NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-03-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Corva Coleman, the FBI now says the man believed to have driven into crowds of people in New Orleans early on New Year's Day acted alone. Fourteen people were killed in the incident and dozens of other people were injured. Authorities say the Bourbon Street area is now safe for people to return. From member station WWNO, Hallie Parker has more. Less than two days after the attack, live music sounded from local bars and clubs and tourists quickly started to return. More police are stationed

throughout the city's historic French Quarter after officials promised to heighten security. For some, the reopening was more somber. New Orleans native Melvin Jackson Jr. knew one of the 14 victims. It's still devastating. It's like it's still surreal to have terrorism happen here in little old New Orleans. He walked down to Bourbon Street to pay his respects. For NPR News, I'm Hallie Parker in New Orleans. The White House says President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to New

Orleans on Monday. They are to grieve with families and community members affected by the attack on New Year's Day. The U.S. Surgeon General has released a new advisory today on alcohol use and the risk of cancer. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says alcohol is responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer every year in the U.S. and 20,000 cancer deaths. Alcohol is the third leading preventable cause of cancer behind tobacco and obesity. And in this advice, what I lay out is the causal link between alcohol and cancer and the fact that it's now linked to seven types of cancer, breast, colorectal cancer, mouth, throat, voicebox,

or laryngeal cancer, esophageal and liver cancer. He spoke to NPR's morning edition. The surgeon general says that increased alcohol consumption increases a person's risk of cancer. Stocks opened higher this morning as President Biden formally blocked the sale of U.S. steel to a Japanese company. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones industrial average rose about 108 points in early trading. Stock in U.S. steel fell as word came that President Biden would make good on his pledge to halt the more than 14 billion dollar sale of the company to Nippon Steel. Biden said in a statement, it's important for national security to maintain a domestically owned and operated steel industry.

The move represents a victory for the United Steelworkers Union, which had also opposed the takeover. Critics say the president's move could backfire, though. Nippon Steel had promised to invest billions of dollars to modernize U.S. Steel's blast furnaces in Pennsylvania and Indiana. Without that investment, the company said it may shift its focus to non-union steel plants elsewhere in the country, jeopardizing thousands of union jobs. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

On Wall Street, the Dow is now up 114 points. This is NPR. News reports say the union for dock workers on the U.S. East and Gulf Coasts will resume contract talks Tuesday with operators of ports and ocean carriers. The union went on strike last year for three days. Part of the issue was resolved with a wage hike of 62 percent over six years. But both sides are at odds over automation. If there's no agreement, it's possible another strike could start January 15th. Long distance migrations can take a toll on animals and Biers Jonathan

Lambert reports on new research showing some bats time their migrations to get a lift from passing storms. Studying bat migration is tricky since bats are small and fly only at night. A new study published in Science used special trackers, essentially tiny bat backpacks, that connect to wireless networks. The trackers allowed researchers to watch the migrations of a species called the noctule bat across central Europe and measure climate data. The study found that bats time their departure to leave just before a storm comes through. Surfing storm tailwinds can make the bats' migration, which can span hundreds of miles, a little bit easier. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News.

A data research company says it checked to see which airlines had the best record last year for on-time arrivals. Serium is an aviation data provider. It says AeroMexxico had the world's best record last year with on-time arrivals of nearly 87%. The worst ranked carriers were Canada's WestJet, Air Canada, and Frontier Airlines. I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News Now, Planet Money, Ted Radio Hour, ThruLine, the NPR Politics Podcast, Code Switch, Embedded, Books We Love, Wildcard... are just some of the podcasts you can enjoy sponsor-free with NPR+.

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