NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. This hour, President Trump is speaking with members of his cabinet as his administration faces congressional scrutiny over the legality of military strikes on Caribbean sea vessels. It suspects of drug trafficking. Bipartisan calls for an investigation are mounting after the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered the military to kill anyone who survived a September 2nd strike on a system. suspected drug trafficking boat. NPR's Daniel Kurtzleben reports. Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a retired naval officer, was asked yesterday for his reaction. When a reporter asked him about the strikes, Kelly said if the reporting is accurate, that second strike could have been illegal. I will say, though, you know, as somebody who has sunk two ships myself, folks in the military need

to understand the law of the sea, the Geneva Conventions, what the law says. And leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees have said they're going to be looking into these strikes. And Admiral Bradley is expected to give a classified briefing on Thursday. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben reporting, Kelly, was among a group of congressional Democrats with either military or intelligence backgrounds who recently told service members in a video. They are obligated not to follow illegal orders. President Trump called the lawmakers' traitors. High-level talks are on tap today in Moscow, where President Trump's special envoy is expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Steve Whitkoff and Putin will be discussing the latest U.S. proposal for ending Russia's war with Ukraine. NPRS. Charles Maine says Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is also on the trip to Moscow. This is the sixth time Whitkoff has met in person with Putin since President Trump tasked him with resolving the Ukraine crisis back in January. This time, the billionaire businessman turned presidential envoy, comes bearing a new draft peace plan, one initially criticized for being overly favorable to Russia, and since revised within, from Ukraine and its European allies. It remains unclear whether Putin will accept those changes. In comments last week, Putin said he remained open to the U.S. proposal in theory,

but the Kremlin leader also conditioned any lasting peace on Ukraine withdrawing from territory claimed, but not controlled by Moscow, despite more than three years of heavy fighting. Transmaine's NPR News, Moscow. AI now touches the lives of many people. In NPR's, Barbara Sprunt reports a nonprofit hopes to harness the power of AI. It's been 35 years since a new independent candidate won a house seat, but the Independence Center wants to change that. The nonprofit is using AI to find congressional districts where voters are fed up with both parties. Strategists say they've identified 40 districts like that where independence could break through.

The center plans on backing about a dozen candidates in the midterms next year, and with the extremely narrow balance of power in the House, just a handful of independents could prevent either party from getting. a majority. It's NPR. New research suggests the brain's wiring goes through five distinct stages over a person's lifetime. NPR's John Hamilton has more on a study that appears in the journal Nature Communication. Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK studied the brains of more than 3,800 people from newly born to age 90. The team used MRI to see how the brain's wiring changed over that span. And the identified four time points when the brain reconfigures. At about

age nine, the brain ends its childhood phase, which prunes away unneeded connections between neurons. It also begins an adolescent phase of optimizing the connections that remain. At 32, the brain enters a long period of stability. Then around age 66, connections start to weaken, a process that accelerates after age 83. John Hamilton, NPR News. billionaire Michael Dell and his wife, Susan Dell, are pledging more than $6 billion to encourage U.S. families to claim Trump accounts. The gift is designed to support a portion of the president's tax and spending bill that involves new investment accounts for children under 10. Under the Trump program, the Treasury Department deposits $1,000 into accounts it sets up for kids born between this past January and the end of 2028. The Dell's gift would use the Trump accounts infrastructure to give $250 to qualify children under $1. the age of 10. U.S. stocks are trading higher this hour with the Dow Jones Industrial average now up 166 points at 47,455. I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.