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--:-- Tracy Mumford: From the New York Times, it's the headlines. Today's Monday, December 30th.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Jimmy Carter, the longest living president in American history, has died after nearly two years in hospice care. He was 100 years old.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: World leaders and others are remembering Carter this morning as a dedicated humanitarian and a global statesman who pushed for peace and democracy around the globe.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Jimmy Carter from Georgia. I hope to be your next president. Carter's path to the presidency began on a peanut farm in Georgia, where he was raised with no electricity or running water.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He served in the Navy and as governor of his home state before launching his campaign for the White House.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He was elected in 1976, just two years after President Richard Nixon resigned in a maelstrom of scandal.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I came along at a time when Americans still remembered painfully the lies told and the debacle of Watergate.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In 2006, Carter spoke with the Times about his presidency in footage that was released after his death.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I brought a fresh face of a peanut farmer, a working man, who's for never to tell a lie or make a misleading statement.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Carter went into his presidency hoping he could be a breath of fresh air in American politics.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But he faced a tumultuous landscape, navigating a domestic energy crisis and soaring inflation.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Abroad, he negotiated a nuclear agreement with Russia.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He brokered peace between Egypt and Israel.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But the chaos of the Iran hostage crisis defined the end of his presidency.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran, and dozens of hostages weren't released until hours after Carter left office.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He served only one term and went out as one of the most unpopular presidents in modern times.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But his long career after his presidency reshaped his legacy.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He and his wife Rosalind Carter, who died last year, were huge proponents of Habitat for Humanity.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They were often seen outbuilding houses.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And he continued to help mediate conflicts around the world and pushed for human rights earning him the Nobel Peace Prize
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In his interview with The Times Carter laid out his hope for what America could become.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I would like to see our country be the champion of human rights.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And every American embassy looked upon as a haven for those who suffer from human rights abuse.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'd like to see our country be the most generous on earth.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A state funeral for Carter will be held next week at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For more on Carter's presidency and legacy, listen to today's episode of The Daily with The Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: In South Korea, investigators are looking into what caused the fatal plane crash there yesterday.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: All but two of the 181 people on board were killed when the plane, which took off from Thailand, crashed at the airport in the city of Muon.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Video of the crash shows the plane barreling down the runway without its landing gear down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The plane then hit a concrete barrier, bursting into flames.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: For some experts in crash investigations, the footage raises more questions than it answers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The pilots should have received an alert that the landing gear wasn't down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And that model of plane, a Boeing 737-800, has a backup system that allows the pilots to manually release the wheels if needed.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Experts say the footage raises other questions.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: A reverse thruster used to slow planes down during landing appears to only be in use on one engine.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And the flaps and slats on the plane's wings, which are also used to slow it down, do not appear to be extended.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Officials in South Korea are looking at multiple factors in the crash, including if birds hit the jet.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Investigators say they've recovered the plane's black boxes, but they say it will likely take months to determine the official cause of the crash.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Meanwhile, officials in Azerbaijan are blaming Russia for a deadly plane crash on Christmas.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: An Azerbaijan Airlines jet bound for southern Russia crashed killing 38 people Azerbaijani and U officials as well as aviation experts have said they believe the plane was most likely shot down by a Russian air defense missile
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The Kremlin remained silent about the crash for three days, before Russian President Vladimir Putin called the president of Azerbaijan and apologized, without acknowledging responsibility.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Russia has said its air defense systems were fending off an attack by Ukrainian drones near the airport where the plane was supposed to land.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But Azerbaijan's president says Russia needs to publicly admit it caused the crash and compensate the victims' families.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: With less than a month until Donald Trump takes office, some of his closest advisors are having a fiery public debate about immigration policy.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Specifically, H-1B visas, which let tens of thousands of skilled foreign workers, like software engineers, enter the U.S.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The tech industry in particular has long relied on the visas.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The H-1B visa program is a total and complete scam concocted by the lords of easy money on Wall Street and the oligarchs in Silicon Valley.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally, has joined a chorus of right-wing voices condemning the program.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He claims that it, along with other visas for immigrant workers, drive down wages for Americans while increasing profits for companies.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: They promised to push to roll them back.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We're not going to take the temperature down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. There's no backing down. It's doubling down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: On the other side, Elon Musk, who's been working closely with Trump, has vigorously defended H-1B visas.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Arguing that the expertise U.S. companies need, quote, simply does not exist in America in sufficient quantity.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Musk himself had an H-1B visa before he became a U.S. citizen, and his company Tesla brought in more than 700 workers under the program this year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Over the weekend, Trump was asked where he stands on the issue.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: He called himself a believer in H-1B, but didn't clarify whether or not his administration will continue the program.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: New data shows that the number of murders in the U this year has dropped.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Major cities, including Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco, have all seen a decline in homicides, according to information collected by the FBI, the cities, and researchers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The data is preliminary and doesn't cover the full year yet, but it suggests that the murder rate, which spiked during the pandemic, is continuing to go down.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Local officials say that targeted efforts, like violence intervention programs in areas with frequent shootings, have helped drive down the numbers.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Apart from homicides, some other crimes have also declined, including car thefts and aggravated assaults.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Still, some Americans may not be feeling safer.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: According to a Gallup poll from October, about a quarter of Americans say crime is an extremely serious problem.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Criminal justice experts say that what people see on the streets, like shoplifting and public drug use, is contributing to a disconnect between how safe Americans are and how safe they feel.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And finally, coffee drinkers, brace yourselves for prices to soar.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Wholesale coffee prices are trading near a 50-year high.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: One factor is extreme weather.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Coffee beans can only be grown under very specific circumstances.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: The plants need misty, humid, tropical climates.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: And some of the limited areas where those conditions exist, like in Brazil and Vietnam, have been hit with severe droughts in the past year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: But even as the crops are threatened, demand has been going up, partly because of how much China has jumped into the coffee market.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: China's coffee consumption has increased more than 60% in the past five years, creating a huge demand.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Customers are going to feel the results.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Nestle, the world's largest coffee maker, announced it's planning to raise prices and shrink the size of its products next year.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: Those are the headlines.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: I'm Tracy Mumford.
--:-- Tracy Mumford: We'll be back tomorrow.
