--:-- Leila Faudil: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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+. NPR+, oh, NPR+, sorry, go on. NPR+, it's a simple recurring donation that gets you perks like sponsor-free listening to more than 25 NPR podcasts, including Up First.
--:-- Leila Faudil: Thank you if you're already a Plus supporter. If not, you can sign up right now at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Maybe it's your New Year's resolution. Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Jimmy Carter lived a life measured not by words but by his deeds. President Biden announced more than a week of events, including a state funeral.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: I'm Leila Faudil. That's Steve Inskeep. 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.
--:-- Leila Faudil: 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.
--:-- [Upbeat music plays]
--:-- Leila Faudil: Instead, get guidance from a licensed therapist online with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash NPR for 10% off your first month.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics. In Eleanor the Great, June Squibb brings to vivid life the spirited 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, who after a devastating loss tells a tale that spirals beyond her control.
--:-- Leila Faudil: From director Scarlett Johansson comes a comically poignant exploration of how the stories we hear become the stories we tell. Deadline puts it, there won't be a dry eye in the house. Eleanor the Great, now playing only in theaters.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This message comes from NPR sponsor Adobe. Introducing the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio, now with AI-powered PDF spaces. Need to turn 100 pages of market research into five insights with a click? Templates for a sales proposal that'll close that deal? Or an AI specialist to tailor the tone of your market report? You can do all that with the all-new Adobe Acrobat Studio. Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat.
--:-- Leila Faudil: 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. Millions of people all around the world, all over the world, feel they lost a friend as well. even though they never met him.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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 government that endure to this day
--:-- Leila Faudil: And after leaving the White House, he founded the Carter Center, which promoted health care and monitored elections around the world. Let's go back to the beginning of this 100-year story. NPR's Stephen Fowler is in Atlanta, one of the places where Carter will be remembered.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: 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 U.S. president to have qualified on submarines. And after he left the service, he ran his family's peanut farm.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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 Georgia musicians like the Allman Brothers, who played concerts for him.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: So together, in a spirit of individual sacrifice for the common good, we must simply do our best. He told people he would never lie to them and that he would never duck a controversial issue, but there certainly turned out to be plenty of controversy during his presidency.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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.
--:-- Stephen Fowler: 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.
--:-- Leila Faudil: 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?
--:-- Stephen Fowler: 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.
--:-- Leila Faudil: 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 set 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 Fowler: Stephen, thanks very much. Really appreciate it.
--:-- Leila Faudil: That's NPR's 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 Hadid al-Shalchi 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: The shockwaves from that statement are reverberating through the region. For more, I'm joined now by our colleague, who's been following this story. Hi, colleague.
--:-- Colleague: Hi, Hadid. Okay, so tell us more about that meeting. What exactly did he say?
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: Well, this is the governor of Damascus, Maher Marwan. He appointed by the leader of Heya Tahrir al or HTS, Ahmad al-Shara. He's in his inner circle, really one of Syria's leading officials.
--:-- Colleague: Marwan met us 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: 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 Golan Heights.
--:-- Colleague: 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: Marwan went on to say that Syria's problem was not with Israel, and that Syria couldn't be an opponent to Israel and wanted coexistence. And we don't want to make a statement that is against Israel or against any country.
--:-- Colleague: Marwan said we don't want to meddle in anything that would threaten Israel's security or the security of any other country. Syria has never recognized Israel as a state, so this statement's pretty remarkable.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: 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.
--:-- Colleague: You know, 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: 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.
--:-- Colleague: And Leila, 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: And second, this is a message coming from a group designated a terrorist organization by the United States with former affiliation to Al-Qaeda.
--:-- Colleague: 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: 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.
--:-- Colleague: Israel and many of its 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.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: So HTS discussing possible peace with Israel was shocking to many Arabs and in fact, unwelcome.
--:-- Colleague: 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 Shara, which is contrary to what the governor told us.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: 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.
--:-- Colleague: And yesterday evening in an interview with an Arabic TV news channel, HTS leader Shara didn't address Israel directly, but said he didn't want Syria to become a source of political or regional unrest.
--:-- Leila Faudil: NPR's Hadil al-Shalchi in Damascus, thank you.
--:-- Hadid al-Shalchi: You're welcome.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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 skidded off a runway and crashed into a wall of 181 people on board. Only two emerged alive.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: NPR's Anthony Kuhn is at the scene of the disaster. Hey there, Anthony.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What are you seeing?
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: Well, I'm in the departures hall of the Muan International Airport in South Chola 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: 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.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: What are you hearing from family members? Well, I know if you can hear it right now but there are sobs, wails, anguished cries coming out from the tents.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: There's frustration at the waiting that people have to do. There's disbelief at official explanations.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Sounded like this.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Let's hear him 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?
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: What else are you hearing from family members? Well, right now their first concern is reclaiming their families' members' bodies. At present, about 146 of the 179 victims have been identified.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Amazing the two people survived. What information is available about the cause? Investigators are really busy looking at controlled tower data, taking black box data recorders back to Seoul.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: 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.
--:-- Leila Faudil: NPR's Anthony Kuhn, thanks for your reporting from the scene. Really appreciate it.
--:-- Anthony Kuhn: Thank you, Steve.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: And that's Up First for this Monday, December 30th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Leila Faudil for a fuller look at the late President Jimmy Carter's legacy. Check out yesterday's special episode with Rachel Martin and Don Gagné on the Sunday story from Up First.
--:-- Leila Faudil: 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.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: A Sunday story from Up First on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
--:-- Leila Faudil: Today's Up First was edited by Anna Yukhananov, Andrew Sussman, Ryland Barton, Jan Johnson, and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Kaity Kline, Nia Dumas, and Julie Depenbrock. We get engineering support from Arthur Laurent, and our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: Join us tomorrow.
--:-- Leila Faudil: This message comes from Charles Schwab. When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices, like full-service wealth management and advice when you need it. You can also invest on your own and trade on Think or Swim. Visit schwab.com to learn more.
--:-- Steve Inskeep: This message comes from NPR's sponsor, Odoo Business Management Software. Some say Odoo is like fertilizer because it promotes growth. Others say it's a magic beanstalk, scaling with efficiency. Odoo, exactly what a business needs. Sign up today at odoo.com.
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