NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-30-2024 12AM EST

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

NPR News: 12-30-2024 12AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Former President Jimmy Carter has died of his home in Plains, Georgia. He was 100 years old. As NPR's Don Gagne reports, Carter was a little-known governor when he began his bid for the White House.

Few took Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter seriously when he jumped into the race for president. The former peanut farmer announced his candidacy almost two years before Election Day. There was a major headline on the editorial page of the Atlanta Constitution that said Jimmy Carter is running for what? Carter was an outsider, capitalizing on distrust of Washington in the immediate aftermath of the Watergate scandal. We want Carter! We want Carter! After emerging from a crowded Democratic primary field, he narrowly defeated President Gerald Ford in the general election, only to lose to another Washington outsider named Ronald

Reagan four years later. Don Gagne, NPR News. Memorial services for Carter will be held over the next eight days with a state funeral on January 9th. There's been a lot of infighting among Republicans on Capitol Hill this month. Much of it has been over government spending. A stopgap spending bill was passed earlier this month that narrowly avoided a government shutdown.

But some conservative Republicans are still angry about what House Speaker Mike Johnson allowed in that measure. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler is pushing back those speaking on ABC's this week. He criticized those who may want to remove Johnson as speaker. Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I've ever seen in politics. With that said, removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid. At least three migrants died Sunday as they attempted to cross the English Channel

from Northern France to Britain. Rebecca Rossman reports that this tragedy comes as 2024 is set to become the deadliest year on record for those making the perilous journey. Emergency services say they recovered three bodies at around 6 a.m. local time near the Northern French town of Sanguet. Another 50 migrants were rescued, many suffering from severe hypothermia.

Seven remain in critical condition, and authorities say the death toll could rise. Though just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, the English Channel has become one of the deadliest routes for migrants trying to reach the UK. At least 76 people have died this year, making 2024 the deadliest year for small boat crossings. Since January, 36,000 migrants have successfully reached the UK. Rebecca Rossman, NPR News. Transportation officials in Canada are investigating an incident Saturday night where passengers

say the landing was so rough it sparked flames. The Air Canada Express flight was arriving at an airport in Newfoundland. An Air Canada spokesperson says it experienced a suspected landing gear issue as it arrived. No one was injured in the incident. You're listening to NPR News. A strong storm system in the southeastern U.S. brought more bad weather to the region Sunday and Saturday, at least 10 tornadoes touched down in Texas and Mississippi, killing at least four people. The latest storms are expected to produce damaging winds, hail and perhaps even more tornadoes.

In the coming year, analysts see big gains across the world for one specific type of energy known as geothermal, and PR's Julia Simon has more. Deep down in the Earth's crust it is hot. Tap into that heat and the steam can turn a turbine that makes reliable electricity. This technology is called geothermal energy. Analysts at the International Energy Agency or IEA say it's now becoming a lot cheaper to make. Tools from the oil and gas industry, like fracking, are enabling companies to access geothermal energy even deeper underground.

And unlike other energy sources from underground, like oil, gas, and coal, geothermal energy generates a lot less planet-heating carbon dioxide and methane gas. The IEA says geothermal could meet up to 15 percent of global electricity demand growth between now and 2050 in the United States. Julia Simon and Peer News. Elon Musk is causing an uproar in Germany after he wrote of his support for the country's far-right party in a major newspaper. The column caused the paper's opinion editor to resign in protest. Germany is voting in February in key parliamentary elections.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party governing coalition collapsed last month over a dispute concerning the country's stagnant economy. I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.