The Latest: 01/01/2026 08:59pm ET

All the latest national and international news. Topics also include finance, weather and entertainment.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is your twenty four to seven use update the
latest use this hour in just four minutes.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
The year long celebration of America's two hundred and fiftieth
birthday is underway. Last night, Washington, d C. The Washington
Monument lit up with a seventeen minute projection show telling
the history of America.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Our nation began not as an idea invented in the
minds of men, but as a land discovered.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
The display will continue nightly through Monday. In New York City,
the iconic Times Square Ball was lit and red, white
and blue and raised again shortly after midnight. For the
first time ever. The ball will drop outside of New
Year's Eve this year, when a Fourth of July countdown
is held in Times Square on July third. The US
has launched strikes on two more alleged drug boats. US

(00:51):
Southern Command, which oversees military operations in Latin America and
the Caribbean, announced the strikes in a post on x yesterday.
Southern Command said the vessels were operated by designated terrorist organizations.
Five people reported killed, so ran Mom Donnie, new York
City's first Muslim mayor, used his inaugural address today to
promote inclusivity and affordability.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Where government looks and lives like the people it represents,
never flinches in the fight against corporate greed and refuses
to cower before challenges that others have deemed too complicated.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Ma'm Donnie, a Democrats socialist, said, under his administration, this
city of eight and a half million people will no
longer be a tale of two cities, the rich and
the poor. He've howed to keep his campaign promised to
make the Big Apple more affordable for everyone through rent freezers,
free buses, and free daycare and city owned grocery stores
could be easier to keep. At least one New Year's resolution.

(01:46):
The new year could mean cheaper and easier access to
weight loss drugs the way Govi pill expected to be
more widely available in the coming weeks after the FDA
recently gave approval to the golp one weight loss medication.
Another medication from Eli Lilly expected to get FDA approval
in the coming months. I'm Jim Roop. Some good news

(02:07):
for people in New York who rely on tips to
supplement their income. Governor Kathy Hochel is going to try
to give tipped workers a break on their taxes.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
Keel says she's going to propose eliminating state income taxes
and up to twenty five thousand dollars in tipped earnings.
This legislation would be included in her state budget proposal
in a few weeks and follows similar legislation on the
federal level. President Trump's past so called Big Beautiful Bill
allows certain tipped workers to deduct up to twenty five
grand per year on federal returns. Scottpringlet New York.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
And analysis finds immigration raids are linked with significant job
losses in the state of California.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Employment data was analyzed by Edward Floors, faculty director of
the u seemer Said Labor Center. Between late May and
early June, the number of people reporting private sector employment
in California dropped by three point one percent. That was
when ice raids began to ramp up. In the first
week of July, employment fell by nearly five percent, translating
to more than seven hundred and forty two thousand fewer

(03:05):
workers in the state. From May to September, private sector
employment fell by nearly three percent overall. I'm Daniel martin Diale.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
City, Chicago's in the Record Book for having their first
ever national televised New Year's Eve event at the river Walk.
Chicago native Chance the Rapper hosted and performed during the celebration.
Mayor Brandon Johnson was in attendance as thousands made their
way through the cold to downtown. They even ended up
with fireworks over the Chicago River. You know, there's a

(03:34):
lot of history associated with January First. In forty five BC,
the Julian calendar took effect for the first time. Sixteen
seventy three, regular mail delivery between New York and Boston
for the first time. No mail delivery today, by the way.
In eighteen sixty three, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation
and US Navy seals were established on this date. In

(03:55):
nineteen sixty two. Also, California became the first state in
the nation to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in
twenty eighteen. I'm Jim Roop.