NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2024 2AM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2024

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duah Lisi Kautau. ABC News and its parent company, Disney, will pay $15 million and post an apology to settle a defamation suit filed by President-elect Donald Trump early this year. George Stephanopoulos repeatedly asserted that Trump had been found liable for rape. NPR's David Folkenflick reports a civil jury instead found Trump liable for sexual abuse. Back in March, Stephanopoulos was pushing his guest, a U.S. representative who was herself raped as a young woman, on why she would support Trump. He incorrectly referred to a court verdict from last year, in which a jury found that Trump was liable for sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll, but not rape.

The judge in that case said what transpired as determined by the jury fit the commonly understood definition of rape, but not the narrow one under New York state law. ABC will pay the $15 million to a foundation for Trump that's typically used to fund a presidential library and a million dollars for Trump's legal costs. Both Trump and Stephanopoulos were to be questioned under oath for Trump's defamation suit in coming days. David Folkenflick, NPR News. The Texas Attorney General is suing a New York doctor for prescribing abortion pills to a woman near Dallas. It is one of the first legal challenges to shield laws in the US meant to protect physicians after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

And Piers Elisa Nadwardy 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. Alissa Nadwani, NPR News. A new flag now flies in the Syrian capital Damascus. It's the rebel flag, a green, white and black banner with three red stars in the middle. NPR's Ruth Sherlock has been witnessing great changes since opposition forces overthrew

President Bashar al-Assad. This palace is empty. There's no furniture. You can hear the echo. Another room with enormous marble conference table. The windows at the front of the building are made of bulletproof glass. Acquaintances of Bashar al-Assad tell me that in these final months he'd lost his grip on reality. He was surrounded by people who told him he was invincible, he'd won the war. But all the time, Syria was collapsing. The economy was on its knees. This is NPR.

It's the 80th anniversary of one of the bloodiest clashes of World War II, the Battle of the Bulge. Terry Schultz reports U.S. military personnel and a handful of veterans of the war have returned to the former battlefields for the commemoration. The Battle of the Bulge, which began in December 1944 in the dense forests of Belgium and Luxembourg, is considered a turning point in the Second World War, the last major offensive by Nazi soldiers, and the largest single battle fought by the U.S. during the war. The Third Army, led by General George Patton, would ultimately break the siege by December 27th in the city of Vestone, Belgium, and it would turn the tide of the war in the Allies'

favor. More than 100 troops from the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Kentucky have come to honor their predecessors who fought in this battle. These days, even German diplomats participate in the ceremony to represent the reunification of Europe. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. France's new government met this weekend to discuss how they will help their island territory of Mayotte, which may have recorded on Saturday its most destructive cyclone since 1934. Mayotte is in the Indian Ocean, northwest of Madagascar. The head magistrate of the island wrote on Facebook that many may have lost everything. The BBC reported

that even emergency responders were locked down because of dangerous conditions, including sustained wind speeds of 130 mph. CEDAW is now moving toward the east coast of Africa. I'm Dua-Halisa Icautau, NPR News in New York.