NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-14-2025 8PM 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. Australian Jews living in Israel or mourning the deaths of at least 15 people in today's mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration, on Bondi Beach in Sydney.

Dozens of others were injured. Police say a father and a son are suspected in the attack. Jerome Sokolowski has more from Tel Aviv. An Australian canter chants a prayer of mourning at a vigil on a beach in Tel Aviv. Hundreds of people crowd around and light candles in memory of the Bondi Beach massacre victims. Ellie Parks said his grandparents

and many Australian Jews of their generation were survivors of the Holocaust. They went to Australia to escape the anti-Semitism of the old world. When we grew up, we thought we were the blessed Jews. We were the ones who didn't have to deal with all that. And unfortunately, the last few years have shown us that that isn't quite true. But he said the vast majority of Australians are horrified by the attack and also want the kind of country that was a haven for his grandparents.

Jerome Sokolovsky, NPR News, Tel Aviv. In Rhode Island, police said they have a person of interest in custody, a man in his 20s, identified by sources as Benjamin Erickson. There's no word on a motive for the shooting that left at least two people dead, nine others injured. It happened yesterday as students were taking final exams. And the state's governor, Daniel McKee, says they are offering help to those who are struggling with what happened. As governor, I'm committing to the city and to Brown and the broader community that has been impacted by this, to make sure everyone who needs assistance, mental health assistance, can access them.

Brown has canceled classes and finals. McKee also ordered flags at state buildings be lowered to have staff. Far-ray politician Jose Antonio Cast will be Chile's next president, having scored a resounding victory over his left-wing rival in the presidential runoff. John Bartlett has more from Santiago, Chile. Kast ran a campaign based almost entirely on public security and immigration, claiming that he would install an emergency government in a country which he describes as being in crisis and which is deeply traumatised by a recent rise in crime.

Kast's father, Michael, was a Nazi party member who fought in the German army in the Second World War and emigrated to Chile in 1950. His son, Jose Antonio, the president-elect, is a staunch supporter of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and will become the first president since democracy returned in 1990. to openly support the dictatorship. Cast will take office on the 11th of March, 2026, the deadline he has repeatedly given for illegal migrants to leave the country or face persecution and deportation.

For NPR News, I'm John Bartlett in Santiago, Chile. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Media mogul and democracy activist Jimmy Lai is scheduled to be sentenced tomorrow in Hong Kong. He's facing multiple charges for his activists. And peers Emily Fang reports one carries a potential life sentence. Lai was first arrested in 2020 under Beijing's national security law in Hong Kong, accused of colluding with foreign forces by contacting American politicians like President Trump and then Vice President

Mike Pence as well as journalists. He had already spent years in prison on protest charges when his national security trial began in 2023. And while awaiting his verdict, his family says the 78-year-old's health has declined. Lai's work funding and organizing pro-democracy demonstrations came late in life. After arriving in Hong Kong as a refugee, he built a fortune in fast fashion, then started several successful media companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan before pivoting to politics. Emily Fang and Pure News. The Gemined Meteor Shower, considered to be the best one in the skies, peaked this weekend, but there is still a chance. you can see the show tonight. Nessa says people, if they're watching from very dark skies,

can see up to 120 multicolored meteors per hour at its peak. The shower, known for being bright and colorful, happens when the earth passes through a debris field of tiny particles left behind by an asteroid. And when the debris hits our atmosphere, it produces those bright streaks of light. I'm Janine Hurst. 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. T's and C's Apply.