NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-07-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

NPR News: 01-07-2025 2PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Lye from NPR News. I'm Lakshmi Singh. An appellate judge is declining to delay President-elect Donald Trump's sentencing Friday in his hush money criminal case in New York. This, despite Trump's argument, he has presidential immunity. At a press conference today, Trump said he was looking at issuing pardons to people who assaulted police when a mob of his supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. NPR's Tom Drysbock reports Trump also made multiple false claims about that day's violence. Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort and said he was looking at pardoning January 6 rioters convicted of assaulting police and wanted to reinvestigate the attack. So we'll be looking at the whole thing, but I'll be making major pardons, yes. The FBI calls the attack an act of domestic terrorism.

More than 140 police officers were injured. Trump also falsely claimed that the rioters did not have guns. In fact, several were armed with loaded handguns. And he said his administration would find out about the supposed role of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. No investigation has found any involvement by that group in the insurrection. Tom Dreisbach, NPR News. At the news conference, Trump also raised Greenland and the Panama Canal, both of which

he has expressed interest in acquiring. He did not rule out military force. He said the US needs both for economic and national security reasons. Trump also criticized the Carter administration's deal to transfer ownership of the Panama Canal to Panama as former president Jimmy Carter, who died last month, is due to lie in state at the US Capitol for the next two days. Trump said it's a bad part of the Carter legacy, but Trump also said the 39th president was a good man. Carter's casket was transferred today from Atlanta to the

DC area. Georgia Public Broadcasting's Sarah Kalis has more on the funeral proceedings. Sarah Kalis Carter's American flag-draped casket left the Carter Center and his namesake library for a final time as a U.S. Army band played Amazing Grace. The Carter Center says over 23,000 people attended Carter's public repose. Wendy Davis was one of those mourners. Well, I'm a long-time fan and admirer of the president and just felt like this was an appropriate way to pay my respects. Sarek Alis, NPR News Reporter, Washington, DC. Funeral proceedings for Carter continue in Washington, DC. For NPR News, I'm Sarek Alis in Atlanta. Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and other major social media platforms, is

announcing major changes to its content moderation practices. It plans to end its fact-checking program that was implemented to limit the spread of misinformation across its platforms. Meta is moving to community notes similar to what's used on Elon Musk's ex-social media platform. From Washington, this is NPR News. A federal judge will oversee reforms of the Minneapolis Police Department following the murder of George Floyd nearly five years ago.

Matt Sepick of Minnesota Public Radio reports. The consent decree mandates many changes already in place, including a new use of force policy and a requirement that officers intervene whenever they see a civil rights violation. The agreement between the city and Justice Department comes just before President-elect Donald Trump, who has opposed consent decrees, takes office. But Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry says it includes clear goals that won't change with political wins. Matt Sepick reporting.

Folk singer Peter Yarrow has died at the age of 86. He was best known as a member of the trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Jeff London has this look back at Yarrow's career. The son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, Peter Yarrow grew up in New York City and began performing folk music at Cornell. He met Mary Travers and Paul Stuckey in the Greenwich Village folk scene and the three teamed up as Peter, Paul and Mary. The trio was an enormous success in the early 1960s and Yarrow co-wrote his top 40 hit. Yarrow was a political activist throughout his life, but his reputation was tarnished

because of a sexual assault conviction against a minor in 1970. He served three months in prison and was ultimately pardoned by President Jimmy Carter. For NPR News, I'm Jeff London in New York. Lylea Yaro passed away this morning surrounded by his family at his home in New York City following a four-year battle with bladder cancer. It's NPR. NPR News Now Plus is a production of NPR News Now Plus. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR News Now Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.