NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-12-2024 2AM 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 Ronan. FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday he will resign effective at the end of the Biden administration, January 20. Wray had three more years left on his 10-year term.

After the resignation from the incoming president, Donald Trump said Wray's decision was a great day for America. I just don't know what happened to him. Trump has nominated loyalist Kosh Patel to be the new FBI director. He's been meeting on Capitol Hill with lawmakers, including Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. He promised me that he would put a stop to those abuses

and he'd get the FBI back into the business of enforcing the law, which is just exactly what I want to hear, and I think that's what everybody should want to hear. Some Democrats have said Patel will face tough questioning over his previous comments critical of the FBI and the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Republicans in North Carolina's outgoing legislature moved to strip powers from the governor and other officers before the newly elected Democrats fill them. From member station WFAE, Zachary Turner says the move was made as part of a storm relief

bill. Current Democratic Governor Roy Cooper vetoed the bill in November, but until a new legislature takes office in January, Republicans have a supermajority in the House over the veto, following the Senate last week. The bill contains some Hilleen relief, but also shifts some powers over the Utilities Commission and Board of Elections from the Governor, soon to be Democrat Josh Stein, to Republican-held offices. House Democrat Robert Reeves spoke out against the bill. back. That's what we should have been doing today. That's what I wish we would concentrate on." The bill also takes powers away from the attorney general and superintendent of public instruction, positions with incoming Democrats. For NPR News, I'm Zachary Turner in Charlotte.

The U.S. still has troops in Syria, though it has not had a working embassy there in more than a decade. NPR's Greg Myhre reports. The U.S. has some 900 military personnel in remote parts of Syria who are guarding against the reemergence of the Islamic State. But the U.S. shut down its embassy back in 2012, making it much more difficult for diplomats and intelligence officials who are operating outside the country. The U.S. and others are trying to figure out who will be the key players as a new government emerges. One rebel faction, known as HTS,

is now the dominant group in Damascus. But a range of factions control various parts of Syria and will have to work together to form a stable government. Greg Meyry, NPR News, Washington. President-elect Trump has invited China's President Xi Jinping to attend the January 20th inauguration. According to CBS News, it's not clear if the Chinese leader has accepted the invitation. You're listening to NPR News. Metta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has donated $1 million to the President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration

fund according to the Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by NPR. Zuckerberg did not make an endorsement in the 2024 campaign, but last month he visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home and had Thanksgiving Eve dinner with him. In 2021, Trump was removed from Facebook and Instagram for what Metta called praising people involved in the January 6th U.S. Capitol violence, but Trump's access to both platforms was restored in 2023. Researchers have discovered a cemetery for people enslaved by Andrew Jackson, the seventh U.S. president, who made his home in Nashville.

Cynthia Abrams with member station WPLN reports those graves are located near the main home. Until now, the hermitage has been unable to locate where people enslaved under Jackson had been buried. But an anonymous donation prompted the hermitage to utilize radar imaging to peer into the ground. The cemetery also shows rows of depressions

and unnaturally placed pieces of limestone, assumed to be grave markers. 28 graves have been identified, but researchers say there could still be more. The hermitage says they will incorporate the cemetery into a tour and will engage descendants of those buried there. Jackson is also buried at the Hermitage.

Over the course of his life, he enslaved more than 300 people. For NPR News, I'm Cynthia Abrams in Nashville. And from Washington, you're listening to NPR News.