Up First from NPR - Trump's Cabinet Picks, UN Femicide Report, COP29 Deal

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

The Republican-controlled Senate is expected to consider President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet nominees in the new year. A new report on femicide from UN Women finds a woman or girl was killed every 10 minutes last year. And, The COP29 climate conference ended with an agreement to provide financing to developing nations to help cope with the effects of climate change.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishnadev Calmur, Jim Kane, Rachel Waldholz, Lisa Thomson and Mohamad ElBardicy. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Lilly Quiroz. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Is that Rob? Laila. Good morning. Good morning. Probably a much more decent hour from, are you hosting from Berlin? You are, right? Yes, it is 1030 in the morning. I'm so jealous of you.

President-elect Donald Trump's picks for cabinet nominees keep rolling in. He's got a new choice for attorney general and he's made selections for everything from the Department of Treasury to labor. Will his nominees sail through a Republican controlled Senate? I'm Rob Schmitz, that's Leila Fadl and this is Up First from NPR News. Last year a woman or girl was killed every 10 minutes. This is a war against women. That's according to a new UN report on femicide around the world.

Why are women and girls' homes often the most dangerous places for them? And negotiators struck a deal at COP29 to triple the amount of climate financing for developing nations. But for poorer countries dealing with the effects of climate change... $300 billion till 2035 is a joke. Stay with us, we'll give you the news you need to start your day. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Odoo. Imagine relying on a dozen different software programs to run your business, none of which are connected and each one more expensive and more complicated than the last.

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offering over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Hand-selected for their inherent craft, each hotel tells its own unique story through distinctive design and immersive experiences, from medieval falconry to volcanic wine tasting. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of over 30 hotel brands around the world. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Okay, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts, you wish you could get more

of all your favorite shows, and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. President-elect Donald Trump has announced more choices for who he wants to serve in his cabinet. He's filling top positions for everything from the Department of Treasury and Labor to who will head up the CDC and the FDA. A Republican-controlled Senate is expected to consider these nominees early next year.

NPR congressional correspondent Deirdre Walls joins us now with more on what's ahead. Good morning Deirdre. Good morning, Laila. So let's start with his pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, who was named just hours after Matt Gaetz dropped out last week. Now she seems to be getting a much better reaction, right? Definitely. As Senate Republicans point out her experience, she was a prosecutor eight years as Florida's attorney General. Like Matt Gaetz, she's viewed as a strong Trump loyalist. She defended him as part of his defense team back in 2019. Bondi just doesn't have the same kind of political baggage that Gaetz had. A House Ethics Committee investigated him for allegations of sex trafficking. That just made his nomination an uphill

battle from the day he was picked. In terms of the Justice Department, Pam Bondi is likely to pursue the same kind of agenda Trump campaigned on. Gates was promising reforms at the department and retribution against Trump's political opponents. Now are there some nominees that could face challenges in the Senate from Republicans as well as Democrats? There's already more attention on Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick to lead the Pentagon. He's a former Fox News host who served in the Army National Guard. He was accused of sexual assault in 2017. NPR has seen the police report from the Monterey, California police. Hegseth argues he was cleared, there were no charges

filed, and his lawyer confirmed to NPR that Hegseth settled with the accuser to prevent her from filing any lawsuit. He already has some significant support, senior Republicans on the Armed Services Committee, and the new number two GOP leader, John Barrasso, has endorsed him. Trump's pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, she's a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii, is another nominee facing some scrutiny. Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Langford, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said on CNN yesterday, there are lots of questions for Gabbard. He pointed to a trip she took back in 2017 when she was serving in Congress to Syria, where she met with the Syrian President, Bazar al-Assad.

All these nominees are expected to go through some background checks in some form. And Barrasso said they're going to start hearings on January 3rd and he expects some votes on nominees on Inauguration Day. Now, as we mentioned, Republicans will control the Senate with 53 seats. And for cabinet nominees to be approved, they just need a simple majority. That's 51 votes. Does this make it likely that most of the president's picks will get through? I expect most will. I mean, even if three Republicans break and vote against a nominee, Vice President JD Vance, who will also be serving as president of the Senate, can break a tie.

If four Republicans oppose a nominee, they will fail. There are a group of senators we're keeping an eye on who have raised questions about nominees and want to see more information. People like Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, incoming Utah Senator John Curtis, who replaces Mitt Romney, and Mitch McConnell, who stepped down from leadership but is still in the Senate. All of these senators are saying the same thing. The president gets to nominate who he wants, but it's the Senate's job to advise and consent. Some nominees will have bipartisan support. Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is up for Secretary of State, is well known, and some Democrats I talked to say they could see voting for him. That's NPR's Deirdre Walsh. Thank you Deirdre. Thanks, Layla.

A woman or girl was killed every 10 minutes in 2023. That's according to a new report released today by the United Nations. The report looks at femicide or gender related killings and it finds that the vast majority of killings were perpetrated by a partner or close relative. NPR Global Health correspondent Fatima Tanis is here to tell us more. Good morning, Fatima. Good morning, Leila. So what's the big takeaway from this report? The key takeaway is that femicide is happening at a high rate and it is universal. Last year the report says that a total of 85,000 women and girls

were intentionally killed. Now 60% of those people were killed by their partners, husbands, boyfriends or family members. In some regions like Africa and Asia, we saw the highest numbers. I spoke with Kaliopi Minjero. She's the UN Women's Chief of Ending Violence Against Women. And here's how she put it. This is a war against women. The number we have there is even bigger than fatalities

that we see being recorded in the war. She says that for many women and girls around the world, their home is not a safe place and that the people they trust the most can be the most dangerous in their lives. Now, Leila, many countries have laws meant to prevent this kind of violence, but despite that the report shows even those countries are seeing high rates of femicide. I mean, the number is just shocking, right, every 10 minutes. But if there are laws in place to prevent femicide, why are the numbers still so high?

Researchers say it's a lack of enforcement. In many countries, women are reporting violence from their partners, but often you see they are dismissed by police or referred to social services instead. Beatrice Garcia-Nise is a researcher in Ecuador. She leads the gender-based violence project for the Wilson Center. It's a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. Here's how she explained it. In Mexico, between 2018 and 2020, 93% of known femicide cases were not prosecuted. That's insane.

And Mexico has some of the best laws on femicide and gender-based violence. Yet it's one of the most violent countries for women. And she says the impunity has led to women being distrustful of the system in Mexico and many don't report incidents to police anymore. I wanna bring up another country, South Africa. Again, it has the laws, but it has one of the highest rates of femicide.

I spoke to Ronel Kukumor, she's with the local organization called Gender Rights in Tech. She works with friends and family of femicide victims to help get them justice. And before that, she worked with survivors of gender-based violence. I can't tell you how many times when the perpetrator would get bail, the survivor was basically told by the prosecutor, it's got a lot to do with the capacity in the holding cells and in the prisons. And that's more of the consideration than the survivor's actual safety.

So when the system fails to protect survivors, it leads to them being killed. Now, is there any good news, any reason to be hopeful? There is. You know, in Ecuador, they're creating safe space shelters for women who are at risk. In Colombia, government branches are coordinating social services as working with the judicial system to respond. But experts said that there's a lot of work to be done at social, cultural, and especially family levels, the way children are being raised and whether they're taught equality and mutual respect when it comes to other genders.

That's NPR's Fatima Tannis. Thank you, Fatima. Thank you. The COP29 climate conference ended with an agreement on Sunday, which didn't always look likely. Now, at one point, delegations from some of the most affected nations staged a walkout. But in the end, negotiators struck a deal to provide climate financing to developing nations to help cope with the effects of climate change. Michael Copley from NPR's Climate Desk is here with me in studio to explain the deal. Good morning, Michael.

Good morning, Lila. So the focus at this year's conference was money. So remind us what was the big goal for countries coming into the meeting. So the conflict is always the fact that wealthy countries are responsible for a lot of the climate pollution that's raising global temperatures, but it's poorer countries that are suffering some of the worst impacts, like more extreme heat waves and floods. So years ago, wealthy countries agreed to help developing countries pay for stuff like renewable energy and protecting themselves. It's an acknowledgement that the poorer countries didn't cause the problem and they can't pay to deal with it on their own.

So the goal this year was to come up with a new funding target. And on Sunday, they did that. They agreed to $300 billion a year, but people still left really unhappy. Now, the meeting went on more than a day longer than it was supposed to. What were people so upset about? It's really the money that countries promised wasn't nearly enough. Researchers estimate that developing countries will need more than a trillion dollars a year for climate change. One of the people who spoke at the closing meeting was a delegate from Nigeria, Nkiruka

Madweakwe, and you'll hear she got a big applause. $300 billion till 2035 is a joke. And it's not something we should take lightly. I do not think it's something we should clap our hands and force us to take it. And it's not just the amount of money. You know, it's not due until 2035. And what developing countries had said they need is more grant funding, not loans, so they don't add to their already high debt burdens. They didn't get any commitment around that. So Michael, I can hear how upset some countries are or were. Why did they agree to the deal? You know, they don't really have a lot of options. You know, they can't afford to protect themselves. And so they're kind of stuck taking what's offered. And rich countries say they can't afford to put the bill on their own. They

say that they're working with private investors and groups like the World Bank to get more money flowing into developing countries. So the work now is to try to actually do that. Simon Steele is the UN climate chief, and he said the deal that was agreed to in Azerbaijan is a step in the right direction. This deal will keep the clean energy boom growing, helping all countries to share in its huge benefits. More jobs, stronger growth, cheaper and cleaner energy. The big question now is whether wealthy countries make good on their promise. They were slow to deliver money on their last commitment.

So poor countries are in a position of relying on unreliable neighbors. And just before I let you go, I mean, this conference was held a few weeks after President elect Trump was chosen here in the US. Trump pulled the US out of the Paris agreement, the key international agreement underlying these talks. What does this mean for these talks going forward? It is really uncertain, right? Trump is expected to pull the US out of Paris again, which could really diminish the US role in these kinds of talks.

But I think it's really important to remember that other countries are working on this issue, and so are states and cities in the US, as well as companies. So what the Trump administration does is really important, but they aren't the only player here. That's Michael Copley from NPR's climate desk. Thank you, Michael. Thanks, Leila.

And that's Up First for Monday, November 25th. I'm Leila Faldon. And I'm Rob Schmitz. And don't forget, please take our audience survey. This will help us make this podcast better. And it will give you a chance to tell us more about what you like or don't like. Go to npr.org slash up first survey. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Krishna Kavkalmar, Jim Kane, Rachel Waltholz, Lisa Thompson and Pramod Bhardisi. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Dumas and Lily Kittos. We get engineering support from Arthur Lorenz and our technical director is Carly Strange.

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