NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-01-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: January 1, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. The FBI is calling a terrorism after 10 people were killed and dozens more injured when a man driving a truck barreled through a crowd of people in New Orleans during New Year's Eve holiday celebrations. Matt Bloom with member station WWNO has more. Authorities say the driver drove around a barricade and plowed through a crowd along Bourbon Street, the city's iconic stretch of bars and hotels in the French Quarter. Police chief Ann Kirkpatrick says the driver was trying to hurt people.

He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. After crashing his truck, the suspect exchanged fire with police, wounding two officers. Police shot and killed the suspect. The FBI is now investigating the attack as an act of terrorism. For NPR News, I'm Matt Bloom in New Orleans. There's no end in sight to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza that began nearly 15 months ago with Hamas's ambush of southern Israel. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reports, the new year has brought more attacks between Hamas and Israel and ceasefire talks are stalling. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve, air raid sirens wailed in southern Israel

as Hamas fired two rockets across the border. They caused no damage or injuries. Hamas said it was avenging Israeli strikes killing civilians. Israel's military ordered residents of a part of central Gaza to evacuate, warning it would strike where rockets had been fired. On New Year's Day, Israeli strikes have killed more than a dozen people, including children, according to Gaza health officials. There were some New Year's Eve parties in Israel, where there's an attempt at normalcy

despite Israeli hostages held in Gaza. In the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the New Year mood was muted because of the war. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Power has been restored to 80 percent of customers in Puerto Rico, including hospitals, according to Luma Energy, which oversees electricity transmission. More than a million people were in the dark yesterday, and it had been feared restoration could take as long as two days.

Reporter Alex Figueroa of newspaper El Nuevo Dia in San Juan says the cause of the blackout remains under investigation. All we know is that when the plant was not able to send energy out, it protected itself by shutting down. That's supposed to happen. But what we haven't seen in a long time is that without the major disasters going on, all the other power plants went down also in a chain reaction. It's the holiday guest you hope won't stay too long. A polar vortex sweeping down from

Canada with a blanket of frigid air is knocking at the door across the eastern half of the United States. The northern plains and the Midwest are already starting to feel the effects and the Northeast will experience the cold blast by week's end. This is NPR News in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump says he is planning to attend the funeral of former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at the age of 100, asked about it as he walked into a New Year's Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Trump responded, I'll be there. He wouldn't say if he'd spoken to members of Carter's family. A state funeral will be held at Washington National Cathedral on January 9th. It's 2025 and it appears Americans still enjoy tuning into an old fashioned medium for music, the radio. A new study finds that AMFM radio edged out Apple,

Spotify and other streaming services in the past year. And Piers Nettie-Uleby has details. The study by Edison Research says American listeners over the age of 13 spend 32 percent of their listening time on old-fashioned radio and 28 percent of their time on streaming. Now no matter where they tune in they might hear one of 2024's top singles, Lose Control by Teddy Swims. According to Edison Research, the reliance on radio is driven still by people in their cars. It says overall, listeners spend nearly three quarters of their audio time listening

to music. That leaves a mere quarter for podcasts, audiobooks, and, well, NPR. Nada Oulibi, NPR News. In a report released at year's end, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a defense of judicial independence. He wrote, intimidation, disinformation, and the prospect of public officials defying court orders all threaten the judicial branch. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News.