NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2024 4AM EST

Episode Date: December 31, 2024

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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 in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. Funeral plans for former President Jimmy Carter are coming together. Services will span nearly a week in Georgia and Washington, D.C. NPR's Stephen Fowler reports Carter died Sunday at age 100.

Carter's body will leave his home in southwest Georgia Saturday morning the 4th and travel to Atlanta for a moment of silence at the state Capitol before lying in repose at the Carter Center. Members of the public will be able to pay respects at the Carter Center until Tuesday morning when the casket will be transported to Washington, DC where Carter will lie in state at the US Capitol. The 39th President's State Funeral

will be Thursday, January 9th at the Washington National Cathedral before a private ceremony at Carter's Maranatha Baptist Church and private interment at the family home in Plains. Stephen Fowler, NPR News, Atlanta. A federal appeals court in New York City has rejected the President-elect's appeal

of a $5 million judgment that found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and For defaming her after she shared her allegations publicly Samantha Max of member station WNYC reports a jury ordered Trump to pay advice columnist E. Jean Carroll after a civil trial last year Trump argued the judge overseeing the case made errors and that he should get a new trial. He said the judge shouldn't have allowed

testimony of two other women who accused him of sexual abuse. He also said the jury shouldn't have been allowed to hear a recording of him talking about grabbing women by the genitals. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump didn't prove the judge made any errors that affected his rights. Trump's attorney called the case a hoax. For NPR News, I'm Samantha Maxx in New York. New York officials tested the crystal-covered ball that will descend down a pole in Times Square to ring in the new year in less than 24 hours. They laid out their plans for the big event on Tuesday.

Mayor Eric Adams says security will be very tight. We will make sure each one of those who come here to visit and enjoy the ball drop will be safe. There'll be officers in uniform and out of uniform. We're going to make sure we have the omnipresence of the blue uniform would always bring that level of security. But there are many offices that have plain clothes assignments to give the element of

surprise. As many as a million people are expected. The U.S. Treasury Department said that Chinese hackers have accessed department workstations and gained access to unclassified documents, and the hack is being investigated as a major cybersecurity incident. The Treasury Department said it learned of this latest attack on December the 8th when a third-party vendor was hacked and the security system was compromised. You're listening to NPR News. Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown, who won widespread praise for his coverage of the September 11th terrorist attacks, has died.

The network announced Tuesday Aaron Brown was 76. Before joining CNN in 2001, he was an anchor at ABC News, substituting on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings. After leaving CNN, he joined PBS and later was a professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University. After an exhausting and divisive election, Americans are electing not to talk about politics this holiday season. NPR's Katna Riddle reports.

A recent poll shows that most Americans, at least seven out of 10, plan to avoid difficult political discussions as they see friends and family in the coming weeks. Dr. Vale Wright is with the American Psychological Association. That's the group that conducted this survey. I think that we do need to have these conversations so that we can have better understanding of where other people are coming from. I just don't think it has to happen at the holidays. Effective communication, she says, is about timing.

Hard conversations need to happen at the right moments. Maybe that's not during the holidays. Katie Arrettel, NPR News. On the second-to-last trading day on Wall Street for 2024, all three indexes are likely to finish the year with strong double-digit increases. The NASDAQ is up nearly 30 percent, the S&P 24 percent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up nearly 13 percent. Markets will be open Tuesday in a shortened session wrapping up at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. Trading resumes

on Thursday. You're listening to NPR News.