NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2024 7AM EST

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

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Otograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. Authorities in Madison, Wisconsin say a 15-year-old girl opened fire at a Christian school yesterday. A student and a teacher were killed and seven people were killed. The New York Times reported that the fire was caused by a woman who was in a car. From NPR News in Washington, Onkrova Coleman, authorities in Madison, Wisconsin say a 15-year-old girl opened fire at a Christian school yesterday. A student and a teacher were killed and six other people were wounded.

Madison's police chief says the girl then apparently took her own life. Wisconsin public radio Sarah Lear says the reason for the shooting is not yet known. The biggest question, why, that's still unclear. Police say they're still trying to piece together a motive. Officers have recovered a handgun from the scene. Madison police say they're working with federal officials to trace the origins of the gun. The police chief said late Monday it's not clear how exactly a 15-year-old got this gun. Sara Lear reporting. Police were alerted to the shooting when a second grader called 911. A Russian

lieutenant general has been killed in Moscow. He was accused of overseeing chemical and biological warfare in Ukraine. NPR's Joanna Kikissus reports from Kyiv it's the highest profile killing of a Russian military official away from the front line since Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian law enforcement authorities said in a statement that Igor Kirilov and one of his aides were killed after an explosive device planted in a scooter was set off. The scooter was near the entrance to a residential building in southeastern Moscow where Kirilov apparently lived. Ukraine's leadership has not publicly commented on the killing. However, Ukrainian prosecutors did charge Kirillov on Monday with the use of banned

chemical weapons on the front line. Ukraine's security service says Russia has used chemical weapons nearly 5,000 times in the war. Joanna Kekesis, NPR News, Kiev. A catastrophic earthquake rocked the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu today. Its magnitude was 7.3. Damage is widespread. The U.S. Embassy says it suffered significant damage, but that all its personnel safely evacuated. For Member Station KPRG in Guam, Nina Rowe has more.

The earthquake struck just off Port Villa, Vanuatu's capital. Tsunami warnings were briefly issued for Vanuatu and surrounding areas, though those alerts have now been lifted. Finau Levani is the deputy head of the delegation for the Red Cross Pacific. She says ongoing connectivity issues make it difficult to assess the extent of damage. We know that Vanuatu Red Cross is very well stopped and they're a response agency, so most likely they are already responding to the needs on the ground. She adds that Red Cross partners across the region are mobilizing so they can provide

immediate support when communications are restored. For NPR News, I'm Naina Rao in Guam. France is rushing supplies to its territory, Maillot, in the Indian Ocean, not far from eastern Africa. A catastrophic cycle had crashed into the island over the weekend, killing at least 22 people. Hundreds may have perished. This is NPR.

A New York judge has refused to dismiss President-elect Trump's convictions in a hush-money case. Trump's lawyers are seeking to have them thrown out, signing a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. It gives presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution. But New York Judge Juan Marchand disagreed. He says the hush money case poses no danger or intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch. The Library of Congress is out with its latest list of 25 movies to be preserved in the National Film Registry.

As NPR's Neda Ulubi reports, this year's editions span more than a century of filmmaking. The list always includes wildly popular movies. This year one is the comedy Beverly Hills Cop starring Eddie Murphy. You know this is the cleanest and nicest police car I've ever been in in my life. The 1984 hit joins two dozen others that represent the breadth and depth of American film. The oldest movie on this year's list is a silent short from 1895 that shows a twirling dancer. The most recent, from 2010, is the social network based on Facebook's creation. In between documentaries,

film noir, student films, and the low-budget horror classic, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Neda Ulibi, NPR News. Scientists suggest that the rings around the planet Saturn could be a lot older than they look. They could be as old as Saturn itself. Instead of being about 400 million years old, the rings could be a whopping 4.5 billion years older. The study is published in the journal Nature. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News in Washington.