NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2024 8AM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2024

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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman, President-elect Donald Trump says he's nominating Lyndon McMahon to be Secretary of Education. As NPR's Janaki Mehta reports, McMahon is known to many from the business side of professional wrestling.

Linda McMahon is a professional wrestling business magnate who helped build World Wrestling Entertainment, or WWE, into a powerhouse. In his first presidency, Trump selected McMahon to lead the small business administration. After two years in that role, she stepped down to run the pro Trump super PAC America First Action. McMahon's experience working with public schools is limited. Between 2009 and 2010, she served on the Connecticut State Board of Education but resigned when she ran for US Senate. In a post on Truth

Social, President-elect Trump said as Secretary of Education, McMahon would, quote, empower parents to make the best education decisions for their families. Janaki Mehta and PR News. Trump also says he's tapping doctor and former TV host Mehmet Oz to lead the agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. The U.S. is going to provide Ukraine with anti-personnel mines or land mines. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says it's another part of the military assistance U.S. is offering Ukraine to stop Russian troops from advancing.

You know, we provided anti-tank mines from the very beginning. And because of the way the fight has evolved, this is just another stage here. But again, our focus is to help them, is to meet their needs. And they've asked for these. And so I think it's a good idea to provide them. This comes after President Biden allowed Ukraine to start firing U.S.-made long-range missiles into Russia. Ukraine then fired the missiles yesterday for the first time.

Russia responded to Biden's decision by changing its nuclear protocol, lowering the standards it would have to meet in order to use a nuclear weapon. Today, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine's capital is closed out of concern of a Russian air attack. The social media site Blue Sky is adding more than one million users a day. NPR's Bobby Allen reports the app is surging as part of the so-called exodus with droves of ex users fleeing the social network owned by Elon Musk. There are many services happy to welcome those fed up with Elon Musk's ex, but momentum is building

behind Blue Sky. One of its key features is algorithmic choice or being able to choose your own algorithm. An algorithm filters what posts you see from other users. Blue Sky CEO Jay Graber says if users don't like their default feed, they can pick from one of 50,000 others or even create their own. There's a lot less negativity if they don't want to get engaged in that kind of negativity because they can just filter it out and tune it down and get away from it. Blue Sky also says it will never display advertisements or use people's data for AI. But skeptics point out the company has not revealed a business model and question whether

a company with just 20 employees can handle all the growth it's experiencing. This is NPR. Netflix reports that well over 100 million viewers watched Netflix's live stream of the boxing match last Friday between YouTube star Jake Paul and former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson. In streaming terms, that's a knockout. But NPR's Eric Deggans reports technical glitches may cast a shadow over future live events on Netflix.

With 65 million concurrent streams, it was the most streamed sporting event ever, drawing more than half of all US TV viewing between midnight and 1am Saturday morning, according to Netflix. Another fight that night between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano drew 74 million viewers. Netflix says that was the most watched professional women's sports event in US history. But fans complained of blurry images and unexpected disconnections on Friday, which raises questions about how Netflix will handle its next big sporting event. Two NFL games on Christmas Day, including a halftime performance by superstar singer Beyoncé.

Eric Deggans, NPR News. The levels of smog in northern India still remain very high. There have been warnings in the capital, New Delhi. Reuters news agency reports Indian officials say the air quality index is almost at the top of its ratings chart. Officials have limited where cars can go and told schools to hold classes online. In the U.S., a powerful storm is hitting the Pacific Northwest. Parts of Washington state are under blizzard conditions. The strong winds blew down trees, killing one person north of Seattle. Winter storm warnings stretch from Idaho down to northern California. Parts of California could get nearly a foot of rain by the end of the weekend.

This is NPR.