NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-03-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korva Coleman. The FBI says the man who killed 14 people in New Orleans this week acted alone. The driver who crashed into crowds also injured dozens of others before he was shot and killed by police. More information is being released about those who died. The Gulf States newsroom's Drew Hankins reports on how one family has been devastated by their loss. Kareem Badawi just finished his first semester at the University of Alabama where he was

studying engineering. His father Bilal Badawi says he was an 18-year-old full of life. He just loved everything. He loved sports and he played baseball, he played basketball, he played football. Badawi says his son went to New Orleans with a group of friends. When he didn't answer his phone the next morning, they drove to the city to find him. Eventually, the FBI told them Karim had been killed. I asked my son to have a new year and a party with his friends.

I don't know, ma'am. What did my son do to get killed? A vigil was held at Karim's former high school in Baton Rouge. For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in New Orleans. President Biden says he is going to block the sale of U.S. steel to Japanese company Nippon Steel. He says a strong, domestically-owned steel company is an essential national security priority.

The decision caps about a year of uncertainty over whether the sale of the company would proceed. President Biden will award the Medal of Honor today to seven U.S. Army soldiers who served during Korea and Vietnam. NPR's Lexi Schepittle reports. The nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, is awarded to service members demonstrating exceptional valor in combat. Six men will receive the award posthumously, including private first class Charles R. Johnson, who was killed in a nighttime attack in Korea in 1953 after risking his life to administer first aid to his fellow soldiers.

Johnson's efforts are credited with saving the lives of as many as 10 people. Captain Hugh R. Nelson Jr. was killed in Vietnam in 1966 after rescuing a soldier injured in a helicopter crash. The White House says all seven men receiving the Medal of Honor today displayed, quote, gallantry and intrepidity in their service. Lexisha Piddle, NPR News, Washington. The new Congress starts work today, and the first thing the House 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. 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 cannot lose any more GOP support. It's NPR. A vast winter storm is brewing for much of the U.S. The National Weather Service has posted storm advisories, warnings, and watches from Washington

State across the central U.S. to Pennsylvania. People in several areas will get a lot of snow and the coldest weather they've felt in years. Oil cleanup efforts continue along Russia's Black Sea coastline. Last month, two Russian oil tankers collided off the contested Crimean Peninsula. NPR's Charles Maines has details. In a statement, Russia's Ministry of Transportation

classified the spill as the world's first involving heavy fuel oil, a factor complicating the cleanup effort. The density of the crude, said the ministry, made skimming the oil off the sea's surface all but impossible. The Kremlin declared a federal emergency in the wake of the accident, and authorities say they've since removed some 80,000 tons of oil-contaminated sand from the Russian coastline, a third of the total needed. Yet environmentalists have criticized the government cleanup operation as inadequate, with thousands of volunteers instead leading efforts to shovel up oil deposits and

rescue wildlife. This bill occurred late December in the Kirch Strait when two Russian tankers were badly damaged in a storm. Charles Maines, NPR News. Reuters news agency reports authorities in Panama say there was a significant decrease last year in the number of migrants who crossed the Darien Gap. That's the jungle crossing people pass through to cross from north to rather south to North America. Panamanian officials claim 42 percent fewer migrants made that perilous journey. Panama's president has fenced off parts of the Darien Gap.

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