NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-12-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

NPR News: 12-12-2025 4PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Louise Skiyavoni. The Trump administration has granted Washington State's request for emergency assistance as it deals with disastrous flooding caused by days of heavy rain. Page Browning of member station KUOW in Seattle reports. Entire roads, farms, and buildings are underwater after torrential flooding on the scadget and other rivers. About 100,000 people are under evacuation orders and many have left by car, canoe, or kayak. Trina Moss is weighing the orders from her property in the city of Burlington. It looks like there's at least one neighbor that has been completely submerged. I'm sure everybody is apprehensive on should we leave, you know. But we're staying. We're going to hold out. The Washington National Guard is going door to door asking people to get out. Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday.

For NPR news, I'm Paige Browning in Seattle. The governor of Minnesota says he's taking steps to tighten regulation of public assistance programs. Governor Tim Walsh told reporters today that he's responding to charges that segments of his state's Somali population had fraudulently tapped into government programs for the needy. Walls today appointed a new director of program integrity for Minnesota. The Department of Transportation is threatening to withhold millions of dollars in federal highway funds from New York State. And PR's Joel Rose reports this is part of. a broader push to limit commercial driver's licenses for immigrants. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says New York routinely issues commercial

drivers licenses to immigrants that remain valid long after they're legally authorized to be in the country. And Duffy is threatening to withhold $73 million in federal highway funds unless that changes. Duffy says investigators found more than half of the 200 licenses they reviewed in New York were issued illegally. State officials insist they are following all federal rules and called Duffy's allegations a, quote, stunt that does nothing to make our road safer. New York is the latest state the DOT is targeted in its crackdown on foreign-born truckers that began after a truck driver from India allegedly made an illegal U-turn that caused a fatal crash in Florida. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.

Salvadoran National Kilmar-Abrego-Garcia this morning emerged to a cheering crowd from a scheduled appointment at an ice field office in Baltimore after a federal judge blocked immigration authorities from re-detaining him. An interpreter for Abrago-Garcia translated his message. I stand before you as a free man, and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high. The case has become a rallying point against Trump administration enforcement actions against illegal immigration. On Wall Street, approaching the closed tech stocks, including Broadcrom, NVIDIA, and Oracle have pulled down the market's performance. The S&P 500 ended off 73 points. This is NPR News.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released several photos from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein. Among them are pictures of Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton, and the former Prince Andrew. The 19 pictures released are part of 95,000 photos from the late Epstein's estate. Republicans say there's no sign of wrongdoing in the pictures of Trump. The readout on the accomplishments of the Paris Agreement on Clamia change is hopefully say its supporters. The treaty was adopted 10 years ago. NPR's Jeff Brady tells us that although the U.S. has bowed out, it still looks like there has been progress. The Paris Climate Accord said a goal to limit temperature rise to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. John Kerry was Secretary of State during the Obama administration and a key figure in getting the agreement adopted.

Speaking with the climate news site Grist, Kerry said the world is moving toward cleaner forms of energy like wind and sea. solar power, just not fast enough. I really think we're on a different track, and the test now is not can we get people to buy into this track. It is, will we move all of us, fast enough and big enough? World leaders plan to meet for the next climate negotiation summit a year from now in Turkey. Jeff Rady, NPR News. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is suing to stop President Trump's White House

Ballroom Project until it goes through comprehensive design reviews. public comments, and congressional approval, the preservationists argue that Trump has exceeded his constitutional authority. The NASDAQ today lost 398 points. I'm Luis Skivoni and PR News, 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.org. That's plus.npr.org.