On today’s show: Congress is set to certify the 2024 election without incident. It’s a very different picture from four years ago, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. The violence still haunts some people who were there. The nation is honoring Jimmy Carter this week for dedication to integrity and honesty. The surgeon general says there’s a causal link between consuming alcohol and cancer. He wants new labels on alcohol containers warning consumers about the risk. Plus, how to prepare for this week’s dangerous winter weather, new details on the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, and Hollywood’s biggest winners at the Golden Globes. Today’s episode was hosted by Gideon Resnick.
Chapter 1: What should you know about the January 6 Certification?
Good morning. It's Monday, January 6th. I'm Gideon Resnick in for Shemitah Basu. Hope you had a great holiday season. This is Apple News Today. Coming up on today's show, remembering Jimmy Carter, a new warning about alcohol, and how to prepare for the cross-country winter storm. But first, today Congress will formally certify Donald Trump's presidential election victory.
Despite a snowstorm that's closed federal offices in D.C., Congress will still meet. And USA Today reports that the certification process is expected to go smoothly, with no reports of threats to the process. But just four years ago, it was a very different story. That is the sound of Trump supporters attacking the U.S.
Capitol on January 6, 2021, as they tried to stop the certification of that presidential election. One protester was shot and killed. About 140 police officers were injured in what the Justice Department has called possibly the largest single-day mass assault of law enforcement in American history. Today's certification is expected to be without incident.
No one is publicly contesting the results, for one. And after the riot four years ago, Congress passed an updated version of what is called the Electoral Reform Act. It makes it clear that the vice president, in this case Kamala Harris, does not have any power to determine the results of certification. It also makes it more difficult for a member of Congress to make an impactful objection.
And there are now more security measures in place. Still, some of those on the front lines of the attack in 2021 remain haunted by that day. NPR visited with the family of Brian Sicknick. He was a Capitol Police officer who was sprayed with a chemical substance as he defended the building from rioters. Sicknick died of multiple strokes the following day.
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Chapter 2: How did the January 6 Capitol attack impact security measures?
Sicknick's father told NPR that the conspiracy theories that followed the day's events have led him to distance himself from others.
I have lifelong friends that I don't associate with anymore because of what happened. You know, to them, it's not a big deal because it wasn't their son, you know.
Sicknick's mother told NPR she's worried Trump may pardon the people who were convicted of crimes on January 6th.
What I'm very upset about that might happen is that he's going to let all these people out of jail. It's just not right.
The president-elect has not specified who of the more than 1,500 charged in the attack may end up getting pardons. But he has said that he might issue them as soon as his first day in office. Let's turn our focus now from the upcoming president to the legacy of a former one. All of this week, Americans are honoring former President Jimmy Carter, who died at the age of 100.
Over the weekend, his body was transferred from his hometown of Plains, Georgia, to Atlanta, where he will lie in repose at the Carter Presidential Center until Tuesday. From there, Carter will be transferred to Washington, D.C., to Lyon State, and a national funeral service will be held on Thursday.
At a service this past Saturday, Carter's son Chip Carter spoke about working on his father's peanut farm as a young boy, where he learned the value of hard work. And he praised both of his parents for the sacrifices they made for their family and the country.
He was an amazing man. And he was held up and propped up and soothed by an amazing woman. And the two of them together changed the world. And it was an amazing thing to watch from so close.
Over the past few days, there have been many remembrances of Carter's time as president. He accomplished historic things like negotiating the Camp David Accords and brokering the return of the Panama Canal to Panama. But he also lost public support as the country struggled with inflation, high gas prices, and the threat of a recession.
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Chapter 3: What are the latest updates on Jimmy Carter's legacy?
Your expertise, your track record will continue to drive a world where people can participate in free and fair and credible elections. A world where the rule of law and human rights are respected and enjoyed not just by some people but by everyone. A world where kids don't go blind from preventable diseases like trachoma.
CNN has a roundup of just how impactful the Carter Center has been. It's observed more than 100 elections in dozens of countries and worked to end tropical diseases. One of Carter's biggest life goals was to eradicate Guinea worm.
He made it a top mission for his organization and traveled to Africa more than 40 times after his presidency to work with public health leaders, politicians, and donors to lobby people to this cause. When the Carter Center began this work in 1986, guinea worm disease infected 3.5 million people. By 2022, there were just 13 cases reported in the world.
In 2002, Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts. Here he is accepting that award.
War may sometimes be a necessary evil, but no matter how necessary, It is always evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
As for how he wants to be remembered, here's what Carter told CBS News in 2018.
Well, I would say as far as public service is concerned... I was a champion of peace and human rights. I've sought to carve out for myself a productive and I hope useful and certainly a gratifying life. I've been very lucky.
It's that time of year again when people in your life might be embarking on dry January. And this year, there might be even more good reason to abstain from alcohol.
There is a causal link between alcohol and seven types of cancer, including breast cancer and colon cancer. That's U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy talking on CNN. What we also found is that alcohol is now the third leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States behind smoking and obesity.
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Chapter 4: What was Jimmy Carter's biggest achievement after presidency?
Last week, Murthy issued an advisory noting that alcohol, which is classified as a carcinogen, contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 cancer deaths every year, and called for more awareness about the links to cancer, particularly female breast cancer.
What is also clear is that the majority of Americans do not know about this link between alcohol and cancer. And it's one of the reasons, one of the many things I'm calling for in addition to more public education around this is for the warning label on alcohol containers to be updated to include cancer risk
Now, currently, there are health warnings on alcohol bottles, but they warn of the risks of drinking while pregnant and while driving. And that warning has not changed since its inception in 1988. Murthy says it's time for updates, given how much more we know now about alcohol and its effects on our health. But updating those warning labels isn't easy. It would require an act of Congress.
It's also worth keeping in mind that in 1964, when the Surgeon General issued the first report on tobacco and its relationship to cancer, the very next year Congress passed legislation calling for and placing a warning label on cigarette boxes. So we have an opportunity to take that kind of action here as well.
It's unclear how the next administration or the next Congress would react to this proposal. Statt explains that President-elect Donald Trump seems to have mixed feelings on the issue. On the one hand, he personally does not drink because his brother died of alcohol use disorder.
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Chapter 5: How has the Carter Center impacted global health?
And his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also gave up alcohol decades ago. But in his last term, Trump cut alcohol taxes, a win for the industry. If the U.S. did include a cancer warning label, they would join only a small group of countries doing the same, including South Korea and Ireland.
Before we let you go, a few other stories being featured in the Apple News app. Dangerous weather is sweeping across the nation over the next few days as winter storms wreak havoc on travel and everyday life. 70 million people are under severe weather alerts with another 4 million under blizzard warnings. Multiple states have declared states of emergency.
The National Weather Service has a handy guide on how to prepare if your area is affected. They say to be sure you have a flashlight, batteries, a generator, fuel, and a weather radio to receive updates in case your area loses power, heat, or phone service. And if you have a pet, be sure to bring them inside and stock up on extra pet food.
Another big tip, be aware that alternate heating sources like generators can lead to greater levels of carbon monoxide poisoning. Be sure you have working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and keep generators at least 20 feet from your home. And finally, if you do have to be outside, bundle up. Temperatures are expected to drop 10 to 30 degrees below average across the central and eastern U.S.
And you can get frostbite from being outside with exposed skin in just 10 minutes. Now to new developments in the terror attack in New Orleans on New Year's Day that killed 14 people. The FBI says the suspected driver of a truck that plowed into a crowd of people had visited the French Quarter two times before to stake out the area.
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Chapter 6: What did Jimmy Carter say about peace and war?
The suspect also used a pair of Meta smart glasses to record where the attack took place. Shamsud Dinjabar, a 42-year-old Texas native, allegedly also planted a series of IED, or improvised explosive devices, around the area, but officials said Sunday they had failed to go off. In a recorded video before the attack, Jabbar, an army veteran, said that he had joined the terrorist group ISIS.
He's believed to have acted alone. And finally, last night was Hollywood's first major award show of the year, the Golden Globes, which honors both movies and television. Comedian Nikki Glaser hosted the event, becoming the first woman to solo host the awards. Here's how she opened her monologue.
Good evening and welcome to the 82nd Golden Globes, Ozempic's biggest night. If you're watching on CBS, hello. If you're watching on Paramount+, you have six days left to cancel your free trial.
Big winners of the night included the FX television series Shogun, which took home awards for Best Male Actor, Best Female Actor, Best Supporting Male Actor, and Best TV Drama. The LA Times reports it's the most expensive production in FX history. And the HBO show Hacks was named Best Series on the comedy side.
As for movies, The Brutalist won for Best Motion Picture Drama, and Amelia Perez won Best Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we have a narrated article that's coming up next.
Bloomberg Businessweek has a sweeping investigation into the global fertility industry and how women around the world are often taken advantage of. If you're listening in the podcast app, you can follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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