NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-06-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Korva Coleman. Congress meets today to certify the results of the 2024 presidential election. This is required by the Constitution. It was interrupted four years ago when then President Trump urged others to overturn the results. President Biden spoke to a small group of incoming Democratic lawmakers last night. He told them to remember that day. Now it's your duty to tell the truth, to remember what happened, and not let January 6 be rewritten as a, or even erased, to honor the Constitution, not only the most extraordinary of days, but it's one of the toughest days in American history, January 6. Meanwhile, the president is going to New Orleans today. The White House says he'll grieve for victims and family members of last week's attack on Bourbon Street.

Fourteen people were killed and dozens injured when a man drove a truck into crowds of people celebrating New Year's. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is calling for a swift confirmation process of President-elect Trump's cabinet picks following the terrorist attack in New Orleans. But Thune is holding off on publicly endorsing some members of Trump's security team, such as FBI Director-Designate Cash Patel. And Piers Luke Garrett reports. Senator John Thune of South Dakota points to the attack on Bourbon Street as reason to get Trump's security cabinet picks confirmed and fast. We're going to get the president, his people as quickly as possible.

Trump has tapped Cash Patel to lead the FBI, an agency that investigates domestic terrorism. Patel says he'd shut down the FBI headquarters in DC on day one and send agents across the country. NBC's Kristen Welker asked Senate Majority Leader Thune if Patel is the right pick. I think that he understands what his mission would be if he is successful in getting confirmed to that position at the FBI. Thune says Patel could rebuild trust in the FBI, but withheld a public endorsement. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. A major winter storm is bringing heavy snow, ice, and freezing rain to the Mid-Atlantic region today.

It pummeled parts of the Midwest over the weekend. NPR's Windsor Johnston reports the nation's capital is seeing its largest mix of wintry weather in years, with up to a foot of snow expected in some areas. Residents in Washington, D.C. are working to keep the sidewalks clear amid a massive storm system that moved into the region late last night. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith says the city has been preparing for the storm ahead of a number of high security events this week, including funeral events for former President Jimmy Carter. We've been preparing for preparations for the snow. We've been watching the news, the polar vortex as we know that it was coming in this direction. And so we've been planning appropriately. Forecasters say heavy snow is expected to continue throughout the day, at times mixing with sleet, especially along the Interstate 66 corridor.

Windsor-Johnston, NPR News, Washington. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are higher. It's NPR. The body of former President Jimmy Carter will continue to lie in repose today at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Tomorrow, his body will be escorted to Washington, D.C. He will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. The public will be invited to pay their respects until Thursday. That's when his state funeral will be held. Carter died last week at the age of 100. North Korea has fired a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile.

This is the first such test in two months. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports it comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in South Korea. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff says the missile was fired from near the capital Pyongyang and flew about 685 miles eastward into the sea. The launch also comes as South Korea is in a political crisis, following impeached President Yun Song-yol's brief declaration of martial law last month. Secretary of State Blinken referenced this at a press conference. We had serious concerns about some of the actions that President Yun took.

We communicated those directly to the government. He added that the U.S. has confidence in the resilience of South Korea's democracy. North Korea's state media on Friday took a less charitable view, arguing that democracy in the South has essentially collapsed. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Seoul. A corruption trial has opened in Paris against former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. He is accused of accepting millions of dollars from Libya's late dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, for his successful 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy has denied the charges.

His lawyer says the allegations are fabricated. Sarkozy has 11 co-defendants. You're listening to NPR.