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

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. A judge has dismissed the federal election interference case against President-elect Donald Trump that grants a dismissal request from special counsel Jack Smith. Here's NPR's Ryan Lucas. Judge Tonya Chutkin's decision to dismiss the election interference case against Trump without prejudice comes just hours after Smith submitted his request with the court. In that filing, Smith said the government is confident in the strength and merit of the case against Trump, but that department policy prohibits the prosecution of a sitting

president. In a separate filing, Smith is also moving to drop the other case he brought against Trump for hoarding classified documents. But prosecutors will continue the prosecution of Trump's two co-defendants in that case. Smith had been known to be winding down the cases following Trump's election win. Smith himself is expected to leave his post before Trump takes office. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington. A California judge says he will postpone a hearing involving new evidence in the case of brothers Eric and Lyle Menendez. The pair were convicted in the shotgun murders of their parents at their Beverly Hills home more than 30 years ago.

The court opting to put off the review of a filing by the pair's attorneys till January. Eric and Lyle Menendez were sentenced to life without parole in the killing of their parents, which prosecutors said they did for money, where new evidence of sexual abuse of one of the brothers by their fathers now surfaced. The executive director of the U.S. Cyber Command spoke at a Washington, D.C. conference about Chinese hackers infiltrating every sector of American industry, including critical infrastructure. And Bjergjana McLaughlin reports. Morgan Adamski is the executive director of U.S. Cyber Command, one of the 11 combatant commands within the U military focused on defending US interests in cyberspace. At a DC area cyber conference, Adamski told the audience about Chinese hackers' broad

efforts to infiltrate American companies and industries, from critical infrastructure to home routers to create digital armies of infected devices. She also addressed recent news stories about a Chinese hacking group Salt Typhoon, which the US government says broke into major US telecoms to spy on top politicians and journalists. Adamski said the US government and industry had been warning about China targeting the telecommunication sector for years and continues to be concerned about that activity. General Goughlin, NPR News. The Justice Department and search engine giant Google are squaring off in federal court as

the two sides make their final arguments in a case alleging the company's online advertising technology gives it an illegal monopoly. The arguments in federal court come as federal regulators are already saying they may seek to force the company to spin off its search engine business. A judge is expected to rule on the advertising case by the end of the year. Stocks continue to power to new record highs in some cases and will be a holiday shortened trading week. The Dow was up 440 points today.

The NASDAQ gained 51 points. The S&P was up 18 points. You're listening to NPR. Many workers at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina are striking today. They're demanding better wages and benefits as Thanksgiving travel begins. Julian Berger of member station WFAE has more. Cabin cleaners, wheelchair attendants, and ramp workers are among those who walked off the job. They work for ABM and Prospect, the companies that contract with American Airlines. Diane Kaiser was one of 100 striking workers attending a

rally. She works with minors flying alone. I want people to realize that we take pride in what we do. We want equipment that works well to get that passenger from one point to another point. The Service Employees International Union says about 40 percent of airport workers it represents in Charlotte don't have stable housing and about half have struggled to pay utility bills. For NPR News, I'm Julian Burger in Charlotte. The travel rush for the Thanksgiving holiday is already beginning to rev up and for the period from tomorrow through next Monday, an estimated 80 million Americans are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home.

That's according to AAA which says the majority will go by car, though the Transportation Security Administration says it will also see record traffic in the nation's airports possibly on Sunday. The majority of people are expected to return from the holiday. Roadways are also expected to be busy. Crude Oil futures prices closed lower today amid some easing of Mideast tensions, oiled down $2.30 a barrel to settle at $68.94 a barrel in New York. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.