NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-12-2024 6PM EST

Episode Date: December 12, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. President Biden has commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who have been on home confinement since the COVID pandemic. He also pardoned 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes. As NPR's Tamara Keith explains, the White House says this is the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history. In a statement, President Biden said that it was a great privilege of the presidency to be able to extend mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation. The 1,500 people granted clemency had been serving long prison sentences and have been on home confinement since COVID.

The president said they have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown they deserve a second chance. Biden plans to issue more pardons and commutations in the weeks ahead. He is still getting criticized for his decision earlier this month to pardon his son Hunter. Tamara Keith, NPR News. The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is prompting companies to take another look at security for top executives. In some cases, major health company execs say they want to take down photos of top officials from their websites and move more meetings

online. An internal New York police department memo says online threats have risen following last week's killing. The suspect is a 26-year-old who authorities say spelled out an anti-corporate motive for the attack. President-elect Trump's nominees for FBI director and defense secretary have been making the rounds on Capitol Hill. Pete Hegseth met this afternoon with Senator John Fetterman, the first Democrat in Congress to sit down with a military veteran

and former Fox News host. And here's Lou Garrett spoke to one Republican senator who remains undecided. Senator Susan Collins of Maine tells NPR she is reserving her judgment on Patel and Hexeth. It's my practice, except in very rare circumstances where I know the nominee well, to wait until the FBI background check has been completed.

The moderate Republican says she believes Trump's cabinet nominations deserve a swift confirmation process. But Collins notes that she has voted against Trump nominees before. You never know what new information may come out. With slim control of the Senate, four GOP senators could join Democrats to block Trump's cabinet picks. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Canada's most populated province is vowing to fight back if the Trump administration

makes good on its promise to impose stiff new tariffs against the country. Officials in Ontario saying today they could bar American-made alcohol from the province and also restrict electricity to three U.S. states if the president-elect goes ahead with sweeping tariffs on Canadian-made goods. Ontario says it also is looking at whether to restrict exports of Canadian minerals critical to the manufacturing of EV batteries. Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, down 234 points. You're listening to NPR.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says it's decided to cap overdraft fees charged by banks at $5 under a new rule that would take effect next October, as of course if it's not overturned by the next Congress under the incoming Trump administration. President Biden has called the fees, which can be as high as $35, exploitative. The banking industry sought to keep existing fees in place. Humpback whales have a new long-distance swimming record. And Burr's Jonathan Lambert reports the same whale was spotted off the coast of Columbia and Tanzania five years apart, traveling at least 8,000 miles. Humpback whales are known for migrating long distances between feeding and breeding grounds.

But these migrations are usually confined to the same ocean basin. In the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers report that the same whale, identified by its distinctive tail markings, was spotted off South America's northwestern coast in 2017, and then again along Africa's southeastern shores in 2022. Scientists don't know the exact route this whale took, nor why it traveled so far. But the whale beat the previous record by nearly 2,000 miles. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News.

Those mysterious aircraft that have been appearing in the night sky over New Jersey continue to fuel various conspiracies, though National Security Advisor John Kirby rushed to say today that they don't all appear to be drones. Some are apparently manned aircraft being flown illegally. Kirby also said they're not being spotted over restricted airspace and do not appear to pose any kind of national security threat. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.