NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-29-2024 1AM EST

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. A plane carrying 175 passengers and six crew members veered off the runway Saturday and crashed and caught fire in South Korea. At least 96 people were killed in the crash, NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Seoul. A flight belonging to budget carrier Jeju Air was returning from Bangkok, Thailand. It landed at Muang Airport in southwest Chola province, about 179 miles southwest of Seoul. The Yonhap News Agency reports that the plane's landing gear malfunctioned. It veered off the runway, crashed into a fence, and caught fire. Firemen extinguished the flames and rescuers tried to get passengers off the plane.

Authorities are investigating the exact cause of the crash and the fire. That's NPR's Anthony Kuhn. Ukraine's president has reacted to the Slovak prime minister's statement about a possible winter electricity cut-off for Ukraine. NPR's Hanna Palamarenko has more from Kyiv. Volodymyr Zelensky accused Slovakia's prime minister of opening a second energy front against Ukraine on the orders of Russia. Prime Minister Robert Fico said that his country may stop supplying electricity to Ukraine if Kiev does not agree to resume the transit of Russian gas through its territory.

In a statement posted on X, Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine's need for electricity imports arose only because of Russian attacks on Ukrainian thermal and hydroelectric power plants. He also pointed out Fidza's decision would deprive Slovakia of $200 million a year. Hanna Palamarenko, NPR News, Kyiv. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has blocked the Biden administration from disposing border wall materials before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Texas Public Radio's Jerry Clayton has more.

A federal judge on Friday granted Paxton's request to halt the Biden administration from disposing of any more of the raw material for 30 days. Despite Paxton's claim that Biden is trying to thwart Trump's immigration agenda, the sale of the material was approved by Congress in 2023. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the states of Texas and California received around 60 percent of the material through a donation process, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Paxton told Fox News recently that Texas purchased an additional 12 million dollars of the unused material this past summer, enough to build about four miles of border wall. I'm Jerry Clayton in San Antonio.

Severe weather caused major problems for holiday travel across the U.S. on Saturday. There were deadly tornadoes in the southeast with at least ten touching down in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Heavy snow and high winds meanwhile pounded the west coast. According to the tracking site FlightAware, more than 7,000 flights have been delayed and 200 more were cancelled. Many of the delayed flights were scheduled to leave from Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

You're listening to NPR News. President-elect Donald Trump says he supports the use of the H-1B visa program. The visas are used to allow entry for high-skilled workers from other countries. Many Trump supporters say they're against all immigration into the U.S. and they've been attacking the H-1B program in social media. The fight is one indication of the balancing act Trump will be required to take as he prepares to deal with one of his top issues. Loneliness is back to pre-pandemic levels in older adults, and as NPR's Emily

Quong reports, a lot can be done to support those Americans still struggling this holiday season. Among older adults ages 50 to 80, one-third say, yeah, I feel lonely at least some of the time. That's according to the national poll on healthy aging run by the University of Michigan. That has health risks. Chronic loneliness can lead to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia. So steady author Preeti Malani wants everyone to think of loneliness as a health problem that can be treated and prevented. We can all walk across the street.

We can knock on people's doors. We can make plans to visit. Actively cultivating human connection is its own kind of medicine. For NPR News, I'm Emily Kwong. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says a stomach virus is spreading across the country. Officials say there were 91 outbreaks of the norovirus in the week of December 5th. Symptoms of the infection include diarrhea and sudden vomiting. Outbreaks of the virus are often seen in places with crowded living conditions, from cruise ships to nursing homes.

I'm Dale Willman and you're listening to NPR News.