NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2024 5PM EST

Episode Date: November 19, 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 Jack Spear. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen a billionaire investor and Wall Street executive

to lead the Commerce Department. NPR's Scott Horsley Report's nominee Howard Lutnick has also been a key member of Trump's transition team and was also being 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 U.S. exports. That job could be complicated if Trump's threat to impose tariffs on all imports sparks a trade war. Scott Horsley in Peer News, Washington. President-elect Trump is nominating Dr. Mehmet Oz to head up the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services.

Trump in a statement saying there may be no physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to make America healthy again. The 64-year-old Oz is a cardiothoracic surgeon who hosted a TV talk show focused on health for a decade, winning nine Emmy nominations. He unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Pennsylvania. Oz will work with Trump's nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., if both are confirmed. Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina is promoting a measure that would ban transgender women from women's bathrooms at the US Capitol.

CNPR's Elena Moore reports it comes just weeks after Democrat Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first openly transgender person elected to Congress. It's uncertain whether this effort will get a vote in the House or if rules in the Capitol will be changed to implement it. Representative Nancy Mace characterizes the measure as a move to protect women's rights. But when asked if the election of a transgender woman was the catalyst, she's clear. Yes, and absolutely, and then some. I'm absolutely, a hundred percent, going to stand in the way of any man who wants to be

in a women's restroom, in our locker rooms, in our changing rooms. I will be there fighting you every step of the way. In response to the measure, Congresswoman-elect McBride stresses the need to focus on policy, instead of, quote, manufacturing culture wars. Elena Moore NPR News the capital. President-elect Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk have been spending a lot of time with one another lately and that continues today with Trump making a trip to Texas to watch one of Musk's companies test its massive Starship rocket. That rocket lifted off the pad at this hour. Musk supported Trump's campaign, must SpaceX rocket company,

along with his electric vehicle maker Tesla and social media platform X benefit from either billions in federal contracts or deals with federal regulators or both. On Wall Street, the Dow closed down 120 points today. This is NPR. Russian President Vladimir Putin has lowered the bar in terms of the use of nuclear weapons following the Biden administration's decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range Western-supplied

weapons. The doctrine would allow for a nuclear response by Moscow, even to a conventional attack by any nation supported by nuclear power. While it envisions a possible nuclear response, it is written broadly to avoid a firm commitment to using such weapons. The UN says four of its peacekeepers were injured today in southern Lebanon when their base came under fire. All four are from Ghana. Three had to be hospitalized, empires Lauren Frey reports from Beirut. In the past, the UN has accused Israel of deliberately targeting its peacekeepers in

Lebanon. But it says it believes the rocket that injured four Ghanaian peacekeepers in this case was fired by non-state actors, a reference to Hezbollah or other militants. It did not say whether it believes these Ghanaian peacekeepers were targeted or caught in crossfire. The violence comes amid concerns about unity, though. After the UN said Argentina is withdrawing its troops, it's one of about 50 countries that staff the UN peacekeeping force here. Israel has periodically called for UN peacekeepers to leave their posts in Lebanon, something the force as a whole has refused to do. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, Beirut.

Weeks after their escape from the South Carolina research facility, authorities say all but four small monkeys that apparently did not stray far from their compound have been recaptured. The 43 monkeys bred for medical research escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility after an employee failed to fully lock their enclosure. Officials say all the recaptured primates are in good health. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.