NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2024 6PM EST

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

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Every weekday, NPR's best political reporters come to you on the NPR Politics Podcast to explain the big news coming out of Washington, the campaign trail, and beyond. We don't just want to tell you what happened, we tell you why it matters. Join the NPR Politics Podcast every single afternoon to understand the world through political eyes. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. Prosecutors in the criminal trial of President-elect Donald Trump asked for another delay to weigh the unprecedented nature of the case. As NPR's political reporter, Jimena Bastille reports, plans to sentence Trump are on hold.

In May, a jury convicted Trump of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but his sentencing has been postponed several times. Now, Manhattan prosecutors who brought the case are asking Judge Juan Marchand to pause the proceedings to give them time to argue whether it should be dismissed entirely. Marchand had previously paused Trump's sentencing in the case. Trump's lawyers are hoping to argue to dismiss the trial and charges because Trump won the election and because of a Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. They say that a sitting president cannot be charged. In a court filing on Tuesday, DA Alvin Bragg asked for a new deadline of December 9th

to make his case. Jimena Bustillo, NPR News, New York. One of the last remaining cabinet level vacancies yet to be filled by the incoming Trump administration is for Treasury Secretary. In the views of the President-elect on tariffs as part of the equation, Candor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, who had expressed broader support for tariffs,

is now Trump's nominee for Commerce Secretary. Billionaire investor Scott Besson is another possible Treasury pick, though he's spoken more about using tariffs as a negotiating tool. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is under scrutiny from Congress. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports FEMA Director Deanne Criswell is spending the day on Capitol Hill defending the agency before two House committees.

Much of the testimony centered on a FEMA supervisor fired earlier this month for directing workers to skip over Florida houses with Trump campaign signs. New Jersey Republican Anthony Despacito of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Reports of FEMA employees skipping homes based on political affiliation and support of President-elect Donald Trump is both shocking and absolutely disturbing. The head of FEMA says new teams are visiting some 20 homes affected. To ensure that they have had an opportunity to register for assistance. We've provided refresher training to all of our staff in the field

to remind them about the importance of serving all people. Deanne Criswell denies the incident reflects a wider problem at FEMA. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. While chipmaker NVIDIA has been dominating the current space in terms of providing computer chips for artificial intelligence applications, there are indications some of the things that work well for the company in terms of graphic processors may work less well in terms of putting those AI products to work. Some experts say it's opening up the industry for rivals who think they can compete in selling

so-called AI interference chips. Those chips play a different role, helping to work for some day-to-day running of AI tools at a lower cost. On Wall Street, the Dow fell 120 points today. You're listening to NPR. What's known as a bomb cyclone is bearing down on the Pacific Northwest, the term generally used by meteorologists to describe a rapidly intensifying weather system that can happen during powerful storms like one in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest this

week. The Weather Prediction Center is warning residents to prepare for possible heavy rains lasting through Friday, with long plumes of moisture stretching far over the Pacific Ocean. The Northern's here Nevada officials say the storm could bring as much as 15 inches of snow and 75 mile an hour wind gusts. The victim in a mass rape trial in France made her closing argument today. NPR's owner Beardsley reports she used her pulpit to denounce French society and call for change. Giselle Pellico said it's time for France's macho, patriarchal society that trivializes

rape to change. Pellico's husband and 49 other men are on trial for raping and abusing her in her own home while she was unconscious over a period of 10 years. Pellico's husband is the principal defendant. He drugged her and organized the sessions, which he advertised online. 71-year-old Pelico has become a feminist icon in France by refusing to be ashamed and demanding the trial be open to the public and the media to raise awareness. She called it a trial of cowardice on the part of the men who took part in the rapes

organized by her husband. Many of the men said they thought she was going along with the game. None of her abusers alerted the police. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. Crude oil futures prices closed modestly higher today. Oil of about 23 cents a barrel. To end the session at 69.39 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.