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Dale Willman
LIVE from NPR News. I'm Dale Willman. The military group Hamas released a video this weekend of 20 year old Israeli American hostage Idan Alexander. He asks incoming President Donald Trump to negotiate for his release. His mother says it was difficult seeing her son in the video, but Yahel Alexander also had some advice for her son.
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Yahel Alexander
I'm hoping that he's still gonna stay brave and strong, and I want him to know that we are doing everything that we can to bring him home.
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Dale Willman
Hamas continues to hold about 100 hostages. Officials say they believe that about half of them are now dead. President Elect Trump says he'll appoint pardoned real estate developer Charles Kushner as his ambassador to France. Kushner, the father of Trump's son in law, he was convicted in 2005 on making illegal campaign contributions, witness tampering and tax evasion. He spent two years in prison and was later pardoned by Trump during his first term. The Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in a case testing how the Food and Drug Administration regulates vaping. E cigarettes, as they're known, contain addictive nicotine but are not as dangerous as tobacco products, and their popularity has taken off with young people. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports.
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Nina Totenberg
In 2009, Congress enacted a law aimed at regulating nicotine products marketed for minors. The good news is that the agency succeeded in dramatically driving down cigarette use by high school kids to 2%. The bad news is that E cigarettes, first marketed in 2006, took up a lot of that slack. And by 2023, the FDA survey showed 30% of high schoolers were vaping E cigarettes, which the agency considers a gateway to smoking more damaging cigarette. So the FDA refused to approve products it saw as catering to kids, vaping products with names like Pink Lemonade. The issue before the Supreme Court is whether the FDA followed the rules of the regulatory road when it did that. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.
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Dale Willman
Saturday marked the end of the Atlantic hurricane season. As NPR's Debbie Elliott reports, it's been an active one with deadly and destructive storms.
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Debbie Elliott
The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season had 18 named storms, 11 of them hurricanes, with five reaching major hurricane status with winds topping 111 mph. Five hurricanes hit the US including Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which combined killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars of damage in Florida, North Carolina and other parts of the Southeast. Both were late season storms in year that saw a record seven hurricanes form after September 25th. Debbie Elliot, NPR News.
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Dale Willman
And you're listening to NPR News. Voters in Iceland are choosing a new parliament this weekend. Snap elections were called after the previous government collapsed in October. As Terry Schultz reports, European Union membership has become a campaign issue for the first time in more than a decade.
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Terry Schultz
Dissatisfaction over the state of the economy is a big reason Icelanders are expected to seek a change from the three parties that made up the last government, the conservative Independence Party, the centrist Progressive Party and the Left Green Movement. The ruling parties couldn't reach agreement on economic issues, immigration and energy policy, so the prime minister resigned, dissolved the 63 seat parliament and called snap elections. Now polls show voters are favoring parties that support joining the European Union. The last time Iceland seriously considered negotiating membership was in 2013. In pre election surveys, a little more than 45% of voters were in favor of Iceland seeking EU membership, with 35% against and the rest undecided. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels.
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Dale Willman
It may be looking a bit like Christmas across parts of the northern US this weekend as bitter cold temperatures have settled over the Northern Plains states, while as much as 3ft of snow has fallen on western New York so far, with even more expected. A state of emergency has been declared in parts of New York, while a storm warning is in effect through Sunday for regions along Lake Michigan. In college football on Saturday, number one, Oregon, easily beat Washington, while number two, Ohio State was upset by Michigan. Texas, Penn State and Notre Dame all won their games. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.
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