NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2024 12PM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

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This is Ira Glass with This American Life, each week on our show. We choose a theme, tell different stories on that theme. All right, I'm just going to stop right there. You're listening to an NPR podcast, chances are you know our show. So instead, I'm going to tell you, we've just been on a run of really good shows lately. Some big epic emotional stories, some weird funny stuff too. Download us, This American Life. funny stuff too. Download us. This American Life. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. About one in five Americans says they regularly get their news from social media influencers. That's one of several key findings from the Pew Research Center. Another is that influencers are most likely to be found

on X and to a lesser degree on Instagram and YouTube. In the wake of the recent presidential election, slightly more news influencers identified as Republican, conservative, or pro-Trump than they did Democratic, liberal, or pro-Harris. And the study finds a clear majority of news influencers are men. In less than two weeks since his win,

President-elect Trump's announced more than 30 appointments and nominations for his administration. NPR's Luke Garrick says the Republicans latest pick signal, this is not 2016 Trump. Trump has picked a cabinet before and he's doing it quickly and there are two key principles that are leading his you know decision-making as he picks those he wants to surround himself with. One is loyalty. During his first administration he really believes that some of his cabinet picks turn against him. And so he wants to make sure those he surrounds himself the second time around are loyal to him.

The second is disruption. He believes that the American people want to turn Washington upside down and that everyone who he's picking will really disrupt the status quo in America. Danielle Pletka Luke Garrett reporting. President Biden is in Brazil for the annual G20 gathering, which is NPR's Asmahal. It tells us it's likely to be Biden's final major summit. President-elect Donald Trump's return is the obvious story hanging over this trip. Today, Biden is participating in an event to combat world hunger and poverty. Yesterday, he visited the Amazon touting his commitment to climate.

But it's not clear Trump will support these pledges Biden has made when he enters office. Here's Biden's deputy national security advisor John Finer speaking with reporters. We think we are leaving the country on a much stronger footing than we inherited it, and it will be up to a new administration

to determine what to do with that dividend that we believe that we are passing on. Biden has focused his foreign policy on working with allies. Asma Khalid, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Spirit Airlines is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Here's NPR's Joel Rose. Spirit Airlines says it's reached a deal with its bondholders to restructure its debts and continue operating during bankruptcy. The Florida-based carrier says it expects to continue flying as normal. Spirit is the seventh largest airline in North America, though it has been shrinking its

operations in an effort to cut costs. It's the first major U.S. airline to file for Chapter 11 in 13 years. The company hasn't posted a full-year profit since 2019. It tried to merge with JetBlue Airways, but a federal judge blocked that deal in January. Spirit says it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy early next year. Joel Rose, NPR News. French farmers are preparing to hold a nationwide strike over a trade agreement they say will harm their livelihoods. They're worried about an influx of South American agricultural imports.

The Associated Press reports one union, linked to the far right, is threatening a revolt that would include food freight blockades starting tomorrow in southwestern France. Researchers have unlocked a tiny mystery in an ocean of mystery surrounding deep sea creatures. NPR's Jessica Young brings us the story of an odd animal about the size of an apple that was found more than a mile and a half under the Pacific Ocean. In early 2000, researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute found the creature that they nicknamed the mystery mollusk.

Bruce Robeson is one of the scientists who discovered it. It's a pretty funny looking animal. It sort of looks like it was made up from spare parts left over from making a bunch of other animals. The mystery mollusk has a transparent body with a cloak-like gelatinous hood, it has visible organs, finger-like projections at its tail, and it glows. After DNA sequencing, it turns out this is a new species of nudibranch, or sea slug. There are more than 3,000 species of nudibranch, but this one both looks different and is the

only species known to swim in such a deep ocean zone. The paper is published in the journal Deep Sea Research Part 1. Jessica Young, NPR News. The Nasdaq is up 130 points, the S&P has gained 25, the Dow is down 11 points. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.