Biden commutes 37 federal death row sentences. And, a push to understand long COVID

By Brittney Melton

Published December 23, 2024 at 7:38 AM EST

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Today's top stories

President Biden used his clemency powers today to commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 men on federal death row. They will now serve life in prison without parole. It's one of the most significant moves against capital punishment in recent presidential history. Biden didn't commute the sentences of the other three men, who were involved in cases of terrorism or hate-fueled mass murder.

President Biden speaks during a reception in the East Room of the White House on Dec. 16. — US President Joe Biden speaks during a Hanukkah holiday reception in the East Room of the White House on December 16, 2024, in Washington, DC.

🎧 Biden released a statement this morning saying he condemns the people convicted of murder on federal death row and grieves the victims of the crimes, NPR's Deepa Shivaram tells Up First. He explained his decision to commute the sentences was guided by his conscience, his experience as a public defender, and his time as a senator, vice president and president. The possibility of the incoming administration resuming federal executions that he halted in 2021 played a part in the consideration to commute the sentences, according to Biden's statement.

The National Institutes of Health announced a $300 million investment to research treatments for long COVID. The agency, in total, has directed $1.8 billion toward studying the disease, which has been linked to extreme fatigue, brain fog, and heart problems.

🎧 Patient advocacy groups say there's too much focus on understanding why people get sick and not enough focus on relieving people's suffering, says Sarah Boden with NPR-KFF Health News collaboration. In the U.S., there are an estimated 17 million adults with long COVID. Many are unable to work or care for their families. The NIH says there's real urgency to discover treatments for the disease's long-term effects, but scientists first need a solid understanding of the underlying biology.

Lebanon is full of antiquities like the Greco-Roman ruins, Crusader castles and Ottoman architecture, but some have been damaged in the Israel-Hezbollah war. With a shaky ceasefire in place, officials are working to assess the damage to these cultural heritage sites.

🎧 NPR's Lauren Frayer recently visited several of those sites. She saw the Byzantine fortifications of a walled old city destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. "These are some of the iconic sites you see on postcards of Lebanon," she says. In mid-November, the United Nations added 34 sites in Lebanon to its list of protected cultural properties hoping to prevent damage to them. But it did not help with all of them. The World Bank estimates the cost of damage and economic losses from the war in Lebanon to be about $8.5 billion. Rebuilding cannot begin in a lot of areas until Israeli troops fully withdraw.

Today's listen

Musician Saint Levant has been selling out European and U.S. venues performing songs about his family and Gaza, where he grew up. His latest album, Deira, is an ode to his heritage and the Gaza hotel his father built, which was destroyed in the war. At his concerts, he opens with the same song, "On This Land," part of which was recorded in Gaza during the war. The 24-year-old also talked about falling in and out of love with his music. NPR's Majd Al-Waheidi caught up with him before a show in D.C.

🎧 Listen to snippets of his music, what he has to say about his new music and how the war has influenced it.

Picture show

The skateboarders of Bolivia's Imilla Skate do their heel flips and backslides in polleras — colorful, layered skirts worn by the country's Indigenous Aymara and Quechua population. "By skating in polleras, we want to show that girls and women can do anything, no matter how you look or how people see you," says Daniela Santiváñez, who founded the group with two friends in 2019. — Bolivian skateboarders show off their moves at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., in June. In addition to doing demos, they taught skateboard basics to kids as young as 3.

Goats and Soda, NPR's global health and development blog, published several photo-driven stories that resonated with people in 2024. The team gathered a sampling of their favorite photo posts from the past year. The list includes dramatic drone images of the world's "foodscapes," a look at families striving to provide healthy meals for their kids and Bolivian women skateboarding in their traditional dresses and bowler hats. You can see the vibrant and telling images by clicking here.

3 things to know before you go

Blake Lively is seen at an Aug. 8 screening in London for the movie This Is Us. In a legal complaint, the actor accuses co-star and director Justin Baldoni and his team of attacking her reputation after she spoke up about his and a producer's alleged "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" on set. — Blake Lively is seen at an Aug. 8 screening in London for the movie *This Is Us*. In a legal complaint, the actor accuses co-star and director Justin Baldoni and his team of attacking her reputation after she spoke up about his and a producer's alleged "repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior" on set.

In a legal complaint, Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni and his team of launching a smear campaign to silence her narrative about his and a producer's alleged repeated sexual harassment.
After nearly 40 years of business, Party City announced Saturday that it has started to wind down operations as it prepares to close all of its locations permanently.
A woman died Sunday after being set on fire while aboard an F train in Brooklyn, N.Y. Police have arrested a person of interest in the case. (via Gothamist)

This newsletter was edited by Obed Manuel.