NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-01-2024 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 1, 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 Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump has selected Attorney Kash Patel to serve as the next director of the FBI. As NPR's Windsor Johnston reports, if confirmed by the Senate, Patel could implement significant

changes at the Bureau. Patel has been an outspoken critic of the FBI. The former prosecutor and public defender has called for shutting down the agency's Washington, D.C. headquarters and firing its top leadership. If confirmed, Patel would replace current FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has three years remaining in his 10-year term. Wray would have to resign or be fired to create a vacancy. Telework for federal employees is expected to be a target of the incoming Trump administration.

Trump advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have proposed that federal workers be required to work from the office five days a week, Andrea Shue reports. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Rameswamy wrote that requiring the federal workforce to report to the office every day could result in a, quote, wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome. Such a move would affect an enormous number of people. Close to half of the civilians in the federal government, just over one million people, are telework eligible.

About 10 percent are fully remote. For many, the arrangements go back years. As of May this year, those able to telework spent on average about 60 percent of their time in person, though it varies across agencies. Last year, the Republican-led House passed a bill seeking to end pandemic-era telework policies. Similar measures could return in the new year. Andrea Hsu, NPR News. Lake effect snowstorms are causing problems for holiday travelers from northeastern Ohio across Pennsylvania and into western and northern New York. Bruce Convizer has the details from New York City. The early season snowstorm is being measured in feet not inches. The National Weather

Service reports that at least nine locations in New York State have recorded at least two feet of snow as of Saturday night, and four of those locations measured at least three feet of snow. So far, Barnes Corners, an unincorporated village east of Lake Ontario, is leading the snow tally with 45 inches, and they could top 50 inches before it all winds down Sunday or Monday. Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency on Friday for nearly a dozen western counties straddling the shores of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. For NPR News, I'm Bruce Conviser in New York. A Palestinian health official says an

Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza this weekend killed five people. An aid worker says three of those who were killed were employees of the World Central Kitchen charity. Earlier this year, an Israeli strike killed seven of the charity's workers causing the group to stop its aid delivery efforts. Israel's military, meanwhile, says the attack killed a wanted militants. You're listening to NPR News. Thousands of people in Beirut gathered this weekend to pay their respects to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel on September 27th. Reporter Lima Al-Arian reports the gathering was held just days after a ceasefire took effect between Israel and Lebanon. Sobbing in the rubble, thousands of Hezbollah supporters came to the site where their leader of 30

years, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in September. Israel said Nasrallah had been operating from the headquarters and quote, advancing terrorist activities. But his supporters see him as a hero for resisting Israeli aggression and standing with the Palestinians. Mourners gathered around the giant crater where Nasrallah's body was recovered in a bunker, 14 floors underground. He was everything in my life, says Hadi Alhaj. Nasrallah has only been temporarily buried, as Hezbollah feared Israel would strike the funeral.

Now that there's a ceasefire, the group says they are preparing for a public funeral. For NPR News, I'm Lama Al-Aryan in Beirut. More than 100 demonstrators were arrested overnight in Georgia as protesters clashed with police following the government's decision to suspend negotiations to join the European Union. That's according to that country's Interior Ministry. Opposition forces appear to be in control of at least parts of the Syrian city of Aleppo at this hour. They're also in control of that city's airport. The Syrian government's military command says that militants attacked that city from a number of directions earlier in the day. I'm Dale Willman and you're listening to NPR News. podcast sponsor free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing

to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.