NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2024 9AM EST

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

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For every headline, there's also another story about the people living those headlines. On weekdays, Up First brings you the day's biggest news. On Sundays, we bring you closer with a single story about the people, places, and moments reshaping our world. Your news made personal. Every Sunday on the Up First Podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. A judge in New York has rejected an effort by President-elect Trump to toss out the 34-account

felony convictions in his hush money trial. And Piers Ryan-Lucas reports. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchand rejected Trump's argument that prosecutors shouldn't have been allowed to offer certain evidence from Trump's time in office in light of the US Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity In his 41 page ruling, Mershon says that the evidence in question relates to Trump's unofficial conduct and thus is not covered by the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision Trump was convicted in July of 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments He made to an adult film star Trump's attorneys also have put forward other grounds as well for the case to be dismissed

Ryan Lucas NPR News Washington President-elect Trump's nominees continued to visit senators in hopes of winning support in their confirmation hearings that includes Trump's nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. He has spread falsehoods and conspiracy theories about vaccines. Kennedy met yesterday with Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. Mullen says Kennedy has told him he will not try to end the use of the polio vaccine, but the GOP senator said

Kennedy is skeptical about several health issues. I think he's going to question science and I'm glad he's going to question it. Some senators say they will question Kennedy about his views on vaccines and other health matters. Congress only has until late Saturday night to pass a spending bill for the federal government or it will partially shut down. One huge issue is appropriations for the sprawling farm bill.

That measure is only passed once every five years. Authorities in Madison, Wisconsin say they're trying to learn why a 15-year-old girl fired a handgun at her Christian school yesterday. A fellow student and a teacher were killed. Six other people were injured. Officials say the teenager then took her own life. Madison police are also trying to find out how she got the gun. Doctors in New York City are reporting a medical first.

Surgeons have transplanted a new kind of genetically modified pig kidney into a living person. NPR's Rob Stein got exclusive access to witness the procedure. Surgeons at NYU Langone Health in New York City transplanted the kidney into an Alabama woman three weeks ago. 53-year-old Tawana Looney couldn't get a human kidney, so doctors did an experimental procedure using a pig kidney that was genetically modified to help her body accept the organ. Two other living patients have previously gotten other kinds of modified pig kidneys, and two men have received modified pig hearts.

None of those patients survive more than three months, but Looney is healthier, raising hope she may fare better. Rob Stein, NPR News, New York. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. There's been a huge earthquake on the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. The U.S. Embassy there says it has been significantly damaged, but all personnel evacuated safely. There's other catastrophic damage, but it's not clear how many people have been injured. Communication around the island is sharply limited.

A Russian lieutenant general has been killed in Moscow. He was accused of overseeing chemical and biological warfare in Ukraine. And as Joanna Kakissus 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 Kirilov on Monday with the use of banned chemical 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. The video-sharing app TikTok and its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance, are appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court. They want the court to block a federal law that bans the app starting next month. Lower courts have refused to step in.

This may be TikTok's last legal effort to save itself in the U.S. It's not clear if President-elect Trump may step in. This is NPR.