Ukraine's New Year's Agony, Puerto Rico Power Outages, Dry January Tips

So, how did you spend your New Year's Eve lately? I mean, it was a wild night. I went to bed at nine. I couldn't figure out who was celebrating the New Year finally figured out was Greenland. Oh, that's great. That's great. That's great. I stayed up with the kids until Rio de Janeiro at 10 o'clock Eastern time.

Anyway, we also want to start the year by thanking everyone who joined NPR Plus or made a donation to the NPR Network or your local station during our end of the year fundraising campaign and thanks if you already were an NPR Plus supporter.

And you might have heard us say it before, but we'll say it again. You've found one of the most trusted news outlets in the United States today. And our responsibility is to you. And that's no small thing in 2025. We are immensely grateful for your support. If you missed making your donation before the end of the year, no worries. It was never a bad time. New year, sign up for NPR plus today and get perks from more than 25 NPR podcasts at plus.npr.org.

or make a gift at donate.npr.org. Thanks again, and on to the show. A big share. A big share. Exactly. Ukrainians set modest goals for the year now beginning. One man says he hopes his country still exists in a year and that his friends will be alive. The new year started with Russian drone attacks, so what happens next? I'm Steve Enscape with Leila Fadel, and this is up first from NPR News.

A collapse of Puerto Rico's power grid left hundreds of thousands in the dark. Getting the lights back on everywhere could take more than a day, and a hurricane more than seven years ago may be at least partly to blame. Plus, what's behind these resolutions to make January dry? You actually start feeling more joy and more excited about life. Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

The capital of Ukraine is starting the new year under a new wave of Russian drone attacks. They began shortly after Ukraine's president addressed his nation. Volatimir Zelensky acknowledged the agony of 2024 with heavy casualties and Russia's army advancing. Many Ukrainians fear this year will be harder. NPR's Brian Mann joins us from Kyiv. Hi, Brian. Good morning, Leila. So what can you tell us about this latest drone attack on the Capitol?

This is what it sounded like just before dawn as air defenses began to fire here in Kyiv. Military officials say Russia targeted the city with drones packed with explosives. At least two civilians were killed and six others injured and this attack set one apartment building on fire. Now Ukrainians have been living through these kinds of attacks for nearly three years. What did Zelensky say last night about the state of the war?

Well, these New Year's Eve addresses are a tradition here in Ukraine. Zelensky was of course once a popular actor and he's known for giving powerful speeches. So a lot of Ukrainians I spoke to were really waiting for this moment last night. They wanted to hear his take on the crisis.

And Zelensky, last night, described the situation on the front lines as extremely, extremely difficult. But his speech then turned to a kind of pep talk, where he said Ukraine, with the support of allies, including the US, is forcing Russia to pay a steep price. You paid the occupiers back, Zelensky said. You brought the war back to Russia. And how accurate is that? Is that a rosy picture? Is that the truth?

Well, Ukraine is finding ways to punch back, and let me describe some of that. The Russian army, and this is important, appears to be losing more than 30,000 soldiers killed and wounded every month. Last summer, of course, Ukraine invaded Russia in a surprise move. They still occupy a chunk of the Kursk region.

Last month, Ukraine's spy agency claimed credit for assassinating a top Russian general in Moscow, and Ukraine is launching frequent drone attacks of its own, striking industrial and military targets deep inside Russia. But they let every military analyst I talk to, even members of Ukraine's general staff, they say that all hasn't been enough. Ukraine is still on the back foot. They're facing a desperate manpower shortage and deep fatigue among their soldiers. Okay, so let's look forward. What are Ukrainians saying about the next stage of this war?

Yeah, they're frightened. You know, they're growing doubts about support from allies on Monday. The Biden administration announced another $2.5 billion in military aid. But President-elect Donald Trump will be sworn in January 20th. Trump's promise to push for a quick end to this war. And he's voiced ambivalence about supporting Ukraine's war effort. And then there's a second huge question here. How or if Ukraine can muster more soldiers for its exhausted army

And that all adds up to deep uncertainty. I spoke last night with Yaroslav Mishkov. He's 24 years old. I think I do not have a lot of hopes. Maybe that Ukraine will be existing next year, and that will be great. And that my friends will be alive. That will be great, still.

So there's a lot of pessimism here, especially among young people I've been talking to. Meshkoff told me one of his best friends had just been conscripted into the army, so this new years he and his friends weren't celebrating. Sobering his wishes just to exist next year. NPR's Brian Mann in Kyiv. Thank you, Brian. Thank you.

At least half of Puerto Rico is starting the New Year in the dark. A collapse of the power grid left nearly all the island without electricity yesterday. The latest outage since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017. Alex Figaro is on the line. He's a reporter for El Nuevo Dia in San Juan. Hi, Alex.

Hi, good morning, happy new year. Good morning, happy new year. So, Puerto Rico, how did it look and sound on New Year's after a day without power? Well, people woke up in shock yesterday and that humming from the power generators across towns was a terrible flashback from New Year's celebration.

2017 after the hurricane, but partial outages have been a plague for years now. But it's been a while since there was a total blackout without a natural disaster. And it happened in the day when people were preparing for their celebrations at home and elsewhere. So many had to make adjustments together with loved ones and to receive the new year.

Now you mentioned the Hurricane, Hurricane Maria that happened more than seven years ago. What do we know about what caused the blackout here?

Well, Luma Energy, which is the company in charge of the power lines in Puerto Rico, said in a statement that there was some kind of failure on a major underground cable that carries energy out of one of the principal power plants located in the south coast of the island. At this point, Luma has not said what caused that damage. Last night, it said that the investigation was ongoing.

All we know is that when the plan was not able to send energy out, it protected itself by shutting down. That's supposed to happen.

What we haven't seen in a long time is that without the major disasters going on, all the other power plants went down also in a chain reaction. Now, the hurricane happened more than seven years ago, but infrastructure has struggled since. Why is the island's infrastructure still so shaky that the failure of a cable can plunge nearly everyone into darkness like that?

Yeah, that's something that almost everybody still can understand. There was a time that other countries in this region studied our grade because it was ahead of this time, but for decades it didn't receive the maintenance properly and important upgrades were not made.

At the same time, the government agency that was in charge of the grid for decades went into a $9 billion debt that is right now in court. Plus, many of the restoration projects with money from FEMA after Maria are still waiting to start.

And when's the power expected to come back on? The power has been coming back gradually. The latest update we received just moments ago, it was 77% of the 1.4 million clients are back on service.

But according to law, my food restoration will take from 24 to 48 hours because of the time. And really quickly, I mean, Puerto Ricans have been through these types of outages before, where residents were prepared. Are they prepared? Many have. There's an increasing sector of the population that have been gearing up. But there are a lot of people, especially elderly, that doesn't have the resources. Alex Figaro reports for Al Nuevo. Dia, thank you so much, Alex. Thank you.

But because it is January 1st, some people, maybe a few, might be listening to this with a slight hangover after ringing in the new year. Some people will also use this fresh start to take a break from alcohol. The 31 days of dry January offer a chance to dry out after the holidays and give people a glimpse of what life looks like without alcohol at all.

NPR's LifeKit host, Mariel Segura, is here. Good morning. Good morning, Steve. And happy new year. Why might someone consider participating in dry January? I think alcohol is everywhere in our culture, so it's easy to forget that it's actually not good for us. The World Health Organization says there's no safe amount of alcohol to drink, and that can be true even if you're drinking only a moderate amount. Two drinks are less a day for men, one drink or less a day for women.

You'll be giving yourself a break from something that can be very harmful to your health. And if you're not really worried about those health effects long term, you might think about whether alcohol is enriching your life right now. Are you getting hangovers all the time? Are you sleeping poorly after you drink? Are you spending a ton of money on it? Then it might be worth taking a break, seeing what life is like without it.

You mentioned it's everywhere in the culture. People are often expected to have a drink when they go out. It's how many people socialize. Yeah, you know, this comes up in dating a lot. People will be like, you want to meet up for a drink?

And I'll tell you, full disclosure, I don't drink anymore. And there's plenty of other stuff you can do together. Like do an arts and crafts night, a roller skating, cook together. Boring. No, I'm sorry. This stuff is really, can be really fun. And when you stop drinking, even for a time, it does leave an empty space to figure out what you actually like doing. And that's scary, but it's also exciting, right?

Okay, what's some other advice for people to get through 31 days of this? One is if people are giving you a hard time about not drinking, don't feel like you have to apologize or explain. You can simply say, you know, I'm just not drinking right now. I'd love your support. And if you do end up in a bar for a friend's birthday or something, one tip from Casey Davidson. She's a sobriety coach and the host of the Hello Someday podcast for sober curious women.

don't volunteer to be a designated driver, just because you're not drinking. People tend to immediately say, oh, you're doing an alcohol challenge. Great. You can drive us. And then you're stuck there till the end with a whole bunch of people who might get drunk. And it's really annoying. I love that insight. If you're not the designated driver, you're not stuck there. You can bail out. So if people do this, can they expect some side effects in their lives?

Yeah. And Casey says, if you think you have a physical addiction to alcohol, if you're worried about that, talk to your doctor about how to detox safely. But even if you don't drink a ton, the first couple of weeks, you might feel some symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, like interrupted sleep and fatigue. Once you get past that, you start feeling much better. You actually start feeling more joy and more emotionally stable and more excited about life and sober sleep is fantastic.

She says you can also kind of prop yourself up by giving yourself sober treats, like get a pedicure or order sushi or watch a movie, because alcohol is not the only way to feel good. NPR's Mary El-Sigara. Cheers. Cheers to you, Steve. And happy new year. If you want more from LifeKit about how to navigate Dry January, they have a special newsletter you can sign up for at npr.org slash Dry January.

And that's the first for Wednesday, January 1st, 2025. I'm Leila Faldin. And I'm Stephen Skipp, your next listeners. Consider this from NPR. We hear it up first. Give you three big stories of the day. Consider this digs in on one big story. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rylan Barton, Megan Keene, Jan Johnson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Katie Klein, Ben Abrams, and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Stacy Abbott. Join us again tomorrow. You know, every single one of those people probably has a New Year's Eve story as exciting as ours was. Maybe a little more exciting. In some cases. Maybe.