NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-14-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

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This message comes from Bayer. Science is a rigorous process that requires questions, testing, transparency, and results that can be proven. This approach is integral to every breakthrough Bayer brings forward. Innovations that save lives and feed the world. Science Delivers.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. In Australia, at least 15 people are dead, including a child, and dozens of others are injured. after gunmen opened fire on Bondi Beach and Sydney as hundreds gathered for a Hanukkah festival.

Authorities say it was a terrorist act targeting the Jewish community, New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyan. We are satisfied that there were two offenders involved in yesterday's incident. One is deceased. The second is in critical but stable condition in hospital at the moment. The offenders are a 50-year-old and 24-year-old male who are father and son. Police say they also located a vehicle linked to one suspect that they say had several improvised explosive devices inside. Mass shootings are rare in Australia. The country implemented some of the world's toughest gun laws after a mass shooting in 1996 when a lone gunman killed 35 people at multiple locations, including a cafe and a tourist site. A person of interest is in custody in the mass shooting at Brown University yesterday that left at least two people dead, nine others injured. Police say it's a man in his 20s and sources identified him as Benjamin Erickson.

And peers Luke Garrett reports the shooting is renewing Democratic calls for stricter gun safety laws in the U.S. Connecticut, Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, tells CNN he's not hopeful that GOP-controlled Congress will pass new gun legislation. The Republicans in Congress don't ever meaningfully break from this president. So until they get the OK from President Trump to break with the gun lobby, I think the chances of us getting something done are slim. She says the Trump administration's defunding of mental health and gun prevention programs is making the country more dangerous. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana tells CNN Congress already passed a firearm safety law in 2022. And I would argue that if the facts are known, you will see that Congress has acted. According to data from the gun violence archive, this year, there have been at least 43 shootings on college or university campuses that caused injury or death.

Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Gaza is getting a reprie from heavy rains from a severe storm last week, but more rain is expected tomorrow. That means Palestinians are facing more devastation. And here's Adil Al-Sholci has more. Thunderstorms flooded hundreds of tents in Gaza, leaving thousands of already displaced Palestinians homeless and cold. Buildings have collapsed, killing several families,

while at least two babies died of hypothermia, according to local health officials. Mahmoud Basal is the spoken. for the Gaza civil defense. He says the tents are just not strong enough. He says there's an urgent need for caravans rather than tents and that the reconstruction of Gaza needs to begin immediately. Humanitarian groups say the Israeli government is obstructing their work as it restricts aid into Gaza. Hadil al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

a special envoy, Steve Whitkoff, and President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are in Berlin, where they're meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and European leaders over a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine. This comes as Moscow, says it will okay a ceasefire only after Ukraine withdraws from the part of Donetsk that it still controls. Zelensky has said he will not seed land to Russia, and he's offering to drop Ukraine's bid to join NATO, this in exchange for Western security guarantees. Zelensky stressed the need for peace on fair terms and highlighted ongoing diplomatic efforts. Some ancient plant species attract pollinating insect by producing heat. As MPR's Nell Greenfield voice reports, that makes the plants glow with infrared light. The palm-like plants

called cycads live in the tropics. They make pollen and seeds in long pine cone-like structures, and the plant can heat these cones up. In the journal Science, researchers report that the nocturnal beetles that pollinate these plants have antennae that are specially designed to sense heat. And experiments with a fake cone that heated up showed that the beetles would home in on the source of the infrared radiation. The researchers say that long before colorful flowers emerged, to attract later insects like bees and butterflies, plants were using an infrared

red glow to attract poor-sighted pollinators that were active at night. Nell Greenfield-Boyce, NPR News. And I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington. 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. Tease and Cs apply.