NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-04-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

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Okay, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts, you wish you could get more of all your favorite shows, and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Investigators are still looking into what might have led to the New Orleans attacker led him down the path of radicalization. From Houston Public Media, Andrew Schneider says it remains a mystery to even members of his own family.

Abdur Rahim Jabbar IV of Beaumont, Texas is the youngest brother of Shamsuddin Jabbar. He says the last time he saw his brother was last summer. He was calm, he was loving, funny, smart, compassionate, charismatic. You know, I looked up to him. Abduur says he has no idea what could have led his brother to profess support for ISIS. Despite his recent actions, this wasn't a depiction of who he was as a person, as a human being, as a father, a son or a brother and that this was in no way a representation of what it truly meant to be a Muslim.

Abdur says his and his family's hearts and prayers go out to the victims' families but he hopes people will understand they, too, lost a loved one. I'm Andrew Schneider in Houston. The newly Republican-controlled Senate has elected its first new leader in almost 20 years. Empires Claudia Grisales reports that South Dakota GOP Senator John Thune was overwhelmingly supported by his colleagues. Congress began a new term today, the first step in shifting full control in Washington

to the GOP. In the Senate, newly elected Majority Leader John Thune is the GOP's first new leader in the upper chamber since 2007. That year, his predecessor Mitch McConnell took over as Republican leader, stepping down from that role this year. Thune, the former longtime Senate Republican whip, is considered a moderating voice in the party and has been on the other side of debates from President-elect Donald Trump numerous times. However, Thune endorsed Trump late in the presidential race last year and has

become a growing ally to the incoming president. Claudia Grisales, NPR News. President Joe Biden has blocked a bid by Japanese-owned Nippon Steel to purchase U.S. Steel. In making his decision, he cited national security concerns. NPR's Scott Horsley has some background for us. U.S. Steel is 124 years old. It's pretty much synonymous with the American Steel industry and all the symbolism and nostalgia that comes with that.

And significantly, the company is based in Pennsylvania, which we know was an important swing state in the November election. The Steelworkers Union opposed the company's sales nip on steel. The union worried it would provide a back door to bring cheap Japanese steel into the US market. What happens next, next though is unclear. The companies could sue the US or Republicans who favor the deal could push incoming President Donald Trump to find a way to approve it.

It was a strong finish for the week on Wall Street. The Dow was up 339 points, S&P 500 up 73 points. This is NPR News. A social media influencer from Algeria has been arrested in the French city of Brest. The country's interior minister says the influencer has been calling for attacks on France. The arrest comes as France is preparing to mark the 10th anniversary of deadly attacks in 2015 against the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in a kosher supermarket in Paris, the 25-year-old is being held on suspicion of expressing sympathy for terrorism. The Justice Department has announced a consent decree for Georgia's Fulton County Jail after finding that its violent and filthy conditions violate the

constitutional rights of detainees. For Member Station W-A-B-E, Shemane Cruz reports. The improvements include upgrading technology, providing increased training for jail officers, and developing a housekeeping and pest control plan. The tentative deal filed in federal court comes less than two months after the Justice Department found that Fulton County jail officials failed to protect detainees from violence and used excessive force. It also follows the death of LaShawn Thompson in 2022. The 35-year-old black man

was found unresponsive in a bedbug-infested cell in the Maine Jail's psychiatric unit. Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labotte says his office had anticipated the Justice Department's filing and hopes the consent decree will lead to quote, meaningful and long-lasting change. For NPR News, I'm Shemane Cruz in Atlanta. Wall Street finally snapped out of its holiday season funk on Friday. The S&P 500 up 1.3% for its first gain since Christmas. It was also its best day in almost two months. The Nasdaq jumped 1.8%. Big tech stocks led much of the growth. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.