NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-23-2024 4AM EST

Episode Date: November 23, 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, I'm Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump has announced his pick for the next head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. NPR's Ping Huang has more.

Dave Weldon is an internal medicine doctor, an Army veteran, and a former Republican congressman from Florida. He's now Trump's pick for head of the CDC, the nation's public health agency. In the announcement posted on Truth Social, Trump described Weldon as a respected conservative leader on fiscal and social issues and someone who will, quote, restore the CDC to its true purpose and work to end the chronic disease epidemic. Weldon served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2009, where he served on several committees including Appropriations, Health and Human Services,

and Science. He advocated for space research and funding, and he's also known for introducing the so-called Weldon Amendment, which protected anti-abortion health care workers and groups from discrimination. Weldon will be the first CDC director nominee to go through the Senate confirmation process. Ping Huang, NPR News. Trump Friday also named several more people. He wants to be in his new cabinet. He said Friday he'll nominate former NFL player and White House aide Scott Turner to head the Department of Housing and Development. He

also named Oregon Republican Representative Laurie Chavez de Riemer as his Labor Secretary and hedge fund manager Scott Besant as the next Treasury Secretary. Russell Vogt, would head the OMB. New York Judge Juan Mershon has indefinitely adjourned President-elect Trump's sentencing for his criminal hush money conviction in New York City. As MPR's Ximena Bustillo reports, both sides have signaled they want to delay the sentencing even further after Trump won the presidential election. After several days, today, Mershon

adjourned next week's sentencing date. Trump's lawyers have long attempted to dismiss the case, arguing that evidence used in the case should not have been introduced and the incoming president cannot be prosecuted. Prosecutors have also prepared to fight the dismissal. Filings are due in December. Jimena Bustillo, NPR News, New York.

European Union governments are grappling with how to handle the arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that was issued on Thursday by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Terry Schultz reports that EU countries are perhaps 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. That's Terry Schultz reporting, and you're listening to NPR News. The Supreme Court said Friday it will hear an appeal early next year of a lower court ruling that found the government fund that offers subsidies for phone and internet services in schools, libraries and rural areas to be unconstitutional. The money is collected from the telecommunications providers and administered by the FTC.

The lower court ruled that Congress violated the Constitution by empowering the FTC to manage that fund. Folk singer Arlo Guthrie has announced the death of his longtime friend Alice Brock. As NPR's Madalit Del Barco reports, she inspired his 1967 anti-war Thanksgiving anthem. Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute ballad starts off about his friend Alice Brock, a school librarian living in an old church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant. In his musical monologue, Guthrie tells about being arrested and jailed for dumping out Alice's trash on Thanksgiving Day. Then he was almost drafted for the Vietnam War. You want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids' houses and villages after being a litter bug. Alice's Restaurant became an anti-war anthem anthem inspiring a movie and a cookbook. It brought fame to the son of folk singer Woody Guthrie and to Brock, a restaurateur,

artist and illustrator. Mandalit Del Barco, NPR News. WNBA rookie Caitlin Clark has joined a bid by Cincinnati for an expansion national women's soccer team. The league plans to announce its 16th team by the end of the year. The Major League Soccer franchise FC Cincinnati is heading the group to claim that franchise. The league's 15th team will start play in Boston in 2026. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.