cover of episode NPR News: 11-21-2024 1PM EST

NPR News: 11-21-2024 1PM EST

2024/11/21
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NPR News Now

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This message is brought to you by NPR sponsor, Lisa, in collaboration with West Elm. Discover the new natural hybrid mattress, expertly crafted from natural latex and certified safe foams, designed with your health and the planet in mind. Visit leesa.com to learn more. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh.

Former Congressman Matt Gaetz is withdrawing as president elect Trump's nominee for attorney general. NPR's Ryan Lucas has the story. Matt Gaetz announced his decision to drop out a day after he met with several Republican senators on Capitol Hill. In a post on X, Gaetz says it is clear that his nomination was unfairly becoming a distraction to the Trump-Vance transition. He said there's no time to waste on a, quote, needlessly protracted confirmation battle.

He also said Trump's Justice Department leadership must be in place and ready on day one. And so he was withdrawing his name from consideration for attorney general. Gates' pick for attorney general had generated a lot of controversy. He has almost no legal experience, was recently the subject of a now-closed federal sex trafficking investigation, and the House Ethics Committee also had been probing allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.

The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to force Google to sell off its internet browser known as Chrome. NPR's Bobby Allen reports this follows a court decision earlier this year that Google was operating an illegal monopoly. Lawyers for the Justice Department say Google should sell off its hit internet browser Chrome in order to introduce more competition into the online search market.

It follows a court deciding in August that Google search operates as an illegal monopoly. About 90% of internet searches are done on Google and Chrome is by far the most popular browser. So the justice department says the only way to make online search more competitive is to force Google's Chrome to be sold off. The tech company's highly profitable advertising business is powered by data it harvests from user activity on Chrome and Google search.

Google calls the Justice Department's request, quote, staggering, saying if implemented, it would hurt user privacy and security and hamper Google's innovation. Bobby Allen, NPR News. The state of Texas is offering President-elect Trump some land to build mass deportation centers.

NPR's Sergio Martinez Beltran has details. The 1,400 acres of land are to be used to construct deportation facilities. That's in a letter to the president-elect from Texas General Land Commissioner Don Buckingham. The land is in Starr County, which includes towns on the U.S.-Mexico border. The county flipped Republican for the first time in more than a century on November 5th.

Buckingham says her office is ready to enter into an agreement with the federal government to build a facility for the processing, detention and, quote, largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation. Trump has said he'll declare a national emergency and use the military to assist with deportations. Sergio Martinez Beltran, NPR News, Austin.

U.S. stocks trading higher this hour with a down now up 540 points or 1.2 percent. This is NPR News.

The nonprofit Doctors Without Borders is known for going into some of the most dangerous conflict zones to treat patients with the greatest needs. But the violence has gotten so bad in Haiti, one of the leading members of Doctors Without Borders, Christophe Garnier, says his group paused operations, not only because of gangs, but also because of police violence. We were stopped by members of the police. So that's what they said, because they wanted to check our ambulance and the

On the 11th of November, they took two of our patients and they killed them near a hospital, a public hospital. And this is something we cannot accept. Two days ago, gangs launched a new attack on an upscale community in the Haitian capital. Gunmen clashed with residents who fought side by side with police.

In the U.S., one barbershop in Denver is getting a lot of attention as its anniversary approaches. It helps employees who've been to prison stay out of prison. Colorado Public Radio's Ryan Warner reports. R&R Headlabs was founded by a former president of the national barber chain Floyd's. The company hires people who served time in prison, which is where many of them learned to cut hair, and helps them get licensed. The goal is to keep them from returning.

apprentice James Kennedy of Denver has done two stints behind bars. It's good to see that there's people out here that actually think about people in there coming out and making a smooth transition. The company currently employs nine apprentice barbers and plans to expand to a second location in early 2025. For NPR News, I'm Ryan Warner in Denver. This is NPR.

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