NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

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Noor Rahm, NPR News. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Rahm. The FBI says the suspect in a deadly incident in New Orleans is now dead. The man drove a pickup truck at high speed through a crowd on Bourbon Street during a New Year's celebration early this morning. Police say at least 10 people were killed and at least 35 injured. The police commissioner said it was intentional that the driver was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. Koff State's newsroom's Drew Honkins

has more. Eye witnesses report seeing a white pickup truck accelerate and intentionally drive through the crowd before exchanging gunfire with police and speeding away. I think we alone probably saw five, six, seven bodies. Jim Mauer and his wife were in town visiting for the celebrations. He says Bourbon Street was packed with revelers for New Year's Eve. They heard crashing sounds and turned to see the truck plowing through the crowd. We were hoping to provide some first aid to the bodies we came across but we're very clearly deceased and then we moved out of the area.

Police have not released information about suspects or motives at this time. For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in New Orleans. Funeral services for Jimmy Carter will be held in Georgia and in Washington beginning this weekend. He died Sunday at the age of 100. One of his legacies is bringing more women into cabinet-level positions. That includes the nation's first black woman to serve as a White House cabinet secretary. Molly Samuel from member station WABE reports.

Molly Samuel In 1977, President Carter appointed Patricia Roberts Harris, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In that role, she reorganized the department to focus more on neighborhood rehabilitation. She went on to another cabinet position when Carter later appointed her to lead the department that became Health and Human Services. Prior to Carter's appointment, Harris was the first African American woman to serve as U.S. Ambassador. President Lyndon Johnson appointed her as top diplomat to Luxembourg.

Harris attended Howard University, where she later became the first woman dean of the law school. She earned a law degree from George Washington University. For NPR News, I'm Mollye Samuel in Atlanta. Mollye Samuel, NPR News Reporter, NPR News Russia launched a drone attack on a crane this New Year's Day, firing on the capital, Kyiv. Officials say an apartment building was hit and at least one civilian was killed. NPR's Brian Mayen reports from Kyiv. Ukraine is finding ways to punch back and let me describe some of that. The Russian army, and this is important, appears to be losing more than 30,000 soldiers killed

and wounded every month. Last summer, of course, Ukraine invaded Russia in a surprise move. They still occupy a chunk of the Kursk region. Last month, Ukraine's spy agency claimed credit for assassinating a top Russian general in Moscow, and Ukraine is launching frequent drone attacks of its own, striking industrial and military targets deep inside Russia. This is NPR News in Washington. There is no end in sight to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Health officials there say Israeli strikes today killed more than a dozen people, including children. In southern Israel, air raid sirens sounded at the stroke of midnight last night when Hamas fired two rockets across the border. There were no reports of injuries or damage. Valley fever cases are up 20% above last year's numbers in California. The disease can be fatal in the worst cases and is still rare enough that it's often misdiagnosed. NPR's Alejandro Burunda has more.

Valley fever is caused by inhaling spores of a particular fungus that lives in dirt and soil. When the dirt gets disturbed, the fungus can fly into the air where people can breathe it in. The disease was rare in California 20 years ago, but the fungus has spread and multiplied over that time, along with the number of cases. They've increased by a factor of six since the early 2000s according to state health data. Scientists think the fungus's range is expanding because of climate change. It thrives in conditions like those the state has gone through in recent years, with extremely wet winters coming on the heels of extreme drought.

Alejandra Borunda, NPR News. One of the last remaining survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor has died. His family says Harry Chandler died in Florida Monday. He was a Navy medic when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired torpedoes at battleships in the harbor. Chandler helped the wounded. In a Pacific Historic Parks interview, he said, it got so busy you weren't scared. It was after you got scared.

Harry Chandler was 103. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News.