NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2024 10AM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

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What's good y'all? It's Gene Dembe from Code Switch. On Code Switch, we are deeply curious about race and identity and the way it shows up in the news headlines or in our personal lives. With the wide range of voices in front of and behind the mic, we see how race shows up all over the place. So come rock with us on the Code Switch podcast, only from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. A major storm is pummeling the Pacific Northwest. Winter storm warnings are up from Northern California to Idaho.

There are blizzard warnings in some parts of central Washington state. That's also where more than half a million customers are out of power, especially north of Seattle. But in the parts of the northeast, conditions are bone dry. NPR's Giles Snyder reports that has led to hundreds of brush fires. Cruise battling fires in the northeast are accounting on some rain later this week. For now, though, the region is so dry that New York City issued its first drought warning in more than 20 years.

In New Jersey, east of Philadelphia, firefighters are nearing containment on a blaze of threatened homes in Haynesport, where Bruce McLaughlin is the former mayor. You hear about the fire danger everywhere, but you never think it's going to come to your neighborhood or your town. In the Pacific Northwest, Washington State accounted for the vast majority of customers without electricity. Thanks to a major storm that intensified so quickly, the forecasters consider it a bomb cyclone. Strong winds and rain knocked trees into homes and littered roads with debris.

Trial Snider, MPR News. The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously passed an ordinance intended to protect some immigrants. It would block Los Angeles from sharing information with federal officials about people living illegally in the U.S. Some people are worried about President-elect Donald Trump's promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants. California Attorney General Rob Bonta says his stay

will also be tracking the incoming Trump administration. We will watch closely what Mr. Trump and his administration do, make sure that they don't overreach or violate the law. They had a very hard time not doing that. In Trump 1.0, we sued them over 100 times, 180 percent of the time, because they broke the law. Trump has vowed to take action on illegal immigration on the day that he is sworn into office.

Stocks opened lower this morning as discount retailer Target missed the mark. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 30 points in early trading. Stock in Target slumped after the retailer reported disappointing earnings for the most recent quarter and offered a conservative forecast for the Christmas shopping season. The news was a marked contrast with rival retailer Walmart, which reported better than expected results on Tuesday. Target has been cutting prices on groceries and other essentials in an effort to lure

shoppers, but the chain says customers are cautious about spending on more discretionary items, such as home goods. Inflation in the UK rebounded last month, thanks in part to higher energy costs. Prices in October were up 2.3% from a year ago. The UK inflation rate had briefly dipped below 2% in September. Scott Horsley in Pear News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow is down nearly 55 points. The Nasdaq is down 140. It's NPR. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the U.S. will provide Ukraine with land mines to battle Russian forces. This comes after President Biden allowed Ukraine to start firing U.S.-made long-range missiles into Russia, which Ukraine did yesterday for the first time. In response to Biden's decision, Russia lowered the standards it would meet in order to use a nuclear weapon. Today, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine's Capitol is closed out of concern of a Russian air attack.

The American Psychological Association is urging parents to pay closer attention to what their teenagers are watching on their phones and computer screens. NPR's Katie Ariddle has more on the group's latest report. With a world of unregulated content available to teens, researchers say it's important that parents pay attention to the kind of media their kids are consuming. Mitch Prenstein is the chief science officer for the APA. When you are watching video content with your kids, make sure you're talking with your kids about it afterwards. Sometimes just staying silent and cringing during the parts that you wish

your kids weren't watching might accidentally send the message that you approve of everything that was just depicted on the screen. Prenstein acknowledges it's impossible to sit next to a child every minute they're watching content. The goal, he says, is to help kids develop their own healthy media habits. Katie Riddle, NPR News. Police in South Carolina say they're still trying to capture four remaining monkeys that escaped from a research facility two weeks ago. They were part of 43 monkeys that made a break for it through an unlatched door. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.