NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-23-2024 10PM EST

Episode Date: November 24, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. President-elect Donald Trump has chosen the head of a pro-Trump think tank to be his U.S. agricultural secretary to lead the agency responsible for the nation's farm and nutrition programs. NPR's Sarah McCammon has more. Brooke Rollins worked for Trump's first administration, most notably as director of the Domestic Policy Council. After leaving the White House,

Rollins was among a group of senior advisors who set up the America First Policy Institute to promote Trump's ideas. She's now the nonprofit group's president and CEO. Rollins has an agriculture degree from Texas A&M and a law degree from the University of Texas. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has around 100,000

employees and oversees several large programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and farm subsidies. Sarah McCammon, NPR News. Heavy rain and snow are dousing wildfire concerns in the northeastern U.S. In New Jersey, officials have lifted statewide fire restrictions, while in the West, an atmospheric river is bringing a new risk to wildfire ravaged areas. MPR's Amy Held has more. This fall, historic drought in the Northeast contributed to surging wildfires hundreds, including one that burned 5,300 acres of forest land for two weeks in New York and New Jersey.

Now it is 100% contained, thanks in part to the first significant rain in weeks dropping like blanket on the blaze. Extreme swings from wet to dry and back are growing more common as the earth heats up from human-caused climate change, making large destructive wildfires more likely. In the western U.S. mean time, a bomb cyclone and an atmospheric river event mean lots of moisture and a different wildfire-related risk. Burn scar areas now susceptible to landslides. In Northern California, officials are pre-positioning rescue crews. Amy Held, NPR News. Amazon says it's investing another $4 billion into the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.

The move comes amid the ongoing battle to lead the AI future in Silicon Valley. And here's Bobbi Allen has more. Amazon's big bet on AI startup Anthropic doubles its investment in the company. Its language model, Claude, competes with Chatchie PT from rival company OpenAI. And the race is on. Microsoft backed OpenAI, Amazon-backed Anthropic, and Elon Musk's XAI, with support from Google, are locked in an AI standoff. The money pouring into AI ventures is fueling a search for the next chat GPT,

an AI-powered commercial product with mass appeal. Much of the big tech investment allows AI startups to access what's called compute, or the immense amount of power it takes to run AI systems. It all comes as regulators in Washington probe into leading AI companies, scrutiny that may diminish when President-elect Donald Trump enters office in January. Bobby Allen, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Negotiators at COP29, the UN climate change conference that took place in Azerbaijan, have reached a deal calling on developed countries to give at least $300 billion per year by 2035 to help poorer nations that are most vulnerable to climate disasters.

Developing nations, though, say it's not enough. Discussions at COP29 have been testy with disagreements over who should provide the money and how much they should give. The deal is nowhere near the 1.3 trillion dollars developing countries wanted, but it is three times the yearly amount from the deal that expires this year. The money will be used by developing countries to wean off oil, gas, and coal and adapt to future warming. A group that lobbied to reintroduce wolves in Colorado is offering a $50,000 reward to stop wolf poaching. Aspen Public Radio's Hallie

Zender has more. Several wolves were reintroduced in Colorado last December and it's illegal to kill them unless they're actively attacking livestock or a threat to human safety. So for information on wolf poachers, the state awards between $500 and $1,000 as long as it leads to formal charges. But the new Colorado wolf reward will offer 50 times more. The announcement comes less than a week after a coalition of 26 rural organizations urged wildlife officials to delay further wolf reintroductions as several ranchers struggle to adapt. The agency is scheduled to release additional wolves between December and March. For NPR News, I'm Hallie Zander in Aspen. And I'm

Janine Herbst and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.