NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-03-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Corva Coleman, the FBI says that the suspect in the deadly New Orleans truck attack acted by himself early on New Year's Day. Previously, the FBI had said agents were looking for more potential suspects. Now they've reversed themselves. NPR's Tamara Keith reports President Biden met with his Homeland Security team to discuss the attack that killed 14 people. Investigators initially thought that Shamshoo Dean Jabbar had help in executing the attack because they found improvised explosive devices in coolers elsewhere in the French Quarter.

Now President Biden confirms, Jabbar had a remote detonator in the vehicle he used to target pedestrians. We have no information that anyone else is involved in the attack. They've established that the attacker is the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations. Biden said he asked his team to accelerate their investigations to try to get answers to remaining questions, and he promised to provide updates when he knows more.

Tamara Keith, NPR News, The White House. New Orleans held a sugar bowl yesterday in the Superdome. The collegiate playoff game won by Notre Dame had been delayed by one day because of the deadly truck attack. NPR's Becky Sullivan has more. The game was supposed to have taken place the evening of New Year's Day, but it was postponed in part to allow

for a security sweep of the stadium. The broadcast of the game on ESPN opened with a message from President Biden, who prayed for the victims and thanked first responders. I'm glad the game is back on for today. But I'm not surprised because the spirit of New Orleans can never be kept down. And that's also true of the spirit of America. Just have to remember who we are. Notre Dame overpowered Georgia 23 to 10 to advance to college football

semi-finals. Tens of thousands of fans attended the game. The whole stadium quieted for the moment of silence for the 14 victims of the attack, which took place less than a mile away. A University of Georgia student, a sophomore, was among the injured receiving medical care. Becky Sullivan, NPR News. The new Congress starts work today and the first thing the House of Representatives needs to do is vote for a new speaker. Current speaker Mike Johnson wants to keep his job. But some very conservative Republican colleagues are on the

fence about him. Republicans hold the slimmest of majorities in the House. That means Johnson can only afford to lose one vote for speaker. Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is supporting Johnson. I cannot wait to get started. I'll be voting for Mike Johnson. I will be looking ahead in complete hopefulness and working as hard as possible. But one GOP lawmaker is already opposing Johnson.

That means he can't lose any more GOP support. Two years ago, it took Kevin McCarthy 15 rounds of voting before he won the speakership. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. In South Korea, investigators and police tried and failed to arrest impeached South Korean President Yoon Sang-yol today. They were blocked by Yoon's security detail.

And bears Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul, Yoon is accused of insurrection, stemming from his botched call for martial law exactly one month ago. Around 150 police and investigators tried to execute an arrest warrant at Yoon's residence Friday morning. A crowd of Yoon's residence Friday morning. A crowd of Yoon's supporters rallied outside. The investigators got past a military unit guarding the residence, but Yoon's security detail wouldn't let them in on the grounds that there were military secrets inside.

Both sides accused the other side of obstructing justice and abusing their powers. There's no precedent to go by, as no sitting South Korean president has ever been arrested. Investigators left after a six-hour long standoff and will consider their next move. The arrest warrant is valid until Monday. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul. President Biden will award medals of honor to seven Army soldiers today who served during Korean and Vietnam. Six are receiving this medal posthumously. The FBI is releasing new details about the person who put pipe bombs outside the Republican

and Democratic National Committee buildings. That happened the day before the attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago. The bombs did not detonate, and the person has never been found. The FBI says the suspect is about 5'7 in height and they wore unusual Nike shoes. There were only about 25,000 gray and black Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers that were sold before the incident.

I'm Korva Coleman, NPR News.