NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-14-2024 5PM EST

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

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The Code Switch team spent Election Day talking to folks about how the outcome might impact them. It's a time capsule of people's hopes and fears before they knew the results. One way or another, there's a change coming. I wanted to vote for Trump, but I voted for her. Gays for Trump. I cried this morning. I've been crying on and off. I'm terrified. Listen to Code Switch, the podcast about race and identity from NPR. Live from NPR.

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President-elect Donald Trump will appoint noted vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the agency that oversees the Food and Drug Administration and other health agencies, Trump nominating RFK to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. HHS also oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and Medicare and Medicaid. Robert Kennedy Jr. ran as an independent presidential candidate before dropping out in August and throwing his support behind Trump. In addition to controversial

comments on vaccines, Kennedy has also made baseless claims that Wi-Fi causes cancer and that chemicals in water can lead to children becoming transgender. Republicans are going to be the majority in the House of Representatives with more on what that means for the legislative agenda going forward. Here's NPR's Maura Liason. It's official. Republicans have won at least 218 House seats. With a 53 to 47 majority in the Senate, Donald Trump in the White House, and a conservative Supreme Court, Republicans now will control all three branches of government. That means they'll have an easier time passing the

presidents and their own legislative agendas, including tax cuts and deregulation. It's still not clear exactly how big the GOP majority in the House will be, and it could be very small in low single digits. But loyalty to Trump may help Republicans be more unified than they've been for a long time. As GOP representative Troy Nell said, only half joking, if Donald Trump says jump three feet in the air and scratch your head, we'll jump three feet in the air and scratch our heads.

Mara Eliason, NPR News. President Biden is traveling to South America today for a series of meetings with world leaders. NPR's Asma Khalid reports Biden faces a daunting challenge following Trump's victory in the presidential election. President Biden came into office with a mission to strengthen U.S. alliances, and that is the record he'll be taking with him when he meets in Lima with leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation.

He'll go with our alliances in the Indo-Pacific at a literal all-time high. Japan, Korea, Australia, the Philippines. That's Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, speaking to reporters. And that's what he's going to hand off to President Trump. But Trump has championed a go-it-alone America First vision, threatening tariffs on friends and foes. So it's not clear how Biden may try to reassure anxious allies this week. Asma Khalid, NPR News, Lima. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says the central bank is expected to trim rates slowly and

deliberately in the months ahead. In a speech in Dallas today, Powell saying inflation is moving closer to the Fed's 2% target, though he says it's not there yet. Powell at the same time saying the U.S. economy is strong. The Fed has announced two interest rate cuts so far this year and could announce another in December. Wall Street's main indexes closed lower today. On Wall Street, the Dow fell 207 points, the NASDAQ down 123 points.

You're listening to NPR. Tropical Storm Sarah has formed in the Caribbean Sea with 40 mile an hour winds just off the coast of Honduras. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports it threatened Central America with flooding. Forecasters say some strengthening is possible as the system meanders near the Honduran coast over the next few days. National Hurricane Center director Michael Brennan says tropical storm Sarah could dump more than two feet of rain. And that has the potential to cause life threatening flash flooding, potentially catastrophic impacts, landslides across much of this area. So it's going to be a very dangerous situation all the way through the weekend. Heavy rain is also expected for Belize, El

Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The storm is forecast to move over Mexico's Yucatan and enter the Gulf of Mexico early next week on an uncertain path. Forecasters say it's too soon to determine if Sarah is a threat to the US Gulf Coast. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. It's bad enough when a real bear breaks into your car but now it appears someone donning a bear costume is causing trouble in California. California Insurance Department says four Los Angeles residents were arrested in a sting operation, dubbed Operation Bear Claw, before accused of defrauding three insurance companies out of nearly $142,000 by claiming a bear

damaged luxury vehicles. Who was accused of providing video footage to an insurance company showing a bear inside a Rolls Royce and two Mercedes. The department says a biologist after reviewing the video says they clearly show a person in a bear suit. Crital futures prices closed slightly higher today, oil up 27 cents a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.