--:-- Rylan Barton: This message comes from NPR sponsor Rosetta Stone, an expert in language learning for 30 years. Right now, NPR listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership to 25 different languages for 50% off. Learn more at rosettastone.com slash NPR.
--:-- Rylan Barton: Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump says a Supreme Court ruling against his tariff policies would be catastrophic and hurt his ability to defend the country. I think it would be devastating for our country, but I also think that we'll have to develop a game two plan. We'll see what happens.
--:-- Rylan Barton: Trump's comments come after conservative justices seemed skeptical of his authority to unilaterally impose tariffs on nearly every country in the world. Challengers say Trump is illegally using an emergency power to claim nearly limitless tariff power, and American small businesses are paying the price.
--:-- Rylan Barton: The administration argues tariffs are part of the president's power to regulate trade.
--:-- Rylan Barton: The head of the U.S. Postal Service says the federal mail agency has a new plan for cutting costs and boosting package deliveries in the coming year. As NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports, the plan comes after the new leader of USPS spoke out against privatizing the country mail service.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: The U Postal Service generally receives no tax dollars and relies instead on stamp and other service fees to keep running. And in a new video to postal workers, Postmaster General David Steiner says its financial situation is precarious. No organization, even the Postal Service, can lose billions every year without consequence.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: Over the coming 12 months, we're going to act with urgency to get on a financially sustainable path. With fewer people and businesses using first-class mail, Steiner says he wants to expand the Postal Service's package delivery service.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: USPS is still carrying out a reorganization plan that began under its previous leader, Louis DeJoy. The plan has led to stamp price increases, plus fewer mail pickups in many rural communities and longer delivery times.
--:-- Hansi Lo Wong: Hansi Luang, NPR News.
--:-- Rylan Barton: The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is one step closer to becoming the world's first trillionaire. Tesla shareholders voted to give their CEO a pay package worth $1 trillion if he hit certain performance targets over the next decade. The vote followed weeks of debate over his management record and whether anyone deserved such an unprecedented windfall.
--:-- Rylan Barton: Stocks fell sharply today on worries about the job market and possible overinvestment in tech companies. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled nearly 400 points or eight of a percent. All the major stock indexes fell during the day with the S 500 sliding 1 percent and the tech Nasdaq dropping almost 2 percent.
--:-- Scott Horsley: Investors are nervous that the run in technology stocks fueled by the artificial intelligence boom, could turn out to be overdone. Ordinarily, investors would have been looking for a report from the Labor Department this week on the job market, but that's been held up by the government shutdown. That's giving extra attention to other measures to the labor market, including a report from outplacement firm Challenger Grain Christmas, which showed it was the worst October for layoff notices in more than two decades.
--:-- Scott Horsley: Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
--:-- Rylan Barton: The National Retail Federation predicts shoppers will spend over $1 trillion during the holiday season for the first time. This is NPR News.
--:-- Rylan Barton: The International Criminal Court has confirmed war crime charges against Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. The charges include murder, sexual enslavement, and rape while he led the brutal Lord's Resistance Army. Kony was thrust into the global spotlight in 2012 when a video about his actions went viral.
--:-- Rylan Barton: For the trial to proceed, the ICC would need to have Kony in custody.
--:-- Rylan Barton: Brazil's Congress has approved a new bill to exempt tens of millions of poor and middle-class workers from paying income tax while increasing taxes on the rich. The landmark tax reform was one of the leftist president main campaign promises as NPR Carrie Kahn reports.
--:-- Carrie Kahn: The bill allows Brazilians an exemption from taxes raising the limit the poor and middle class can make to the equivalent of about a month. Previously, only those making less than about $500 a month were exempt. To make up the difference in lost income, the government will increase taxes on Brazil's top earners and their dividends.
--:-- Carrie Kahn: Supporters say it's common-sense legislation. Those who have less pay less. Those who have more pay more. President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is set to sign the bill, handing him a major political victory as he plans to run for re-election next year.
--:-- Carrie Kahn: Congress is still also looking to tax new outlets, including fintech companies and betting operators.
--:-- Carrie Kahn: Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro.
--:-- Rylan Barton: A former Justice Department employee who threw a sandwich at a federal agent during President Trump's law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C., has been found not guilty of assault. A viral video made Sean Charles Dunn a symbol of resistance to Trump's deployment of federal agents.
--:-- Rylan Barton: I'm Rylan Barton. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
