NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2024 10PM EST

Episode Date: November 17, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges, nine campuses, one purpose, creating tomorrow today. More at IU.edu. Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duahlis Ikaotow. Several of President-elect Trump's picks for top national security posts are facing criticism for their lack of experience and some of the controversial positions they've expressed. NPR's Greg Myrie reports that Trump has taken a different approach to his nominees in his second term. In his first term, Trump selected a national security team largely made up of experienced hands often described as the adults in the room.

This time his nominees are best known for their enthusiastic support of Trump. They include former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence and TV host Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon. Global affairs analyst Ian Brimmer describes the picks this way. Lighter experience generally would be perceived as less capable on the national security defense and foreign policy space, but clearly more alignment, more loyalty personally to Trump. The nominees must still be confirmed by the Senate. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Washington. Immigrant advocacy groups are organizing in response to potential mass deportations expected under President-elect Donald Trump's second term.

Yvette Fernandez with the Mountain West News Bureau has more. Trump has vowed to carry out, quote, the largest mass deportation in history. Leo Murrieta with Make the Road Action Nevada recalled the 1954 military-style operation to remove thousands of Mexicans who had crossed into the U.S. in search of work. Our communities have seen the failure of state agencies, the failure of municipalities, hospitals and others in law enforcement when they have betrayed immigrant communities in the past and mass deportations have happened. Advocacy groups are calling for local and state agencies not to share information with federal immigration enforcement officers.

For NPR News, I'm Yvette Fernandez. A case of M-pox, previously known as monkeypox, has been identified in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a new strain of M. pox has been confirmed in California's San Mateo County. And Piers Gabriel Emmanuel reports. This strain, known as clade one, is more deadly than the M. pox strain already circulating in the U.S. Its fatality rate ranges from 1 percent to 10 percent. The California patient had recently traveled to Africa, where there is a large outbreak of MPOX. After returning to the state, he visited a local health clinic where he was diagnosed.

Chris D. Hudson is with the CDC. Symptoms thus far have remained mild and they are now isolating at home. So hopefully they will fully recover. Hudson says the risk to the general public is low. Other clade 1 M-pox cases in Sweden, Thailand, India and elsewhere have not led to additional cases. This is NPR News from New York. The first Native American to serve as US treasurer Chief Many Hearts, Lynn Malerba of the Mohegan

tribe is stepping down and returning to her nation. Indian Country Today reports that she is the 18th and first female Mohegan chief. She took on this role two years ago and created the first Office of Tribal and Native Affairs in the Treasury Department. The saber-toothed tiger has been extinct for thousands of years, but scientists are able to learn something new, thanks to a discovery near-perfect fossil from 35,000 years ago in Piers Mansi-Korana reports. Found with the saber-toothed kitten in northeastern Russia four years ago, but

have only just now published their findings in the journal Scientific Reports. The kitten, which was just three weeks old when it was preserved, still had its whiskers and claws intact and was covered in short, thick, soft dark brown fur. Scientists compared the kitten to a modern-day lion cub, noting that the mummified kitten had wider paws but smaller ears than the modern feline. This is not the first that the mummified kitten had wider paws but smaller ears than the modern feline. This is not the first time a mummified animal has been found in Siberia. A woolly mammoth was unearthed by gold miners in August. Mansi Khurana, NPR News.

In northern India's Uttar Pradesh, a fire at a government-run medical college has killed at least 10 newborn babies. However, a local official says that at least 45 babies were rescued from the neonatal intensive unit in the city of John Z. This is NPR News. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. When your celebration of life is prepaid today, your family is protected tomorrow. Planning ahead is truly one of the best gifts you can give your family. For additional information visit DignityMemorial.com.