NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Director and actor Rob Reiner has died. Police say the bodies of Reiner and his wife were found in the Los Angeles home on Sunday. They're investigating the deaths as an apparent homicide. Reiner was known for such movies as when Harry met Sally. He was 78 years old. Police in Providence, Rhode Island, have released a man detained in connection with the shooting at Brown University on Saturday. Certainly there was some degree of evidence that pointed to this.

individual, but that evidence needed to be corroborated and confirmed. And over the last 24 hours leading into just very, very recently, that evidence now points in a different direction. So what that means is that this person of interest needs to be, it should be released. That's Attorney General Peter Nerona. Two students were killed in the shooting, which took place while exams were underway, and nine other students were injured. A man is being called a hero after disarming one of the gunmen at Sunday's deadly attack at Sydney's Bondi Beach, MPa Shandali Stuster, has more on our story. Video shared on social media shows an unarmed man walking up behind one of the suspected

gunmen and grabbing him around the neck. The civilian wrestles and disarms the gunman who falls to the ground before walking away. New South Wales Premier Chris Menz praised the man's actions. A man walking up to a gunman who had fired on the community and seeing the single-handedly disarming him, putting his own life at risk to save the lives of countless other people. That man is a genuine hero. NPR has not independently verified the man's identity. But several reports say that the man is 43-year-old Ahmed al-A-Mad, a fruit shop owner. Shandales Duster, NPR News.

At least 15 people were killed in that shooting, and at least 42 other people were injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Sunday signaled that Kiev is willing to give up ambitions to join NATO. His comments came ahead of talks with U.S. envoys and European leaders in Berlin, but as Esmey Nicholson reports, Zelensky is still refusing to cede eastern Ukraine to Moscow. Responding to reporters via WhatsApp on Sunday, Zelensky acknowledged that Ukraine's NATO membership bid is not supported by all members of the alliance and proposed a number of bilateral Article 5-like security guarantees instead. The compromise comes as talks get underway in Berlin to fine-tune the 20-point plan

brokered by the US to reach a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Eager to make sure European leaders have a seat at the negotiating table as they pledged to keep financing Kiev, German Chancellor Friedrich Mertz is hosting the talks. But Zelensky's first meetings are bilateral with U.S. President Trump's special envoy, Steve Whitkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who have been leaning on Ukraine to accept painful ceasefire terms. For NPR news, I'm Ms. Mnkelsen, in Berlin.

And you're listening to NPR News. Stocks in Asia slipped on Monday as concerns grew over the increasing cost of artificial intelligence investments. Shares in South Korea finished down 1.8% while shares in Taiwan were down 1.2%. President Trump condemns CNN last week, arguing its reporters are biased, its leaders corrupt, and that the network should be sold. Trump's remarks take on new urgency as his allies seek to buy CNN. and its parent company. And the president says he may well play a role in what happens next. NPR's David Fulkenflick has more. Netflix struck a deal to buy most of Warner Brothers Discovery, the movie studios in HBO,

but not its cable channels, not CNN. Now Paramount is making a hostile takeover bid for the whole company. I should note, Paramount, Warner, and CNN are financial supporters of NPR. It's not clear how much Trump cares about what happens, except to CNN. This is what Trump said at the White House, when asked what changes he'd want at CNN. I don't think the people that are running that company right now and running CNN, which is a very dishonest group of people, I don't think that should be allowed to continue. I think CNN should be sold along with everything else.

Trump then accused a CNN reporter of working for the Democrats. CNN declined comment. David Fulkenflick and PR News. The New York metro area was hit with several inches of snow overnight Saturday and into Sunday it caused major problems for some travelers, More than 1,000 flights were delayed at area airports, while more than 100 other flights were canceled. The snow also made area roadways slick, causing accidents and traffic jams. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.