NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2024 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

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Lyle from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The list of controversial Trump nominees in line for Senate confirmation is getting longer. For the post of FBI director, the president-elect said he would select attorney Kash Patel. Patel's a close ally and former national security aide who has rebuked the Justice Department and the news media. As NPR's Kerry Johnson reports, the current FBI director, Chris Ray, still has three years left on his 10-year term. It's been rare to fire an FBI director with time left on his term, but it has happened before. And now it's not clear whether Ray would stick around to be fired in January

or whether he might resign first. Over the weekend, the FBI said Chris Ray, the director, is focused on the FBI workforce and on protecting the American people from threats. NPR's Carrie Johnson. Several international aid organizations have been forced to pause services in Gaza. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf reports local residents are desperate for food more than a year after the war broke out. The UN announced yesterday it's pausing aid deliveries into Gaza, saying armed gangs inside have made it too dangerous.

World Central Kitchen has also suspended operations after several of its members were killed by an Israeli strike. Israel says one of them was Hamas. And the World Food Program has suspended delivery of food parcels, saying that there are no supplies. Meanwhile, Palestinians are starving. NPR's producer in Gaza, Anas Baba, visited the sole operating charity kitchen in Khan Younis, where thousands clamored for a simple

meal of beans. They are just pushing each other. They just keep pushing forward and forward and forward. We saw a child that he's fainted from all of the squeezing. He says the food ran out and many, including children, left without. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Tel Aviv. A white former Kansas police detective who was scheduled to stand trial today for violent crimes in stretch-back decades against multiple black women and girls has been found dead. A federal judge issued an arrest warrant this morning when Roger Golubski failed to show

up for jury selection. Telework for federal employees is expected to be a target of the incoming administration. And Piers Andrea Schew reports Trump advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have proposed federal workers be required to work from the office five days a week. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy 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% 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. That's NPR's Andrea Hsu reporting. The Dow is down nearly 100 points at 44,812. This is NPR.

Thanksgiving week, Traveler set a new record. The Transportation Security Administration says it screened more than 3 million people yesterday, surpassing the previous record set the Sunday after Independence Day by 74,000. Teeth chattering cold, still not letting up. The National Weather Service's Brian Hurley says parts of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York are in for more snow. The next couple days, we are starting to see perhaps some diminishment as we get into Tuesday ahead of a clipper system. But unfortunately for the snow valley areas behind that, Wednesday,

especially in the Thursday, we're going to look at more lake effects now. Now, as winter approaches, the creatures of the forest adjust their routine, including dung beetles. Science reporter Ari Daniel went looking for some in Massachusetts with a researcher taking a census of sorts. In a small patch of woodland in Worcester in the central part of the state, Clark University biologist Erin McCullough peers down at the forest floor. I have found 12 different dung beetle species. 12?

Yeah. I think people don't appreciate the biodiversity that's right in their backyard. Dung beetles are nature's cleanup crew. They break down waste, improve the soil, and aerate the forest floor. McCullough says counting dung beetles and studying their life cycle tells researchers about the health of the forest. The beetle numbers peaked in June and it appears they've now headed underground for the winter. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. It's NPR.