NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2024 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

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On NPR's Book of the Day podcast, we hear from all sorts of writers making bold arguments, like the late President Jimmy Carter on Citizens United. So I think it's completely distorted the democratic purity or legitimacy of our elections in the United States. We hear about his life as a writer and from his biographer about President Carter's complex legacy. Listen to Book of the Day from NPR wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to Book of the Day from NPR wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. Funeral preparations are coming together for former president Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday

at the age of 100. Grant Blankenship of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports his hometown is already preparing. Carter spent most of his life in the southwest Georgia farming community of Plains. Normally the Christmas decorations outside the main strip of shops downtown would have another week before they came down. Now most have been replaced with red, white and blue ribbons and the flags are at half-staff. Agnes McAllister has cleaned rooms at the Plains Inn on the corner of the strip for about five years. And I have to get everything ready upstairs because all the Carters will be staying upstairs.

It makes me feel good that I'm able to do that for them. Carter's funeral schedule will both begin and end in Plains. Between he will lie in repose at the Carter Center in Atlanta and lie in state at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. For NPR News, I'm Grant Blankenship in Plains, Georgia. In an end-of-the-year message, the U.N. General Secretary, Antonio Guterres, pledged in 2025 to move to a more peaceful, stable, and healthy future for all people. He also said more must be done to encourage the use of renewable energy, and nations and

people should come together to battle climate change. We have just endured the decade of deadly heat. The top 10 hottest years on record have happened in the last 10 years, including 2024. This is climate breakdown in real time. Despite the global warming temperatures, the secretary general said he's optimistic because citizens are forcing government and others to come together. The investigation continues into that jetliner crash in South Korea Sunday. NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports 179 people died. Officials, volunteers and church groups comforted bereaved families, many of whom sheltered

in tents in the Muwon 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, Muang County, South Korea.

The FAA has launched an investigation after a charter jet Friday carrying Gonzaga University's men's basketball team nearly crossed onto an active runway as a Delta flight was taking off from Los Angeles International Airport. No one was hurt. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. New York's controversial congestion pricing plan for lower Manhattan is set to take effect next Sunday, but there's disagreement if it's going to happen. A federal judge Monday found the city and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority

had taken most of the necessary steps to begin the program. But the judge also ordered federal officials to review and explain further aspects of the plan, and the state of New Jersey, which is sued to stop it, said the judge's action means it cannot begin. Congestion pricing will provide funding for mass transit by charging most motorists $9 a day to enter Manhattan at 60th Street or below. A state of emergency has come into force in Trinidad and Tobago, which is now in the grips

of gang-related crime. The BBC's Orlando Teal has more. The government of Trinidad and Tobago said the state of emergency followed increased violence from criminal gangs, which it said endangered public safety. Security forces will have powers to conduct searches without a warrant. The Caribbean Twin Island Republic currently has one of the highest murder rates in the region, with more than 620 people killed so far this year, out of a population of one and a half million. Most of the deaths are linked to the international

drugs trade. A federal appeals court has upheld the $5 million civil award against Donald Trump in connection with the sexual abuse of a columnist in a department store dressing room 28 years ago. The writer, E. Jean Carroll, testified at trial, a friendly encounter turned sexual. From Washington, you're listening to NPR News.