NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-04-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

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It's been a great year for TV, movies, and music, and we are highlighting the best of the best, including K-pop demon hunters, and severance. We're talking about our favorite moments of the year, including some of the best pop culture you might have missed. Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shays Stevens. President Trump says he will release video of a recent U.S. boat strike off the coast of Venezuela. NPR's Mara Liason explains. The U.S. strikes on a boat the White House says was carrying drugs has caused controversy after reports that there were survivors after the first strike and that those survivors were killed in a second strike. President Trump said he would

certainly release the video of the second strike, but that he's not sure what the U.S. government has on tape. The president continues to justify the attacks, saying that the boats the U.S. has been attacking are filled with drugs headed for the U.S. He claims that every boat the U.S. destroys saves 25,000 American lives, a number that experts say is substantially overstated. He also said the U.S. would soon be conducting strikes against Venezuelan drug traffickers on land. Mara Liason, NPR News, the White House. Border Patrol agents are fanning out across New Orleans to arrest and deport immigrants accused of entering the U.S. illegally or committing crimes. NPR's Martin Costa is in New Orleans, where local reaction is mixed.

There seems to be a difference between New Orleans proper and the suburbs on this. For instance, there's a suburb called Kenner, which saw a big increase in Latino residents in the last few years. There, the city and the police chief have welcomed ICE, and Latinos in the community say they're getting a similar vibe from some of their non-immigrant neighbors. I talked to a man named Jesse Bermudas earlier today. He runs a Latin American grocery store. I should say that store was completely empty, and he says that's, really typical right now. People just aren't coming out. But he told me that a lot of the people in that neighborhood came here to help rebuild New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. And now he says,

at least on social media, they're being told it's time to go. MPR's Martin Costi. An immigration enforcement operation is also underway in Minnesota's twin cities. It targets Somali immigrants. President Trump is dismissed as garbage. Japan's prime minister says she respects China's stand on claiming Taiwan as its territory, this following weeks of diplomatic and economic pressure from China, as NPR's Emily Fang reports. Earlier, Japan's prime minister, Sinai Takaichi, had said she'd consider a Chinese invasion of Taiwan to be an existential threat to Japanese national security. Per Japan's own laws, its military could then use force in such a case.

And China hit back immediately, with its top diplomat, the United Nations, calling her remarks, quote, erroneous. China has also blocked off some tourism channels to Japan and put some trade bans back on Japanese agricultural products. Takeichi appeared to try to cool things down by saying she stood by a 1972 diplomatic communique with China and which Japan, quote, fully understands and respects China's belief that Taiwan is part of China. Emily Fang and Peer News. You're listening to NPR. U.S. House Democrats are released.

previously unseen photos of the Virgin Islands home owned by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Oversight Committee says it's also received records on Epstein's dealings with J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Banks. The data was obtained in response to a request to the Justice Department to release old records in the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, attorneys for one of Epstein's accusers are asking a judge to approve a Justice Department request to unseal the records. The Trump administration proposing to ease Biden-era fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles. Trump says the policies have forced automakers to build expensive technologies that drove up costs and reduced quality. The administration had already removed penalties for noncompliance.

Colorado's mild and dry weather has delayed ski season and forced several resorts to push back their opening dates, but the first major storm of the season could bring significant snowfall. Colorado Public Radio, Stina Sieg, has more. Three Colorado ski resorts are opening this week, all later than planned. Telluride, the most famous of the bunch, was supposed to open on Thanksgiving. Chance Kiso is an editor with the website on the snow, which tracks snow conditions. He says at the ski areas that did open on time, some had only a few trails, or only one, open to guests. And that's been hard for skiers.

You can only do the same run so many times in the day. With the coming snow, Kiso says, much more terrain should be open across the mountains. For NPR News, I'm Steena Sieg, in Grand Junction, Colorado. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's Apply.