NPR News 2013-06-26 加文本

NPR News 2013-06-26

From NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

President Obama is out with a far-reaching plan to fight climate change. In a speech at Georgetown University, Obama announced his administration would launch the first-ever federal regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. He's also calling for a boost in renewable energy production on federal lands and means of preparing localities to address global warming. Republican critics in Congress call the president's proposals a job killer. Obama also shed more light today on how his administration is deliberating the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to Texas.

“Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires a finding that doing so would be in our nation's interest. And our national interest will be served only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”

The pipeline has been under review for more than four years.

The US Supreme Court has struck down part of the Voting Rights Act that had required federal monitoring of states with the history of racial discrimination. In a 5-4 ruling today, the justices said Congress needed to update its formula for deciding which states and localities still require pre-approval before changing voting laws. NPR's Carrie Johnson has been following this case.

Chief Justice John Robert writing for the majority said that the coverage formula under the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is unconstitutional because it's based on outdated data, election turnout data and other data back from the 1960s and 1970s.

NPR's Carrie Johnson reporting.

Civil rights activists worry the heart of the Voting Rights struck down. There will be far less protection for minority voting groups.

In other news, the government’s latest data for the month of May show new homes selling at their fastest pace in five years. NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports the Department of Housing and Urban Development says that's a much faster rate than last year.

New homes are selling at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 476,000. The last time they were selling at that pace was in July of 2008. Demand for new homes is up 2% from April and up to 29% from the same period last year. Year over year the data show median home prices are up about 10%. This is consistent with other economic readings on housing, which show demand is up, supply is down, and that prices are rising annually by double digits. Economists say higher demand is driven in part by rising interest rates as consumers try to log in while rates are still close to historic lows. Yuki Noguchi, NPR News, Washington.

US stocks continue to trade higher with the Dow Jones Industrial average up 115 points at 14,772; NASDAQ up 24 at 3,344; S&P 500 up 15 points. This is NPR News.

The winds have died down a little in Colorado's southwestern mountains where wildfires burned 124 square miles. It's about four miles away from South Fork, which was evacuated last week.

German prosecutors say they have uncovered a plot to use model airplanes to carry out terrorist attacks. NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson reports from Berlin that police carried out nine raids in Germany and Belgium in connection with the plot but arrested no one.

Authorities say they're investigating a number of men of Tunisian origin living in Munich and other southern German cities as well as in Belgium. They add the pre-dawn raids were to gather evidence. The men were not identified, nor whether alleged targets. Prosecutors says two of the men are suspected of preparing for an Islamist attack with explosives, using the planes. They add that neither the men nor the plot appeared to be linked to known terrorist groups. It's not the first time authorities have uncovered alleged plots involving toy aircraft. Last November, a US man was sentenced to 17 years in prison over a plan to fly remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives into the Pentagon and US Capitol. Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson NPR News, Berlin.

The US continues to press Russia to extradite former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who is charged with leaking classified information. Russian President Vladimir Putin says Edward Snowden is still in the transit area of the Moscow airport, which means he has not formally entered Russia. Chinese authorities allowed Snowden to fly to Russia on Sunday, triggering strong criticism from the US.

US stocks higher with the Dow up more than 100 points.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News in Washington.