NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2024 12AM EST

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autografecollection.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump has picked longtime aide and campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt to be his White House press secretary, and at 27 years old she'll be the youngest person ever to hold that position.

And PR's Elena Moore has more. Caroline Levitt has become a prominent face on the Trump team. She recently served as national press secretary for the campaign and previously worked as an aide in Trump's first administration. Just two years ago, she also ran for Congress in a competitive district back in her home state of New Hampshire and failed to unseat the Democratic incumbent. Now, instead of being one of the first members of Gen Z to serve in Congress, she will be the first Gen Z White House press secretary.

Elena Moore, NPR News, Washington. A House Democrat from New York is pushing back against recent comments by President-elect Donald Trump, suggesting he may try running for a third term as president. As NPR's Hansi Lo Wong reports, the U.S. Constitution bans a person from being elected president more than two times. On his first return to Washington, D.C., since winning his second presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump told a group of House Republicans, quote, I suspect I won't be running again unless you say he's so good, we've got to figure something else out, unquote. That prompted Democratic representative Dan

Goldman of New York to introduce a House resolution to reaffirm that the 22nd Amendment applies to Trump. He likes to float these ideas, which he can claim are jokes, and then they become normalized and they turn from jokes to reality. The resolution is not expected to go to a vote in the Republican controlled House, but Goldman says he wants to remind everyone the 22nd Amendment says, quote,

no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice. Hansi Luong, NPR News. elected to the office of the president more than twice. Hansi Luong, NPR News. Trump's choice to lead the Defense Department was once flagged by a fellow service member as a possible insider threat. Pete Hegseth is an Army National Guard veteran. He was accused of having a tattoo on his right bicep that's been used by white supremacists. He was pulled by his National Guard unit from guarding during Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration. President Joe Biden is 2021 inauguration.

President Joe Biden is in Peru, where he'll meet Saturday with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Biden hopes to strengthen the U.S. relationship with Xi before Donald Trump moves into the White House. Trump campaigned on an America First platform and has threatened to levy major tariffs on Chinese goods. MPR's Osama Khalid is at the meeting and says Trump is a major topic of discussion there. One big unknown though heading into the next administration is whether Trump is going to make good on his campaign promise to hike tariffs again on China.

I will say broadly the Biden administration believes that this relationship with China is hugely important and how it goes could affect the world in the coming decades. That's NPR's Asma Khalid. Retail spending was up in October by four tenths of a percent from the month before. A 1.6 percent jump in auto sales helped to fuel the increase. Sales also climbed 2.3 percent at electronics and appliance stores. You're listening to NPR News. Firefighters say they are close to fully containing a wildfire that's been burning along the New Jersey-New York border for more than a week.

That blaze has burned more than seven and a half square miles of land. Officials say the fire is about 70 percent contained in New York, while in New Jersey it's 90 percent contained. One firefighter was killed last weekend when a tree fell on him. After five years of restoration, Paris' Notre Dame Cathedral will reopen to the public in a couple of weeks. And as NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports, a beloved statue that survived the devastating fire five years ago was returned to the cathedral on Friday nights.

A procession wound through the streets of Paris Friday evening. People held candles, sang and prayed as they accompanied a 14th century statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus that was found intact in the ruins of the 2019 fire. Parisian Samuel Dupont took part. We have been waiting for this a very long time so it's yeah it's a very significant moment. For the last five years, the statue has been housed in another Paris church. The cathedral will reopen with two days of ceremonies and celebration on December 7th and 8th. Eleanor Beardsley, MPR News, Paris.

Charlie Hull and Nellie Quarter are at the top of the lead board after two rounds at the LPGA tournament that's currently underway in Florida this weekend. Hull had Nellie Korda are at the top of the lead board after two rounds at the LPGA tournament that's currently underway in Florida this weekend. Hull had five birdies and leads Korda by two shots. It's the first time that Korda has played in the past two months. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.