Transcript of Government Shutdown Averted, German Christmas Market Attack, Netflix And The NFL

The federal government will stay open, at least until mid-March.

Congress ratifies a bipartisan short-term spending plan to avert a government shutdown this weekend.

I'm Scott Simon.

I'm Ayesha Rosco, and this is up first from NPR News. Republicans defy the demands of President-elect Donald Trump and vote in favor of the deal.

He wanted any spending package to also raise the debt ceiling, but the debt ceiling is going to stay where it is for now.

We'll have more on that story, plus a car plows into a busy Christmas market in Germany, killing at least five people and leaving more than 200 injured.

And Netflix drives one more to stream major sports events, this time with two NFL games on Christmas Day.

Stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend.

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Lawmakers voted late last night to approve the short-term spending package, just as the federal government was about to shut down.

But not until after Trump interfered with his own demands and threats.

Npr political correspondence, Susan Davis joins us. Sue, thanks for being with us.

You're welcome.

Just after midnight, renegotiated legislation was approved. What's in it?

Well, it's a slim down version of the original bipartisan deal that was derailed earlier in the week after Trump and one of his newest top lieutenants, billionaire businessman Elon Musk, came out in opposition to it after it had been negotiated. It still keeps the government on autopilot until mid-March. So don't worry, they get to do this all over again in the spring. It still includes about $100 billion for states still recovering from natural disasters like North Carolina and Hawaii. It still extends farm programs for about a year. Speaker Mike Johnson removed some previously agreed-upon measures to cover things like pediatric cancer research funding, although I should note the Senate ultimately passed that last night as a standalone measure and a measure to try to control prescription drug costs because it was seen as too big of a giveaway to Democrats. One other thing, it's just shorter. Musk and others helped drive opposition to the bill, in part because it was initially 1,500 pages long. Conservatives really don't like behemoth legislation like that. The new bill was just about 120 pages.

The This was something of a political aim for Donald Trump, who isn't, of course, not going to be President for another month. What did the President-elect get out of this legislation?

I think Trump and his allies are going to point to things like the removal of a provision that would have given members of Congress their first pay raise in about 17 years. They didn't like the way that looked, especially at Christmas time for the party. But Scott, I think a lot of this episode this week potentially exposed more of Trump's political weaknesses. He tried to strong arm into the bill an unconditional increase in the debt ceiling. That's the nation's borrowing limit because he wanted to do it on President Biden's watch to alleviate the political pressure on his administration to do it when that vote happens, likely sometime next summer. Not only is it not in the deal, but a failed second attempt to passage was rejected by 38 House Republicans. That's a pretty big number willing to directly defy Trump. They did it even after he explicitly threatened a primary, anyone who opposed his plans in the 2026 midterms, saying simply they don't seem to be afraid of that threat.

Let me ask you about the status of Elon Musk following all this. Richest man in the world, also now one of the most powerful men in politics.

Absolutely. Musk was really a central figure in killing this original deal. He used his social media platform X to drive public opposition to it. He was cheering on Republican lawmakers who are coming out in opposition to it. He and Vivek Ramiswami are about to head up a new Dawn governmental entity that was created by Trump. It's called the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk says they want to find about $2 trillion in spending cuts to the federal budget. That's a pretty big sum of money. It's clear he intends to be a player here in these budgetary fights. The next Congress is going to have a lot of them. Remember, Scott, the Trump tax cuts expire at the end of 2025. Republicans need to pass a budget first in order to extend them. They still need to pass all 12 spending bills from the last fiscal year and 12 more for this fiscal year. The other lesson this week is that Republicans can't do any of it without Democrats. They need their votes in the House to to pass anything spending-related because there's always going to be a group of hard-line Conservatives who are going to oppose it.

Senate Democrats still have the filibuster, so they're still going to have a seat at the table in any spending talks in the next Congress as well.

House Speaker, Mike Johnson, up for re-election or replacement on January third, are his prospects good?

It's really hard to say, but they're not looking great. For no other reason, he has almost no room for error, and it's unclear if Donald Trump is going to continue to back him for the job. He's going to have to preside over one of the narrowest in history, and he can only lose one, two, maybe three votes and hold on to that gavel. The new Congress could open on a fairly chaotic note. Remember, the House can't do a single thing until they elect a speaker. We saw this happen just last fall when Republicans kicked out Speaker McCarthy. The House didn't operate for 21 days until Mike Johnson ultimately won that race. He and the House of Representatives could be facing a similar fate in just a few weeks.

And paraplitical correspondence, Susan Davis. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

Authorities in Germany say a man intentionally drove a BMW into an outdoor Christmas market yesterday in the city of Magdeburg.

They have identified the man as a Saudi doctor who has lived in the country for about two decades. His motive remains unclear. Reporter Rebecca Collard joins us. Thank you for being with us.

Hi.

And begin, please, by telling us some of the details of yesterday's incident.

Yes. So yesterday's attack took place about 07:00 PM local time. You can see in this security camera footage that's being run on German media that the incident looks really terrifying. You can imagine for those that were inside this crowded market when this happened, just how scary this must have been. You can see this car barrelling into the market through the crowd, and police say that the car traveled some 400 meters into the market before it was stopped. The official death toll was increased this morning, and so was the number of people that are in serious condition. The police have also raided the home of the suspect, but really haven't provided more details about him, Scott. What we know is that he's a 50-year-old man of Saudi origin, a doctor, that he's been living in Germany since 2006. We also know that he was living just south of where this attack took place. Police have also said that this man, they think, acted alone. But despite that, a number of Christmas markets and events have been canceled, and security has been increased in a lot of locations across Germany.

And nothing determined yet about any possible motive, I guess.

Yeah, there's nothing official about the motive, even though the suspect is in police custody. I will say, yesterday, as this news broke and police said this man was of Saudi origin, immediately there were comparisons to the Christmas market attack here in Berlin in 2016. I think that is still very much etched in the minds of Berliners. Then a man drove a truck through a crowded Christmas market, killing 13 people. That attack, of course, was claimed by the Islamic State. Now, police have not released the suspect's name in this attack, which is normal here. But despite that, there's been an awful lot of speculation online and in the news media as to his identity, but also as to the motive of this attack. German media are saying that the suspect has actually been sharing anti-Islamic opinions online and even expressing support for the far-right alternative for Germany Party, which is a party that wants to curb immigration. Some of the AFD, Alternative for Germany, party members have even been accused of racism and Islamophobia in the past. Then interestingly, Scott, after visiting the site today, German interior Minister, Nancy Fazer told reporters that the suspect in this attack, this man of Saudi origin, was clearly Islamophobic.

But the minister did not elaborate on his political affiliations. I do think that all of this speculation reflects a very intense political moment in Germany right now. Elections are scheduled for February, and much of the debate here has really focused on both immigration and security.

I gather Chancellor Scholz visited the market earlier today. What did he have to say?

Yeah, I think a lot of the things that you would expect a Chancellor to say in this position. So he talked about solidarity with the victims, solidarity with the city, solidarity with Germans as a whole. He said, of course, it's important that Germans not be divided by hate, but instead be united. The Chancellor said he also had received messages of support from around the world. He said that an investigation is being carried out and that it is important to understand how this attack happened and also its motivation. You know, Scott, just for a bit of context, Scholz lost a vote of confidence last week. And as I said, Germans are going to the polls in February. The future of Chancellor Scholz, his partners in this now broken political coalition, is very uncertain. Scholz arrived at the market with the Minister of Interior, then the Minister Justice, as well as the state premier who said that there will be a memorial service held this evening.

Reporter Rebecca Collard in Berlin. Thanks so much.

Netflix has streamed live events before, but they are stepping up their game this Christmas day.

Netflix will try to bring two live NFL games to viewers around the world.

And a Beyoncé halftime show to boot. Can Netflix handle that traffic? John Oran is here to tell us more. He covers sports and business for Puck News. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you for having me, Asia.

Okay, so as I mentioned before, Netflix has hosted live events before. There was last month's boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul, as well as a live reunion last year for the reality show Love is Blind. How How have these live events gone in the past?

Well, there have been a couple of hiccups, particularly with the boxing match, when people did get in, sometimes there were too many people that were watching so that everything got buffered. The video wasn't as clear as people are expecting when they watch live events. So one of the main things I'm going to be watching for Christmas is to see whether people have problems coming in to watch the NFL games, and particularly, as you mentioned, when Beyoncé ends up being the halftime show, we know from the Super Bowl, the halftime show gets the highest ratings by far for the game because there's a crush of people that want to come in to see that. But really, this is a short term problem. Amazon has proved that it can get tens of millions of streams and still provide a quality broadcast with no buffering. I have no doubt that Netflix will get there. I do have some doubt whether they'll be able to get there next week or not.

What's in it for the NFL? There is that risk of technical issues, even if that's just short term. They're also competing against Christmas Day, NBA games. So what is the upside for the NFL?

There's huge upside for the NFL. All of the sports leads have been praying and trying to cajole Netflix into coming in and being a serious bidder for these rights. Because if Netflix comes in to be a serious bidder for these rights, it's like buying a house. If you get more than one bidder, the prices are going to go up. And what you have now is that you have NFL packages that all of the broadcast networks have, that Amazon has. If they get one more bidder involved that could say, Oh, you know what? I want to take money night football off of ESPN, and that better has deep pockets like Netflix, sports rates are going to continue to soar.

Are the viewers, the fans of these sports, are they making the jump to streaming? Right now, it seems like they need a cable package, Amazon Prime video. They might need Peacock. Are they going to have to add Netflix to the list? I mean, this could be a lot just for the fan to keep up.

You mentioned the NFL. Imagine being a New York Yankees fan, and you need to get Roku, you need to get Apple TV Plus, you need to get Amazon Prime, you need to get a cable subscription to watch it on Yes Network. All the league's know that fans are getting disenfranchized by having these games going across so many different outlets like that. Right now, they're still in a little bit of a testing mode. So, yeah, you're going to have to get a Netflix subscription if you want to watch every single NFL game, in addition to cable, in addition to Amazon, in addition to there was an exclusive game on Peacock as well. There's an exclusive game on ESPN Plus. That is going to change eventually, I would assume.

Netflix has secured the streaming rights for the 2027 and 2031 FIFA Women's World Cups. What does that tell you about the company's longer term strategy when it comes to sports?

There are going to be a lot of headlines about this deal saying, Here comes Netflix. But really, this is still dabbling in sports to me. Netflix had the opportunity to get a significant NBA package, and it declined to do that because that wasn't going to be a couple of $100 million, like the Women's World Cup rights, that was going to be an investment in the billions of dollars. And they're not quite ready to make that statement yet. But you certainly see where the trend line is going. And when the next batch of rights are up by the end of this decade, which is when Major League Base rights are up, the NFL is going to potentially be up in 2029, 2030. This is a step toward then to where we'll be looking to see if Netflix gets really serious or not.

That's John Oren. He covers Sports and Business for Puck News. Thank you so much for joining us.

That was fun. Thank you for having me.

And that's up first for Saturday, December 21st, 2024. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm Ayesha Rosco.

Our producer is Martin Patience, who had help from Andrew Craig, Elaina Tworak, and Gabe O'Connor.

Our director is Danny Hensel.

Our editors are Kelsey Snell, nick Spicer, Shannon Rodes, Will Jarvis, and Matthew Chairman.

Andy Huther is our Technical Director with engineering support from Zack Coleman, David Greenberg, and Arthur Halley-Larent.

Evie Stone is our Senior Supervising Editor. Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer, and also along with us this week, Julia Redpath.

Louise Clemens is our Deputy Managing Editor.

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