NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-15-2024 8PM EST

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

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Hey, it's Peter Sagal, the host of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Now, if you like Wait, Wait, and you're looking for another podcast where the hosts take self-deprecating jabs at themselves and invite important guests on who have no business being there, then you should check out NPR's How to Do Everything. It's hosted by two of the minds behind Wait, Wait, who literally sometimes put words in my mouth. Find the How to Do Everything podcast wherever you are currently listening to me go on about it. Jack Spear Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Joe Biden is in South America for the last major summit of his presidency. Biden has been holding bilateral meetings with world leaders at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. Tomorrow, he sits down with Chinese counterpart, President Xi Jinping.

Beers Asmohal is traveling with the president. Biden came into office pledging that America was back on the international stage. He has worked during his presidency to strengthen alliances. And Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, says that is the same vision he's taking here, that these partnerships are critical

to U.S. national security. But we should point out that Trump does not have the same commitment to working with allies. He has campaigned on a sort of go-it-alone strategy. NPR's Asma Khalid, the annual APEC summit brings together leaders from 21 economies that jointly account for almost two-thirds of global GDP and roughly half the world's trade. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has been nominated to the country's next Interior Secretary post

and lead to a newly created National Energy Council. NPR's Kirk Sigler reports, President-elect Trump is pushing to fast track energy development on public and private lands. Trump has tapped North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum to lead the Department of Interior, which manages roughly a fifth of all the land in the U.S. The president-elect also wants Burgum to lead a newly formed National Energy Council that

will oversee all U.S. regulatory and permitting agencies with an eye toward fast-tracking everything from oil and gas drilling to renewable projects. Burgum is also expected to sit on Trump's powerful National Security Council. In a press release, Trump takes a swipe at the outgoing Biden administration and its climate goals, which he says stifled drilling on federal land. But last year under Biden, federal data showed the U.S. actually produced more crude oil than any other country ever. Kirk Ziegler, NPR News.

Gaza's health ministry says more than 43,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in a 14-month-old war, as Iowa Trial reports on the continued toll of airstrikes and the climbing death toll. A mother and her 16-year-old son were killed in an Israeli drone strike on tents in Boir Asian, central Gaza. The boy's siblings and a friend gathered around his body and prayed. Also killed in that airstrike were a 9-year-old girl and her uncle. All were buried Friday.

These are among the latest deaths in Gaza from Israeli airstrikes. Israel's spokesman David Menzer says the government's war objectives are being met. Our battle is not with ordinary Gazans. It is with Hamas. We have eviscerated them. Also killed this week were five Israeli soldiers battling Hamas in northern Gaza. Israel's military operation there since early last month has killed at least 1,800 Palestinians with hundreds more missing under the rubble, Gaza's health ministry says.

Ayah Batraoui, NPR News. You're listening to NPR. General Motors has confirmed it's laying off around a thousand workers worldwide. The workers will be losing their jobs or mostly salaried employees with some blue-collar jobs also affected. GM&O, the automakers have been trying to figure out how to move forward and continue to update gas-powered models while also investing heavily in EV technology. New research has found that acute stress reduces a mouse's ability to perform precise memories,

and PRS John Hamilton has more on the study in the journal Cell. Usually, mice are very good at learning that one tone means a mild shock while another poses no threat. But researchers found that stressed mice had trouble remembering which tone was which. In an experiment, mice were physically restrained for 30 minutes, something that causes acute stress. Then they were exposed to both the harmless tone and the tone paired with a shock. Afterward, these mice would freeze in response to either tone.

That suggests stress had impaired their ability to form precise memories. Instead, they had formed a generalized memory that associated any tone with a threat. The finding could explain why people with post-traumatic stress disorder tend to mistake harmless signals in the environment for signals that indicate danger. John Hamilton, NPR News. The New York judge is rejecting an effort by state regulators to shut down a Bitcoin mining operation over worries about greenhouse gas

emissions. The facility generates Bitcoin by operating thousands of power-thirsty computer servers solving millions of complex equations. That means for now the GreenEdge power plant can continue to operate in New York's Finger Lakes region. There have been concerns from climate law environmentalists. I'm Jack Spear in PR News in Washington.