NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-25-2024 6AM EST

Episode Date: November 25, 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, I'm Korova Coleman. Over the past few days, President-elect Donald Trump completed nominating all his candidates for his incoming cabinet. That includes Brooke Rollins to be Agriculture Secretary, former Texas state lawmaker Scott

Turner as Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Oregon Congresswoman Laurie Chavis de Riemer as Labor Secretary, and Wall Street investor Scott Besson for Treasury Secretary. They joined Defense Secretary nominee Pete Hegseth and others. But NPR's Amy Held reports Trump's transition process is lagging behind in other ways. Trump's picks are largely loyal, light on related experience, and several have been accused of sexual misconduct. Documents remain unsigned by the Trump transition team,

including those that would reveal donor names. And Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota tells ABC's This Week those to vet nominees. If they keep delaying on these background checks, we will have a delay in getting these cabinet officials in. But Republican Senator Bill Haggerty of Tennessee says voters don't care about FBI background checks, and he supports recess appointments allowing Trump to go around Senate confirmation altogether. I think everything should be on the table. The Republican-led Senate is set to start the confirmation process next year.

Amy Held, NPR News. The European Union is calling for an immediate halt to fighting in Gaza and in Lebanon. EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell says a ceasefire may be close between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Israeli government has maintained the pressure in Hezbollah to accept the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire. This was agreed. This proposal is pending with the final agreement with the Israeli government. NPR has learned that talks to reach the ceasefire may be close with both sides working on last issues.

There's a hearing in Los Angeles today to consider a request to reduce the life without parole sentence of Eric and Lyle Menendez. The brothers were convicted of first degree murder in the brutal 1989 slayings of their parents. Steve Futterman reports. The request comes as attorneys say there is new evidence supporting the brothers' claim that they were sexually molested by their father, Jose Menendez. Attorney Mark Garagos is representing the brothers.

Under the current state of the law, they're eligible to have, and the court has the discretion to recall the L.W.A.P. sentence, life without parole. The district attorney supports reducing the sentence to 50 years to life. With the more than 30 years the brothers have already served, that would make them eligible for parole.

Complicating the issue is the fact that the current DA is set to be replaced next month and the new DA says he needs to review the case before announcing his position. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. This is NPR. Officials in the United Arab Emirates say they've arrested three suspects in connection with the killing of a rabbi who had dual citizenship in Israel and Moldova. The UAE says the suspects are from Uzbekistan. Israel says the killing is an anti-Semitic act of terror.

The movie's Gladiator 2 and Wicked Part 1, the combination the film industry calls Glicud, did not rise to Barbenheimer Heights at the box office this weekend. NPR's Bob Mandela reports it did power Hollywood to its best pre-Thanksgiving weekend in 11 years. Gladiator 2 took in a hefty $55 million this weekend in North America. You have something in you. I knew it from the start. Did you now? And Wicked was, as its big song suggests,

Defying gravity with $114 million in the till. That is easily the biggest domestic opening ever for an adaptation of a Broadway musical, and enough to make this pre-Thanksgiving weekend for all films the best since 2013, proving that movies and cinemas can still be popular. Both films also opened overseas. Worldwide, Wicked has taken in $163 million, while Gladiator 2, which opened in some markets ten days ago, has accumulated $221 million.

Bob Mandelo, NPR News. President Biden is set to participate in an annual Thanksgiving tradition. He'll pardon two turkeys at the White House today. The turkeys are going to live at an agricultural interpretive center in Minnesota, but wallandhub.com estimates 46 million turkeys will be eaten this holiday. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.