NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

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Noor-Rahm Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor-Rahm. Russian President Vladimir Putin apologized today to Azerbaijan's leader for this week's crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane that killed 38 people. It's been widely suspected that Russia accidentally shot the plane down as it tried to land in Grozny on Wednesday. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg reports from Moscow. Steve Rosenberg According to the Kremlin readout of their conversation, President Putin apologized to President Aliyev for what the Kremlin calls a tragic incident in

Russian airspace and expressed condolences to the families of the dead. 38 people were killed when Azerbaijan Airlines flight 8243, having failed to land at Grozny airport in the Russian North Caucasus, was redirected over the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan where it crash landed. The Embraer 190 is widely believed to have been damaged by missiles fired by a Russian air defense system. Today's Kremlin statements shopped short of saying that Russian air defenses were to blame

for the crash. The State Department has shut down an office that was tracking disinformation efforts by Russia, China and others. Republicans in Congress had stripped the office of funding. As NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports. The Global Engagement Center was set up to expose and counter foreign propaganda that could undermine stability in countries that are partners to the U.S. Trump adviser, multi-billionaire Elon Musk called it the, quote, worst offender in the U.S. government of censorship and media manipulation.

Its funding was stripped in the National Defense Authorization Act. The State Department says the Global Engagement Center terminated operations on December 23rd, and the department is consulting with Congress on next steps. The office had been reporting on Russian disinformation campaigns around the world, as well as exposing Iranian and Chinese propaganda. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington. 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. NPR's Will Stone has more in the story. This is the first instance of a person falling severely ill from bird flu in the US 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.

This is NPR News. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is informing Congress the U.S. will reach its debt limit by the middle of next month. She says her department may need to take extraordinary measures to prevent a default. She urged lawmakers to act soon to protect the full faith and credit of the United States. Olivia Hussey has died. Her family said she died peacefully yesterday at her home at the

age of 73. She had starred in the movie adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in 1968. NPR's Chloe Veltman has this remembrance. Olivia Hussey was in her mid-teens when Franco Zeffirelli spotted her on stage in London and promptly cast her in his Romeo and Juliet. My bounty is as boundless as the sea. My love is deep. The more I give to thee, the more I have. For both are infinite.

Hussie won international acclaim for the role, which, controversially for the time, involved a nude love scene. She went on to appear in the 1977 series Jesus of Nazareth, the 1978 version of Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile, and many other movies and TV shows. Hussie later sued Paramount Pictures, alleging sexual abuse, sexual harassment and fraud over the nudity in Romeo and Juliet. The case was dismissed last year.

Chloe Valtman, NPR News. Chloe Valtman, NPR News. In India, a state funeral was held today for former Prime Minister Manohan Singh. He died Thursday at the age of 92. He was the leader of the Congress Party in Parliament's upper house and served as prime minister from 2004 to 2014. He was the first member of the Sikh religious minority to be prime minister. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.