NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-27-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

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Giles Snyder Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has begun. It took effect several hours ago and appears to be holding, as NPR's Lauren Praer reports from the Lebanese capital. Beirut erupted with celebratory gunfire, mixing with the dawn call to prayer from mosques across the city. Even before first light, cars were lining up on highways heading south at the capital, evacuees eager to return to their homes in areas where fighting

has been fiercest. But Israeli troops are still present in Lebanon in the process of retreating south across the border, and the Israeli military warns civilians away from certain villages where they are still present. The United Nations estimates a quarter of people in Lebanon have been displaced. Dozens of people were killed Tuesday on the eve of this truce, as Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut in some of the heaviest bombardment of this war

while Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, Beirut. Back in the U.S., after a significant delay, the Trump transition team assigned a key agreement with the Biden White House to ease the transfer of power. NPR's Tamara Keitho reports under law that agreement was due October 1st.

The Trump transition signed a memorandum of understanding with the White House. In a statement, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles says this marks the start of the next phase of the transition and will allow intended cabinet nominees to begin critical preparations needed to complete an orderly transition of power. But for now at least, the Trump transition hasn't signed an agreement with the Department of Justice needed to perform background checks and process security clearances.

And the transition is not planning to sign a third agreement that would have given it access to public funds, office space, and government email accounts. Tamara Keith, NPR News. President-elect Trump is adding more names to his incoming administration for his economic team. He's nominating Jameson Greer to become US Trade Representative and Kevin Hassett to lead the National Economic Council. On the health front, Trump has chosen Dr. J. Batacharya

to be director of the National Institutes of Health. Batacharya was an outspoken critic of the government's COVID policies during the pandemic. Canadian officials blasting President-elect Trump's threat to impose sweeping tariffs on goods entering the country. Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke to the BBC. He does put these tariffs on. We will retaliate. We will put tariffs on every box of cereal,

every cracker, anything that gets shipped across and I promise you it will hurt the US and I don't want that. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is to convene an emergency meeting with provincial leaders on Wednesday. Trump is threatening a 25% tariff on goods entering the U.S. from Canada as well as Mexico, and he says he will tack on an additional 10 percent tariff on products from China. Mexico is threatening to retaliate as well, and China says no one will win a trade war. This is NPR News. A former student whose lies led to the killing of a middle school teacher testified in a French court Tuesday.

Eight men are on trial for the death of a civics teacher four years ago. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports on a crime that shook France. The student, now 17, broke down as she apologized to the teacher's family in court, saying her lies had destroyed his life. Four years ago, Samuel Patti showed caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad while teaching about secularism. The middle schooler missed class that day but claimed the teacher had asked Muslim students to leave the classroom before he showed the pictures. That led her Muslim father to record a video denouncing

the teacher. The video spread online among Islamist extremists. A young Chechen radical saw it, drove to the school and beheaded the teacher with a carving knife before he was shot dead by police. The father risks 30 years for targeting the teacher through false information. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. The state of Kentucky is preparing to launch its first online auction of confiscated bottles of booze. The auction stems from a new law that allows alcohol confiscated from closed criminal investigations to be auctioned by the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Agency. The bottles up for sale include hard defying Kentucky bourbons. The bidding opens Wednesday and closes at midnight

on December 11th. Financial markets in Asia mixed in Tuesday trading. Japan's benchmark Nikkei down 0.9% but stocks in China and Hong Kong have rebounded after Wall Street rose to record highs on Tuesday. I'm Jyle Snyder. This is NPR News. 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.

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