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12 eye-opening reads to kick-start your 2025 reading goals

There are so many great books to look forward to in 2025. But first, you'll want to catch up on these perspective-shifting titles from 2024, exploring art, the afterlife, nuns, nuclear war — and more.

Inmate firefighters walk along Highway 120 during the Rim Fire near Yosemite National Park, Calif. in 2013. California currently has about 400 inmate firefighters battling the LA county wildfires.

Inmates are fighting California wildfires in long-running and controversial practice

California has turned to incarcerated firefighters since 1915. To those opposed to the use of inmates as firefighters, the system is seen as exploitative.

Former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, attach siding to the front of a Habitat for Humanity home being built on June 10, 2003, in LaGrange, Georgia.

Jimmy Carter is no saint in my house

For President Biden's legacy, we should look to late President Jimmy Carter's history in Central America.

Woman smiling at camera wearing black shirt and jacket

Ashley Rusch

Ashley Rusch is a producer for KPBS Midday Edition. Before joining KPBS, she was an associate producer at LAist 89.3, where she worked on AirTalk with Larry Mantle, Weekend Edition and All Things Considered.

A firefighting helicopter drops water as the Palisades Fire burns toward the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood on January 10, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.

As firefighters battle roaring fires, new evacuations are ordered

Despite some progress, the biggest blazes — the Palisades and Eaton fires — rage largely uncontained. On Friday evening, the LA Fire Department issued new evacuation orders for the Palisades fire.

Who's in, who's out and who wants to rename the Gulf of Mexico? The quiz is back!

This week, we tackle the Golden Globes, free speech, Girl Scout cookies, dragons and more. Add a perfect score to your New Year's resolutions!

Tetiana (left) and Olena, members of the female air defense unit known as the "Combat Witches of Bucha," assemble a Maxim machine gun during training in the Kyiv region, Ukraine

How these suburban moms in Ukraine manage grief by training to down Russian drones

Women from a Kyiv suburb traumatized by a 2022 massacre by Russian troops joined a volunteer air defense unit to take down Russia's drones — and deal with their fears.

Jinghuan Liu Tervalon, her son, Samuel Smookler, and daughter, Colette Liu Tervalon, in front of the family home in Altadena.

Her family thought they would return home the next day. Now, their house is gone

Jinghuan Liu Tervalon packed a few documents, keepsakes and clothing before leaving her Altadena, Calif., home ahead of the fast-moving Eaton Canyon Fire. Her son returned to find rubble and ash.

In a Supreme Court emergency hearing on Friday, lawyers for TikTok are expected to argue that banning the app will violate the free speech of 170 million American users. The Justice Department is expected to argue that the app is a national security risk.

TikTok challenges its U.S ban at the Supreme Court. Here's what to know

Lawyers for TikTok argued that banning the app will violate the free speech of 170 million American users. The Justice Department contended that the app is a national security risk.

William Burns, director of the CIA, in his office on Jan. 8, 2025.

Q&A: The CIA chief on how the U.S. intel community handled Russia, China and Mideast

In an exit interview with NPR's Mary Louise Kelly, CIA Director William Burns says he still thinks "there's a chance" for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

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