NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-21-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: November 21, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Krova Coleman. Congressional Democrats are condemning President Trump's call for the death of a group of six Democratic lawmakers who released a video. The Democrats are former military members or served in intelligence roles. In the video, they said members of the military and the intelligence community can refuse orders from the Trump administration if the orders are illegal. Trump was incensed. He wrote online, this is sedition and it's punishable by death. House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffreys. We had patriotic members of the House and the Senate have their lives threatened by Donald Trump

in the most unhinged, unacceptable, unconscionable, and un-American way. House Speaker Mike Johnson said that President Trump was only expressing his frustration and concern. The words that the president chose are not the ones that I would use, okay? Obviously, I don't think that these are crimes punishable by death or any of that. But the speaker said the video by the Democratic lawmakers was unprecedented and should be called out. President Trump will meet with New York City mayor-elect Zaron Mamdani in the Oval Office today. It's the first in-person meeting between them. Benapia's Elena Moore reports they've already repeatedly clashed leading up to today's visit.

Trump has been a vocal opponent of Mamdani. He argues that the 34-year-old Democratic Socialist is too extreme, falsely calling him a communist, and in the lead-up to election day, even threatened to pull the city's federal funding if Momdani won. It's a narrative that Mom-Dani has pushed back on, vowing to carry out his agenda focused on lowering the cost of living. He spoke about the upcoming White House visit to reporters on Thursday. My team reached out to the White House to set up this meeting because I will work with anyone to make life more affordable for the more than 8.5 million. people who call the city home. Mamdani's meeting with Trump comes just over a month before he takes office on January 1st.

Elena Moore, NPR News. European foreign ministers are uneasy about a new peace plan for Ukraine that's been worked out between the U.S. and Russia. The ministers say Europe must have a seat at the table. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports the French foreign minister calls this a plan of capitulation. EU foreign policy chief Kayakalas said for any peace plan to succeed, it has to be be supported by Ukraine and Europe. The U.S. Russian ceasefire blueprint is said to include highly disadvantageous terms for Kiev, such as the complete surrender of the Donbass,

even though Russian forces have failed to fully take it, and limits on the size of Ukraine's army and weapons arsenal. The release of the lopsided plan coincides with a debate in Brussels on whether to use frozen Russian assets to back a zero-interest loan to Ukraine, and amidst intensified Russian strikes on Ukraine's cities and energy infrastructure ahead. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reporting. This is NPR. Delegates to the UN Climate Summit in Brazil were interrupted yesterday by a fire that broke out in a building. The fire was contained.

About a dozen people were treated for smoke inhalation. Today is the last official day of the climate conference. Delegates are wrangling over a roadmap that would phase out fossil fuels worldwide. Grammy-winning rapper Pras Michel of the Fugis has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. He was convicted of illegally funneling millions of dollars in foreign contributions to Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign. Prosecutors had sought a life term for Michelle. A self-portrait by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo is now the most expensive work of art created by a woman to be sold at auction. NPR's Netta Ullaby has more.

is called El Sueno La Cama. That means the dream, the bed, and the 1940 work shows the artist asleep in a bed, adrift in the sky with a grinning skeleton wrapped in dynamite on top of the canopy. The painting sold for $54.7 million. That outstrips the $44.4 million, fetched by a Georgia O'Keefe flower painting back in 2014. But the art market has softened. The callow painting fell short of Sotheby's estimate of $60 million on the high end. An art by women still has a long way to go. A painting by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt sold earlier this week for $240 million. Netta Ulibe, NPR News. On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are higher. This is NPR.