NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2024 2AM 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, President Joe Biden is allowing Ukraine to fire U.S.-made long-range missiles into Russia. A U.S. official tells NPR that the change in policy was spurred by the deployment of

North Korean troops sent to help Russia in its war against Ukraine. NPR's Tom Bowman has more. The missiles are called a tachems and have a range of some 190 miles. Ukrainian officials and their supporters in the U S have long pushed for their use, but the Biden administration refused during Russian escalation. Now with thousands of North Korean troops fighting Ukrainian forces, who are seized portions of the Kursk region of Russia. The administration has allowed the attack comes to strike targets there.

The policy change could lead other countries, especially Britain, to allow their long-range missiles to be used as well. Tom Boman, NPR News. A senior Hezbollah official has been killed in an airstrike in Beirut. The attack on the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party followed a wave of Israeli airstrikes in the Lebanese capital on Sunday. NPR's Jana Raff reports from Beirut. The airstrike, one of several Sunday morning, hit the office of a Hezbollah-aligned political

party in a densely populated Beirut neighborhood. Lebanon's health ministry said one person was killed and others wounded. It did not identify the fatality, but the head of the Arab Socialist Bath Party, Ali Hejazi, said in a social media post that Muhammad Afif, the Hezbollah media chief, had been killed in its offices. Afif had been media advisor to the head of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli attack in Beirut in late September. In his last press conference earlier in November, Afif said that the militant group was prepared for a long war against Israel.

Jane Araf and Per News, Beirut. President-elect Donald Trump has announced more than 30 people he wants to join his administration when he takes office in January. Among the most controversial is former Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who Trump is nominating as attorney general. Gaetz resigned from office just two days before the House Ethics Committee was to release a report into various allegations against Gaetz, including illegal drug use and sexual misconduct involving a 17-year-old girl.

Trump during the campaign, I'm sure you recall, talked about retribution against his perceived political enemies, including folks at the Justice Department. And so putting a partisan political guy like Gates at the helm of the department and its enormous powers is adding to concerns that Trump will follow through with that. That's NPR's Ryan Lucas. President Joe Biden became the first US president to ever visit the Amazon rainforest on Sunday. While he was there, he said that nobody can reverse the clean energy revolution underway in America. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to increase fossil fuel production in the U.S.

and to scale back efforts to fight climate change. Biden said the fight against climate change has been a defining cause of his presidency. You're listening to NPR News. Pope Francis is apparently calling for an investigation to determine if Israel's attacks in Gaza constitute a genocide. Excerpts from a book being released on Tuesday quote the pope saying what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide, but he says there should be a careful investigation to see if the actions fit the definition.

The book is based on interviews with the pope. Healthcare workers who are on the job when COVID ripped through nursing homes and hospitals are still struggling. Many of them have symptoms of PTSD and long COVID. They've been asking for assistance, but employers and the government have offered little in the way of support. Amy Maxman with our partner KFF Health News as more.

Deborah Ragunanan is a nursing assistant. She has panic attacks, brain fog, and recently suffered an aneurysm. She traces the problems back to a COVID outbreak in 2020, when she was caring for veterans at a long-term nursing facility. Ragunanan still works there today. All of us have to go right back where the COVID started. So that's a double whammy.

That's a double kick. At work, she relives the trauma of the outbreak. She and other nursing assistants have asked for help and compensation. As low-wage caretakers they can't easily change jobs or take time off to heal. The star-driven action comedy Big Red topped North American box offices this weekend earning an estimated thirty four point one million dollars in ticket sales. The flick starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans cost $200 million plus to produce. Second place went to Venom the Last Dance followed by the best Christmas pageant ever, Heretic, and The Wild Robot. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.