NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-27-2024 12AM EST

Episode Date: November 27, 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 Giles Snyder. A ceasefire is now in effect between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. The deal, brokered by the U.S. and France, went into effect a few hours ago and so far there are no reported violations.

NPR's Lauren Freyer is in Beirut. This is a 60-day truce in which Israel will withdraw its ground troops from Lebanon, halt air strikes. Hezbollah will move its fighters and weapons north of the Litani River that's about 20 miles away from the Israeli border. The Lebanese army will deploy alongside United Nations peacekeepers who are already in the area of southern Lebanon and international committee will monitor implementation of this. The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah does not affect the war in Gaza, but Secretary

of State Antony Blinken says it could have a positive effect on a possible ceasefire there. President-elect Trump has announced plans to nominate a prominent critic of U.S. public health policies during the COVID pandemic as the next director of the National Institutes of Health. MPR's Rob Stein has more. President-elect Trump wants Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to be the next NIH director. During the pandemic, the Stanford University health researcher helped write the so-called

Great Barrington Declaration. The declaration criticized the use of measures like lockdowns and mask mandates. The declaration was dismissed by most leading public health experts as irresponsible and dangerous. But Bhattacharya and his supporters say that exemplified the group think that dominates medical research. His nomination requires confirmation by the Senate. Rob Stein, NPR News.

President-elect Trump has also named two more members of his economic team. He says he will nominate Jameson Greer to become his US Trade Representative. If confirmed by the Senate, Greer will be charged with carrying off Trump's economic policy. Trump has also chosen Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council. The CEO of Best Buy says new tariffs would result in higher prices on electronics, citing that announcement by President-elect Trump that he will impose 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and an additional 10% on goods from China, MPR's Alina Seljuk reports. Best Buy CEO Cori Berry says in consumer electronics,

There's very little that is not imported. Almost everything is imported. Berry spoke on a call with investors saying Best Buy does not import most things directly. Its supply chain is very complex. She says historically any tariff means higher costs for importers, for retailers and for shoppers. Of course, we see that the customer ends up bearing some of the cost of the tariffs and we've seen this before.

And for us, that's the hardest part. These are goods that people need and higher prices are not helpful. Barry says some production has been moved out of China in recent years, but it's still the biggest hub for best buy followed by Mexico. Alina Seluk, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR. Police in Birmingham, Alabama have two men in custody that are suspected of being connected to a series of mass shootings between July and September. Authorities say one of the suspects is accused of 11 murders during that time period, including four outside a hookah lounge in September.

A police spokesman alleges the two are responsible for upwards of 30 percent of homicides over that three-month period, and that Birmingham is a safer place with them behind bars. A Georgia jail is testing AI-equipped robots to track inmates. Supporters say the so-called jail bots ease staffing shortages, but researchers with the Justice Department say there's no legal safeguards for how the data they gather is used. From Member Station WABE, Shemane Cruz reports. Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owen says the nearly six-foot-tall robots use mechanisms like heat detection and facial recognition to monitor inmates in select pods.

They can also alert jail staff in case of a medical emergency. There'll be no reason for concern. The robots will not really come in contact with them. It will be a mechanism that says a central robot on duty, please stand back 20 feet, do not touch. According to Owens, the 90-day pilot program is the first real-life trial of jailbots. And Neil Parsons, a researcher for the Justice Department, says with no federal or state laws yet regulating AI in jails, the Georgia program may be facilitating legal

guardrails for others down the road. For NPR News, I'm Shemane Cruz in Atlanta. If you're the kind of person whose idea of a good party conversation starts with, I heard it on NPR, it might be time to take your super fandom seriously. Deck yourself out in style. NPR swag, from t-shirts to ball caps to the almighty NPR tote, are all at 25% off through December 1st at shop.npr.org.