NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. At a cabinet meeting convened by President Trump today, Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth defends ongoing U.S. military operations in the Caribbean Sea as a matter of national security for the U.S. It's getting after and going after narco terrorists and designated terrorist organizations in our own hemisphere. As I've said, and I'll say again, we've only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they've been poisoning the American people. But critics say the administration may have committed a war crime if, as the administration says, the U.S. is at war.

The Washington Post reports Admiral Frank Bradley was following HECF's order September 2nd when he struck an alleged drug boat a second time to ensure no one be left alive. Over the weekend, a group of former military lawyers and senior leaders who've probed the administration's military activities in Latin America issued a memo saying the giving and the execution of the reported orders in September amount to war crimes, murder, or both. President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner

are in Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. And P.S. Charles Mainz reports a White House envoys are expected to try to bridge differences with the Kremlin leader over a revised peace plan for Ukraine. Putin has said he sees the American plan as a possible framework for a peace settlement, yet ahead of his meeting, the Kremlin leader touted recent Russian battlefield advances and accused Ukraine's leadership of being weak and out of touch with reality on the ground. Putin also said he preferred negotiating with the U.S. to Europe, accusing Europeans of providing obviously unacceptable conditions aimed at prolonging the war.

Putin's comments appeared part of an effort to convince the White House. It should pressure Ukraine to accept maximalist Russian demands. Those include seating territory claimed but not controlled by Russian forces, despite more than three years of heavy fighting. Charles Mains, NPR News, Moscow. President Trump's immigration crackdown has intensified a severe shortage of farm workers. The administration wants to help, but its remedy is facing strong resistance. From member station KCUR, Frank Morris, has details.

Most of the food produced in the U.S. is touched by immigrant labor, and about 40 percent of those workers are in the country illegally. Farm jobs were already hard to fill, and since ice raids began last year, the farm workforce has shrunk. Christy Boswell is with the new advocacy group, Grow It Here. Farmers have reached a crisis point. We have farms that are going out of business. We have food prices at an all-time high. The Trump administration is trying to make it easier and cheaper for farmers to hire foreign guest workers through the H-2A visa program. Farm workers' unions are suing to stop deep cuts in guest worker wages. From PR News, I'm Frank Morris in Kansas City.

From Washington, this is NPR News. The first major winter storm in the northeastern U.S. could be leaving as much as 10 inches of snow on the ground in northern New England. The National Weather Service issued storm advisories from New York to Maine. Meanwhile, parts of the Midwestern U.S. are dealing with the residual delays of heavy snowfall and ice over the holiday weekend. More than eight inches of snow fell at Chicago's. O'Hare International Airport, that set a record for the highest single calendar day snowfall in November at the airport. The singer, Rihanna, has not released an album since 2016, but NPR's Isabella Gomez Amiento reports. This week, the Grammy-winning artist scored a major milestone on the Billboard charts.

Rihanna's anti just hit 500 non-consecutive weeks on the Billboard 200 charts. The album came out nearly a decade ago, in January 2016. Fans and critics have long awaited a follow-up release from the pop star and Fenty Beauty entrepreneur. But it looks like Antai is the gift that keeps on giving. It's now the first album by a black female soloist to spend that much time on the Billboard 200. In a post on X, the singer celebrated, writing, God ain't forget about me. No word about future musical projects. But for now, Antai's still going strong.

Isabella Gomez-Armiento, NPR News. U.S. stocks are trading higher this hour with the Dow now up 177 points at 47,467. This is NPR News.