NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 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. For the first time since fighting there began, President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the green light to use powerful American long-range weapons for striking inside Russia. NPR's Juliana Kim reports.

The Biden administration had long resisted allowing Ukraine to fire American long-range missiles into Russian territory for fear that it would only escalate fighting. But on Sunday, a US official told NPR that the Biden administration has reversed its policy and will now allow Ukraine to use those weapons to strike in and around the Russian region of Kursk. It's the same area where North Korea sent some 10,000 troops to help Russia last month. The US.S. official was not authorized to speak publicly about the decision but said Britain will likely follow suit and allow Ukraine to use their long

range missiles at Russia. The British needed U.S. approval because these missiles contain U.S. components. Juliana Kim, NPR News. President Joe Biden was in Brazil on Sunday and became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Amazon rainforest. He used the backdrop to talk about what he called one of his greatest legacies, the fight against climate change. Back home, I signed the most significant climate change law in history, a law that position us to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030. emissions in half by 2030. This generated $450 billion in new clean energy investments and that's created hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs and a manufacturing boom as well. Folks, we don't have to choose between the environment and the economy. Biden also announced plans to form a coalition that hopes to raise at least $10 billion by

2030 to protect 20,000 square miles of land in the Amazon. President-elect Donald Trump has now named more than 30 people he wants to appoint to serve in his next administration. Few of them have been more polarizing than his choice of former Representative Matt Gaetz for attorney general. NPR's Luke Garrett has more. Trump's pick for the nation's top cop was being investigated by the House Ethics Committee for various allegations, including sexual misconduct.

Gaetz has since resigned from Congress, making it unclear whether the committee's investigation will be released. On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson made his wishes clear on CNN. The report is not finished. It's in a rough draft form, was not yet ready to be released. And since Matt Gaetz left the Congress, I don't think it's appropriate to do so. Speaker Johnson went on to say he has not discussed this with Trump. The president and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once. In the past, the House has at times released ethics reports on former members of Congress.

And some Senate Republicans are now saying they want to see this report on Gates. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News. A small plane narrowly missed crashing into spectators watching the National Hot Rod Association finals in California Sunday morning. The pilot and three passengers were all injured. The Piper PA-32 plane crashed just outside the drag strip at the Pomona Fairgrounds. LA County Fire Department Public Information Officer Jonathan Torres says some cars were

damaged in the incidents. Units were dispatched for a aircraft down. It was a single engine plane that made contact with a couple of vehicles before ultimately hitting the ground. Two of those on the plane are in critical condition. No one on the ground was hurt. A gold pocket watch given to the captain of the ship that rescued passengers on the Titanic more than 100 years ago has sold at auction for $2 million. Vicki Barker has more on our story from London. The inscribed Tiffany timepiece was presented to Arthur Rostron, captain of the Carpathia,

by Madeline Astor, the widow of millionaire John Jacob Astor, and two other wealthy widows. They were among the 705 survivors rescued from the Titanic's lifeboats, their husbands perished. The successful bidder was a private collector in the U.S. The $2 million prize breaks the previous record for Titanic memorabilia set back in April when a gold pocket watch recovered from the body of John Jacob Astor himself sold for $1.5 million. For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.

And I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.