NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-01-2024 9PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Doha Lisi Kautau. President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden. In a statement on Sunday, the president says his son was selectively and unfairly prosecuted. And Perez Luke Garrett reports. President Biden fully and unconditionally pardoned his son, weeks before Hunter was set to face sentencing for federal charges. In a statement, Biden said Hunter was quote, singled out only because he is my son, end quote. The White House has previously said Biden would not pardon Hunter or commute his sentence. The about face and full pardon comes weeks

before Biden leaves office and transfers power to President-elect Trump, who has attacked Hunter over legal and personal issues. In a separate statement responding to the pardon, Hunter said he has quote, admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction, end quote. Biden and Hunter spent the Thanksgiving weekend together in Nantucket, Massachusetts. President Biden closed his statement by saying, quote, I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision, end quote. Luke Garrett, NPR News,

Washington. Israel's military says it has intercepted a projectile launched from Yemen toward Israel from Tel Aviv and Piers Daniel Estrin reports. The projectile from Yemen set off sirens across central Israel, and Israel's air force says it intercepted it mid-air outside Israel's borders. The Houthis in Yemen have been targeting Israel in support of Gaza and Lebanon amid the wars. Israel has launched strikes in Yemen this year in retaliation for Houthi missile and drone attacks. Yemen's Houthis launched a military operation on what the group's military spokesman Yahya Saree called a

vital target in central Israel using a hypersonic missile. This was reported in a televised address on Sunday. The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow in a case testing how the Food and Drug Administration regulates vaping. E-cigarettes, as they are known, contain addictive nicotine but are not as dangerous as tobacco products. And Piers Nienentotenberg reports. Piers Nienentotenberg 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 marketed in 2006, took up a lot of that slack and by 2023, the FDA survey showed 30% 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. The Democratic Party is looking for a new chair of the Democratic National Committee. This is NPR News from New York. For a fourth night, protesters are gathered near the parliament in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, upset that the government suspended talks on joining the European Union for another four years. That was announced on Thursday and immediately led to violent clashes between demonstrators and police who used tear gas and water cannons.

The Interior Ministry said at least 100 people were arrested late Saturday and an unknown number of police were injured. The ruling Georgian Dream Party is being accused by critics of being authoritarian, anti-Western, and pro-Russia. Oscar-winning screenwriter, director, and Broadway librettist Marshall Brickman died on Friday in Manhattan. He was 85. No cause of death was given.

As Jeff Lund reports, Brickman collaborated with Woody Allen on some of his most famous comedies. Part of Marshall Brickman's skills was making other people look good. The Brazilian-born and Brooklyn-raised writer who played Banjo as a young man was on the staff of Candid Camera and The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where he created the Karnak the Magnificent sketches. But it was with Woody Allen that Brickman found fame. The two worked together on Sleeper, Manhattan, and Annie Hall.

I forgot my mantra. He won the pair an Oscar. Brickman directed several films and went on to write the books for the Broadway musical's Jersey Boys and the Addams Family. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. Lake Effect Snow is forecast across the Great Lakes until Tuesday. I'm Dwahli Sykoutou. NPR News from New York City.

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