NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-11-2024 2AM 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. There are still questions about the man police have charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. But a picture of Luigi Mangione is emerging.

NPR's Maria Asmin says he has long dealt with severe back pain. In the last couple of years, Mangione was living in Hawaii and the people there I talked to say that his back pain kept him from surfing, hiking, and generally enjoying life as a 20-something there. It also seems that Mangione was spending a lot of time online and following influencers who are big on masculinity focus, self-help advice. Mangione remains jailed in Pennsylvania where he made his first court appearance on Tuesday. He was denied bail and his lawyer says he will fight extradition to New York where he faces charges of murder and other crimes. In his final weeks on the job, President Biden is

defending his administration's economic record while taking aim at his successor's economic vision. And Piers Haas-McCullough reports. Many voters in the 2024 election appear to have rejected how the Biden White House handled the economy. But Biden gave a speech noting his record on job creation and touting his legislative record passing major investments in clean energy and semiconductors. He insisted he's handing his successor a strong economy. He also rang alarm bells about Donald Trump's economic plans.

I pray to God the president-elect throws away Project 2025. I think it would be an economic disaster. Biden warned that Trump's tariff and tax plans could hurt economic growth. It was perhaps his most direct rebuke of Trump's agenda since the election. Asma Khalid, NPR News. A coalition of Syrian rebel groups has named an interim prime minister.

He'll manage a transition of power between the former Assad regime and the armed groups that overthrew the regime over the weekend. NPR's Emily Fang has details. Mohammed al-Bashir will serve as acting prime minister for the next three months until March 1st of next year. Al-Bashir had been appointed the administrative head of opposition-held territory in the northwest of Syria earlier this year. And now, the former engineer will need to figure out how to build a new coalition government

between various factions still fighting for territory in Syria. His interim government says it will dissolve Syria's feared intelligence services and is planning a reshuffling of the formerly regime-controlled military. This week, Syrian opposition groups said they would give amnesty to soldiers who are forced to serve in the Assad regime. Emily Fang, and Peer News, Beirut, Lebanon. Israel says it has conducted more than 350 airstrikes on military targets in Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is characterizing the attacks as necessary to keep weapons from being used against Israel following the Syrian government's collapse. This is NPR. The Onions bid to acquire Alex Jones's Infowars platform has been rejected by a federal bankruptcy judge.

Following a two-day hearing in Houston, the judge rejected the Onions' winning bid, saying the process was flawed. He said the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee should have encouraged more back-and-forth bidding during an auction before asking for final offers. He said the outcome left a lot of money on the table for families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. Providence, Rhode Island will soon open a facility that allows people to use illegal drugs

with medical supervision, the first in the country to be state regulated. Nina Sparling with the Publix Radio has more. At the new facility, people who use drugs will be able to do so in the open, with medical staff on hand in case of an overdose. Supporters say supervised use prevents fatal overdoses and connects users to help. Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said he was skeptical at first, but as someone in recovery

himself, he came around to the idea. The only way we're going to help someone find recovery is if we keep them alive. And sometimes that happens after the first overdose, sometimes that happens after the 40th overdose. New York City opened two similar facilities three years ago, the first of their kind in the country. The nonprofit groups running the state-regulated center in Providence hope to open to clients in the coming weeks.

For NPR News, I'm Nina Sparling in Providence, Rhode Island.