NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-23-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: November 23, 2024

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated an outgoing Oregon congresswoman to be Labor Secretary. As MP Alexandria Hsu reports, her selection represents a sharp departure from Trump's past. Laurie Chavez Dreamer is a moderate Republican and one of only a few Republicans in Congress who supported the PRO Act. That's a bill aimed at removing some of the barriers to unionizing.

Chavez Dreamer lost her bid for re-election this month. After the announcement, Sean O'Brien, president of the Teamsters Union, thanked Trump for finding common ground to protect and respect labor in America. The choice is sure to disappoint many in the business community who are counting on the incoming administration to roll back Biden-era labor rules they see as burdensome. In a statement, Trump noted that Chavez de Rima is herself a small businesswoman and said together they'd grow wages and improve working conditions and bring back manufacturing jobs. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Trump also plans to nominate hedge fund manager Scott Besant to serve as Treasury Secretary.

NPR's Scott Horsley reports that would make Besant a key player on the incoming administration's economic team. Besant, who runs the key Square Group hedge fund, has been one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders in the financial world. He'll be tasked with carrying out the President-elect's economic agenda, including an extension of the 2017 tax cuts. Those cuts are expected to get a friendly reception in the Republican-controlled Congress, though they'll likely add to the federal debt, which has just surpassed $36 trillion. Besant is a protege of billionaire Democratic donor George Soros. He's also

a longtime friend of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. In a social media post, Trump called Besant one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategist. Besson and his husband have two children and spend most of their time in South Carolina. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Trump has also chosen former Texas State Representative Scott Turner to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and former Florida Representative Dr. Dave Weldon to head up the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. European Union governments are grappling with how to handle the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was issued Thursday by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Terry Schultz reports that EU countries are perhaps the ICC's strongest supporters, but the tribunal has never before indicted the leader of a Western ally for war crimes. All EU countries belong to the International Criminal Court, so they're obligated to arrest inditees who enter their territory, including Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Several governments, including those of Belgium, France and Italy, have announced they're willing to do so. But a German government spokesman said his country would find it hard to imagine. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says he'll actually invite Netanyahu to Budapest

just to defy the ICC. It was a good day on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 426 points. The S&P 500 up 20 points. This is NPR News. Lebanon's Health Ministry says Israeli airstrikes have killed the director of the largest hospital in that country's northeastern region airstrikes have killed the director of the largest hospital in that country's northeastern region. Six people were also killed in the strike on the director's home. At least five paramedics were also killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon, and the UN reported heavy fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters on Friday.

Amazon says it's investing another $4 billion into the artificial intelligence startup Anthropic. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, it comes as a battle to lead the AI future and Silicon Valley continues to ramp up. Amazon's big bet on AI startup Anthropic doubles its investment in the company. Its language model, Claude, competes with ChatGPT from rival company OpenAI. And the race is on. Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Amazon-backed Anthropicropic 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

NextChat 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. The state education board in Texas has voted to allow teachers, teachings involving the Bible in the state's elementary schools. The curriculum that was adopted today makes such classes optional, but schools will be

given additional funding if they use the lessons. Texas is one of several states that have been pushing to give Christianity a larger presence in public classrooms. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. Know that fizzy feeling you get when you read something really good, watch the movie everyone's been talking about, or catch the show that the internet can't get over. At the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast, we chase that feeling four times a week. We'll serve you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, and more. From low brow to high brow to the stuff in between, catch the Pop Culture

Happy Hour podcast from NPR.