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

Episode Date: December 12, 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 in Washington, I'm Dan Rooran. FBI Director Christopher Wray Wednesday announced he's resigning at the end of the Biden administration. Wray had faced the likelihood he would be fired by President-elect Trump once he's sworn in on January 20th of next year.

Wray had three years left on his 10-year term. Wray made the announcement at a town hall for FBI employees where he praised the work of law enforcement which has come under harsh criticism from Trump and others. The importance of our mission, the quality of our people and their dedication to service over self. It's an unshakable foundation that has stood the test of time and cannot be easily moved. And it, you, the men and women of the FBI, are why the Bureau will endure and remain successful long, long into the future. Trump has nominated loyalist Kash Patel to be the new FBI director.

He's been on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers in preparation for his confirmation hearings. Twice defeated Arizona political candidate, Republican Kerry Lake, is Donald Trump's choice to be the new director of The Voice of America. Trump made the announcement Wednesday on his social media platform. Lake ran unsuccessfully for the governor of Arizona

and two years later for the U.S. Senate, losing in November. She's a former broadcaster who anchored newscast in the Phoenix area for 22 years before turning to politics and the two runs for office. Tech stocks gain with the Nasdaq rising above 20,000 for the first time ever. As NPR's Rafael Nam reports, Wednesday's inflation data is reinforcing hope for another Federal Reserve interest rate cut. A rally in stocks is showing no signs of losing steam. The NASDAQ hit another record high while the S&P 500 also posted gains, although the Dow Jones

posted a small loss. Dow was on the heels of new data showing consumer prices rose 2.7% in November from a year ago. The rate was in line with expectations. It shows inflation continuing to ease, a little slowly and a little unevenly, but generally still going in the right direction. And investors believe that will be enough to encourage the Fed to cut rates for the third time this year when policymakers gather next week. Rafael Nam, NPR News. New York police said on Wednesday that the gun and other evidence found in the possession of shooting suspect Luigi Mangione closely link him to the death of insurance executive

Brian Thompson. New York City's police commissioner Jessica Tisch said that three shell casings found at the Manhattan crime scene match up with the gun that Mangione was carrying when he was arrested Monday at a Pennsylvania McDonald's. You are listening to NPR News. South Korea's embattled president Yoon Suk-yul is defending his decision last week to briefly impose martial law, insisting he was attempting to protect the country's democracy. In a televised address Thursday in Seoul, the president said the opposition party is engaging

in parliamentary dictatorship. He is denying allegations that his martial law degree was an active insurrection. And despite calls for him to resign or impeach, he is suggesting he will not quit, insisting he will fight to the end. The Amazing Kreskin has died. The famous mentalist who dazzled audiences with his mind-reading skills died Tuesday at an assisted living center in Wayne, New Jersey. NPR's Chloe Veltman reports. The Amazing Kreskin became hugely popular in the 1960s and 70s with his guest appearances

on TV talk shows, like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Would you welcome The Amazing Kreskin. He called himself a mentalist, not a psychic, best known for a theatrical trick in which he asked audience members to hide his pay cheque somewhere in the auditorium while he went outside. Then he'd come back in and find it, almost always successfully. He described the stunt in the 2005 documentary The Amazing Kreskin. If I don't find my fee I don't get paid. George Kreskin Jr. was born into a Polish Sicilian family in New Jersey in 1935. He

picked up the mind reading bug from Mandrake the Magician, a comic book hero who used hypnotic techniques to ensnare his adversaries. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. Six time Super Bowl champ coach Bill Belichick will be back. He's accepted a five year deal. From Washington, this is NPR News.