NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-04-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

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Noor Aram, NPR News. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Noor Aram. Six days of funeral observances for former President Jimmy Carter began today in Georgia. The first stop of the motorcade was at his boyhood home in Plains. NPR's Stephen Fowler reports. The motorcade with Carter's remains is making three stops in his home state of Georgia today. There is a visit to his childhood home in Plains, a moment of silence at the Georgia State Capitol, and a ceremony at the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta, home to his

presidential library and his nonprofit, the Carter Center. From Saturday night through Tuesday morning, Carter's body will lie in repose at the center where members of the public can pay their respects. Carter's state funeral will be Thursday in Washington, D.C., before he returns home to Georgia to be buried next to his wife, Rosalynn. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. President Biden is set to award the Medal of Freedom to 19 people today, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. NPR's Franca Ordonez reports.

Franca Ordonez, NPR Specialist, NPR Those honored also include chef and food advocate Jose Andres, actors Michael J. Fox and Denzel Washington, as well as philanthropist and billionaire Democratic fundraiser George Soros. The White House said in a statement that the recipients of the nation's highest civilian honor have all made quote exemplary contributions to the prosperity values or security of the US to world peace and other significant societal causes Vine will also be honoring retired basketball star Irving magic Johnson who led the Los Angeles Lakers to five Championships and has since worked to dispel myths about

HIV. Franco, Ordonez, and PR News, the White House. A federal judge in New Jersey has rejected the state's appeal to block a congestion pricing plan for New York City. Bruce Convicer has more in the story. Barring a last-minute reprieve from an appeals court, New York City's congestion pricing toll is set to take effect on Sunday. The first of its kind plan in the U.S. would charge drivers for entering Manhattan below

60th Street. The original fee was set at $15, but following a groundswell of opposition was recently reduced to $9. Advocates for the plan say it will raise $15 billion in the coming years. That money would go towards improving the city's public transit system. Opponents have called it a money grab for the transportation authority, and they question whether the fee will reduce traffic or simply shift it to other areas in and around the city.

Legal challenges are likely to continue even if the plan goes into effect on Sunday, but experts say stopping the plan once it starts will be much more difficult. For NPR News, I'm Bruce Convyser in Greenbrook, New Jersey Negotiations to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are underway again in Qatar They've been stalled for weeks as both sides blamed the other for a lack of progress. This is NPR news Today is Independence Day in Myanmar formerly known as as Burma, to mark the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain. The military is noting the occasion with a mass amnesty, releasing nearly 6,000 prisoners.

The military overthrew an elected civilian government in 2021 and has suppressed pro-democracy protests, sometimes violently. Among those still in prison is Myanmar's former leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sentenced to 27 years for convictions she maintains were politically motivated. The endangered orca that made headlines six years ago for carrying her dead baby a thousand miles has been spotted in Washington state waters. John Ryan from member station KUOW reports. When a wildlife population is just 74 animals,

every birth or death can be a big deal for its survival. So whale lovers celebrated when two newborns joined the Northwest's endangered population of orcas in December. But by New Year's Eve, one of the calves was dead and being pushed around by her mother in an apparent tour of grief. Half the Northwest's salmon-eating orcas don't live to their first birthday. Researchers blame dwindling stocks of salmon, the orcas' main food, as well as pollution and underwater noise.

The orcas' population today is about 15 percent lower than when they gained endangered species protection 20 years ago. For NPR News, I'm John Ryan in Seattle. The National Weather Service is predicting a major winter storm this weekend that's likely to affect hundreds of millions of people in the eastern two-thirds of the country with heavy snow and freezing rain. I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.