NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-29-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: November 29, 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 New York City, I'm Dwahilisa Icautel. Canadian leaders are organizing to respond to the latest threat by President-elect Donald Trump to impose a 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports if they do not stop the flow of drugs and migrants at their shared border.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said she met virtually with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the premiers of 10 provinces on Wednesday. We agreed that we need to be smart, strong and united in meeting this challenge. We spoke principally about the border and the Canada-U.S. trade relationship. The premiers, she said, agreed that illegal drugs, especially opioids, are a scourge for both Canada and the U.S. and that continued work is needed to ensure the border is safe and secure. Human rights organizations are outraged by the French government's lack of clarity on whether it would comply

with the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes in Gaza, as NPR's Eleanor Beartse reports. France's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that Netanyahu could benefit from certain immunities coming from a non-signatory country to the ICC charter. But French human rights lawyer Clémence Bechtart says that stance undermines the ICC. France has actively contributed to the setting up of the International Criminal Court. And so it is not acceptable that France would support an ICC arrest warrant against Putin and not support it against Netanyahu.

The ICC issued a warrant for the Russian president last year for kidnapping Ukrainian children. Bechtart says the International Criminal Court has plenty of enemies and the 124 nations who are signatories must stand up for it at this crucial moment. Eleanor Beardsley in Pure News, Paris. The Pentagon says thousands of North Korean troops have joined Russia's war on Ukraine. Ukraine's defense minister is in Seoul Thursday trying to strengthen Ukraine's alliance with South Korea. Volodymyr Soliub has more from Kyiv. Ukraine is asking South Korea for weapons. Seoul is considering the request and says it depends on Russia and North Korea's next moves. Defense Ministry spokesperson

Dmitry Lozudkin told NPR that North Korea's involvement has escalated the war. First, they supplied weapons. Now they supply the troops. North Korea's soldiers are gaining combat experience. Ukraine wants to strengthen its negotiating position before the Trump administration takes office. Trump has appointed a retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg as special envoy to Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg has said he wants to get tough on both Ukraine and Russia to end the war.

For NPR News, Amvala Diversulohub in Kiev. And this is NPR News from New York City. Thailand has deported six Cambodian activists returning them to their home country to stand trial for treason over Facebook comments critical of their government. The four women and two men had fled their country two years ago, not long after supporting or being members of the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party, banned in Cambodia since 2018. A pro-democracy group operating in exile in California called the

Khmer Movement for Democracy says the six activists will face, quote, inhumane and degrading treatment in Cambodia's prison system. A pug named Vito has won the Best in Show at the 2024 National Dog Show. As NPR's Jackie Northam reports, Vito beat out more than 1,900 other dogs at this year's competition in Philadelphia. This is the first time a pug has won the National Dog Show since it was televised in 2002. Vito craned his neck to look up at his handler Michael Scott when the award was announced, as if trying to understand what all the excitement was about. Still, Scott

believes Vito knows he won, saying, he's very smug, I think he knows. The show judge said Vito has a beautiful expression and movement, adding that's a lot of dog in a small package. Vito beat out six other finalists, including a clumber spaniel named Houston, Monty a giant schnauzer, an abeasin hound named the Zit, Rupert a Berger Picard, and J.J. a lasso apso. Verde, a Welsh terrier, captured the second prize, known as the reserve best in show. This is NPR News from New York.