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

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The Trump administration is standing by its campaign of targeting and killing the crews of small boats accused of smuggling drugs from South America to the United States. However, questions are mounting about the legality of those strikes, and critics say they believe a war crime was committed in at least one such encounter on September 2nd. It's still unclear who exactly gave each order to use deadly force, even though Defense Secretary Pete Hexeth has been visibly at the forefront of the overall campaign. And PR's Deirdre Walsh reports on Hexeth's account during President Trump's cabinet meeting yesterday about the September 2nd deadly strikes in the Caribbean. He said he gave the initial order to strike the boat and then said he learned the details about the second strike a couple of hours later. And said it was a decision made by Admiral Frank Bradley, who leads U.S. Special Operations Command. And while Hexas stressed he personally didn't make the call for a follow-on strike, he said Bradley had the complete authority to do so.

NPR's dear to Walsh. The Kremlin says some aspects of the latest U.S. proposal for ending the war in Ukraine are unacceptable. But Russia remains open to further talks. This follows five hours of high-level discussions in Moscow yesterday involving Russian president, Vladimir Putin. President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Here's NPR's Charles Mainz. Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov rejected the idea Russia had dismissed the U.S. peace plan outright, saying Putin's give and take over U.S. proposals was a normal part of the negotiating process.

Peskov said Moscow remained open to future meetings to narrow differences, but that Russia preferred diplomacy out of the public eye. The comments came after a late-night marathon meeting between Putin and White House envoys Steve Whitkoff and Jared Kushner at the Kremlin failed to reach a compromise. The Americans had sought Putin's support for a revised U.S. peace plan for Ukraine, one that included more input from Ukraine in Europe after an earlier draft was criticized as heavily weighted in Russia's favor. Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.

Republican Matt Van Epps is the winner of a special election for a U.S. House seat in Tennessee. The race drew millions of dollars in outside spending and national attention as well. NPR Stephen Fowler reports Democrats are also claiming a victory of sorts. President Trump won Tennessee's 7th Congressional District last November. about 22 percentage points. This week, Matt Ben Epps won by nine. After super PACs from both parties poured millions of dollars into this high-profile contest, Democrats say the 13-point overperformance by their candidate Afton Bain is a good sign for 2026. In 60 state legislative and congressional special elections this year, Democrats have improved from their 2024 margins by an average of 13%.

Stephen Powell, NPR News. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 221 points. This is NPR News. Nearly 12 years after the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight over the Indian Ocean, the search for the Boeing Triple 7 is about to resume. That's according to the country's transport minister. We have more from Michael Sullivan. There were 227 passengers and 12 crew members aboard 4,000.

flight MH370, when it took off from the Malaysian capital bound for Beijing and vanished. There have been several unsuccessful efforts to locate the aircraft since the most recent suspended in April. The new search will begin at the end of this month. Debris from the aircraft has washed up on the eastern shore of Africa why it went down remains a mystery. Michael Sullivan reporting. The U.S. federal government shut down, held up funding for a program that offers financial assistance for heating to millions of people. Several states are now reopening their applications for the program. From Member Station W.HYY, Sophia Schmidt reports.

Pennsylvania opens its low-income home energy assistance program, or LIHEAP, today, a month later than usual. Justina Ray is a preschool teacher and mom of two who lives just north of Philadelphia. She says she's been waiting to turn on her heat until she can get a LIHEAP grant to pay her heating bill. She's relieved that the program is up and running. Not only for my household, but just for so many families that depend on it, it definitely feels like a week has been lifted. Pennsylvania plans to start sending out its first LIHEAP payments in the coming weeks. For NPR News, I'm Sophia Schmidt in Philadelphia.

I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News, in Washington. Listen to this podcast, sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR NewsNow Plus at plus.npr.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.