NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2024 7PM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janene Herbst. President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to pause a law that would ban TikTok in January. As NPR's Bobbi Allen reports, the high court is set to hear oral arguments over TikTok's future in two weeks. President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to pause enforcement of a law that bans TikTok nationwide on January 19th, the day before inauguration day. That's shortly after the High Court is set to hear oral arguments over whether the ban is constitutional.

It was possible the Supreme Court would have stayed the start date even before the request to allow for time for a decision. But Trump's filing claims he possesses the consummate deal-making expertise to negotiate a way to save TikTok while dealing with the national security concerns. Trump did not take a position on the legal questions facing TikTok, which the court will hear arguments over on January 10th. The Justice Department is pushing for the ban saying TikTok's China-based owner makes it a national security risk. Bobby Allen, NPR News. Investigators are learning more about the passenger jet that crashed in Kazakhstan this week, killing at least 38 people. NPR's Brian Mann reports Russian weapons may have hit the plane. The Azerbaijani jetliner crashed in Kazakhstan while en route to a city in Russia Wednesday

with 67 passengers and crew on board. 29 people survived. During a briefing with reporters, U.S. National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said it's possible Russian weapons hit the civilian plane. We do have, have seen some early indications that would certainly point to the possibility that this jet was brought down by Russian air defense systems. Kirby emphasized the probe into the fiery crash is still underway. Azerbaijan Airlines officials said in a statement it appears external interference impacted

the plane. The airline has suspended flights to airports inside Russia. Brian Mann, NPR News, Kyiv. New details are emerging about a Louisiana resident who was recently hospitalized with bird flu. A report from the CDC indicates the virus gained some mutations after the person was infected. And Piers Wilstone has more. This is the first instance of a person falling severely ill from bird flu in the U.S. during

the current outbreak. The patient was infected after being exposed to backyard flocks. The CDC's analysis showed the virus acquired mutations affecting a protein on its surface. This is what allows the virus to latch on to receptors and infect a cell. Changes in this protein are seen as a key step if the virus were to evolve to better infect humans. The CDC says it appears the mutations emerged while the person was sick and there's no evidence they went on to infect anyone else.

The finding underscores the need to track bird flu and contain outbreaks, given its potential to mutate. Will Stone, NPR News. Tennessee is set to resume executions. Catherine Sweeney from Member Station WPLN reports, the state is ending a two-year break from the death penalty after rewriting its lethal injection protocol. Tennessee will become the ninth state to use a single drug process that essentially overdoses people on the sedative pentobarbital. That's in place of a more common practice where executioners use three drugs, a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug to stop the heart.

Several states have pivoted to this model since lethal injection drugs have become more difficult to source. The federal government also used it for a few years when the Trump administration briefly resumed executions. The drugs are hard to source because pharmaceutical companies refused to sell them for use in the death penalty. Governments have come to rely on secrecy laws and small, unregulated labs, a combination critics call dangerous.

For NPR News, I'm Catherine Sweeney in Nashville. A judge has ruled at the Georgia State Senate, Cansepena Fulton County District Attorney Fonny Willis. It's part of an inquiry into whether Willis engaged in misconduct during her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Shakurah Ingram is giving Willis the chance to contest whether lawmakers' demands are overly broad before she responds. A Republican-led committee was formed earlier this year and sent subpoenas to Willis in August seeking to compel her to testify during a September

meeting and to produce scores of documents. She argued the committee didn't have the power to subpoena her. I'm Janene Herbst, NPR News in Washington.