NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

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The NPR app cuts through the noise, bringing you local, national, and global coverage. No paywalls, no profits, no nonsense. Download it in your app store today. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. Hunter Biden no longer faces the threat of going to prison for federal felony gun and tax convictions, thanks to his father. Last night, President Biden pardoned his son, something he previously said he would not do. Today, White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, explained Biden believes his son was unfairly targeted in the middle of

election year politics. He wrestled with it. He thought about it. And he believed and what he saw was that his son was singled out. And so he made this decision. And once he made the decision, which was this weekend, he decided to move forward with it and not to wait. Jean-Pierre speaking to reporters on Air Force One and Route 2 Angola. Biden has arrived. It's the outgoing president's first visit to the continent since he took office. Here's NPR's Frank Ordonez. President Biden will focus on one of his signature investments in

Africa, the Lobedo Corridor, an 800-mile railway that will transport critical minerals and encourage broader development. It's also a means to counter Chinese investment in the region. U.S. officials say Biden will also meet with his counterpart in Angola, President Jauh Lorenzo, to discuss security cooperation, global health, and ways to preserve Angola's cultural heritage. The timing of the trip raises questions as global focus turns to the incoming Trump administration. But Biden officials say they expect incoming

officials will see the benefits of initiatives such as the Lobito corridor. Franco Ordonez, NPR News. The Israeli military says Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have fired into a disputed border zone held by Israel despite a ceasefire agreement that went into effect last week. Forces say two projectiles landed in open areas without causing any apparent injuries. Lebanon has accused Israel of violating the truce dozens of times in recent days. School staff who work with students with disabilities are sometimes hurt by the students they serve. Texas Public Radio's Camille Phillips reports National Surveys show violence against these educators is more common than you might think. Special education teachers are more likely to experience violence or aggression from

students. DePaul University psychology professor Susan Dvorak-McMahon studies violence against educators. KAMILE FILLETT, DORAK MCMAHON, DEPT. Because we asked teachers about their worst, those most upsetting experiences, we read a lot of responses that are really, they're very difficult to read. There isn't a lot of research on how often special educators are hurt at work, but a Pennsylvania study found special educators were nearly three times more likely to be physically assaulted by students compared with general educators. I'm Camille Phillips in San Antonio. This is NPR News.

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a federal appeal to continue a crackdown on sweet vaping products that the Food and Drug Administration argues threaten to get kids addicted to nicotine. The FDA has denied more than a million applications to sell fruit and candy-flavored vapes as part of a broader effort to curb nicotine use among minors. Vaping companies accuse the FDA of unfairly hindering their ability to sell products that they argue help adults quit cigarettes. FDA and CDC back surveys show a surge since 2014 in the percentage of minors who reported

vaping e-cigarettes daily. A NASA probe headed for Jupiter's moon Europa is now more than 13 million miles from Earth. It launched in October. Joe Polalka reports, it's hardly time to say, are we there yet? That's because the probe has nearly 1.8 billion miles left to go. Jupiter's moon Europa is intriguing. Scientists have determined it has a liquid water ocean sloshing around under its icy surface.

And where there's water, there could be, could be life. So scientists are eager to learn as much about Europa as possible. The probe, called the Europa Clipper, is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission. It has already begun to deploy some of the instruments it will use when it arrives at Jupiter in 2030. For now, the probe is headed for Mars, where it will get a gravity boost for its long trip, some 1.8 billion miles, through the solar system. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palka.

The Dow is down 142 points, the Nasdaq is up 184. It's NPR.