NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-11-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: December 11, 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, I'm Giles Snyder. Police say the man charged with fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson appears to have had a gun that was at least partially made on a 3D printer. NPR's Martin Costey says experts have identified it from an apparent evidence photo circulating

the media. Do It Yourself gunmaking pioneer Cody Wilson says the suspect's gun appears to be from a design for an imitation Glock handgun which was available for download on the internet. From what we can see he's got a printed Glock frame and that's been very popular but what's interesting from our point of view is the version of this frame he printed was from 2021. It doesn't seem to be one of the latest printed Glock frames you could use. Guns like this are sometimes called ghost guns because they don't have serial numbers and can't be traced.

Several experts have ID'd this gun as a distinctive remix design uploaded to the internet by a do-it-yourself gunmaker known online as Chairman Wan. Martin Costi, NPR News. Mangione appeared in court in Pennsylvania Tuesday, a day after he was arrested at a McDonald's restaurant in Altoona. He was denied bail and his lawyer says he will oppose extradition to New York. A hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday looked at how mass deportations promised by the incoming Trump administration would impact families, the labor market and the

military. For Member Station KJZZ, Alyssa Resnick has more. President-elect Trump has said deportations would begin on his first day in office, and he'd even use the military to carry them out. Retired Army Major General Randy Maner told lawmakers the military's already engaged in over 160 countries and working to counter threats from China and Russia. Additional training or deployments to support deportation operations would absolutely harm operational readiness and reduce the military's ability to counter adversaries or respond to

crises in combat. Manor said directing resources into a mass deportation mission could also degrade public trust in the military and harm morale. There are roughly 13 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., many of whom have been here for at least 15 years. For NPR News, I'm Elisa Resnick in Tucson. As Syria begins a process toward a new form of government following the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. says it will support a new Syria that renounces terrorism and protects the rights of minorities and women. And NPR's Tom Bowman says Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons are a

major concern. A senior administration official told reporters yesterday the US has a pretty good idea where many of these chemical sites are and it's something quote we're very focused on. And the top US officer who oversees the region, General Eric Carilla, is now traveling there and I'm told that's something he'll discuss with his counterparts in Jordan and Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the transition process must ensure that any chemical or biological weapons are safely destroyed. This is NPR.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's office says he has been cleared to return to work after suffering minor injuries in a fall at the U.S. Capitol. A spokesperson says McConnell tripped following lunch Tuesday. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso says McConnell walked back to his office with no assistance. He's 82 years old and McConnell has had a series of medical incidents in recent years. He is stepping down from his leadership post at the end of the year. New research finds that certain digestive functions are controlled by two types of brain cells found in the abdomen. NPR's John Hamilton reports on a study in the journal Nature. A team at Caltech wanted to know how a cluster of brain cells in the abdomen was able to regulate

both the gut and other organs involved in digestion. So they used genetic techniques to study all the cells in the cluster. Yukioka says the team found two distinct types of neurons. Digestive-related functions are controlled by one major cell type. Another class of neurons is involved in gut motility. Some neurons determined how much bile acid to make, while others decided how fast food should be propelled through the intestinal tract. Oka says the findings suggest that some neurons in the body are organized very much like neurons in the brain.

John Hamilton, NPR News. Financial markets in Asia are mixed in Wednesday trading as investors wait for the latest update on consumer inflation in the US. That inflation report is due on Wednesday. It's among the final pieces of economic data before the Federal Reserve's meeting on interest rates next week. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.