WSJ What’s News - Winter Storm Won’t Delay Certifying Trump’s Win

Episode Date: January 6, 2025

A.M. Edition for Jan. 6. As a severe winter storm hits large parts of the U.S., House Speaker Mike Johnson says it won’t stop a joint session of Congress to certify Donald Trump’s election victory. Plus, the U.S. gives Syria’s new government a limited show of support. And the WSJ’s Brianna Abbott explains why scientists are zeroing in on the gut in the search of what’s causing a rise in cancer cases among young people. Luke Vargas hosts. Sign up for the WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three, two, one. What will the world look like 10 or 20 years from now? The Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast is here to give you a peek. And we can't wait to show you what's coming. Subscribe now. As a winter storm snarls travel plans across the U.S., lawmakers say it won't stop today's certification of Donald Trump's election victory. With the snarls travel plans across the U.S., lawmakers say it won't stop today's certification of Donald Trump's election victory.

Plus, President Biden plans a major weapons sale to Israel in the closing weeks of his administration, and researchers zero in on the gut to try and explain rising cancer rates among younger people. There is data that shows that, at least in the U.S., each generation has a slightly higher risk than the one before it, starting in the 1950s. And so the thought is, what has changed? It's Monday, January 6th. I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal,

and here is the AM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories moving your world today. The National Weather Service says that travelers across the mid-Atlantic should expect significant disruptions today, as a winter storm generates 6 to 12 inches of snow across parts of the East Coast, including the nation's capital. Snow is also expected in parts of New England, areas downwind of the Great Lakes, across the central Appalachians, and the Ohio River Valley, with snowfall in some areas set to be the heaviest in a decade.

In addition to potentially dangerous roads, more than 1,200 flights within, into, or out of the U.S. have already been canceled today, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, with Washington, D.C. area airports seeing the most severe disruptions. Meanwhile, in Washington, newly re-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson says that the storm won't derail a joint session of Congress scheduled for midday to certify Donald Trump's electoral victory. Vice President Kamala Harris will preside over the certification, but as a result of changes that were passed by Congress after the 2021 attack over the certification, but as a result of changes

that were passed by Congress after the 2021 attack on the Capitol, her role has been clarified to only involve counting votes publicly with no power to alter the results. Some drivers in Manhattan today will be starting the work week with a new commute. That is after a $9 congestion charge for cars heading into central parts of the Big Apple entered effect yesterday after years of delays and a bid by neighboring New Jersey to stop it. The toll system is a first for the U.S. and is meant to reduce traffic and raise revenue to upgrade the city's subways, buses, and commuter railroads.

At a press conference yesterday, heard here courtesy of the MTA, Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chair Jano Lieber said he expected the tolls would take some getting used to, but would ultimately benefit public transit users and drivers alike. If you do drive, if you have to drive, we want you to spend less time stuck in traffic. Your time is worth real money and that's why the business community has supported this so much because time wasted in traffic is a huge drag on our economy." President-elect Donald Trump said last year he'd kill the congestion pricing scheme, but it's unclear whether he'll be able to stop it now that it's in operation.

We are exclusively reporting that the Biden administration plans to announce today that it will ease restrictions on humanitarian aid for Syria. The move would speed the delivery of basic supplies without lifting sanctions that block other assistance to the new government in Damascus, which is led by a group that the US labels a terror organization. Washington is looking for assurances from Syria's new leaders that they'll uphold promises to protect the rights of women and religious and ethnic minorities before making a decision on dropping sanctions.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has notified Congress of an $8 billion weapons package for Israel, one of the largest arms sales that it's authorized since the start of the war in Gaza in 2023. According to officials familiar with the package, the planned sale includes thousands of bombs, air-to-air missiles, and precision munitions. The deal still requires congressional approval. Some of the items it includes could draw objections from Democrats who've opposed selling large bombs to Israel over concern about the civilian

toll of the war in Gaza, which has surpassed 45,000 according to Palestinian authorities. Turning to Europe now, Ukraine over the weekend intensified its military operations in Russia's Kursk region, where it staged a daring cross-border offensive in August, capturing dozens of Russian towns and several hundred square miles of territory. Journal Ukraine coverage chief James Marson told me there are few available details about the operation's success, but that it comes at a sensitive time for Kiev as it appeals to its allies for further military support ahead of a consequential change in U.S. administrations. This looks like an effort to retake some of the initiative by again making a push inside Russia to show to the West and now most clearly to incoming President Trump that we're still

in this fight, we're able to mount counteroffensives, and we can claim territory within Russia. The Ukrainians say we need more military support in the form of air defense, ammunition. What they want to show the West is that will enable us not only to stop the Russians, but to do something with it. So you're not just feeding it into a battle that's going nowhere. Of course, President-elect Trump has repeatedly said he wants to bring peace, he wants an end to this war. The Ukrainians say the only way that this war is going to end is if Russia is stopped. Well, Kiev could get a better sense of where its allies stand on that question when dozens

of its supporters meet in Germany on Thursday. And in markets today, shares in Taiwan's Foxconn have risen after the company posted record revenue for the fourth quarter thanks to strong demand for servers to power AI technologies. The assembler of Apple and Nvidia products also forecast significant growth in first-quarter sales. Coming up, Journal Health reporter Brianna Abbott joins us to break down what researchers are learning about a worrying rise in cancer among young people after the break. What then will the future reveal?

There's one thing we know about the future. It's being built now. We all have a stake in the future. The future. The future. The future. And the Wall Street Journal's Future of Everything podcast is here to give you a glimpse of what's on the way. I'm Danny Lewis. Join us as we dig into how science and technology are shaping the future.

That is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. In the US and around the world, cancer is hitting an increasing number of people under 50. Journal health reporter Brianna Abbott wrote about that trend early last year as researchers raced to figure out the cause of what's making young people sick and to identify who could be at high risk. And now a year later, Brianna is back with us today to share what some researchers think

could be the culprit. Brianna, I don't want to delay the potential answer here any longer. Let's hear it then. What are researchers finding? So if you are waiting for a full answer, I'm afraid my response is still going to be a little unsatisfying. But we are sort of making progress, especially sort of in the area of gastrointestinal cancers and colorectal cancer. There is data that shows that at least in the US, each generation has a slightly higher risk

than the one before it, starting in the 1950s, and so we're sort of seeing a stepwise increase. The thought is what has changed in the last 50 years or so to sort of contribute to this rise, and so far everything has been on the last 50 years or so to sort of contribute to this rise and so far everything has been on the table. It seems that for colorectal cancer at least, a lot of the things that do increase risk that have been known about for older folks also apply to younger folks. So it's things like higher excess body weight and obesity, consuming too many sugary sweetened drinks, a lack of physical activity. Those things have all sort of been associated with early onset cancer now.

And now researchers are starting to sort of take a deeper dive into that. Including one particular research group at Washington University in St. Louis, right? Correct. Washington University in St. Louis and their co-lead is at Mass General in Boston. That's sort of a big actually international team that's working on this problem. They are looking at the differences between folks who develop early onset cancer and those who don't to try and sort of identify some potential factors and then they're also exposing mice to some of these potential factors to see if

cancers grow from them. So you're trying to figure out if they're not only just linked, but if there is a direct cause there. They're also running clinical trials to see if something like weight loss drugs or even changing your diet can lower someone's risk. Our diets have changed in the last 50 years, things like ultra processed foods.

And in something I hear a lot that I think is really important from these researchers is that a lot of people have no obvious risk factors at all and are fairly healthy. So that sort of leads folks to believe that in addition to this lifestyle stuff, there is something else going on here. And that to me when I was reading through your reporting is where I started to feel a little overwhelmed. On one hand, the fact that one research group thinks they may be looking in the right direction is a bit heartening, especially if maybe excess alcohol consumption or processed food consumption might be a problem. Those are things that conceivably you could

cut back on, but there are a lot of other research groups you profile where they're looking at an array of other potential causes here that are vast and seem like in a modern society are going to be hard to really fundamentally change. Definitely. People are looking at a range of things, including antibiotics, which can disrupt the microbiome, which is sort of the collection of bacteria and pathogens that sort of live in our gut. And you know, they influence our health in a myriad of different ways and ways that we

don't sort of fully understand still. But some of the research shows that you know what we eat or what we consume can interact with the gut microbiome and therefore that can raise or lower your cancer risk. Researchers have found connections to a diet high in sulfur which means high in liquor and processed meat and low in fruits and vegetables. And there's a specific gut bacteria that can take that and make hydrogen sulfide, which could inflame the colon and lead to cancer. So the mechanisms are more complicated than just A to B. Like there are lots of different steps in there too.

There are some folks that are looking at the circadian clock and the fact that we are on our devices late at night and not really sleeping. And then obviously there are all sorts of environmental factors that are new, forever chemicals and microplastics, but we are in such early days of doing that sort of research that we don't have a lot of answers there yet. A lot of this research just takes time and it does take a lot of resources, and I heard this from a lot of folks, there might not be a singular answer here, right? It could actually be that all of these things are contributing in a

subtle way that collectively raises everyone's risk. That's sort of what researchers are thinking at the moment. Nat. I've been speaking to Wall Street Journal health reporter, Brianna Abbott. Brianna, thank you so much for the update. Brianna Abbott. Of course, thanks for having me. Nat. And that's it for What's News for this Monday morning. We had additional sound in this episode from Reuters. Today's show was produced by Daniel Bach with supervising producer Christina Rocca,

and I'm Luke Vargas for The Wall Street Journal. We will be back tonight with a new show, and until then, thanks for listening.