--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, December 17th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Here's what we're covering. In Europe, a crisis of leadership is spreading. Yesterday, the German government collapsed after the country's chancellor, Olaf Scholz, lost a confidence vote. The country will now hold a snap election months earlier than voting was planned.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The turmoil in Germany comes as France has also been flailing. Its prime minister resigned after a vote of no confidence in the government there just weeks ago. France is now on its fourth prime minister this year, a record level of turnover.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And across Europe, growing polarization has made it exceptionally difficult to build political coalitions. And the rise of far-right parties has scrambled the balance of power.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Germany and France are also facing a complex array of hot-button issues. With fierce debates over how to fix their struggling economies, immigration policy, and national defense.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Germany in particular, one of the most divisive questions heading into the elections will be how much to continue supporting Ukraine, with some politicians calling for more military aid, while others are warning that aggressive support could provoke Russia, which has been ramping up its threats against Europe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, in Moscow early this morning, a Russian general was killed in one of the most brazen assassinations there in years. Igor Kirilov, the head of Russia's radioactive chemical and biological defense forces, died after a bomb planted in a scooter exploded outside of an apartment building.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of his aides was also killed. A Ukrainian security official told The Times that Ukraine was behind the attack. The country's main security agency had charged Kirilov yesterday in absentia over his role in the war.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In response to the assassination, a leader of the Russian Security Council promised retaliation against Ukrainian military and political leaders.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One of the big differences between the first term, in the first term, everybody was fighting me. In this term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don't know. My personality changed or something.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: President-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference since the election yesterday, riffing that he seems to be getting better treatment this time around.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The entire Republican Party is basically on board with his agenda. World leaders have been flying to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him. And billionaire tech executives have been writing multimillion-dollar checks to support him.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump talked for more than an hour about vaccines, the border wall, foreign policy, and even the drone sightings haunting New Jersey.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I can't imagine it's the enemy because if it was the enemy, they'd blast it out. Even if they were late, they'd blast it.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump also praised two of his most controversial picks for cabinet members. Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Services.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Indicating he's standing by them for now, even as they face potentially difficult confirmation hearings in the Senate.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Hours after the press conference, Trump was dealt a legal setback. A judge in New York rejected his attempt to clear his felony record.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump's legal team had argued that the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity should apply in the Manhattan case, where he was convicted of covering up hush money payments.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The judge disagreed, saying the acts in question were quote decidedly personal, not the kind of official actions that are covered by the Supreme Court ruling.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Trump likely to appeal that potentially all the way up to the Supreme Court itself. He still hasn't been sentenced in the case, though he cannot be sent to jail while he's president.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In Madison, Wisconsin, police say that a student opened fire at a small Christian school yesterday, killing two people, a student and a teacher, and injuring at least six more.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The shooter has now been identified as 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who went by the name Samantha. She was a student at the school, and evidence suggests she died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A female suspect in a school shooting is exceedingly rare. Madison Police Chief Sean Barnes said investigators have searched her home and are still looking into how she got the weapon and what may have been behind the attack.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He said her parents were cooperating with police.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: My colleague Julie Bosman got to the scene yesterday as rattled parents were reuniting with their children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I spoke with one man who told me that he was at work nearby when he heard of what had happened.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And he, of course, immediately started sprinting out to his car, got in his car, drove as close to the school as he could. And when he realized that he couldn't get close enough to the school, parked his car and then just started racing through people's backyards to try to get to the school because he just needed to get to his children.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: This year, more than 260 people have been injured or killed in school shootings across the country.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, The legendary percussionist Zakir Hussain died this week at 73. He was a virtuoso at the tabla, tuned drums that have been used for hundreds of years in classical Indian music.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He played a lot of other instruments as well. Over his career, he fused musical styles with a lot of different collaborators, playing with Rabi Shankar, sitting in on Grateful Dead jam sessions, collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Growing up in Mumbai, he heard a little bit of everything, studying Indian classical music for three hours every morning, reciting the Quran at a madrasa, singing hymns at a Catholic church.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He played his first paid concert at 12 and went on to appear on hundreds of albums and win multiple Grammy Awards.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When I was a young man, I wanted to wear blingy outfits and have people screaming and shouting at every move I make.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: When accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award a few years ago, He talked about how he once told George Harrison from The Beatles that he wanted to be a rock and roll drummer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But Harrison told him there were a million of those. Playing the tabla for the world was what could make him stand out.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He said, you are here with me because you have this unique ability to be able to take your instrument, the tabla, and make it talk the language of the present.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, tens of thousands of Syrians disappeared under the rule of Bashar al-Assad.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Times reporter Christina Goldbaum goes inside one of the prisons where people were searching for their friends and family. That's next in the New York Times audio app, where you can listen wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford. Headlines will be back tomorrow. Hi YouTube!
