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United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, a lightning rod for Republican critics of the Obama administration's handling of the September 2012 attack on a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, is moving into the post of national security adviser at the White House.

That's what a White House official tells NPR's Ari Shapiro — echoing reports earlier Wednesday morning from The Associated Press and other news outlets.

The current national security adviser, Tom Donilon, is resigning, according to CBS News and other news organizations.

The New York Times says the move of Rice to the White House is "a defiant gesture to Republicans who harshly criticized Ms. Rice for presenting an erroneous account of the deadly attacks on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya. The post of national security adviser, while powerful, does not require Senate confirmation."

Rice had been a leading contender to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. But Rice withdrew her name from consideration last December, saying that "If nominated, I am now convinced that the confirmation process would be lengthy, disruptive and costly" to the administration.

The attack in Benghazi led to the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Donilon, the Times notes, has been a "central member of Mr. Obama's foreign-policy team since he first took office. ... But Mr. Donilon has also hit a rough patch recently, with the publication of an unflattering profile in Foreign Policy magazine that cast him as a sharp-elbowed infighter and a domineering boss, who had strained relationships with colleagues, including his former deputy, Denis R. McDonough, now the White House chief of staff. Mr. Donilon and Mr. McDonough, however, both denied those reports."

Donilon is expected to depart in early July. The president's announcement about Rice's appointment is expected to happen later Wednesday. The president is also expected to announce who he will nominate to replace Rice at the U.N. According to what a White House official tells NPR's Mara Liasson, the president plans to name long-time adviser and aide Samantha Power.

As The Associated Press writes, "a defiant Chrysler is refusing to recall about 2.7 million Jeeps the government says are at risk of a fuel tank fire in a rear-end collision."

The Detroit Free Press says the company has "put its reputation for safety and quality on the line" by initially saying "no" to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's request.

"Chrysler must feel like it has a compelling reason to take such a bold stand," Michelle Krebs, an auto analyst with Edmunds.com, tells the Free Press. "Since Toyota was publicly humiliated for dragging its feet on recalls just a few years ago, automakers have been quick to recall vehicles at NHTSA's request."

The models involved are Jeep Grand Cherokees built from 1993 through 2004 and Jeep Libertys built from 2002 through 2007. According to the AP, NHTSA found "that the Jeeps' fuel tanks can fail when hit from the rear, leak fuel and cause fires if there's an ignition source. The placement of the tanks behind the rear axle and their height above the road is a design defect, NHTSA wrote in a letter to Chrysler dated Monday."

Meanwhile, the wire service adds, "Chrysler says its review of nearly 30 years of data shows a low number of rear-impact crashes involving fire or a fuel leak in the affected Jeeps. 'The rate is similar to comparable vehicles produced and sold during the time in question,' the company said in a statement."

According to The Detroit News:

"Chrysler has until June 18 to formally respond to NHTSA's request. The agency could then issue a formal finding and hold a public hearing seeking a recall. Chrysler last objected to a recall in 1997."

There were 135,000 jobs added to private employers' payrolls in May, according to the latest ADP National Employment Report, which was released Wednesday morning.

That's slightly better than in April, when the payroll processing firm says its data show that there were 113,000 more jobs on private payrolls. (In its Wednesday report, ADP revised the April figure; it initially said there had been 119,000 new jobs that month.)

But job growth remains slow. ADP collects and analyzes the numbers in collaboration with Moody's Analytics. Mark Zandi, Moody's chief economist, says in a statement released with the May data that:

"The job market continues to expand, but growth has slowed since the beginning of the year. The slowdown is evident across all industries and all but the largest companies. Manufacturers are reducing payrolls. The softer job market this spring is largely due to significant fiscal drag from tax increases and government spending cuts."

On the heels of Liz & Dick, Lifetime's campy take on the love story of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton that starred none other than Lindsay Lohan, BBC America will be delivering another made-for-TV version this fall. Because they couldn't call it Liz & Dick, this one is called ... Burton And Taylor. (Innovation!)

This one stars Dominic West and Helena Bonham Carter, and the first photo was released yesterday.

Of the many problems with Liz & Dick, one of the most prominent — which we discussed on our weekly pop-culture podcast at the time — was that Lohan in particular always seemed far too much a child, not nearly worldly and knowing enough to give you the woman Taylor was when she was with Burton. Helena Bonham Carter is not only an actress with a substantially weightier resume, but one with a lot more capacity for both unhinged energy and knowing seriousness, as you see right in this picture, actually. West, too, is giving a pretty persuasively Burton-ish vibe here. It was always quite difficult to imagine the Lindsay Lohan version of this story playing as anything but a stunt, but seeing these actors in this photo is kind of intriguing.