Monday, December 30, 2024

Former President Jimmy Carter has died. That's where we're starting the seven from the Washington Post. I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Monday, December 30th. Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories.

Jimmy Carter was elected president in 1976. Before that, he was a small-town peanut farmer, a US Navy veteran, and the governor of Georgia. As president, he oversaw peace accords between Egypt and Israel. He granted diplomatic recognition to China, and he made human rights a central theme of US foreign policy.

He was also ahead of his time on environmental issues. He installed solar panels on the roof of the West Wing in 1979. But Carter was turned out of office by disillusioned voters after a single term. His presidency had been marred by stagflation. That term was used by critics to attack the low growth and high inflation of his presidency.

And in 1979, 52 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Iran's capital. They were not released until the day he left office in 1980. But Carter lived an extraordinary post-presidential life. He dedicated his time to public service and diplomacy. He helped build thousands of homes for poor people, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. In his Peace Prize lecture, he spoke out against war and inequality.

Ladies and gentlemen, 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.

Carter also wrote 33 books on topics ranging from war to woodworking, and he continued to live modestly at his home in Plains, Georgia until the end of his life. His son said he died yesterday at his family home. His wife Rosalynn died last year. At 100 years old, Carter was the oldest living US president of all time.

We're sticking with this story for number two. Jimmy Carter's death prompted condolences from around the world. Since the news of Carter's death yesterday, current and former world leaders have spoken about his legacy. They remembered Carter's human rights activism, his conflict resolution work, and his kindness during his presidency and the decades that followed.

President Joe Biden spoke at a news conference from the U.S. Virgin Islands following Carter's death. He said everyone could learn lessons about selflessness from his life and legacy. Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words, but by his deeds. Just look at his life, his life's work. He worked to eradicate disease not at home, but around the world. He forged peace, advanced civil rights, human rights, promoted free and fair elections around the world.

Biden said he has been in touch with Carter's family and has started the process to hold a state funeral in Washington. The date for that is not yet clear. And afterward, Carter will be buried in a private ceremony in his hometown of Plains. Number three.

A plane crash killed 179 people in South Korea. Yesterday, a Jeju Air flight from Bangkok crash landed at a South Korean airport. Authorities said the flight crew was warned about birds in the area minutes before the crash. Video showed the Boeing plane veering down the runway without its landing gear deployed, hitting a wall and bursting into flames.

The crash killed everyone on board apart from two crew members. It was the world's deadliest plane crash in six years. Investigators from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Boeing are working to understand what happened. The South Korean government has declared a week of national mourning.

Number four, Donald Trump sided with Elon Musk in a fight about visas and immigration. In recent days, opposing factions of Trump supporters have been arguing about the H-1B visa program. That visa allows foreigners with technical skills to temporarily work in the US.

Musk and other business leaders see the visa program as essential for the US tech industry. But anti-immigrant hardliners say the system lets companies exploit cheap foreign labor at the expense of Americans. On Saturday, Trump threw his weight behind Musk. He described the H-1B visa as a, quote, great program. He also claimed he uses the visas on his properties, although past post-reporting found that he employs workers under different visa programs for seasonal workers.

This marks an early win for tech leaders like Musk, who aligned themselves with Trump in a bid for influence in his administration. But Trump's stance on H-1B visas has shifted several times over the years, so this may not be his last word on the subject. A destructive storm with tornadoes ripped through the South. That's our fifth story.

A deadly storm system sponged tornadoes across the US, South, and Southeast over the weekend. It killed at least four people across Texas, Mississippi, and North Carolina. It also destroyed homes in schools and led to power outages and cancellations of holiday travel at some airports in the region.

This has been a wild year for weather with hyperactive hurricane and tornado seasons. La Nina is largely to blame. That's a climate pattern with cooler than average water temperatures in the eastern Pacific.

Number 6. A controversial food coloring could soon be banned. Red dye number 3 is an artificial cherry red color additive. It's used in things like bubble gum, candy, and fruit cocktails.

It was approved for use by the FDA more than 50 years ago, but food safety advocates have pushed the agency to ban it for decades. That's because the dye has been linked to cancer in animals. Some studies also suggest it could be linked to negative behavioral problems in children, and now a decision from the FDA could be imminent.

It comes at a pivotal time for the food industry. The chemicals and ingredients found in food and drinks are under increasing scrutiny from politicians and social media influencers. And at number seven, robots learned how to perform surgical tasks by watching videos.

For decades, robots have been helping doctors perform gallbladder removals, hysterectomines, hernia repairs, prostate surgeries, and more. While patients lie unconscious on the operating table, robotic arms and grippers work on their bodies at certain stages of these procedures. They're guided by doctors using controllers kind of like joysticks. But now, a team of Johns Hopkins and Stanford University researchers has reported a significant advance.

They've trained robots with videos to perform surgical tasks with the skill of human doctors. The robots learn to manipulate needles, tie knots, and sew up wounds on their own. And the robots went beyond mere imitation by correcting their own slip-ups, for example, by picking up a dropped needle.

The researchers said a new generation of more autonomous robots holds the potential to help address a serious shortage of surgeons, but many steps remain before robots can perform procedures on their own. So if you have a surgery coming up, it will still be carried out by a human, at least for now.

All right, you're all caught up. Thanks for listening. If you like the podcast, a great way to support our work is through a subscription to The Washington Post. And you can get a great deal right now in our end of year sale. The first year of a digital subscription is only $29. That gets you access to all the stories we talk about here on the podcast and more.

So go ahead and make it your New Year's resolution to support quality journalism. It's easier than drinking more water and increasing your step count. Subscribe to The Post by going to washingtonpost.com slash subscribe. I'm Hannah Jewell. I'll meet you back here tomorrow. My name is Michelle Singletary and I'm the personal finest columnist for The Washington Post.

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