Wednesday morning news: January 1, 2025

SOUND: 3-2-1 [Cheers]

New Years celebrations » Crowds in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia welcomed the arrival of 2025. It was one of many cities to ring in the near year with everything from spectacular light shows in Mumbai …

SOUND: [Mumbai fireworks]

… to ice plunges in the Netherlands, and, of course, the famous ball drop in Times Square.

SOUND: [Times Square ball drop]

The Times Square Alliance, which puts on the annual event in Manhattan says they retired the old 6-ton crystal ball this morning. It will be replaced with a new ball with “more bells and whistles.”

Speaker Johnson » No holiday break for House Speaker Mike Johnson this week. He’s working overtime in hopes of winning over some skeptical House Republicans.

Members will vote on Friday to elect a speaker for the 119th Congress. And Congressman Andy Biggs says he does not believe Johnson has the votes needed to hold onto the gavel.

BIGGS: I’m talking to different people from different factions in the conference. All of us want to see at least procedural change.

But Congressman Russell Fry of South Carolina noted that President-electTrump has thrown his support behind Johnson …

FRY:  We should honor President Trump's request, select Mike Johnson as speaker, uh, and go about the business of enacting his America First agenda.

Johnson has served as speaker since October of 2023 after then-speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a small group of Republicans, including some of the same members thus far withholding support from Johnson.

Danon on Israeli hostages » The calendar turns over once more, with many Israeli hostages still in the clutches of Hamas terrorists. And Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon says he's hopeful that they’ll finally return home in the new year with the support of the incoming Trump administration.

DANON:  I think the statement of President-elect, President Trump, that he wants to see them as soon as possible is very helpful, but you know, in the Middle East, the only language that those evil animals understand is power and strength.

President-elect Trump vowed that there would be "hell to pay" if the hostages are not released by the time he takes office on January 20th. He did not expound on what that might mean.

Woman burned to death on NYC subway identified » New York City police say they’ve identified the woman who died on Dec. 22 after being set on fire while inside a New York subway train. The victim is a 57-year-old Debrina Kawam.

Mayor Eric Adams told reporters:

ADAMS:  She resided in New Jersey. She had a brief stint in our homeless, uh, shelter system, our shelter system. And, you know, her house goes out to the family, a horrific incident to have to live through.

Authorities previously said they were using forensics and video surveillance to identify the victim.

The man accused of lighting her on fire, Sebastian Zapeta, is a Guatemalan national in the country illegally.

South Korea to inspect Boeing aircraft involved in crash » A team of U.S. investigators including representatives from Boeing have examined the site of a plane crash that killed almost 200 people in South Korea on Sunday. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: South Korea's Chief of Aviation Policy Joo Jong Wan … said eight U.S. officials have joined 11 South Korean government safety investigators probing the crash.

Authorities meanwhile are conducting safety inspections on all Boeing 737-800 aircraft operated by the country’s airlines.

The plane was seen having engine trouble and preliminary examinations also say the pilots received a bird strike warning from the ground control center and issued a distress signal.

But many experts believe a landing gear issue was likely the main cause of the crash.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Puerto Rico outage » Nearly everyone in Puerto Rico welcomed the new year in the dark last night.

A major blackout on Tuesday left more than 1.3 million homes and businesses without power. And service might not be restored until tomorrow.

Officials say it appears a failure in an underground power line triggered the outage.

Puerto Rico continues to struggle with chronic power outages blamed on a crumbling power grid that was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017.

I'm Kent Covington.

Just ahead: The top political stories from the year that was— on Washington Wednesday. Plus, Cal Thomas with a personal story about Jimmy Carter.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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