble. As NPR's Ava Pukac reports. With more than 155 million followers, Charli D'Amelio has the second most followed account on TikTok. And this fall, fans got to follow her journey online as she made her Broadway debut in the ensemble of the musical, Ann Juliet. Hi, I'm Charli D'Amelio, and I want to take all of you behind the scenes to an Ann Juliet rehearsal. Let's go.

While some Broadway shows have struggled to find audiences post-pandemic, Ann Juliet sales have increased compared to the rest of the year since D'Amelio joined the show in October and the show's social media accounts have seen a large boost in followers and engagement. Eva Pukac, NPR News. And I'm Giles Snyder.

This is NPR.