NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-01-2024 2AM EST

Episode Date: December 1, 2024

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. The Palestinian militant group Hamas has released a video of Israeli-American hostage Idan Alexander this weekend. In the video, he asked President-elect Donald Trump to secure his freedom. His mother, Yael Alexander, says she hopes he knows they're doing everything they can to bring him home. I didn't see Idan for 421 days and suddenly to see him alive and speaking and when he cried I just want to hold him, you know.

It was very, very, very tough to see. Hamas is thought to still have about 100 hostages in captivity. About half of them are believed to still be alive. Israel meanwhile says it carried out several strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon this weekend, but despite that a ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon still appears to be holding in its fourth day. Ampires Kat Lonsdorf reports from northern Israel. The Israeli military says its air force struck multiple Hezbollah targets today, including militants loading weapons into vehicles for transport.

It called that action a violation of the ceasefire. Lebanese officials accuse Israel of breaking the agreement, including hitting several villages with artillery fire. But still, the shaky truce appears to be holding overall. There has been sporadic violence in Lebanon's south where Israeli troops are still operating, as well as Hezbollah militants and members of the Lebanese army. Israel and Hezbollah have 60 days to withdraw from the area, after which the Lebanese army

and United Nations peacekeeping forces will be in charge of securing it. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Haifa. President Joe Biden is working on a long to-do list before he leaves Washington in January. NPR's Tamara Keith has more on that story. President-elect Donald Trump has said he intends to roll back a lot of President Biden's signature legislative achievements. So the Biden team is trying to use its remaining time to make that hard to do by obligating funds, signing contracts, and pushing out grants.

They're also working to draw attention to popular provisions, like the $2,000 cap on prescription drug costs for seniors that takes effect in 2025. Pardons and commutations are a power of the presidency often exercised at the very end. Biden has used his power to send a signal about inequality in the nation's criminal code and he could do something like that again. Tamara Keith, NPR News. Parts of the northern U.S. are being hammered by wintry conditions at this moment. The northern plains states are seeing bitterly cold temperatures there that are 10 to 20

degrees below normal right now. In Michigan, a winter storm warning is in effect through Sunday and a state of emergency has been declared for parts of New York where as much as three feet of snow has fallen with even more expected this weekend. You're listening to NPR News. Protests are continuing in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi this weekend. Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand new elections. The protests began on Thursday after the incoming administration said it would suspend talks on the country's bid for European Union membership. Georgian President Salome Zorbisvili says he supports the protests. We are not demanding a revolution. We are not putting demands on who has to get out of the, we are asking for new elections.

NASA's rover's Curiosity and Perseverance continue to wander around on the surface of Mars and as Joe Palka reports, they've uncovered some strange new features on the red planets. Curiosity has now covered about 20 miles since it landed near a three-mile tall Martian mountain in 2012. Recently, it rolled over a field of small stones that unexpectedly consisted entirely of sulfur. Befuddled scientists are trying to determine where the sulfur came from. Next stop for the rover is a formation called boxwork, which may have formed from minerals that eroded from the nearby mountain. The Perseverance rover is about 2,300 miles away from its rolling colleague. It's climbing up the walls of the large crater it landed in nearly four years ago.

It, too, has come across Martian features that have stumped scientists. A recent example is a field of white rocks of unknown origin NASA has dubbed Mist Park. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palca. In college football, number one, Oregon easily beat Washington on Saturday while number two, Ohio State was upset by Michigan, Texas, Penn State, and Notre Dame all won. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange

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