NPR News Now - NPR News: 11-28-2025 2AM EST

Episode Date: November 28, 2025

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Wolf researcher Jeff Reed built special recorders to try to understand what the wolves of Yellowstone Park are saying to each other. When you first start hearing these chorus howls, they kind of sound like a cocktail party in the wild. Ideas about translating nature. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. President Trump, says West Virginia National Guard member Sarah Bextrum is dead. She's no longer with us. She's looking down at us right now. Their parents are with her. It's just happened. She was savagely attacked. She's dead. Trump made the announcement during his Thanksgiving call to U.S. troops.

Bextram was 20 years old. She was one of the two West Virginia Guard members who were shot in Washington, D.C. Wednesday in what officials call a targeted attack. The suspect is in custody and has been identified as an Afghan national who came to the U.S. during the Biden administration and was granted asylum earlier this year. Late Thursday, President Trump posted a long message on social media saying he will permanently pause migration from what he said are third world countries. For many Americans, it's an unspoken rule to avoid political discussions at the Thanksgiving dinner table. And as NPR's Elena Moore reports the latest NPR, PBS News, Mayor's poll may help explain why. It finds that both Democrats and Republicans are skeptical of people who are in the other party.

Vast majorities of both Democrats and Republicans say that folks who support the other party are, quote, mostly close-minded. Plus, 72% of Republicans and 65% of Democrats believe those on the other side of the aisle are, quote, mostly dishonest. For some, like Democratic voter Teresa Tucker and Michigan, engaging in political discussions has become difficult. I think it's definitely gotten worse. I think, unfortunately, this administration has pitted people against each other. And, you know, if we would have more conversations, I think we would find we have a lot more in common than we don't. She says this holiday season, the focus at her dinner won't be on politics.

It'll be on family and festivities. Elena Moore and PR News. A U.S. Russian crew has started a mission on the International Space Station following a successful launch. The rocket lived off Thursday from Kazakhstan, as NPR's Nell Greenfield Boyce reports, they arrived in time for a festive holiday meal. Thanksgiving in space has long meant pouches of freeze-dried, irradiated, and thermostabilized foods, everything from smoked turkey to yams. But this fall, on a resupply mission, NASA workers sent up some extra treats. In a video, astronaut Zena Cardman showed off a bag.

full of packaged items like crab meat and salmon. We've even got some lobster, which is amazing. So I think it's going to be a really, really delicious meal. And I can't wait to share it with everyone, including our new crewmates. NASA says that Thanksgiving is an off-duty day for the crew so they can relax and talk with family members on the ground. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. This is NPR News.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says he sees U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine as a starting point, saying that the draft plan could become the basis of future agreements to end the war. Speaking to reporters Thursday at the end of a three-day visit to Kyrgyzstan, Putin insisted that Ukrainian forces pullback or be overrun, and he described President Trump's peace plan as a set of issues put forward for discussion rather than a draft agreement. Pope Leo met with Turkish president, Regip Tayyip Erdogan, on the first foreign trip of his papacy. And Pierre's Wu-Sherlock reports that the first American pope pressed Turkey to do more to protect religious minorities. In his speech made alongside President Erdogan in a large library and anchorer, Pope Leo said Turkey's grand Ottoman past is both a gift and a responsibility. You have an important place in both the present and future of the Mediterranean.

and of the whole world. Pope Leo warned that sidelining religious minorities, such as its Christian population, would be an impoverishment. Society is alive if it has a plurality, he said. For what makes a civil society are the bridges that link its people together. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Ankara. Lake effects snow is piling up in the Great Lakes region with the most accumulations in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

National Weather Service says a snowfall that began Wednesday, measured 15 inches in Marquette in Wisconsin. One location is reporting more than 30 inches, and forecasters say another storm system could bring even more snow this weekend. This is NPR News. This message comes from

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