NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-23-2024 12AM EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

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Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate Stephen Myron to serve as a top White House economic adviser. As NPR's Scott Horsley reports, Trump announced the pick in a social media post this morning. Myron is a Harvard-trained economist who previously worked at the Treasury Department during Trump's first term in office.

He's also a fellow at the Conservative Manhattan Institute. Trump plans to nominate Myron to lead the President's Council of Economic Advisers. If confirmed by the Senate, he'll help the White House to interpret economic conditions and have a hand in shaping policy. Trump said in a social media post that Myron will work the rest of his economic team to deliver a quote great economic boom that lifts up all Americans. Trump returned to the White House at a time when the US economy is already growing at a solid clip with low unemployment and cooling inflation. Polls show many Americans are unhappy, though, about the cumulative price hikes over the

last five years. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Democratic Senator John Featherman from Pennsylvania says he wants the U.S. to succeed, so he's asking people to relax as President-elect Donald Trump picks the people he wants to join his administration. I'm not rooting against him. If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation. And I'm not ever going to be where I want a president to fail.

So country first. I know that's become maybe like a cliché, but it happens to be truth. Speaking this morning on ABC's This Week, Fedetterman says he'll be looking at each candidate with an open mind. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says the U.S. is in good shape. And speaking on CNN's Global Public Square program, he says the Biden administration is pleased with what they're passing off to the incoming Trump administration. America's competitors and adversaries are weaker and under greater pressure than they

have been. All the while we kept America out of war. So that kind of hand allows Donald Trump to come in and do two things. One, work to continue to improve America's strategic position vis-a-vis our geopolitical competitors and two, try to shape a world that is consistent with the interests and values of the U.S. Sullivan also spoke about the U.S. relationship with China. He said the best way to deal with China is through vigorous competition.

One of the last remaining hospitals in northern Gaza that is still partially functioning is being ordered by the Israeli military to evacuate the facility. But the hospital officials say they have almost 400 patients who cannot be evacuated without more time and help. Israel's military says it's already evacuated more than 100 patients from the facility and they say their operation is targeting Hamas militants. Police in New York City say they have one person in custody who they say is connected to the death of a woman on a subway train. They say the woman may have fallen asleep in a subway car and was set on fire by a man she did not know. The suspect was identified by three teenagers who recognized him from police video. You're listening to NPR News.

Penn State captured its eighth women's volleyball championship tonight after a three sets to one victory over the University of Louisville. Greg Eklund has more from Louisville. Penn State entered the match with an edge when the Louisville Cardinals kills leader senior Anna DeBeer didn't play because of an ankle injury in Thursday night's semifinal. Penn State's Jess Merzik, voted the most outstanding player in the tournament, says she sympathizes with DeBeer as a friend. To see her go down in the semi-final, like, I was sick to my stomach

because I know that if she could play, like, she definitely would. Penn State's Katie Schumacher-Cauley, who was part of the Nittany Lions first national championship as a student athlete in 1999, made history. She became the first woman in Division I history to lead her team to a women's volleyball title

as a head coach. For NPR News, I'm Greg Eklund in Louisville. Tens of thousands of people turned out Sunday in the Serbian capital of Belgrade to protest that country's president and his government. This latest rally was called by students and farmers unions. They're part of a wider movement demanding accountability following the November collapse

of a canopy at a railway station that killed 15 people. Colombia's largest remaining rebel group has announced a unilateral truce for the Christmas holiday. The National Liberation Army, also known as ELN, says the truce will last through January 3rd until then all attacks on the military will be stopped so the nation can celebrate the holidays the group was founded in the 1960s by priests, university students and union leaders who were inspired by the Cuban Revolution. I'm Dale Willman NPR News