Jimmy Carter Remembered, Syria-Israel Relations, South Korea Plane Crash

Okay, Layla, we've made it almost to the end of 2024. Thank God. Well, it was an interesting year. We had a presidential election. The Israel-Hamas War continued, Hurricane Helene, the Summer Olympics, astonishing stories, a story you covered just in recent weeks that nobody seemed to see coming, the fall of Syria's ruler.

Something you just couldn't even imagine just a few months ago. Absolutely. But because NPR is after all national public radio, we rely on support from the public. That's you to keep this free service going. So please join us in our mission to create a more informed public by signing up for NPR.

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Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his teeth. President Biden announced more than a week of events, including a state funeral. I'm Layla Faldin. That's Stephen Skeep, and this is up first from NPR News.

A high-ranking Syrian official tells NPR he wants the U.S. to mediate cordial relations between Syria and Israel. Those remarks drew a sharp reaction throughout the Arab world and put Syrian leadership in damage control. Also, a man talks of seeing off family members who boarded an airplane that crashed over the weekend. Our colleague Anthony Kuhn is at a South Korean airport where many families want answers. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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and what it means to be a part of a democracy. Invest in coverage that moves us forward together by giving today at donate.npr.org. We are expecting more than a week of events to remember the life of Jimmy Carter, who's died at the age of 100. President Biden made a statement about his predecessor, who was elected in 1976. Many of the people all around the world

all over the world, till they lost a friend as well, even though they never met him. And that's because Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds." Those deeds spread across many decades. His single-term in office was remembered for inflation, international unrest, and the seizure of American hostages in Tehran. He also made significant changes in the U.S. government that endure to this day.

And after leaving the White House, he founded the Carter Center, which promoted healthcare and monitored elections around the world. Let's go back to the beginning of this 100-year story. NPR Steven Fowler is in Atlanta, one of the places where Carter will be remembered. Steven, good morning. Good morning. How did Jimmy Carter emerge on the national scene?

Well, first Carter was born in this tiny southwest Georgia town called Plains. He joined the Navy. He was a lieutenant. The only US president to have qualified on submarines. And after he left the service, he ran his family's peanut farm. Then he became a state senator before becoming governor of Georgia.

He was a rural religious white southerner, but also said in his gubernatorial inaugural address that, quote, the time for racial discrimination is over. He had an unorthodox campaign style. While he was governor, he befriended popular Georgian musicians like the Almond Brothers, who played concerts for him. And he had a peanut brigade of friends and family and volunteers who fanned out across the country to spread his message.

Carter's presidential inauguration also came after the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal, so many saw him as the right person at the right time for the mood of the American people.

He told people he would never lie to them, and then he would never duck a controversial issue, but there certainly turned out to be plenty of controversy during his presidency. Well, that's arguably an understatement, Steve. I mean, there were signature achievements when Carter was in office, like the Camp David Accords that brokered peace between Israel and Egypt. He also did a ton to reorganize how the executive branch operated. He elevated the role of the vice president.

and did things like establish the Department of Education, but he had issues with Congress. He dealt with rampant inflation and soaring energy costs, and there was also the Iran hostage crisis. Carter faced a shellacking in his re-election campaign, and he left office as one of the most unpopular presidents in history. There are historians in more recent times who've argued that his presidency was more successful than it seemed at the time, but the one thing that people seem to agree on now is his post-presidency, more than 40 years long.

He didn't stay in politics, but he didn't shy away from using his platform either. You could see Jimmy Carter building affordable housing with the Habitat for Humanity nonprofit. He taught at Emory University in Atlanta, and for years, he would speak to first-year students, answering questions about politics and things like, what's your favorite type of peanut butter? But his signature work with the eponymous Carter Center, along with his late-wife Rosalind, bowed to, quote, wage peace through work on democracy, global health, human rights,

including effectively eradicating this parasitic disease, the Guinea worm in Africa. He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And now we're going to spend more than a week remembering him. What are the funeral plans? He'll get a state funeral. It'll be a week plus of events. President Biden said January 9th as a national day of mourning and the plans have been in place and more will be revealed soon, including at the Carter Center here in Atlanta, just down the road from me. Stephen, thanks very much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. That's NPR. Stephen Fowler in Atlanta.

In an interview with NPR, a high-ranking Syrian official said something unprecedented about relations with Israel. This is fascinating. He told NPR's Adil al-Shalqi that Syria wants to have cordial ties and wants the U.S. to help facilitate cordial ties. Syria and Israel, not something you hear every day from an Arab-led government, let alone one made up of rebels who once had ties to al-Qaeda. The shockwaves from that statement are reverberating through the region.

For more, Hadeel joins us now from Damascus. Hi, Hadeel. Hello. Okay, so tell us more about that meeting. What exactly did he say? Well, this is the governor of Damascus, Mahr Marwan. He's appointed by the leader of the Hadeel Sham, or HTS Ahamid al-Shar. So he's in his inner circle, really one of Syria's leading officials. Marwan Mehtas in a massive ornate room. He was very pleasant, wore a suit and tie.

He only shook hands with the two male colleagues with me, and we had a wide-ranging interview, almost an hour. But at the end, he raised the subject of Israel, which frankly surprised us. Remember, Israel has been bombing Syria regularly since the regime fell, and it sees some of the goal and heights. The governor started off by saying that it was, quote, natural that Israel felt some fear when HTS took power, and so it may have advanced a little or bombed a little.

So this statement is pretty remarkable. Does it indicate the new Syrian leaders plan a different approach with Israel?

Well, it was very obvious he wanted this message to be heard in the United States. He sat up in his chair, made sure we heard him carefully. He said he wanted the United States to use its influence to help mediate this coexistence with Israel. A U.S. official told NPR that the U.S. had relayed the message to Israel. And in a statement to NPR, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said that it rejected any overture from HTS. And Layla, like you said, it was remarkable.

For two reasons. First, Syria and Israel have been in a state of war since Israel's creation in 1948. They've never had diplomatic ties. And second, this is a message coming from a group designated a terrorist organization by the United States with former affiliation to al-Qaeda. And what was the regional reaction?

I mean, well, first of all, the news got huge traction in the Middle East. Almost every Israeli and Arab media outlet picked it up. The parts of the interview I used in my radio piece of his voice were played all over Arabic social media. And then that's when the backlash began. Israel and many of his Arab neighbors, like you know, have been at war for decades.

And talk of normalization and normalizing relations is controversial, especially after the war in Gaza, which has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians. So, HDS discussing possible peace with Israel, was shocking to many Arabs and, in fact, unwelcome. And has there been blowback for the governor?

First, the government itself distanced itself from Marwan and his comments with a statement saying that they did not represent the views of the foreign ministry or of those of Shadda, which is contrary to what the governor told us. And in the evening, he issued a video distancing himself from his comments to NPR.

He said, I did not touch on the topic of peace with Israel, and it's not my right to do so. And yesterday, evening, in an interview with an Arabic TV news channel, H.T.S. Leader Shahra didn't address Israel directly, but said he didn't want Syria to become a source of political or regional unrest. And P.R. Sadeel Al-Shalchi and Damascus. Thank you. You're welcome.

South Korea has begun days of mourning after one of the worst aviation disasters in the country's history. A plane's landing gear failed to deploy, and it skated off a runway and crashed into a wall of 181 people on board, only two emerged alive. NPR's Anthony Q and it's at the scene of the disaster. Hey there, Anthony.

What are you seeing? Well, I'm in the Departures Hall of the Mulan International Airport in South Charlotte Province, about 180 miles south of Seoul, and right in front of me are rows of tents to shelter the passengers' families. The Red Cross Church groups, volunteer groups are all here providing food and counseling.

And now that all the people have been accounted for and it's clear that there were only two survivors, the focus is on taking care of the bereaved and digging the facts out about how this crash happened. Yeah, which always takes a long time with aviation disasters. What are you hearing from family members?

Well, I don't know if you can hear it right now, but there are sobs, whales, anguished cries coming out from the tents. There's frustration at the waiting that people have to do. There's disbelief at official explanations, just to give you an example. Family members and officials have been meeting here throughout the day, discussing how to deal with the aftermath of the crash. And suddenly this morning, a middle-aged man named Kim Yong-hun started yelling in frustration, sounded like this.

So Mr. Kim then explained to everybody that he had traveled with a group of 18 people to Thailand, and they returned to South Korea without him, and he lost nine relatives, including three close family members. Let's hear them again.

He said, when I parted with my family on the last day of the trip, I had no idea I would end up here. Out of the four in my family, out of 18 in the group, I'm the only one that survived. Why? Why do I have to bear this burden of pain? Now, aviation officials have said that the pilot reported that the plane hit a bird and Mr. Kim was angry and upset because he just couldn't believe or accept that this would be enough to cause the crash.

What else are you hearing from family members?

Well, right now their first concern is reclaiming their family's members' bodies at present about 146 of the 179 victims have been identified. The problem is that only five of those bodies are relatively intact because of the force of the collision. Authorities say they have recovered over 600 body parts, and only after those parts are matched with the right bodies, will they be returned to their families. Amazing that two people survived. What information is available about the cause?

Investigators are really busy looking at controlled hour tower data, taking black box data recorders back to Seoul. The country is going to check all the Boeing 737-800 airplanes. There's so many factors to be examined and it could take a long time. NPR's Anthony Kuhn. Thanks for your reporting from the scene. Really appreciate it. Thank you, Steve.

And that's up first for this Monday, December 30th. I'm Stephen Skeep. And I'm Layla Fodden for a fuller look at the late President Jimmy Carter's legacy. Check out yesterday's special episode with Rachel Martin and Don Gagne on the Sunday story from up first. While Carter struggled to show he was a strong leader in office, he later became an almost unstoppable force for peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts. Take a listen as we consider the legacy of the man widely called America's greatest former president.

The Sunday story from up first on the NPR app or wherever you let your podcast. Today's up first was edited by Anna Yukononoff, Andrew Sussman, Ryland Barton, Jan Johnson, and Alice Wolfling. It was produced by Katie Klein, Nia Damas, and Julie Deppenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us tomorrow.

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