NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Jail Snyder. Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has some questions to answer when it comes to that U.S. military attack on a boat allegedly carrying drugs that included a second strike reported to have killed survivors. If there is anyone who needs to answer questions in public and under oath, it is Pete Hegseth. Kelly is among that group of congressional Democrats who appeared in a video, reminding members of the U.S. military that they have a duty not to follow illegal orders. Both Democrats and Republicans have voiced concerns about the attack's legality. Hagseth reportedly authorized the attack. The White House says it was carried out by Navy Admiral Frank Bradley, who is expected to be on Capitol Hill to answer questions on Thursday.

Pope Leo is in Lebanon on his first papal. visit to the Middle East. Lebanon is grappling with a long-running economic and security crisis that has prompted young people in particular to leave the country. Correspondent Jaina Raft reports on his message to them. Young people from across Lebanon greeted the Pope with songs and skits. They brought him poignant tokens, symbolic of what the country has faced, burnt wood from a home destroyed in war, soil, and a passport, symbolizing suicide and emigration. The Pope responded, Dear young people, perhaps you regret inheriting a world torn apart by wars and disfigured by social injustice. Yet there is hope and there is hope within you.

He said along with hope, they have the gift of time to shape the future. For NPR News, I'm Jane Arraf in Beirut. The nation's public health agency has taken big hits this year, losing a quarter to a third of its staff as the Trump administration seeks to downsize government agencies. NPR's Ping Huang reports that the cuts have left gaps in function at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Programs aimed at preventing cavities, car crashes, drownings, and shootings have halted. Workers who respond to nuclear emergencies or to virus outbreaks that can cause birth defects are gone. Dr. Dmitri Daskalakis, a former CDC official who resigned in August, says the agency is in critical condition. I keep calling CDC like a zombie, because it's a zombie.

CDC employees who remain are appalled by statements on measles, vaccines, and autism, which don't reflect the agency's scientific conclusions, but have shown up on the website anyway. While former CDC officials say the agency is debilitated, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services says the changes are part of sustained reforms focused on returning CDC to its core mission. Ping Huang and PR News. And you're listening to NPR News. Alina Haba has been disqualified from serving as New Jersey's top federal prosecutor. A federal appeals court cited with a lower court's ruling in August that found Haba was unlawfully appointed.

A three-judge panel unanimously upheld that ruling Monday, Haba is a former personal lawyer to President Trump. In Montgomery, Alabama, bills told for 70 seconds on Monday at the time of the arrest of civil rights, icon Rosa Parks. As Troy Public Radio's Jameson Spice reports, numerous events marked the 70th anniversary of the arrest and the start of the historic bus boycott. Marchers began their journey at the church where Martin Luther King Jr. was the pastor and ended at the site of Park's arrest. Many of those assembled, including original participants in the boycott, who all sang as they marched. Anthony Brock, head of the Valiant Cross Academy, says Parks and her legacy still resonate with him and his students. It shows you how one person can change the world. So when God gives you a vision

or gives you a charge, it's good thing to answer it and go forward with it. The bus boycott, which lasted 381 days, launched the modern civil rights movement and eventually ended segregation on public transportation. That was Troy Public Radio's Jameson Spease reporting. The Transportation Security Administration says U.S. Air Travelers without a real ID will face a $45. fee starting in February. Real ID is a federally compliant state-issued license or identification card that meets requirements mandated after the September 11th attacks. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.