NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-01-2025 10AM EST

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

NPR News: 12-01-2025 10AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. House and Senate committees are launching inquiries into the deadly U.S. military boat strikes in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific. Lawmakers want to know about a news report that says Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth ordered U.S. troops to kill people aboard an alleged drug boat last September. Reporter John Otis says the U.N. has declared the U.S. strikes violate international law. U.S. forces have destroyed more than 20 alleged drugboats killing more than 80 people. But the Washington Post reported that following one of the first strikes back in September, there were initially two survivors clinging to the boat wreckage. According to the post, Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth had given an order to kill everyone aboard alleged drugboats

and that this order led to a second strike in which those survivors were killed. John Otis reporting. Hegeseth says the report is fake. President Trump says he supports Hegseth. A U.S. Appeals Court panel says President Trump's former lawyer was illegally installed as the U.S. prosecutor for New Jersey. The appeals court panel agreed with a lower court ruling and says Alina Habab is disqualified from serving in the job. Pope Leo is visiting Lebanon today and meeting with Christian and Muslim religious leaders. Leo is seeking to promote religious tolerance in a region scarred by conflict. NPR's Ruth Sherlock has more. Pope Leo began the day visiting a hilltop monastery with sweeping views of the sea

to pray at the tomb of St. Sharbel Mahlouf, a Lebanese maronite revered by both Christians and Muslims. At another pilgrimage site high in the mountains, Pope Leo heard testimonies, including from a priest helping refugees and a Filipino domestic worker about the treatment of migrants in Lebanon. Leo called on church workers to bring hope to their faithful, saying that even among the rubble of a world that has its own painful failures, it's important to offer prospects for rebirth. Ruth Sherlock, NPR News, Beirut. In the U.S., stocks open lower this morning as gasoline prices dipped. NPR Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial average slipped about 80 points in early trading. AAA says the average price of regular gas nationwide has dropped to $3 a gas. Even as tens of millions of people hit the road over the holiday weekend, truck drivers, however, are not enjoying lower prices.

The average cost of diesel fuels close to 374 a gallon, 20 cents more than this time last year. Airbus says most of its A320 passenger jets have now completed a software fix that was ordered on Friday. U.S. airline scrambled to make the update during the busy travel weekend. It was also a busy shopping weekend, both in stores and online. Despite shaky consumer confidence, shoppers are hoping to take advantage of holiday bargains. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. This is NPR. Officials in the Trump administration say they have struck a trade agreement in principle with the British government.

This is for pricing on pharmaceuticals. Part of the proposed deal will mean zero tariffs on pharmaceutical products from Britain. Britain is also expected to spend more on medicines. Officials in Hong Kong have increased the death toll from last week's apartment fire. It's now 151 people. Authorities say some of the netting on the building that burned did not meet codes for fire resistance. Thousands of people are now homeless after the immense fire burned for two days. An international mission to the planet Mercury is starting the last year of its eight-year trip.

The planet is closest to the sun. Joe Palca explains why the trip to the nearby planet takes so long. At its closest approach, Mercury is a mere 50 million miles from Earth. Jupiter is more than seven times that far. Yet a mission to Jupiter took five years to arrive. The Mercury probe called Bepi Colombo is taking eight. Why? The answer is the sun's gravity.

When you head to a planet closer to the sun, the trick is slowing down enough so you go into orbit around the sun instead of plunging into it. Bepi Colombo flew by the Earth once, Venus twice, and Mercury itself six times to use those planets' gravity as a way of putting on the brakes. Once the European and Japanese Space Agency's spacecraft arrives, it will study how mercury formed and why there is ice at the polls. For NPR News, I'm Joe Palka. And I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News from Washington.