NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-06-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Corva Coleman. Later today, Congress will certify President-elect Trump's victory in last year's election. Four years ago today, a mob of his supporters attacked the US Capitol in failed effort to keep him in power. NPR's Tom Dreisbach says afterwards, hundreds of rioters were put on trial. Most defendants pleaded guilty. The people that went to trial were virtually all convicted by juries or in some cases by judges. And as these prosecutions have gone on, the facts that emerged have only been more alarming. We've seen more videos of violence. We learned more people had weapons like guns, bats, tasers, pepper spray. But as Trump ran for president again, he embraced

this idea that the violence on January 6th was overblown. He claimed there were no guns, which is not true. And he claimed to supporters that most got a little out of hand, that they've been unjustly prosecuted in his view. And Pierre's Tom Dreisbach reporting. A major winter storm is blasting parts of the central and eastern U.S. Winter storm cautions are posted from Arkansas to New Jersey. President Biden is banning new offshore oil and gas drilling along major areas of the

East and West Coasts of the U.S., as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico and the northern Bering Sea off Alaska. NPR's Jeff Brady reports Biden says the move is part of his effort to address climate change. President Biden is issuing protections from future drilling for more than 625 million acres of coastline. The oil industry has not shown a lot of interest in these areas. Still, the American Petroleum Institute criticized the move and urged Republicans to do all they can to reverse it.

That's more difficult because the protections were issued under a 1950s law that gives presidents wide latitude to issue such protections. President-elect Trump has vowed to deregulate oil and gas drilling to boost production, even though the U.S. already produces more oil than any country ever. The environmental group Oceana praised the protections, saying many coastal communities don't want new offshore drilling. Jeff Brady, NPR News. Syria's foreign minister has called on the U.S. to lift sanctions imposed on his country

that were to punish the former Assad regime. He says they're punishing poor Syrians. NPR's Diye Hadid reports from Damascus. Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shebani spoke during a visit to the Gulf state of Qatar, which has been aiding the new interim government. It's headed by Ahmad al-Sharah since his rebels overran Damascus in early December, toppling the decades-old Assad regime.

The Syrian interim government has repeatedly called on the US to lift sanctions that were imposed to punish the Assad regime. They say they urgently need aid to flow to Syrians, most of whom live in poverty. There's also an urgent need for reconstruction after the former regime flattened swaths of major cities in its quest to destroy rebels opposed to its rule. That call to lift sanctions has also been echoed by senior foreign policy analysts on Syria. Deehadid, NPR News, Damascus.

This is NPR. NPR has learned Hamas has said it is willing to release 34 hostages held in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. Negotiations are happening in Qatar. The group includes female soldiers, other women and about two dozen men, including two Americans. The deal calls for Israel to release some Palestinian prisoners and partially withdraw from Gaza.

There is no word if this deal will be agreed upon. The body of former president Jimmy Carter will continue to lie in repose today at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Sarah Callis reports Carter died last week at the age of 100. Mourners are flocking to the Carter Center in Atlanta to pay tribute to former president Jimmy Carter during the public repose. Nineteen-year-old William Mendoza drove 214 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee to the Carter Center in Atlanta for the repose. It's a really great refresher of how and who Jimmy Carter was.

Such a man who was willing to work for everyone no matter who you are, a man that was willing to put the people first and not their political party. Mourners are led through the Carter Museum and Presidential Library to see artifacts from Carter's life and presidency before arriving at his casket. Public repose continues until Tuesday morning and the Carter Center is expecting thousands of people to attend each day. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Callis in Atlanta.