NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-07-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: January 8, 2025

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What's in store for the music, TV, and film industries for 2025? We don't know, but we're making some fun, bold predictions for the new year. Listen now to the Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear. The Naval Academy Glee Club in the Capitol Rotunda today as family members of Congress and Supreme Court justices pay tribute to the nation's 39th President Jimmy Carter. Escorted by the military, Carter's body was taken by horse-drawn caisson to the steps of the Capitol, then into the Rotunda where he will lie in state.

Vice President Kamala Harris praised Carter for his good works in ethics while in office and for his fundamental decency and humility. James Earl Carter Jr. loved our country. He lived his faith. He served the people and he left the world better than he found it. Also eulogizing Carter today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson. Carter's body will return to Georgia after a state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. President Carter died last month at the age of 100. 30,000 Southern Californians are under evacuation orders tonight as 60 mile per hour winds fan a rapidly growing fire toward populated areas in the Pacific Palisades.

San Puyers Liz Baker reports California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency and officials are warning the fire danger could grow overnight. Driven by powerful Santa Ana winds, the bush fire that started in the morning quickly blew up into a major threat to residents of the Pacific Palisades and parts of the city of Santa Monica. As traffic backed up from evacuees trying to navigate the narrow twisty streets to safety, Palisades village resident Dave Dawson decided not to risk being trapped in his car, instead hiking the two miles out of the evacuation zone with his dog. Kind of the danger of living up against the

the chaparral, the interface between the urban and the wildlife. Fire officials say the steep terrain in the canyons is complicating efforts to contain the fire and warned that the worst may still be yet to come with 80 to 100 mile per hour gusts in the forecast overnight. Liz Baker, NPR News, Los Angeles. Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder of France's post-war far-right movement, has died at the age of 96. NPR's Elmer Beardsley has more. Jean-Marie Le Pen railing against Muslim immigration. He was known for his racist rhetoric and was convicted of hate speech for calling the gas chambers just a detail of World War II history.

Le Pen founded the National Front in 1972. It remained a fringe party until 2001, when he made it through to the second round of the French presidential election by a fluke. The shocked French galvanized and Jacques Chirac trounced Le Pen in the second round. In 2015, Marine Le Pen replaced her father as party leader. The two had a falling out.

She changed the party's name and took distance from his more extreme views. Today, the party is the largest in the fragmented French Parliament. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris. You're listening to NPR News in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump continues to push his idea of the US acquiring the Panama Canal and Greenland. Even as Denmark has said the self-governing territory is not for sale. Trump meantime at an event billed as an economic news conference at his Palm Beach home today refused to rule out using military or economic actions to pursue the acquisitions.

Trump also has said Canada should become the 51st US state and today said the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America. The Republican controlled North Carolina Supreme Court today stopped the state board of elections from certifying a Democratic justice as apparent victory from November. Democrats say Republicans are brazenly trying to overturn the result. Steve Harrison with the member station WFAE

in Charlotte is more. After two recounts incumbent Democratic justice Allison Riggs leads Republican Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes for a seat on the state's highest court. But Griffin is challenging the validity of ballots cast by 60,000 voters, most of whom have incomplete voter registrations. They lack either a driver's license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number on file.

The State Elections Board, which has a Democratic majority, says the missing data is a clerical issue and there's no evidence of any fraud. But the state Supreme Court, which has a Republican majority, could later this month invalidate the challenged ballots, possibly making Griffin the winner. For NPR News, I'm Steve Harrison in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was up 69 cents a barrel to 74.25 a barrel today. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.

The Indicator is a podcast where daily economic news is about what matters to you. Workers have been feeling the sting of inflation. So as a new administration promises action on the cost of living, taxes and home prices, the S&P 500 biggest post-election day spike ever, follow all the big changes and what they mean for you. Make America affordable again. Listen to The Indicator, the daily economics podcast from NPR.