NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-27-2024 8PM EST

Episode Date: November 28, 2024

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This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges, nine campuses, one purpose, creating tomorrow today. More at iu.edu. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President-elect Donald Trump announced that former National

Security aide and retired lieutenant general Keith Kellogg will be his special envoy to Russia and Ukraine. NBR's Franco Ordonnier reports Kellogg will lead Trump's negotiations to end the war. Trump said in a statement that Kellogg was with him right from the beginning and that quote, we will secure peace through strength and make America and the world safe again. Trump has promised to end Russia's war in Ukraine. Kellogg's appointment could shed some light on how he expects to accomplish that. Kellogg wrote a plan for the America First Policy Institute that suggested establishing

a demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine. The plan also includes conditioning military aid for Ukraine on the government entering peace talks. To entice Putin, Kellogg suggests that the president offer to put off NATO membership for Ukraine. The U.S. would also offer to lift all sanctions if Russia signs a peace agreement that is acceptable to Ukraine. Franco Ordoñez, NPR News. Three Americans that have been held for years in China are being released. The White House announcing the agreement with Beijing, which comes in the final months of

the Biden administration. All three individuals have been designated as being improperly detained by the U.S. government. One of the individuals is being held on drug charges while two others were imprisoned on espionage charges. It's not clear what prompted the release. Missouri will soon stop enforcing one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. St. Louis Public Radio's Jason Rosenbaum reports the state's attorney general is trying to salvage other abortion restrictions. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey acknowledged a constitutional amendment voters approved this month protecting abortion rights makes

the state's near total ban unenforceable. That means the state will allow abortions up to around 24 weeks of pregnancy on December 5th. But in court filings responding to a lawsuit from the state's Planned Parenthood affiliates, Bailey's office contended that a judge should not strike down other restrictions, including abortion clinic licensing requirements and a 72-hour waiting period. Planned Parenthood officials say getting rid of those other state laws restricting abortion are crucial to reopening abortion access across the state.

A judge is slated to consider Planned Parenthood's lawsuit next week. For NPR News, I'm Jason Rosenbaum in St. Louis. Two Tennessee tax preparers have been indicted by a federal grand jury. That's after prosecutors contend Renata Walton and Nicole Jones allegedly submitted 65 million false claims for refunds under programs designed to help businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pair are indicted on more than 50 counts, including wire fraud, money laundering, preparing false tax returns, as well as obstruction of justice. Walton and Jones operated R&B Tax Express in Moscow, Tennessee.

They pleaded not guilty to those charges. Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, the Dow down 138 points. This is NPR. Lawyers representing former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have filed a legal claim against the City of New York over what they contend is substandard medical treatment. The attorney is alleging the 72-year-old Weinstein has been denied medical care while jailed at the city's notorious Rikers Island complex. An appeals court has issued a ruling nullifying a 2020 rape conviction in New York, but Weinstein

faces a retrial. The claim seeks $5 million in damages for mistreatment. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing. Researchers in Europe have published what could be the largest ever study of dinosaur poop. And Bjergstef Brumfield says the fossilized droppings provide clues about how they came to rule the Earth. Everyone knows an asteroid killed the dinosaurs, but how did they come to dominate in the first place? Martin Kvarnström is a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

We know a lot about the life and extinction of the dinosaurs, but not so much about the rise of the dinosaurs. To learn more, Kvarnström and his colleagues analyzed over 500 fossilized poops to see what they were eating. That's a lot of poop. They found that early dinosaurs had more diverse diets than other lizards alive at the time. That probably helped them thrive during some major shifts in climate in the Triassic period. The work appears in the journal Nature.

Jeff Brumfield, NPR News. Mortgage rates came down slightly this week, though the average interest rate on a 30-year loan remains close to 7 percent, falling to 6.81%. That's according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac. The rate is below a year ago, though, when the benchmark lending rate was at 7.22%. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges, nine campuses, one purpose, creating tomorrow today. More at iu.edu.