NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-30-2024 1PM EST

Episode Date: December 30, 2024

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Ho ho ho! Santa here, coming to you from the North Pole. We're the elves in our podcast division of just completed work on this season's best gift for public radio lovers, NPR+. Give the gift of sponsored free listening and even bonus episodes from your favorite NPR podcasts, all while supporting public media. Learn more at plus.npr.org. NPR dot org. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Schiavone. House Republicans will be tasked with electing a speaker when the new Congress begins Friday. President-elect Donald Trump is throwing his support behind House Speaker Mike Johnson. As NPR's Lexi Schepitl reports, the endorsement could be a boon for Johnson or a test of Trump's

influence in Congress. Johnson is hoping to secure reelection without the drama that surrounded Kevin McCarthy's fight for the gavel in 2023. But some in his conference were frustrated by Johnson's handling of the government's spending bill that passed earlier this month, and Johnson can't afford even a handful of defectors. President-elect Trump wrote on social media that Johnson has his, quote, complete and total endorsement, also calling Johnson a good, hardworking and religious man. But Trump also endorsed McCarthy in 2023, and it took him 15 rounds of voting to win the speakership.

Lexi Shapidol, NPR News, Washington. Investigators are searching for the cause of the worst aviation disaster on South Korean soil. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports that 179 people died in a fiery crash landing yesterday, but two crew members survived. Officials, volunteers, and church groups comforted bereaved families, many of whom sheltered in tents in the Muwan International Airport in South Chola Province. Anguished cries and sobs occasionally rose from the tents. Family members asked officials to quickly return the bodies of their loved ones, but

officials replied that only five of the bodies were relatively intact, while most were in pieces that needed to be properly sorted before being returned. South Korean authorities will inspect all Boeing 737-800s in service with the country's airlines. The flight recorders recovered from the crashed plane have been taken to Seoul for examination. Anthony Kuhn in PR News, Muan County, South Korea. The nation today is remembering the 39th President of the United States, the late Jimmy Carter died yesterday

at the age of 100. He was a one-term president whose political fortune was clouded by a rough economy and by a year-long hostage crisis in Iran. Kai Bird studied Carter's life for his book, The Outlier, the Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter. Today, the author recalled a speech by the former president in 1979, which the author said was a rich reflection of Carter the man. He went on in that famous speech to say something quite extraordinary, saying, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Now, you know, he's taking a page straight out from Christopher Lash's The Culture of Narcissism, which he had just recently read.

But this also spoke to his Southern Baptist sense of morality and righteousness. A state funeral for the late president at Washington National Cathedral is slated for January 9th. At this hour, the Dow is down 298. This is NPR News. A federal appeals court has upheld a Manhattan jury's finding in a civil case that found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing columnist E. Gene Carroll in an upscale department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse.

A new study looks at the effects of artificial light at night on coral reefs, and PR's Jonathan Lambert explains. Coral reefs exposed to artificial light at night are a lot more active, according to research published in the journal Global Change Biology. Artificial light attracts more predatory fish and keeps daytime fish that would otherwise be asleep up and foraging for food. This could lead to less productive reefs over time, but the researchers say that simple actions like turning off unnecessary lights or using motion detectors can help preserve these ecosystems. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News. There's a new development in the

case of the death of One Direction band member Liam Payne. And Buenos Aires and Argentine judge has confirmed charges against five people in connection with the case. Two faced charges for supplying drugs to Payne who died after falling from a balcony due to multiple injuries and external bleeding. In addition, results of toxicological tests showed Payne's body had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescribed antidepressant in the moments before his death. Three others have been accused in the case. They're facing manslaughter charges, including a businessman who was with him in Argentina and two managers of the hotel. I'm Louise Schiavone, NPR News, Washington.