NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-16-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: November 16, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Amy Held. A defense official not authorized to speak publicly tells NPR 200 California National Guard members sent to Oregon and another 200 from Texas sent to Illinois will return home in the coming days. Their deployments had been stalled by the courts for months. And in the latest federal immigration enforcement surge, a Border Patrol official is touting 81 arrests made in Charlotte, North Carolina. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the country's biggest aircraft carrier, has arrived in the Caribbean. NPR's Lydia Kalitri reports it comes amid rising tensions with Venezuela. The carrier is bringing more than 4,000 sailors and dozens of tactical aircraft to the northern Caribbean.

They join around 15,000 service members that are already in the region. Rear Admiral Paul Lancelotta says the deployment of the strike group is a step to, quote, Protect our nation's security and prosperity against narco-terrorism. A U.S. military official told NPR Saturday that the U.S. is gearing up for possible military action against Venezuela. It remains unclear, however, if President Trump plans to use military action against the country. In recent weeks, the U.S. military has conducted multiple strikes on boats in the region for allegedly carrying drugs trafficked from Venezuela. Lydia Kalitri, NPR News, Washington.

A split is growing between President Trump and what had been one of his staunchest advocates in Congress. NPR's Luke Garrett reports the intra-party rift represents a broader fight over the MAGA movement. Trump called Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green a traitor on Saturday after reneging his endorsement for the Georgia lawmaker. Green tells CNN she now fears for her safety. Those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger. Green says Trump is attacking her because she supports releasing the Epstein files. She also criticized Trump's foreign policy agenda. Last week, Trump said he knows the MAGA movement best and that Green is lashing out because he didn't support her statewide political ambitions, which Green denies.

Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Home insurance is increasingly expensive in many parts of the country. NPR's Rebecca Hersher reports. The average price of property insurance in the Great Plains is significantly higher than the national average, according to a report from the Treasury Department. Consumers in the Southern Plains states paid 45 percent. more than average between 2018 and 2022. That's in part because of hailstorms. Scott St. George is a climate scientist at WTW, a risk analysis company. You've seen some big losses coming out of hail, mostly in the U.S. Hailstorms caused an estimated $160 billion of damage to homes nationwide last year. According to the

Insurance Information Institute, storms that produce large hail are getting more likely due to climate change. Rebecca Hersher, NPR News. It's NPR. In Southern California, the rain is easing for now, but the flood risk from an atmospheric river remains. Forecasters say rain could be heavy again tomorrow, the region still recovering from January firestorms, and it's now susceptible to debris flow. After this storm dumped more than a month's worth of rain in parts up to six inches, flooding got uncomfortably close for Long Beach resident Tim Maurice.

The water just started coming up really fast, and it's up past the sidewalk now and almost put some sandbags around the house, almost in the house. It's a little scary. In parts of town, kayakers paddled down the streets. An AI safety expert is warning that character AI's plan to ban chatbots for kids should be rolled out carefully, this to protect the teens who have developed relationships with them. April Demboski of Member Station KQED reports. Character AI says its ban on chatbots for youth under 18 will take full effect on November 25th. UC Berkeley bioethics professor Jody Halpern celebrated the move, but wants parents to know the weeks after separation from an AI companion could be a vulnerable time for self-harm or suicidal thinking. Parents do not realize that their kids love these bots

and that they might feel like their best friend just died or their boyfriend just died. Character AI said the company is moving slowly and has communicated the upcoming changes widely on its app, Reddit, and Discord, so kids would have time to adjust to the new paradigm. For NPR News, I'm April Domboski in San Francisco. It's NPR News.