NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: November 16, 2024

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Hey, it's Aisha Harris from Pop Culture Happy Hour. If you love NPR podcasts, you'll want the new NPR Plus podcast bundle. Enjoy an all-you-can-eat selection of NPR Plus podcasts with sponsor-free listening and bonus episodes. Plus, you'll be supporting public radio. Check it out at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Ram. The COP29 climate talks now underway in Azerbaijan mark nearly three decades of world leaders meeting annually to hash out plans to limit planet warming emissions.

But the earth is still on track for a dangerous amount of warming. NPR's Michael Kompley reports there are calls to change the United Nations process for dealing with climate change. A group of scientists and advocates say countries need to shift from negotiations to action on the climate commitments they've already made. The group is pushing for smaller, more frequent meetings that hold countries accountable. And it says the meeting should be hosted by nations that support a transition from fossil fuels, the main source of climate pollution.

The lead negotiator for the presidency of this year's climate meeting in Azerbaijan, Yalkin Rafyev, defended the negotiations. YALKIN RAFYEV, President, UNHCR, Azerbaijan It's better than any alternative, taking into account that we don't have any alternative processes. RAFYEV URGED NEGOTIATORS TO MOVE FASTER ON A PLAN TO HELP DEVELOPING COUNTRIES DEAL WITH CLIMATE CHANGE. MICHAEL COPPLEY, NPR News. A new report says the war between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah has cost Lebanon

more than $8 billion. The country was already suffering a long-running financial crisis. NPR's Jane Raff reports from Beirut. The Lebanese government says almost 3,400 people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since the war began, many of them women and children. And now the World Bank has detailed economic losses. It says physical damage to buildings amounts to $3.4 billion, while overall economic losses have topped more than $5 billion.

The biggest impact has been on housing, with almost 100,000 apartments and houses damaged or destroyed. As well as leaving almost a million people displaced, the bank estimates that at least 166,000 people have lost their jobs, leaving many with nowhere to live and no income. Jane Araf and PR News, Beirut. Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz resigned his House seat this week after President-elect Trump named him his choice to be attorney general. This paused a House ethics investigation

into whether he sexually trafficked a 17-year-old, an allegation he has denied. Some senators, including Republicans who will consider the Gates nomination, want the panel to release its findings. Republican Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota says that decision is up to the committee, but he believes that most Republicans support the nomination. They know that an attorney general that is under Donald J. Trump is going to work for the American people instead work for the American people instead of for the bureaucracy, which it seems like that's what the DOJ has been

doing for a while. The attorney general is the nation's top lawyer. Gates graduated from law school but has spent most of his career as a lawmaker. This is NPR News. The National Hurricane Center is tracking tropical storm Sarah as it churns through the Caribbean. It's now drenching the northern coast of Honduras and could cause life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. The ancient English folk dance form, Morris dancing, is undergoing a renaissance after being rediscovered and reinvented by a new demographic. Vicki Barker reports from London.

-♪ Rise as black as gold... -♪ Meet the Mali Nomades, a troupe of young, gender-nonconforming drag kings who represent the changing face of Morris dancing. The folk tradition had been dying out, with fewer white men interested in festooning their shins and shoes with bells and waving sticks, swords, or handkerchiefs around with fewer white men interested in festooning their shins and shoes with bells and waving sticks, swords, or handkerchiefs around in choreographed

moves outside their local pub. But a new generation has been drawn to the elasticity of Morris dancing, which has always allowed for local variations. The Morris census shows women form the majority of Morris dancers for the first time ever, and the proportion of non-white, non-binary, or LGBTQ members is growing fast. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London. McDonald says it will invest $100 million to persuade customers to buy its hamburgers again after a multi-state E. coli outbreak.

More than 100 people fell ill between September 12 and October 21. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say slivered onions on the quarter-pounders were the likely source. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.