NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-07-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. The first major winter storm of the season has led to power outages across six states from Missouri to Virginia and made for treacherous driving conditions. Kenneth Burns of Member Station WHYY reports from New Jersey on slick roads and slushy sidewalks. There was still enough snow to shovel and make commutes treacherous in parts of central New Jersey. Don Trower commuted to his job as a gas station attendant by e-bicycle.

So yeah, it was a little tricky, like I said, just trying to be stable on the bike and all that stuff and not slip and fall. Nick Albani, a middle school history teacher in southern New Jersey, was surprised at the amount of snow which prompted his district to close for the day. I was expecting less. I was fully expecting to go in today. Though most roads in this part of the state are clear, officials are warning that roads could refreeze overnight as the temperatures fall.

For NPR News, I'm Kenneth Burns in Hamilton, New Jersey. Congress's formal certification of Donald Trump's victory in the November election went off without a hitch Monday, but the reading of the electoral results from the states New Jersey. Tributes to the late President Jimmy Carter shifting today from Georgia to Washington, D.C. As reporter Steve Futterman reports. The body will be removed this morning from the Carter Center here in Atlanta and taken to Dobbins Air Reserve Base. The flag-draped casket will be placed on one of the presidential jets. For this flight, the plane will be referred to as Special Air Mission 39.

Once in Washington, the body will be placed on as special air mission 39. Once in Washington the body will be placed on a horse-drawn caisson and travel along Pennsylvania Avenue and Constitution Avenue to the Capitol. Military body bearers will take the casket up the Capitol steps to the rotunda where Jimmy Carter's body will lie in state. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemning a barrage of online attacks. Elon Musk has been using his ex-social media platform to call for Starmer to be imprisoned in his government, tyrannical. MPR's Lauren Fraher reports from London. Elon Musk has been fixated

on a child sex abuse scandal from about 15 years ago in which gangs of mostly British Pakistani men were convicted of grooming mostly white British girls. The far right seized on this. Musk has falsely accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was a top prosecutor at the time, of failing to go after child rapists. And he wrote that Starmer should go to prison. Asked about this, Starmer told reporters, those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they're not interested in victims, they're interested in themselves. Britons are worried about what this row might mean for U.S. policy, with Musk slated for

a role in the incoming President Trump's White House. Lauren Freyer, NPR News, London. This is NPR. In a speech to the French diplomatic corps, President Emmanuel Macron warned that the credibility of Europe and the US would be shattered if they agreed to compromise on Ukraine because of fatigue. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports. Touching on today's most urgent international issues, Macron said the West must also be

clear-eyed about the new authorities in Syria after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad. He called Iran the main strategic and security challenge, citing the acceleration of its nuclear program and its support for Russia's war against Ukraine. Macron said President-elect Donald Trump knows he has a strong ally in France, but, referring to a prominent Trump ally's open support of Germany's far-right AFD party, Macron accused Elon Musk of stoking an international reactionary movement. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. President Biden says the nation is with New Orleans as the city mourns the 14 people killed

in the New Year's truck attack. Biden spoke Monday evening at a prayer service held at a cathedral in the city's French Quarter. Louisiana's Attorney General has ordered an investigation into security deficiencies and safety measures that were in place. The Biden administration is calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a stalwart friend of the United States. The Biden administration is calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a stalwart friend of the United States. The White House praise for Trudeau came after he announced his resignation on Monday, although Trudeau says he plans to stay on until his Liberal Party selects a new leader. This is NPR News.