Monday morning news: December 30, 2024

Death of Jimmy Carter » America’s longest-living president, Jimmy Carter, has died.

The 39th president, who turned 100 nearly three months ago, passed away peacefully and surrounded by family in Plains, Georgia Sunday afternoon. That’s according to the humanitarian organization Jimmy Carter founded, The Carter Center.

Carter held the Oval Office for one term, from 1977 to 1981, before losing reelection. When asked in 2014 what he was most proud of, he said:

CARTER: I kept my country at peace during very difficult times when I was in the White House, and I helped promote peace between other countries that were potentially at war.

Upon learning of Carter’s passing, President Biden said the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian, and he lost a dear friend.

Much more on the former president’s life, faith, and career is coming up later in the program.

At least 4 killed in southern U.S. storms » A rare late-December outbreak of severe storms killed at least four people and left more than a dozen hurt in the southern U.S. this weekend.

There were 45 reports of tornado damage across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, though not all those reported tornadoes are confirmed.

Near Charlotte, North Carolina, a 70-year-old man died Sunday while driving. North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper D.J. Maffucci:

MAFFUCCI: You know, he’s driving about, probably about 40 miles an hour down the roadway and all of a sudden that tree falls and it falls direct- I don’t even think he saw it coming, and I’m almost 100 percent sure he died instantly.

The storms also knocked out power to tens of thousands of people across the Southeast, and caused more than 600 flight delays Sunday at Atlanta’s airport.

South Korea plane crash latest » A passenger jet burst into flames during a disastrous landing in Muan, South Korea Sunday, killing 179 people. There were only two survivors.

Video shows the plane’s landing gear did not deploy, as it skidded across the airstrip, overshot the runway, and slammed into a barrier at the airport, setting off an explosion.

Workers have recovered the flight data and cockpit voice recorders of the plane’s black box. Aviation safety analyst David Soucie says those will be key to figuring out just what went wrong.

SOUCIE: There’s so many different unanswered questions and yes, [the] flight data recorder will give us those answers.

The plane was arriving from Bangkok, and the pilot sent out a distress signal shortly before it overshot the runway.

Halifax plane experiences suspected landing gear issues » Air Canada suspects a landing gear issue is to blame for a rough landing on one of its express flights over the weekend.

The plane, arriving at Halifax International Airport Saturday, experienced trouble upon landing and never made it to the terminal. The crew and all 73 passengers off-loaded onto a bus and no one was hurt.

But one of the passengers recounted a harrowing experience to Canada’s CBC News.

VALENTINE: We heard a pretty loud what almost sounded like a crash sound as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine. The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane, and smoke started coming in the windows.

The flight was coming in from St. John’s, Newfoundland, and the incident temporarily shut down all flights at the airport. Canada’s transportation safety board is investigating.

Azerbaijan president says Russians shot down airliner » The sounds of mourners at a funeral service in Baku, Azerbaijan, honoring the pilots who died in last week’s plane crash in Kazakhstan. Now, Azerbaijan’s president says Russian fire caused that flight to go down.

The plane, en route from Azerbaijan to the Russian city of Grozny, went down Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.

Sunday, Azerbaijan’s president asserted he can say with complete clarity that the airliner was shot down by Russia, albeit unintentionally. He also criticized Moscow for trying to hush up the issue for days.

The Kremlin admits its air defense systems were firing in the area to deflect Ukrainian drone strikes. Russian leader Vladimir Putin called the crash a tragic incident but stopped short of publicly accepting responsibility, though Azerbaijan’s president says Putin did apologize to him over the weekend.

Trump changes mind on H-1B visas » President-elect Trump is changing his position on H-1B visas aimed at bringing skilled foreign workers to the U.S.

After criticizing such visas in his first term, he now tells The New York Post he supports them, siding with Elon Musk and others who say they help the tech industry find workers for critical but hard-to-fill jobs.

Some of Trump’s vocal supporters oppose the visas, saying they’re at odds with the president-elect’s “America First” vision.

Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett supports Trump’s position, but says the U.S. needs to find ways to lessen potential H-1B visa security risks.

BURCHETT: As in the case with the Chinese, they leave family members behind, and the Communist Chinese know that. And they compromise them. They say, ‘Hey, you got an aunt or an uncle over here. They might just disappear. We just need a little bit of information.’ Time and time again, they’ve done that.

That’s Burchett talking to Fox News Live. Trump has not said whether he’ll pursue changes to the H-1B visa program when he takes office.

I'm Mark Mellinger.

Straight ahead: a federal environmental statute takes center stage at the Supreme Court. Plus, the Monday Moneybeat with David Bahnsen.

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