NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2024 4AM EST

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. South Korea's parliament has voted to impeach Prime Minister Han Deok-su, who is also the acting president. Han has been in the role for less than two weeks after President Yoon Suk-yul was suspended from office because of his failed attempt to impose martial law. The BBC's Jeanne Mackenzie is in Seoul. As the opposition party voted to impeach Prime Minister Han using its sizeable majority in Parliament, MPs in the ruling party crowded around the Speaker of the House, shouting, angry with his decision to even let this vote go ahead.

The opposition have decided to remove Mr Han after he refused to appoint the judges they'd chosen to oversee President Yun's impeachment trial. They argued Mr Han was protecting the president and was therefore not fit to run the country. But his removal just deepened South Korea's political turmoil. Decision making here is gridlocked and the economy is suffering. The BBC's Gene McKenzie, a US-funded group that tracks food security around the world, has taken down its latest report on northern Gaza.

The report said that a famine was unfolding there, but U.S. officials raised doubts about the report, as NPR's Michelle Kellerman tells us. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network says its latest alert on Gaza is under review and will be re-released with updated data and analysis in January. The alert had warned of an impending famine in North Gaza, but U.S. officials say the group had inflated the number of people living in the area. The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, called it irresponsible. The U.S. Agency for International Development, which created the famine monitoring group, says it requested the report to be updated.

A spokesman says the U.S. is still deeply concerned about the scale of food insecurity in Gaza and the quote minimal amount of assistance that has reached Palestinians in the north. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington. The CDC says its analysis of samples from the first severe case of bird flu in the country shows mutations not before seen in the U.S. The samples were taken from an infected backyard flock that was on the patient's property. And as bird flu continues to spread here, Dr. Michael Bailey says that pet owners should be cautious about what they feed their animals right now. We do have many reports of cats particularly.

There have been some reports of dogs also, but cats particularly acquiring bird flu, predominantly from raw food sources. So this goes with raw milk as well as raw meat. So I'm going to say raw proteins. Bailey is the incoming president of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Someone could get a delayed Christmas present on Friday. The Mega Millions jackpot is now worth an estimated $1.15 billion. The odds of winning with a $2 ticket are $302,575,350 to one. You're listening to NPR News.

A major storm front is moving across the nation south at this hour. The National Weather Service says the storm carries the possibility of tornadoes and hail along with extreme gusting winds. Earlier Thursday, more than 100 flights were delayed at the airports in Dallas and Houston because of the storm and dozens more flights were cancelled. New York has passed legislation to create a climate superfund. That law will let the state find major emitters of greenhouse gases and use the money that's collected to better protect people from extreme weather.

NPR's Alejandra Barunda has our reports. Human-caused climate change is expensive. This year alone, New York State saw eight weather disasters that cost more than $1 billion each, and that cost is likely to increase as the planet heats up. New York's new law works like the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund program, where polluters pay the cost of cleaning up an environmental problem they caused. The state will be able to fine climate polluters some $3 billion each per year over the next

25 years. Vermont signed a similar bill into law earlier this year. Legal experts say it's likely New York's new law will be challenged in court. Alejandra Burunda, NPR News. In college football, Kansas State used a fourth quarter surge to come from behind Thursday night and beat Rutgers 44 to 41. Toledo beat Pitt 48 to 46 after six over times that set a new bowl record for over times. The previous record of five was set on Tuesday and Jalen Rayner passed for 221 yards and two touchdowns to lead Arkansas State past bowling green 38 to 31. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.