NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2024 3PM EST

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President-elect Trump has chosen a billionaire investor and Wall Street executive to lead the Commerce Department. NPR's Scott Horsley Reports nominee Howard Lutnick, a key member of Trump's transition team, had also been considered for the higher-profile role of Treasury Secretary. Lutnick is chief executive of Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial services firm that lost hundreds of employees, including Lutnick's brother in the World Trade Center attack on 9-11. Lutnick served as co-chair of Trump's transition team, helping to vet many of the president-elect's

other nominees. As Commerce Secretary, he would oversee a sweeping federal bureaucracy that includes the National Weather Service, the Census Bureau, and the agency charged with calculating the nation's gross domestic product. Typically, the Secretary is also a roving salesperson for US exports. That job could be complicated if Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all imports sparks a trade war. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. House Speaker Mike Johnson is speaking out in support of fellow Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace's bill that bans transgender women from using women's restrooms

and locker room facilities on Capitol Hill. Let me be unequivocally clear. A man is a man and a woman is a woman. And a man cannot become a woman. That said, I also believe, that's what scripture teaches, what I just said, but I also believe that we treat everybody with dignity. And so we can do and believe all those things at the same time. Mays told reporters her bill is a direct response to Delaware Democrat Sarah McBride,

the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. McBride says the bill is a manufactured culture war and disrespectful. The Justice Department confirms the founder of an artificial intelligence company that worked with some of the biggest school districts in the U.S. has been arrested on fraud and identity theft charges. Prosecutors say Joanna Smith Griffin bilked investors out of millions of dollars after misrepresenting the financial health of her now defunct company, All Here Education, Inc. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu told Parliament this week he rebuffed U.S. attempts to influence wartime policy. Here's Ed Piero-Scott, New Min. Speaking to the Knesset, Netanyahu told lawmakers that he had repeatedly rejected U.S. efforts to persuade Israel to be more cautious in its approach to the war in Gaza and against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Netanyahu said the United States urged him not to respond to an Iranian attack in April, but that he insisted it was necessary.

His speech wrapped up shortly before a barrage of Hezbollah rockets from Lebanon were launched toward Israel. On the same day, Lebanon's state-run media says an Israeli strike hit an area of Beirut, close to parliament, several embassies, and the United Nations headquarters in Lebanon. Scott Newman, NPR News, Tel Aviv. From Washington, this is NPR News. Reuters has tapped former Washington Post and AP executive editor Sally Busby to be its lead editor for the US and Canada.

Busby left the Post in June as the paper prepared for a reorganization that would have effectively demoted her. Busby led the Associated Press' news operation before leaving for the Post in 2021. She starts her new role at Reuters next month. In New York, officials are moving forward with a plan to impose tolls on drivers in the busiest parts of Manhattan. It's the first program in the nation that attempts to reduce gridlock traffic on a city streets by charging drivers to use them. From member station WNYC, Ramsey Khalife reports. The Transit Agencies Board voted to approve the plan, which will impose a $9 daytime toll

for drivers entering Manhattan below 60th Street. This is the second time the board has voted on the plan. The first time around, the price was way higher, a $15 toll. But New York Governor Kathy Hochul pressed pause in June, citing costs of living concerns for New Yorkers. It wasn't until after the November election that Hochul moved to introduce a new plan, at a lower price. The money from the tolls will pay for crucial repairs to New York's mass transit infrastructure. The federal government now has to sign off before the program can launch.

Remzi Chalife for NPR News in New York. New York City is under a drought warning for the first time in more than 20 years. The warning extends to 15 New York State counties. Officials are advising residents to voluntarily conserve water. The Dow is down 168 points. This is NPR News.