NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2024 9PM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

NPR News: 12-31-2024 9PM 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 Windsor Johnston. Astronauts on the International Space Station are welcoming 2025. That was Butch Wilmore. He's one of the two Boeing astronauts who've been stranded in orbit for months.

He says it's not often that you can bring in the new year more than once. We'll get to go around the planet here every 90 minutes. So we'll get 16 new year celebrations here on the International Space Station. The United Kingdom and Ireland welcomed 2025 just a short time ago with fireworks displays and musical performances. In New York City, celebrations are ramping up in Times Square, where more than a million people are expected to gather to watch the crystal ball drop at midnight. Most of Puerto Rico is without power just hours before the island rings in the new year. A blackout has left more than 1.3 million people without electricity, and utility officials

say it could take days to restore service. The U.S. territory continues to struggle with chronic outages as it works to upgrade its outdated and crumbling power grid. House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a tough fight to retain the gavel in the next Congress. Lawmakers in the lower chamber are preparing to vote on Friday. Republican Congressman Chip Roy says Johnson doesn't have enough support in the lead-up. Right now I don't believe that he has the votes on Friday and I think we need to have the conference get together so that we can get united.

And people say, well Chip, who would you choose otherwise? There are a lot of great members of Congress. Mike's a friend and maybe he can answer the call and he can deliver an agenda and a plan. Byron Donalds is a good man and a good friend. I supported him. I nominated him two years ago. Jim Jordan's a good man and a good friend. There are other members of leadership in the conference

who could do the job. President-elect Donald Trump says Johnson has his complete and total endorsement. Some Medicare beneficiaries will soon save a lot of money at the pharmacy counter. NPR's Sydney Lupkin reports. 2025 is the first year Medicare will have a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug spending. It starts on January 1st and will limit out-of-pocket expenses over the course of the year for drugs

on your plan's Part D formulary. This typically includes drugs purchased at the pharmacy, but not drugs administered in the hospital. A KFF analysis found that it will save millions of beneficiaries money every year, but it will especially help a small subset of patients who spend well over $2,000 a year on expensive drugs for chronic conditions. The cap passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The law also included Medicare drug price negotiation, which will continue in 2025, as well as caps of $35 a month for insulin. Sydney Lepkin, NPR News.

This is NPR News in Washington. Hundreds of people have gotten sick with gastrointestinal illnesses in five separate outbreaks on cruise ships so far this month. The CDC says this year has seen the highest number of outbreaks on cruise lines in a dozen years. Most recently, nearly 13 percent of passengers aboard the Queen Mary 2 were sickened by an

unknown illness. The men's basketball team at Dartmouth is dropping its bid to form a union. NPR Scott Horsley reports the move comes close to the buzzer between the outgoing Biden administration and what is likely to be a more hostile labor relations board. The union-friendly Biden administration had given a green light to the Dartmouth players, who voted 13-2 last spring to join the Service Employees International Union. Dartmouth appealed that decision, though, insisting the team members are student athletes, not employees.

And with the incoming Trump administration set to reshape the National Labor Relations Board, that argument could get a friendly reception. Rather than risk an adverse ruling that could jeopardize future organizing efforts, the Union and the players are dropping their petition. The Union says it will continue to advocate for Dartmouth's varsity athletes and double down in its support for a league-wide players association. Scott Horsley in Pear News, Washington. Health officials say bird flu is infecting more dairy herds, mainly in California. More than 65 people have caught the virus in

the U.S. over the past year, but researchers say the risk of catching the virus remains low for most of the public. This is NPR.