NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-02-2025 5PM EST

Episode Date: December 2, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending the decision to strike an alleged drugboat in the Caribbean Sea for a second time, saying the fog of war influenced the call and he did not see that there were survivors in the water. Hegseth said he didn't make the call for the subsequent boat strikes pinning it on Admiral Frank Bradley. I watched that first strike life. As you can imagine at the Department of War, we've got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned

that that commander had made the, which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. Lawmakers have opened investigations into precisely what Hexeth ordered in his capacity as the Pentagon Chief. The Trump administration says the strikes are part of a counter-drug campaign that have left more than 80 dead in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific. The former president of Honduras has been released from a U.S. prison. He'd been convicted of a drug trafficking but was pardoned by President Trump. NPR's Ader Peralta reports this comes as Honduras tries to untangle a presidential election.

Juan Orlando Hernandez was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison last year for trafficking some 400 tons of cocaine into the United States. At the time, the Justice Department said he abused his power to help one of the most powerful drug trafficking conspiracies in the world. Now, after President Trump issued a pardon, he was released from a prison in West Virginia. Onduras is currently in the middle of a tense presidential election. Voters went to the polls on Sunday, citing technical issues, the vote count stopped on Monday. Now two opposition candidates are in a statistical tie and the ruling party, which will lose power, denounced U.S. interference in the vote.

Adir-Pralta, NPR News, Mexico City. NPR investigation found companies are charging veterans, millions of dollars for help with VA disability claims. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports that's even after the VA has warned that it's probably illegal. Filing a new claim for disability with the Department of Veterans Affairs can be complicated and some veterans turn to for-profit companies to help. But it's illegal to charge veterans to file an initial claim. The loophole is that Congress removed the criminal penalties for breaking that law 20 years ago. Since then an entire industry has has grown, sometimes charging vets tens of thousands of dollars from their newly awarded benefits.

An NPR investigation spoke with dozens of veterans who have used claims companies. While some vets said the service was worth it, many described charges for work they had to do themselves and being hounded by companies to pay up. Two competing bills in Congress aimed to fix the loophole, but neither is expected to pass soon. Quill Lawrence NPR News. Some parts of northern New England are expecting up to 10 inches of snow. You're listening to NPR News. from Washington.

Emergency crews are racing to reach survivors and recover bodies after catastrophic floods and landslides in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia. The death toll has surged past 1,300 with nearly 900 people missing. In Indonesia, rescuers are struggling to access villages on Sumatra Island due to washed out roads and collapsed bridges. For decades, scientists have struggled to develop a cure for HIV, but the disease can be controlled. with daily medication. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports, new studies out this week, brings researchers closer to controlling the virus without having to pop a pill once a day. HIV is a wily virus that comes roaring back if a patient stops their daily medication. To try

to prevent that from happening, two research groups trained the immune system to fight off the virus without the pills. The idea is to coax patients to produce antibodies that can attack many forms of the virus. In two very small studies published in the journal Nature, The approach showed promise. Several patients kept the virus controlled for months and even over a year without medication. Crucially, the researchers homed in on the immune cells responsible, called CD8 T cells. Knowing this could make it much easier to eventually develop a cure. Jonathan Lambert, NPR News.

A woman in Thailand shocked Temple staff when she started moving in her coffin after being brought in for cremation. The 65-year-old woman's brother brought her in believing she was dead. The temple staff heard a faint knock from the coffin and opened it up to find her alive. The temple plans to cover her medical expenses. I'm Rylan Barton. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.