NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-01-2024 8AM 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 in Washington, I'm Giles Snyder, the mother of an Israeli-American hostage seen in a video released by Hamas, as the video was difficult to watch. 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.

Israel Alexander speaking at the weekly protest of hostage families in Tel Aviv, her son, Edan, is seen on the video addressing President-elect Donald Trump, asking him to help free the remaining hostages in Gaza. Where the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says it's halting aid deliveries to the main cargo crossing because of the threat of looting by armed gangs. Israel says it's carried out several strikes against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon this weekend. Despite that, a ceasefire still appears to be holding, and Piers Kat Lonsdorf reports

from Northern Israel. Piers Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIRS Kat Lonsdorf, PIR The Israeli military says its air force struck multiple Hezbollah targets, 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. The taking of the Syrian city of Aleppo is being called the biggest challenge to Syria and President Bashar al-Assad in years. Syrian rebels swept into Aleppo Friday night, now advancing toward the city of Hama. The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow in a case testing how the Food and Drug Administration regulates vaping or e-cigarettes. They contain an additive nicotine, not dangerous as tobacco products, but their popularity has taken off in Pierce-Nina Totenberg reports. In 2009 Congress enacted a law aimed at regulating nicotine products marketed for minors. The good news is that the agency succeeded in dramatically driving down cigarette use by high school kids to 2%.

The bad news is that e-cigarettes first first marketed in 2006, took up a lot of that slack and by 2023 the FDA survey showed 30 percent of high schoolers were vaping e-cigarettes, which the agency considers a gateway to smoking more damaging cigarettes. So the FDA refused to approve products it saw as catering to kids, vaping products with names like pink lemonade. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether the FDA followed the rules of the regulatory road when it did that. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR. President-elect Donald Trump has picked longtime ally Cash Patel to lead the FBI. However, for Patel to take the job, Trump would have to either fire current director

Christopher Wray or Wray would have to resign. Forecasters are warning that frigid temperatures and heavy snow from the plains and the Midwest to the Great Lakes region could persist for a couple more days. Lake effect snow has been blanketing the Great Lakes region from Michigan to Pennsylvania and New York. The National Weather Service says the heaviest snow totals are expected downwind from Lakes Erie and Ontario, and temperatures are expected to be about 10 degrees below average over the eastern third of the U.S. by tomorrow. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says just 14 percent of older adults in the U.S. get the recommended amount of exercise, and Pierce Ping Wong has more.

Every week, U.S. adults should be getting at least two and a half hours of moderate exercise and two days of strength training. That's guidance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Rita Enders, 84 years old, goes to a fitness class twice a week at a senior center in Towson, Maryland. Use it or lose it. If you don't keep moving, everything starts to stiffen up. All you have to do is sit down for 15 minutes and try to get up and then you're like, oh. But a survey from CDC shows that Enders is in the minority. More than 85 percent of those

65 and older are not getting the recommended amount of exercise to reap its substantial benefits. There are almost 60 million U.S. adults that are 65 and older. Regular exercise would help them keep healthy and mobile and reduce the risk of falls. Ping Huang, NPR News. And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News from Washington.