NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-14-2024 2AM EST

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dwahleesai Kautau. It remains unclear if the suspect, who is accused of fatally shooting UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will waive extradition to New York City. But a court proceeding on this matter isn't possible until Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where 26-year-old Luigi Mangione is being held. This is according to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. We're going to continue to press forward on parallel paths and we'll be ready whether

he is going to waive extradition or whether he's going to contest extradition. Meanwhile, CNN reports that Mangione has retained a prominent New York attorney, Karen Friedman Agnifilo. She is a former Manhattan prosecutor with decades of experience in the city's criminal justice system. This, as the parent company of UnitedHealthcare says, Mangione and his mother were never insured members of the private health care corporation. Texas is suing a New York doctor for mailing abortion pills to a woman in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The physician targeted by the sued Dr. Margaret Carpenter is a co-founder of the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine, which aims to bring abortion care to all 50 states,

Sarah Boden reports. Texas has a near total ban on abortion. But Carpenter practices in New York, where abortion is not only legal, but also that state has what's called a shield law. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, a number of progressive states passed shield laws in order to protect clinicians like Carpenter from prosecution from other states that contributed to the expansion of abortion access via telehealth. And this Texas lawsuit may be the first to put the strength of shield laws to the test.

For NPR News, I'm Sarah Bowden. A missing American man who was found alive in Syria is a step closer to coming home, NPR's Bill Chappell reports. Travis Timmerman is now under the protection of U.S. forces. Months after the 29-year-old went missing, he was handed over near a remote base in southeastern Syria, a process witnessed by NPR's Jane Aroff. His mother, Stacey Collins Gardner, says she's excited for her son to come back to their home in Urbana, Missouri.

Tell him I love him very, very much and I've been crying for him every day. Timmerman's immediate future is unclear. He was put in a Syrian jail, but not mistreated, he says, after entering the country illegally on a religious pilgrimage. He was freed after the authoritarian government of Bashar al-Assad was overthrown. Bill Chappell, NPR News. Tropical cyclone Chito is making its way toward Mozambique from Madagascar and could make landfall this weekend bringing winds of more than 130 miles per hour, very heavy rains that could result in dangerous flooding and mudslides for 1.7 million people. This is NPR. The US Olympic and Paralympic Committee has suspended one of its coaches following

reports of sexual abuse accusations. Colorado Public Radio's Dan Boyce reports. The Colorado Springs-based committee is conducting an internal investigation into the abuse allegations from several biathletes. One young woman says the sexual abuse caused her enough distress to attempt suicide. The committee is not naming the employee put on leave, but Associated Press reporting on the subject names Coach Gary Kohliander, associate director of high performance for U.S. Paralympics Nordic skiing. Alleged victims have described a culture of abuse in Olympic biathlon dating back to the 1990s. And those who spoke up say they faced retaliation, forcing them to end their athletic careers.

For NPR News, I'm Dan Boyce in Colorado Springs. In southeast Minnesota, a 150-year-old Catholic church is set to be demolished due to years of declining attendance. The Star Tribune reports the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, which has long been considered a local landmark in the Wilson-Winona area, boarding Wisconsin, sits in a farming community with just over 1,000 people. But because families have had fewer kids and parishioners are aging, resulting in less people at mass, the Catholic Church decided to consolidate area churches. Some worshippers are still hoping to stop the raising of their church, but if that's

not successful, the building will be demolished and a nearby cemetery expanded. I'm Dwahle Saikow-Tau, NPR News.