NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-11-2024 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

NPR News: 12-11-2024 11AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. The suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson remains in a Pennsylvania jail. Luigi Mangione is fighting extradition to New York. Pennsylvania authorities say he was carrying a ghost gun when he was arrested. These are assembled from parts and don't have serial numbers making them almost impossible to trace. Mangione's lawyer, Thomas Dickey, says this may not be the weapon authorities are looking for. I have not been made aware of any evidence

that links the gun that was found on his person to the crime. Investigators are examining Mangione's social media posts, one of which referenced a domestic terrorist. It's been four days since Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fled his country and sought asylum in Russia. The rebel groups that seized the capital, Damascus, say they're forming an interim government. President Biden is responding to the event

by sending his national security advisor to the region. And Piers Morreliason reports. National security advisor Jake Sullivan is going to Israel to talk with US allies about what can be done to stabilize the situation in Syria, where rebels overthrew the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. wants to make sure that the aspirations of the Syrian people for self-governance are met. It is in our interests, our national security interests, that Syria be stable and secure.

And for that reason, he said, U.S. strikes on ISIS camps in Syria will continue. Kirby said that so far, all the opposition groups who toppled Assad, including Islamist insurgents, are saying the right things. But he said, quote, we have to watch what they actually do. Mara Eliason, NPR News, The White House.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has struck many targets in Syria. The Israeli military says this is to stop chemical weapons from falling into the wrong hands. The U.S. Air Force Academy is named in a new federal lawsuit. A group known for bringing legal challenges against the use of race and ethnicity in college admissions is taking on the Military Academy. NPR's Kristen Wright reports the suit was filed yesterday in Colorado. Students for Fair Admissions claims the Air Force Academy's admissions policies that consider the race of applicants are unconstitutional and discriminatory.

It wants the court to prevent the Academy from considering or even knowing their race. The same group also sued the U.S. Naval Academy. But last Friday, a federal judge ruled the Navy can consider race in admissions for national security interests. The judge made mention of an exception in last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling that rejected affirmative action in higher education. That exception was a footnote written in The Opinion that said the ruling throwing out race-conscious admissions didn't apply to military academies because they may hold potentially distinct interests. Kristin Wright, NPR News.

On Wall Street, the Dow's down 40 points. This is NPR. The big grocery merger between Albertsons and Kroger is over, a day after two different courts block the deal. Kroger is now suing Albertsons, alleging it did not properly prepare for regulatory scrutiny. New research points to a dramatic shift in the Arctic that could have widespread climate implications. Arctic tundra, which has stored carbon for thousands of years, has now become a source

of carbon dioxide. That's according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual Arctic Report card. It finds melting permafrost and increasing wildfires are responsible for the shift. For Member Station WBUR, Barbara Moran has more. An estimated 1.5 trillion tons of carbon is locked away in the frozen soil known as permafrost. That's more carbon than all the trees in all the world's forests. As the permafrost thaws, it releases that carbon as greenhouse gases, contributing to

climate change. Twila Moon is a climate scientist and lead editor on this year's Arctic Report Card. Like, if you have your chicken in your freezer and it's frozen, it can be in there for years. But once you have that chicken out of your freezer, it's thawing and all those microbes are getting to work and making it rot. The permafrost is really doing the same thing. Last year was the second warmest in the Arctic since 1900. For NPR News, I'm Barbara Moran in Boston. The wildfire burning north of Los Angeles has scorched more than

six square miles. The Franklin fire has forced thousands to evacuate around the city of Malibu. This is NPR.