NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2024 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 27, 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. Two senior Canadian cabinet ministers will be in Florida later today to meet with members of President-elect Donald Trump's incoming team, as Dan Karpanchuk reports the advanced talks that began a month ago.

Newly appointed finance minister Dominique LeBlanc and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie are looking to build on what's been described as a positive call with Tom Homan, Trump's border czar. Last week, Homan called border talks with Canada positive and said he was optimistic of a good border security plan. Canada began ramping up border security efforts after Trump threatened a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods entering the U.S., unless Ottawa took tougher measures to address the flow of illegal drugs and migrants over the border.

Friday's talks in Palm Beach, Florida will focus on what Ottawa has done so far to address Trump's border concerns, including a proposal to spend 1.3 billion dollars Canadian over the next five years to boost border security. For NPR News, I'm Dan Karpenschuk in Toronto. Some aviation experts are now saying air defense fire from Russia may have brought down the Azerbaijani jetliner that crashed on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan. The flight was heading to the Russian city of Grozny when it was diverted. NPR's Russell Lewis has more. We know this part of Russia has been subject to drone attacks fired by Ukraine's military.

And we also know that Russia has been using anti-aircraft artillery and using GPS jammers to try to shoot down these drones before they get to their targets. Again, it's too soon to pinpoint what happened and why, but surely these are the kinds of things that investigators will be parsing over in the days and weeks ahead. 38 people died in that crash while 29 others were injured but survived. Azerbaijan today observed a day of mourning for those victims. British cyber experts say images of child abuse created by pedophiles using artificial intelligence are now indistinguishable from reality.

The Internet Watch Foundation describes such content as having passed the point of no return. It says the amount of material found and taken offline by its analysts is more than quadrupled in a year. The BBC's Joe Tidy reports. For more than a year the IWF has warned about a coming wave of child abuse imagery made with artificial intelligence and now it has the figures to prove its fears. The charity dealt with four times more illegal AI content this year than in 2023. Analysts say the models are now so realistic it's hard to know what's real and what's not.

Pedophiles are using AI software models, trained to create lifelike pictures or short videos from text descriptions. The BBC's Joe Tidy reporting. South Korea's opposition-controlled National Assembly has voted to impeach the country's acting leader, Han Daksu. The vote was 192-0 because governing party lawmakers boycotted the vote. Han has been the caretaker leader after President Yan Suk-yul was impeached earlier this month. This is NPR News. Israeli fighter jets struck targets inside Yemen on Thursday.

Israel's military says they attacked infrastructure used by Houthi rebels at the airport in the capital of Sana'a. The World Health Organization's Director General was about to board a flight at the airport when that attack occurred. The Israeli military later said it wasn't aware that the WHO chief was there. The planes also targeted power stations and ports across the country. Two sailors have died after extreme weather hit the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race in Australia this week. As Christina Kokolia reports, organizers say the race will continue even as it faces unpredictable weather conditions in the

days ahead. Australian police say the two crew members died two hours apart on separate boats on the first night of the race, after being hit by swinging sailbooms. Race organisers say crewmates were unable to revive the men and investigations into their deaths are ongoing. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the deaths as heartbreaking, saying the tragedy highlights the dangers involved. Stormy weather off the coast of New South Wales has forced multiple yachts to withdraw from this year's competition. For NPR News, I'm Christina

Kukala in Melbourne, Australia. Actor Hudson Meek has died. He was injured on December 19 when he fell out of a moving vehicle in Alabama. Officials say he never recovered from those injuries. The 16-year-old actor is perhaps best known for his role in the 2017 film Baby Driver. He played a younger version of the title character. Meek made his screen debut in 2014 in the movie SantaCon. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.