NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-13-2025 1AM EST

Episode Date: December 13, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. President Trump's political power seems to be weakening. Indiana Republican senators this week turned down a redistricting proposal from Trump, saying they were put off by Trump's insults and coarse language. The outcome was a political defeat for Trump, says NPR's Domenico Montanaro. The fact is Trump is at the nader of his popularity in the second term. He's in the 30s, according to a lot of polls. Recent APNORC poll, for example, had him at 36 percent approval.

rating, which was even lower than our poll was last month, the NPR, PBS News Marist poll, and not by much. And he only had a 31% approval rating when it came to handling of the economy. So people are kind of in some respects looking past Trump. That's NPR's Domenico Montanaro. The Trump administration is lifting sanctions on a Brazilian judge who U.S. officials claim was too harsh on President Trump's political ally, former President Jair Bolsonaro. NPR's Kerry-Con reports. Bolsonaro was sentenced to decades in prison for attempting to overturn his re-election loss and stay in power.

Trump had said the U.S. sanctions against Justice Alessandra de Mordeis were justified because of what he called a witch hunt against Bolsonaro. He condemned Brazil's current leftist leader Luis Anasio Lula de Silva and imposed harsh tariffs on the country's exports. But in a reversal, the Justice Department has now lifted the sanctions against Mordaise and his wife. Trump has also gradually lifted many of the tariffs. He and Lula have forged a cordial relationship in recent weeks. Bolsonaro began his 27-year sentence in the special cell in Brasilia. Earlier this week, the lower house passed a law that could reduce his time in jail. Kerry Khan, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. The Department of Transportation is threatening to withhold millions of dollars in federal highway funds from New York State.

As NPR's Jill Rose reports, it's part of a broader push to limit commercial driver's licenses for immigrants. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says New York routinely issues commercial driver's 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 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. A Tennessee man who fired a gun at a contractor outside his former Jewish school in Memphis two years ago has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and aggravated burglary. 35-year-old Joel Bowman was sentenced to eight years of probation.

Classes were not in session at the time of the shooting. Bowman left the scene and was later shot by police. You're listening to NPR News. Supporters of Nagas Mohamedi said the Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been arrested. They say she was detained Friday in a memorial for a human rights lawyer who was recently found dead. Her supporters say she was violently detained along with several other activists. It's not clear if she will be returned to prison where she's been serving a sentence until her medical release a year ago. In what may seem an odd pairing, dolphins and killer whales appear to

work together to hunt salmon. As NPR's Amy held reports, scientists are relying on new technology to study the surprising behavior. Drones and suction cup attached cameras suggest killer cooperation between orcas and Pacific white-sided dolphins. Instead of competing for food in the waters off Vancouver Island, Canadian scientists say the animals may be engaging in cooperative foraging. The footage finds the orcas following the dolphins down deep. The orcas get quieter. perhaps eavesdropping on the dolphins echolocation, zeroing in on the price, Chinook salmon. Too big for the dolphins to swallow whole. The orcas bring it to the surface, break it apart, and the dolphins get the scraps.

The researchers say more study is needed to look at ecological implications. It's published in the journal Scientific Reports. Amy Held, NPR News. Skier Lindsay Vaughn got her 44th career win in World Cup Downhill Sun Friday at Samaritz in Switzerland. It's her first World Cup win since 2018. The 41-year-old had a 0.98 second leadover, Magdalena Eger, who placed second. Morham Polkner of Austria finished in third. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.

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