NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-17-2024 2PM EST

Episode Date: November 17, 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 Aram. President Biden is touring Brazil's Amazon rainforest this afternoon on his way to the G20 summit being held in Rio de Janeiro, which begins tomorrow. Biden, the first U.S. sitting president to visit the Amazon, has pledged U.S. support

for efforts to fight climate change, something the incoming Trump administration is unlikely to pay for. NPR's Carrie Cahn reports. President Biden wants an additional $50 million for the Amazon fund, which grants money for climate change mitigation. President-elect Trump, who dismisses the effects of global warming, has vowed to end such measures. Brazil's leftist president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says he's on track to end deforestation by 2030. As the G20's host, he's pushing world leaders to pass a progressive agenda, including taxing the super rich. The Biden administration approves anti-poverty measures. Trump will not, nor will his close ally, ultra-libertarian Argentine President Javier Millay, a G20 member and

a self-proclaimed anarcho-capitalist known for his brash behavior and rising profile in international rights circles. Carrie Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Some of Trump's choices to work in his administration have raised questions, including Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, his pick for attorney general. Gaetz briefly worked as an attorney but has spent most of his career as a politician. NPR's Ryan Lucas covers the Justice Department. He says being the attorney general requires specific abilities.

This is a really big, really important job. The attorney general leads the hundred thousand plus people who work for the department. That includes, of course, federal prosecutors, but also oversight of the FBI, other agencies like the Drug Enforcement Administration. The Attorney General is, to put simply, the top law enforcement officer in the country. They're responsible for prosecuting federal crimes, for enforcing civil rights laws, voting rights laws, and at a very fundamental level for upholding the rule of law. NPR's Ryan Lucas, until Gates resigned, the House Ethics Committee was investigating him over allegations of sexual misconduct.

Trump has asked the governors of both North Dakota and South Dakota to join his cabinet. NPR's Kirk Ziegler reports. One-time GOP presidential candidate and current North Dakota governor Doug Burgum had already announced this year he would not be seeking a third term. This week, Trump picked him to be the country's next secretary of interior. North Dakota voters handily sided with Republican Kelly Armstrong to replace him in this month's election. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem was picked by Trump to head the

Department of Homeland Security. If Noem is confirmed, the state's Republican Lieutenant Governor will finish out her term until 2026. Noem, a staunch Trump ally, made headlines for defying pandemic health measures and being banned from all nine of that state's reservations. Kirk Sigler, NPR News. This is NPR News. An Israeli airstrike on central Beirut today killed the head of Hezbollah's media operations, the militant group's chief spokesman. Israel launched a wave of attacks in the Lebanese capital today, including outside the city's

southern suburbs. The head of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party said in a social media post the Hezbollah media chief was killed while visiting its offices. Political unrest broke out this weekend in a Russian-backed breakaway region of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Protesters are demanding the resignation of the region's Moscow-aligned leader. NPR's Charles Maynes reports. The protesters say they want to oust Abkhazia's leader, Aslan Bzhanyan, over support for an

investment agreement critics say favors Russian over local business interests. The deal would lift Abkhazia's ban on foreign ownership of residential property, allowing wealthy Russian investors to buy up land along Abkhazia's lush Black Sea coastline. Amid the uprising, Bzhanyan has agreed to pull the controversial legislation and offered to resign and run again in snap elections if protesters stand down. While internationally recognized as part of Georgia, despite declaring its independence after the breakup of the USSR, Abkhazia has long been under Moscow's protection.

Today, Russia is one of the world's few countries that recognize Abkhazian statehood. Charles Maynes, NPR News. Residents of coastal Belize are being hit by tropical storm Sarra, which is moving inland over the Yucatan Peninsula. NPR News.