NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2024 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

NPR News: 12-31-2024 12PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oh, oh, oh, Santa here coming to you from the North Pole. We're the elves in our podcast division of just completed work on this season's best gift for public radio lovers. NPR plus give the gift of sponsored free listening and even bonus episodes from your favorite NPR podcasts, all while supporting public media. Learn more at plus dot NPR dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. The U.S. Treasury Department is working with the FBI and national security officials to investigate a breach earlier this month of several Treasury workstations by what it is

calling a state-sponsored actor in China. The agency says the Chinese hackers' access to treasury systems was shut down. The U.S. government is still finding new victims of the widespread espionage campaign from the Chinese hacking group that broke into U.S. telecoms to spy on Washington's elite. NPR's Jenna McLaughlin reports. Government spying on digital communications is nothing new. However, U.S. officials have been raising the alarm over a Chinese hacking campaign

targeting U.S. telecoms, one that has given Beijing broad access to millions of Americans' phone records. Verizon and AT&T say they've finally evicted the Chinese hackers from their networks. But President Biden's Deputy National Security Advisor Ann Neuberger recently said that the U.S. government has found a new victim of the spying operation. President-elect Trump's incoming national security adviser, Mike Walz, has vowed to use offensive cyber attacks in response to efforts like China's telecom spying. But experts are urging US officials to focus on defense, like basic cyber hygiene first.

Jenna McLaughlin, NPR News. With no ceasefire in sight, the last major hospital in northern Gaza is now shut down. Israeli forces raided it and detained many of its doctors and nurses. Israel says the hospital was being used as a Hamas stronghold. For months, Israeli forces have engaged in an intense offensive at Gaza's northern edge, displacing tens of thousands. Throughout the operation, this one hospital carried on treating patients. NPR's Aya Batraoui reports the impact is profound. Many saw this as a starve or leave policy aimed at permanently expelling them from the territory and a lot of them had to leave. The airstrikes were so severe and

they were starving. But, you know, with no ambulances able to work, no rescue services able to operate and pull people from the rubble, this hospital, Command Adwen, became people's only lifeline. And PR's Aya Batraoui, high school graduates in all 50 states can now earn what's called a seal of biliteracy.

A new report shows multilingual literacy is increasing because of it. And PR's Janaki Mehta reports. The seal of bi-literacy was established a decade ago in California to encourage high schoolers to learn a language other than English. That state is still where the highest number of seals was earned between 2022 to 2023, nearly 38 percent of them. And not only are students learning more languages across the country,

they're also earning the seal for a greater number of languages. The idea is for the program to recognize English learners rather than to see them as having a deficit. It also helps connect students with employment opportunities where their language skills might be relevant. Janaki Mehta, NPR News. This is NPR. Nearly all of Puerto Rico started the last day of 2024 in the dark as more than 1.3 million customers were without power early. Officials say it could take up to two days to restore the system. A private company, Luma Energy, oversees electricity and transmission in Puerto Rico. The company says it appears the outage was caused by a failure in an underground power line. The island in general is struggling with a weak infrastructure that was smashed when

Hurricane Maria, a category 4 storm, hit Puerto Rico in 2017. People often reach out to their doctors through patient portals adding to physician workload. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports new research suggests that billing for online medical advice might help. Sending messages to doctors allows patients to avoid some in-person visits, but the massive influx of messages has added a workload for staff.

The Mayo Clinic was among those that began billing for those messages, up to a maximum of $50 in out-of-pocket cost for the patient. The result, according to research in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was a modest but meaningful 8.8 percent reduction in message volume. Only a tiny fraction of those, less than half a percent, resulted in a bill, suggesting that the system helped curtail messages without adding significant costs for patients. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.

From the Pacific Northwest to the coast of Maine, it could be possible to see northern lights across the nation's north tonight. On Wall Street, the Dow is down 75 points, the Nasdaq is off 70. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.