NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-03-2025 12AM EST

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Jail Snyder. I made questions about the legality of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. Senate Majority Leader John Thune says lawmakers will be looking into the situation. With regard to the latest question that you all been raising, that the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is going to look into and get the facts on some of the events that have happened down the Caribbean, that we will get those answers in due time. I have every confidence that the policies that this administration is employing when it comes to keeping people in this country safe in ensuring that our policy is one of peace through strength that those policies are being adhered to and followed.

Thune, speaking there to reporters on Capitol Hill, following a Washington Post report that Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth gave a verbal order to kill everybody during an operation in September. During Tuesday's cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth said he did not see any survivors of a military strike and was not a in the room when a Navy Admiral ordered a follow-up, but he said the Admiral made the right call. Republicans have held onto a House seat in Tennessee. Republican Matt Van Epps won Tuesdays closely watched special election over Democrat Afton Bain. The race was hotly contested. It saw millions in outside spending. The Justice Department says an Afghan citizen living in Texas is charged with making violent threats on social media. He was arrested in the Fort Worth area. as NPR's Ryan Lucas reports.

Court papers identify the defendant as Mohamed Alokozai. The FBI received a tip from Texas law enforcement about a video making the rounds on TikTok X and Facebook. Court papers say a man seen in the video claimed that he wanted to conduct a suicide attack against the other participants of the video call and that he wanted to build a bomb in his vehicle. The FBI used facial recognition technology

to identify the man in the video as Alokosai leading to his arrest. Court papers say Alokazai later told investigators that he made the statements in the video and he is now charged with transmitting threats. Ryan Lucas NPR News, Washington. Returning from his first papal trip abroad, Pope Leo spoke about how he felt the moment he realized he was going to become the first American Pope. NPR's Ruth Sherlock reports.

Pope Leo opened up when speaking with journalists on the papal plane returning from his first foreign trip to Lebanon and Turkey. He remembered the moment during the conclave when he realized he would be chosen to lead the Catholic Church. I said, here we go, Lord, you're in charge, and you'll lead the way. The Chicago-born Pope seemed pleased to let journalists get to know him a little. Even in difficult times in life, he elaborated, while living in Peru during years of terrorism, for example. His spiritual approach has been, he said, to quote, allow the Lord to lead. Ruth Sherlock, MPR News, Rome.

The former president of Honduras has been freed from a federal prison in West Virginia. The U.S. Bureau of Prisons confirmed the release of Juan Orlando Hernandez, saying he was freed on Monday following a pardon from President Trump. Hernandez was sentenced last year to 45 years for aiding drug traffickers. A UN committee says abuse and torture of Palestinians and Israeli prisons intensified after the Hamas-led attack on Israel and the start of the war in Gaza. The committee called on Israel to establish an independent commission and prosecute those responsible, including senior officers, as NPR's Ayapitrae reports. Palestinians released from Israeli prisons since the start of Gaza's war have borne signs of abuse.

They've described rape and military detention, severe beatings, prolonged starvation, and attacks by trained dogs. Palestinian authorities say 81 prisoners have died in Israeli jail since late 2023. The U.N. Committee Against Torture says reports indicate a, quote, de facto state policy in Israel of organized and widespread torture. Israel did not respond to requests for comment on the report. The committee says Israel does not have a distinct defense criminalizing torture, with legislation actually allowing some exemptions as, quote, a necessity of defense. Ayyapotrawi, NPR News. The financial markets in Asia are steadier in Wednesday trading after a slide in Bitcoin and

global bonds eased. Japan's benchmark knee K was up one and a half percent following Tuesday's rebound on Wall Street. That saw the S&P 500 rise to tenths of a percent. The Dow added 185 points for four tenths. I'm Jail Snyder in PR News.