NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-19-2024 8PM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges, nine campuses, one purpose, creating tomorrow today. More at iu.edu. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen billionaire Wall Street financial

services head Howard Lutnick as his nominee for Commerce Secretary. Lutnick was also in the running for Treasury Secretary, NPR's Marie Aspin reports. Marie Aspin There's been this messy public competition over who Trump would pick to be Treasury Secretary. And Lutnick had the public support of Elon Musk and some other Trump advisors for that job. But commerce also has this big role to play in the economy, and Lutnick has been very enthusiastic about Trump's promises to impose sweeping tariffs on a whole range of imports. Trump really campaigned on this, and Lutnick has embraced it.

At that rally last month, he even said he wants the country's economy to go back to when he said it was great in 1900. Lutnick, if confirmed, would oversee an agency that not only focuses on expanding U.S. growth, but also oversees the National Weather Service and the Census Bureau. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated 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, hosted a TV talk show focused on health for a decade,

winning nine Emmy nominations. He unsuccessfully ran for Senate in Pennsylvania. SpaceX has completed another flight test of the largest rocket ever built, NPR's Jeff Bromfield says it went mostly according to plan. Starship lifted off smoothly from its pad in south Texas. Three, two, one. Its super heavy booster carried it into orbit. The booster was supposed to fly back to the launch tower, but safety issues caused it

to divert to the Gulf of Mexico where it splashed down. Starship itself flew partway around the world and briefly relit one of its rocket engines, a crucial test before it can fully fly in space. It then landed precisely as planned in the southern Indian Ocean. Both Elon Musk and President-elect Trump were there to watch the launch. Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state will experience a major atmospheric river this week, potential for flooding, as David Romero of Member Station KQED reports.

The largest rain totals are expected in the next few days. Dial Hong, a meteorologist with the Weather Service's Bay Area Office, says a flood watch starts Wednesday. The soils will begin to saturate and small creeks and streams will begin to fill up. We will see flooding concerns increase through Friday and the weekend. Hong says the rain will likely begin to subside on Saturday. A foot or so of snow could fall on the highest elevations in the Sierra Nevada. Hong says rainfall totals may be above the seasonal average for the rest of the month and into early December. For NPR News, I'm Ezra David Romero in San Francisco.

On Wall Street, the Dow was down 120 points, the Nasdaq rose 195. This is NPR. Giant retailer Walmart weighed in with better than expected quarterly sales numbers, showing it continues to draw shoppers by keeping prices low. The nation's largest retailer also upped its outlook for the full year. Walmart reported net income of $4.58 billion dollars or 57 cents a share for the latest quarter. Shaboosie's A Bar Song tipsy tops the pop charts yet again this week, but a seasonal

change may be brewing. Here's NPR's Stephen Thompson. For months, a bar song has been creeping up on the all-time record for most weeks at number one of any song in Billboard chart history. Now, with 18 weeks at the top, Shibuzy is just a single week away from tying the all-time record. There's just one problem. Winter is coming, and with it, a flood of holiday songs that take over the top 10 each year. In fact, this week's Billboard charts issue an early warning, as Wham's 1984 hit, Last Christmas, re-enters the top 40 at number 38.

With Wham, Mariah Carey, and other holiday favorites on deck, Shaboosie's hopes of breaking the record could be headed up in smoke, or more to the point, up the chimney. Steven Thompson, NPR News. Weeks after their escape from a South Carolina research facility, authorities say all but four monkeys that apparently did not stray far from home have been recaptured. The 43 monkeys bred for medical research escaped from the Alpha Genesis facility after an employee failed to fully lock the enclosure. Officials say the recaptured primates are in good health. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News.

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