NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-14-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

NPR News: 12-14-2024 1PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Lakshmi Singh. Public radio reminds us of our shared humanity, even at our darkest hours, like with the story of an artist couple who make beautiful spaces for communities to grieve. We found that people will usually stop by and just feel a little bit more open and willing to talk and share. Help us make room for light in the dark. Give before the end of the year at donate.npr.org. Louise Schiavone, NPR News. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Jordan today that American officials

have been in direct contact with the Syrian rebel group that spearheaded the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime. The U.S. is working on securing the return of an American journalist who's been missing for 12 years. We've been in contact with HTS and with other parties. We have pressed upon everyone we've been in contact with the importance of helping find Austin Tice and bringing him home. The Secretary has been huddling with Arab foreign ministers and the U.N. envoy on Syria

as the U.S US urges that a secular state emerge there. Rebel fighters in Syria have been uncovering huge stockpiles of illegal amphetamine Captagon in various warehouses across the Syrian capital. President Bashar al-Assad's family and associates profited from the manufacturing and trade of Captagon, turning Syria into one of the world's biggest narco states. NPR's Hadil Alshalshi visited one of these drug warehouses. I'm standing in what was probably the living room of this fancy luxury villa overlooking

the Damascus countryside. But the smell in here is so strong. It smells of chemicals stacked behind me to the ceiling are these drums of chemicals that were used for the Captagon and there's also these stacks that look like flower bags but again, they have the chemicals that are used to make Captagon. There are all these heavy-duty machinery also used to make the drug in a very incongruous setting with these chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and setting with these chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. And the end product was Captegon, these tiny pills that propped up the Syrian economy under Bashar al-Assad. That was NPR's Hadil al-Shalchi reporting from Damascus. South Korean lawmakers have voted to impeach President Yun Suk-yaw for his attempt to impose martial law 11 days

ago. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has more. Go. 204 votes. Lawmakers' cries rang out in the main chamber of the National Assembly, South Korea's parliament, when the vote count was announced, 204 to 85, with three abstentions and eight invalid votes. Yoon's support eroded in recent days as it became clear he had masterminded the martial law declaration. Yoon is the third South Korean president to be impeached following Noh Moo Hyun in 2004

and Park Geun-hye in 2016. South Korea's prime minister will take over as acting president. If the nation's constitutional court upholds the impeachment, Yoon will be formally removed and an election for a new president will be held. Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is recovering from a hip replacement operation in Luxembourg after the surgery the 84-year-old Pelosi thanks staff at L'Anche d'Eau Regional Medical Center and Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg. Her office says she's on the mend. This is NPR News. The popularity of obesity drugs's on the mend. This is NPR News.

The popularity of obesity drugs is on the rise. A new report from ZocDoc, the online platform for booking, shows that patients are asking their doctors about them more and more. NPR's Sydney Lutgen reports. ZocDoc, an online scheduling platform, says a lot more patients are booking consultation appointments with their doctors to ask about semaglutide. That's the active ingredient in blockbuster obesity drug, Wigovie, and type 2 diabetes drug, Ozempic. ZocDoc says there were 53% more of these appointments in 2024 than in 2023.

The company's data showed some insights. For instance, ZocDoc says the day Oprah did a special about Ozempic, it saw a bump in appointments. More weight loss consultations were also virtual compared with most other ZocDoc says the day Oprah did a special about ozempic, it saw a bump in appointments. More weight loss consultations were also virtual compared with most other ZocDoc appointments which are in person. The report has its limitations, however. ZocDoc doesn't show whether patients were able to get and fill their prescriptions for these drugs.

Sidney Lupkin and PR News. President-elect Donald Trump is attending the Army-Navy football game today, but it won't be a simple sports fan outing. Joining Trump reportedly will be his embattled pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hesgoth, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who's seen as a fallback appointee of Hegseth Fails, and Daniel Penny, who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide this week in the chokehold death of an agitated New York City subway rider.

Vice President-elect J.D. Vance will also be in Trump's party at the Army-Navy game. Kickoff is after 3 o'clock this afternoon at the home of the NFL's Washington commanders in Landover, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.