NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2024 3PM EST

Episode Date: November 18, 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 Lakshmi Singh. President-elect Trump confirms on social media today that he plans to declare a national emergency over immigration and use military assets for mass deportations. On his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, true, in his retweet of a November 8 post

from Tom Fitton, the head of the conservative foundation Judicial Watch. Trump is still forming his cabinet and Piers Mara-Lyson reports some of the president-elect's nominations will test the resolve of Senate Republicans when the GOP is in the majority in the new year. The Senate has a constitutional responsibility to perform what's called advice and consent. In other words, to approve or disapprove nominees to the executive branch. And Donald Trump is saying to the Senate,

you can confirm my appointments, after all you have a 53 to 47 vote majority, you have a cushion, you can lose three votes, or we can go through recess appointments where there will be no ability for the Senate to question or vet or investigate the backgrounds and qualifications of these nominees. And P's Mara Lyson. Trump has pledged to protect Social Security. Well as NPR's Windsor Johnson reports, so far the President-elect's

proposals are not resolving concerns about the future of the program, especially among younger Americans. Recent studies show that 75% of adults 50 and over worry that Social Security will run out of funding in their lifetime charles black house who specializes in social security at george mason university says both parties need to do an abrupt about face to address the funding shortfall going to need additional tax revenues moderation of the current automatic benefit growth and it's going to need some adjustments to eligibility ages.

It's not realistic that the program finances can be restored without all of those things." President-elect Trump has promised not to raise the Social Security retirement age or reduce benefits. Economists say his fiscal proposals would likely accelerate the program's insolvency. Windsor-Johnston and PR News, Washington. At the UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, some delegates are expressing concern, maybe frustration about the slow pace of negotiations. NPR's Jeff Brady reports at Talk Center on how wealthy countries will help developing

nations as the planet heats up. The first week of negotiations were more technical as countries laid out their starting positions. Now UN climate change secretary Simon Steele says countries need to wrap up that work to reach a successful conclusion. The bluffing brinksmanship and premeditated playbooks are burning up precious time and running down the goodwill needed for an ambitious package. So let's cut the theatrics and get down to the real business this week. That includes wealthy countries committing money to poorer nations to help

Them transition to cleaner energy and deal with the impacts of a changing climate the conference is scheduled to end Friday But could go longer Jeff Brady NPR news. This is NPR news Grimway Farms has recalled organic carrots over an E. coli outbreak that made people in 18 states sick. The whole and baby carrots were sold at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Walmart, and other food retailers. For the first time this year, people can take a test at home to find out if they have the flu or COVID.

Here's NPR's Rob Stein. The Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to nine tests that people can buy at a drug store without a prescription to test themselves at home to see if they have COVID or the flu. Most of the tests work just like the home COVID tests people learn to use during the pandemic. But instead of just showing whether someone has COVID, the new tests can differentiate between COVID and the flu. The tests can even tell which kind of flu people have. That should help people decide with their doctors what precautions they should take and how to get treated. The tests cost about $15 each. Rob Stein and PR News.

Beyoncé is set to spend at least part of Christmas day with thousands of NFL fans back home in Houston. Netflix has announced that the mega pop star is now slated to perform at halftime during the NFL Texans Ravens game. ["Down, Down, Down, Down"] The streaming service has teased that the performance might feature guest appearances from Beyonce's Cowboy Carter album,

for which she received a leading 11 Grammy nominations earlier this month. The Dow is down 68 points, the S&P is risen 24, the Nasdaq is up 117 points or more than half a percent. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.