NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-20-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: November 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Stevens. President Trump has signed the bill forcing the Justice Department to release all files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Attorney General Pambondi says DOJ will follow the law and says Epstein victims are encouraged to come forward. Anti-trafficking activist Liz Stein tells NPR how she and other Epstein survivors are digesting the latest developments. Some of us are feeling a little bit of whiplash. The position that the current administration has taken has been flip-flopping back and forth and back and forth. And so I think that we are cautiously optimistic about this, but we definitely have feelings about it. Stein says she and the other Epstein survivors are crime victims who've waited through five administrations for justice.

Several North Carolina school districts are seeing an increase in absenteeism as Border Patrol. continues an immigration crackdown in the state. From Member Station WUNC, Cherise Piggott has more. Amid the immigration enforcement operations, several districts in North Carolina reported high student absences. Wake County Public Schools, which includes Raleigh, reported more than 19,000 absent students Tuesday, with 110 schools reporting an absent rate above 10%.

Elsewhere, Chapel Hill Carborough City Schools says they saw 883 absences on Tuesday, That's 366 more absences compared to last Thursday. And roughly 30,000 students were absent on Monday in Charlotte Mecklenburg schools, the second largest school district after Wake. Wake County District leaders say they are, quote, actively reaching out to families to ensure students stay connected to their classrooms. For NPR news, I'm Cherise Piggott.

French authorities have expanded an ongoing investigation into Elon Musk's platform X to include Holocaust denying comments. As Eleanor Beersley reports, the Paris Prosecutor's Cybercrime Division is already investigating acts over falsehoods around the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. This week, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok posted a series of comments in French saying the Nazi gas chambers were designed for disinfection against typhus. Grock said the poisonous chemical Zyclon B was used against typhus and the death camp showers had, quote, ventilation systems suited for this purpose rather than for mass executions. Grock has also claimed there were mutilations and torture

during the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, a conspiracy theory that has long been debunked. Six million European Jews were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Many died in gas chambers. According to French media, Musk called the investigation politically motivated and has so far refused access to his platform's data demanded by French police. Eleanor Beardsley in Pierre News, Paris. This is NPR. A two-year investigation has led to the seizure of more than half a ton of methamphetamine and 15 indictments. Federal authorities say some of the narcotics were found on a Greyhound bus, traveling through Vail, Colorado last December.

But most of the drugs were hidden in boxes of pear squash imported from Mexico and found at a site near Denver. All but four of the 15 suspects are in custody. A North Carolina biotech companies says surgeons have completed the first 3D. printed human cornea transplant. Details from NPR's Rob Stein. Precise Bio says the procedure was performed in Israel at the end of October to replace a cornea of a patient considered legally blind. The company created the implant with a 3D printer that uses human cornea cells grown in the lab to fabricate functional corneas. The hope is that mass-produced human corneas could help solve the shortage of corneas.

Damaged corneas are a major cause of blindness. The company isn't saying how well the cornea is working, other than that the results so far are encouraging. The company plans to implant 3D-printed corneas into at least nine more patients as part of an early study. Rob Stein, NPR News. At the 59th annual country music awards, Lainey Wilson took home the top prize of entertainer of the year.

Wilson also won album of the year for World Win. Song of the Year went to Ella Langley and Riley Green for their retro hit, You Look Like You Love Me. Country music legend Vince Gill took home the Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. This is NPR. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com.

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