NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-14-2024 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

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Oh, oh, oh, Santa here coming to you from the North Pole. We're the elves in our podcast division of just completed work on this season's best gift for public radio lovers. NPR plus give the gift of sponsored free listening and even bonus episodes from your favorite NPR podcasts, all while supporting public media. Learn more at plus dot NPR dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. The Texas Attorney General is suing a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills

to a woman near Dallas. It's one of the first legal challenges to shield laws in the U.S. meant to protect physicians after Roe v. Wade was overturned. NPR's Alyssa Nadwani reports. In a statement, Ken Paxton, the Texas AG, said, quote, out-of-state doctors may not illegally and dangerously prescribe abortion-inducing drugs to Texas residents. Abortion medicine is approved by the FDA. The doctor is one of the founders of an organization called

Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine. They support providers sending abortion medication by mail. The case pits a state with a near total abortion ban against a state with laws that specifically protect doctors in the state from prescribing pills to people in other states. New York's attorney general and the governor both said they would uphold the state's shield law and protect their providers. Alyson Adworny, NPR News. President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect J.D. Vance are attending the Army-Navy game this weekend in Maryland and they're bringing a controversial guest, Daniel Penny. NPR's Deepa Sifaram has details.

Daniel Penny was acquitted this week by a New York City jury on a charge of criminally negligent homicide. Last year Penny, who was white, put a choke hold on a homeless man who was having a mental health crisis and yelling at passengers on the subway train. Jordan Neely, who was black, died. The incident and the trial stoked tensions over race, mental illness, and criminal justice. Vice President-elect Vance has praised Penny and called him a good guy. Vance also criticized the New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg for going after Penny.

Bragg is the same DA who successfully prosecuted Trump in his hush money trial. Penny, who is a former Marine, will join Vance and the president-elect in Trump's suite at the Army-Navy game, which takes place today in Maryland. Deepa Sivaram, NPR News. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is asking the Biden administration to do more to investigate drone sightings reported in the state and elsewhere. Murphy says that state and local enforcement are limited in how much they can do. Mayor Matthew Morello of Washington Township, New Jersey, went to a New Jersey state police

briefing this week on the sightings. He said that federal authorities have not authorized local police to take down the drones that they see. Until the federal government tells the state government to take action, they can do nothing but watch them. And I'm sorry, but that's just disconcerting to those of us that are living out here. And we're just watching these things up in the sky and have absolutely no idea what they're doing.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say they have no evidence the sightings pose a national security or public safety threat or have a foreign nexus. South Korea's National Assembly has voted to impeach South Korean President Jung Sung Yeol after Yoon's declaration of martial law 11 days ago. This is NPR News in Washington. In the Indian Ocean, Cyclone Cheadle has left extensive damage in the French territory of Mayotte. A local official in the territory called it the most violent and destructive cyclone since 1934, with many people losing everything. The territory has a population

of 300,000 on two small islands. Winds exceeded 136 miles an hour tearing metal roofs off of houses before the storm moved on toward the east coast of Africa. Supreme Court Justice Katanji Brown Jackson is making her Broadway debut tonight in the musical Anne Juliette. As NPR's Ava Puketsch reports, the justice is appearing in a one-night-only walk-on role. Jackson isn't new to the stage. She studied theater at Harvard University while earning her law degree, and even once had future Oscar winner Matt Damon as a scene partner.

Speaking to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, Jackson said tonight fulfills a lifelong fantasy. I told the Harvard admissions people that I needed to go there because I wanted to be the first black female Supreme Court justice to appear on a Broadway stage. The show reimagines the ending of the Shakespeare classic Romeo and Juliet. Jackson said she was invited for a walk-on role specifically created for her. After the performance, the Supreme Court justice is participating in an audience talkback. Eva Pukac, NPR News.

Tick-tock could take its case to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court let stand a mid-January deadline for Tick-tock to be sold. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.