NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2024 3AM 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 autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President Joe Biden is in Peru at this hour, where he'll meet later today 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.

NPR's Asma 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 Osmohalit. Earlier this week Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Health and Human Services Department, but as NPR's Selena Simmons Duffin reports, Kennedy's support for abortion

access could make his Senate confirmation difficult. Kennedy spent much of his career as an environmental activist and later promoted vaccine conspiracy theories. Some Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, are concerned about his support for abortion access. Kennedy explained his view in May on a podcast with host Sage Steele. I wouldn't leave it to the states. Right.

I would. He would say completely, it's up to the woman. I believe we should leave it to the woman. We shouldn't have government involved. Even if it's full term. Even if it's full term. Republicans are eager to curtail abortion access once they take power in Washington and the Secretary of HHS is an important position to further that goal. Kennedy needs to secure 51 votes in the Senate to be confirmed. Selena Simmons-Duffin

and PR News Washington. The group Human Rights Watch has released a wide-ranging report on the mass displacement of Palestinians in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. It says Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war there. And Piers Ruth Sherlock says the report captures how Gazans are being forced to survive in desperate conditions and with little access to food. The Human Rights Watch report says, according to the laws of war, Israel is required to ensure the health, nutrition and safety of the population it displaces in its conflict with Hamas.

Israel, though, has dramatically restricted what aid can enter Gaza since the Hamas-led attack last year. The Human Rights Watch report cites Israel as saying these restrictions are necessary to choke off Hamas' military apparatus. But in the ensuing humanitarian crisis, the vast majority of Gazans are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the IPC, a classification system

by world experts on hunger. Human Rights Watch says children have died from malnutrition and dehydration. Israel denies its using starvation as a weapon and says it's recently increased the number of aid trucks that can cross into Gaza. But aid groups working in Gaza say what's being allowed through is not nearly enough. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

Stocks close down across the board on Friday. You're listening to NPR News. A Southwest Airlines flight that was preparing to leave Dallas' Love Field was struck by a bullet late Friday night. Airline officials said the plane was hit on the right side just below the flight deck. Flight 2494 was heading to Indianapolis. It returned safely to the gate and no injuries were reported. The Texas Supreme Court has denied attempts to delay the execution of a man sentenced

to die for the death of his two-year-old daughter in 2002. For Member Station KERA, Tulawani Osibomawa reports Robert Robertson's execution will now go forward. Prosecutors successfully argued Robertson violently shook his daughter, Nikki, more than 20 years ago, causing her death. But the scientific validity of shaken baby syndrome has been disputed since then. The state's highest criminal court cleared the way for Roberson's execution. The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence issued a subpoena just before Roberson was to be put to death in October, requiring him to testify on the use of the state's junk science law

in his case. The Texas Supreme Court, the highest court for civil cases, paused Roberson's execution to honor the subpoena. Roberson ultimately never testified before the state house, and the high court ruling clears the way for the execution to take place. For NPR News, I'm Toluwani Ocbamowo in Dallas. Charlie Hull had five birdies on Friday and shot a 66 to take the lead at the LPGA tournament that's currently underway in Florida this weekend. She's leading Nellie Korda by two strokes. Korda is playing in her first tournament in two months. Alexa Pano meanwhile is one of several golfers to sit in third

three shots off the lead. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.