NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-18-2024 8AM 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 in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. Russia says it has yet to receive official notice on the Biden administration's decision to approve Ukraine's use of long-range rockets to hit targets inside parts of Western Russia. NPR has confirmed the change in U.S. policy.

From Moscow, NPR's Charles Maines has details. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said if the reports were true and Ukraine now had U.S. approval to use Western weapons to strike deep inside Russia, the decision amounted to a quote, new spiral of tensions with Washington. Peskov said Moscow's position was well known. He pointed to statements by President Vladimir Putin in September, in which Putin warned he viewed any such move as changing the nature of the conflict in Ukraine. Putin argued Ukraine's military could only identify targets and launch more sophisticated weapons into Russia with direct Western assistance. It would mean,

Putin added, the U.S. and its allies were now at war with Russia and Russia would respond accordingly. Charles Maynes in PR News, Moscow. President Biden is attending the G20 summit in Brazil. Over the weekend, he visited the Amazon rainforest. He says he's helping build a coalition to raise at least $10 billion in coming years to protect thousands of miles of land and water. Biden also says the climate work he started through the law and the Inflation Reduction Act has generated billions in new clean energy investments and hundreds of thousands of new

jobs. It's no secret that I'm leaving office in January. I will have my, I will leave my successor and my country and a strong foundation to build on if they choose to do so. Meanwhile, President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Chris Wright, the CEO of an oil and gas company, to be the next energy secretary. Wright has said there is no world climate crisis, and he says there is no increase in

the intensity of weather events such as hurricanes and wildfires. That is not what climate scientists say. They link global warming to more destructive weather disasters and say it is caused by human activity. President-elect Trump has put forth a number of proposals to make Social Security more solvent. President-elect Trump has put forth a number of proposals to make Social Security more solvent but as NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, these are not resolving concerns about the future of the program. Recent studies show that 75% of adults 50 and over worry that Social Security will run

out of funding in their lifetime. Charles Blahhouse, who specializes in Social Security at George Mason University, says both parties need to do an abrupt about-face to address the funding shortfall. It's 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, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR. Spirit Airlines is filing for federal bankruptcy protection. It has tried and failed to merge with rival low-cost carrier JetBlue Airwise. It also had difficulties with some of the jet engines it bought from another company and some of its jets had to be taken out of service.

Spirit Airlines, known for its jets painted bright yellow, is also facing large debt repayments. A previously unidentified creature found more than a mile and a half deep in the Pacific Ocean has now been identified. NPR's Jessica Young reports on this odd animal that's about the size of an apple. 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 U.S. Postal Service will issue nude stamps next year. They'll honor several people, including late comedian Betty White and late musician Alan Toussaint. The Postal Service says that it will announce additional stamps in coming weeks. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.