Chapter 1: What military actions did the U.S. take against ISIS in Nigeria?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. President Trump says the U.S. military on Christmas Day struck Islamic State targets in the West African nation of Nigeria. This after he claimed the group had been targeting Christians in the evenly split Christian Muslim country. The U.S. says the strikes were carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities in
and multiple ISIS targets were killed. Nigeria says the recent Islamic attacks are targeting all of those who reject their version of Islam. The country's foreign minister, Yousef Maitai Tugar, spoke with the BBC.
The statement that would be put out was also going to emphatically clarify that because we understand the security threats that we're facing to do with terrorist groups that are targeting innocent lives, not a matter of religion.
Chapter 2: How is the winter storm impacting travel in New York and California?
Residents and security experts say Nigeria in their security crisis, it's impacting both Muslims and Christians. A fast-moving winter storm could batter New York City in the tri-state area with up to eight inches of snow late Friday into Saturday. The National Weather Service says travel could be difficult, especially as the snow is expected to begin falling during the Friday afternoon commute.
Meanwhile, a powerful winter storm is lashing much of California. NPR's Joel Rose reports the storm is causing flash flooding, power outages, and road closures.
Southern California has seen record-setting rainfall totals, with more than three inches of rain in Santa Barbara and parts of Los Angeles County. Bursts of intense rain caused scattered mudslides, flooded freeways, and prompted evacuation orders in parts of L.A. and San Bernardino counties.
Further north, the storm knocked out power to more than 120,000 customers in central and northern California, according to PowerOutage.us, while high winds delayed inbound flights to San Francisco International Airport by an average of two hours, according to the FAA. The storm also dumped several feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Chapter 3: What are the effects of government changes on federal employees?
Some 317,000 federal employees could be out of work by the end of the year. Here's Andrea Hsu.
This year, the Trump administration shuttered offices, fired tens of thousands of people, and paid far more to quit. President Trump says he's ridding the country of waste, fraud, and abuse. But Max Steyer, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, says Trump is turning the government into one that serves the private interests of those in power, not the public good.
I think we are in a battle of narrative. I think that if you look at the facts and if you look at the impact of the actions of this administration, this is a horror show.
In a statement, the White House told NPR Trump's only motivation is, quote, improving the lives of the American people and making the country greater than ever before.
Federal data shows that student math scores are still down compared to where they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. Maine education officials are responding with an effort to get kids invested in math.
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Chapter 4: How are Maine educators addressing declining student math scores?
Matty Smith of Maine Public reports on what that looks like in the classroom. We're going to do the Candy Crush Data Challenge.
In Sean Donovan's career math class, high school students in Brewer, Maine, are using Skittles to get the mean, median, and mode of the color distribution across each pack. Donovan says these skills are necessary for things like election polling, medical sampling, and more. Senior Andre Lutz appreciates learning about math's real-world relevance. He wants to study criminal justice.
When we did our first project, we had to relate something in the real world to some of the stuff that we were learning in math. So I just did it based off of like the crime rates.
As for the color distribution of Skittles, turns out it's pretty random. A lesson that also applies to the real world.
Chapter 5: What is driving the resurgence of graphite mining in the U.S.?
For NPR News, I'm Maddie Smith in Brewer, Maine.
Graphite mining is making a comeback in the United States after largely being shut down in the 1950s. Now demand for the mineral found in everything from pencils to nuclear power plants is surging. And with the ongoing trade tensions with China, domestic production is expected to increase.
The federal government approved the permitting for a graphite mine, what's called the Kilbourne Deposit, that's near the New York-Canada border, and the facility recently opened up this month. From Washington, this is NPR News. I'm Dan Ronan.