NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-04-2025 9AM EST

Episode Date: December 4, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. Federal immigration agents are in New Orleans for an operation aimed at removing immigrants in the country illegally. Impairs Martin Costi has more. They say they're going after people who are in the country illegally and have committed crimes. And in New Orleans, they say that means looking for people with criminal histories who are let out of the local jail but not turned over to ICE. That's what the feds want local jails to do, turn those people over if they're in the country illegally. Trump has been highly critical of what he calls sanctuary policies, which he says protects criminals from being deported. But all that said, this operation probably won't focus only on criminals because what we've seen in other operations, such as in Chicago, is that most of the people who were swept up on immigration violations did not have criminal records. And P.P. Martin Costi reporting, President Trump's name is now emblazoned on the U.S. Institute for Peace, an independent agency that the administration gutted early. earlier this year as part of a cost-saving effort. And Pierre-Sachie Northern reports it will host a signing ceremony today for a peace deal aimed at ending hostilities in eastern Congo.

The U.S. Institute of Peace sits along the National Mall, not far from the White House, and has been at the center of a battle over who controls it. Earlier this year, the Trump administration seized the building and fired most of the staff. The building's fate is still in the hands of the courts. But on Wednesday, workers installed new signage on the side of the day. the building. It's now called the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace. The move comes ahead of a ceremony to sign a peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. One of several conflicts Trump claims to have resolved in his quest for a Nobel Peace Prize. Jackie Northam,

NPR News. The Trump administration is proposing to reset federal fuel economy standards for new cars, paving the way for automakers to sell more, less efficient gas-powered vehicles. Environmental groups say it will create more greenhouse gas pollution or emissions. And here's Kamila Dominovsky reports. The Biden administration had set ambitious targets for new vehicles gas mileage. Under President Trump, the federal government had already zeroed out the penalty for flunking those standards, making them toothless. Here's President Trump in the Oval Office. These policies forced automakers to build cars using expensive technologies that drove up costs, drove up prices, and made the car much worse.

The change will boost the bottom-lawful. line of automakers. Trump says it will also benefit drivers' budgets, although economic analyses have found that stringent standards actually save households money by requiring less gas. Camila Dominovsky, NPR News. The FBI has made it an arrest in the investigation of pipe bombs planted near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters in D.C. The night before the deadly January 6th, 2021, U.S. Capitol Riot, the person's name hasn't been released. You're listening to NPR News. Russian President Putin is on a two-day visit to India.

As Shwida Desai reports from Mumbai, this is Putin's first visit to India's capital since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago. Putin's visit comes at a time when India is facing 50% tariffs imposed by the Trump administration, in part because India is one of the world's largest buyers of cheap Russian oil. The Trump administration accuses India of fueling the war in Ukraine. India accuses Washington of a double standard because other major buyers like China have not been treated in the same way. Despite the tariffs and new sanctions on Russia, India has only curbed its purchases of Russian oil. Analysts say Putin's visit is partly to affirm the Russia-India bond amid those pressures. The relationship between the two countries is decades old and India's.

sees it as strategically important. For NPR news, I'm Shweta DeSai in Mumbai. Decades old palm trees in Rio de Janeiro are flowering for the first and only time in decades. The telepot palms were introduced by landscape architect Roberto Burleigh Marx in the 1960s. The palms which are native to southern India and Sri Lanka can reach up to nearly 100 feet and produce millions of flowers using energy accumulated. over decades. If the flowers are pollinated, they produce fruits that can become seedlings. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.