NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-03-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Korova Coleman. The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted some proposals in a U.S.-backed peace plan for Ukraine, but he rejected others. NPR's Charles Mains reports. 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 to 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. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he authorized and watched an initial U.S. military strike on a boat in the Caribbean in September. He says he didn't watch a second round of a strike that killed two survivors. Some lawmakers say that may be a war crime. NPR has learned Hegeseth had target engagement authority in the strikes

and that he gave verbal or written authority for two strikes to kill and two strikes to sink the boat. The administration alleges the boats are smuggling drugs to the U.S. The suspect in last week's shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., has been formally charged. And B.R.'s Juliana Kim has more. Romanoula Lockenwall is facing felony charges, including first-degree murder for the killing of Army Specialist Sarah Bextram, as well as assault with the intent to kill for the shooting of Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolf, who remains in serious condition. The suspect pleaded not guilty

to both charges, according to one of his attorneys. He remains in the hospital due to injury sustained after the shooting. The judge ordered the suspect held without bond. His next court hearing is scheduled for January 14th. Juliana Kim, NPR News. The federal government shutdown held up funding for a program that offers financial help for heating to millions of people. Several states are now reopening their applications for the program. From member station W.HYY, Sophia Schmidt, reports on the latest one.

Pennsylvania opens its low-income home energy assistance program, or LIHEAP, today, a month later than usual. Justina Ray is a preschool teacher and mama. 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's definitely feel like a weight 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.

On Wall Street in pre-market trading, Dow futures are higher. This is NPR. A Senate committee will hold a confirmation hearing today for President Trump's choice to lead NASA. The billionaire and private astronaut, Jared Isaacman, will answer questions. In prepared testimony, he says he wants to use commercial spaceflight to help the U.S. return to the moon before China does, and Isaacman wants to speed up U.S. investment in nuclear propulsion to help plan future NASA missions to Mars. The CEO of Artificial Intelligence Company, OpenAI, has issued a, quote, Code Red to employees this week. Sam Altman is worried about Google's growing artificial intelligence capabilities. NPR's Bobby Allen reports Google's latest version of its Gemini, rather Gemini

AI chatbot, has exceeded expectations. In a memo sent to OpenAI staff confirmed by NPR, Altman said the company needs to hyper-focus on improving chat GPT. And as a result, Altman told employees it is pushing back work on other products like AI agents for health and shopping and pausing a push into advertising. It comes as Google's latest Gemini chatbot beat out all the rival AI chatbots in a series of industry benchmark tests. It, for the first time, pulled Google ahead of the competition in the AI race. While ChatGPT remains the most popular chatbot,

the company is confronting questions about its finances. And that's because Altman said the company is not turning a profit and isn't expecting to until 2030. Bobby Allen, NPR News. The power company in Cuba's capital, says there's been a large outage on the island. The utility says several provinces on the western part of Cuba are in the dark. That includes Havana. I'm Cora McCollman. NPR News.