NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2025 5PM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The 32-year-old son of legendary filmmaker Rob Reiner has been arrested and booked on suspicion of murder. Steve Futterman reports Reiner and his wife were found dead in their Los Angeles home yesterday, sending shockwaves through Hollywood. The day after Rob Reiner and his wife, Michelle, were found dead in their home, authorities announced the arrest of the couple's 32-year-old son Nick, L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell. We have our robbery homicide division handling the investigation. They work throughout the night on this case and were able to take into custody. Nick Reiner, he was subsequently booked for murder and is being held on $4 million bail. Nick Reiner has spoken openly about his struggles with substance abuse for a period he lived on the street.

The case will now be presented to the L.A. County District Attorney who's then expected to bring formal murder charges. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. Authorities are searching for a person seen on video, walking away from the Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine. Officials released a person of interest Sunday evening. They have no known suspect. The shooting happened Saturday. The gunman fired more than 40 rounds inside a classroom.

President Trump says the administration is considering classifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug. We are considering that, yeah. Are you planning? Because a lot of people want to see it, the reclassification, because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can't be done unless you reclassify. So we are looking at that very strongly. Trump had said in August that he was reviewing how the federal government should reclassify marijuana. If the drug were reclassified as a Schedule 3 substance, it would be considered to have medical value and a lower potential for abuse. 24 states and Washington, D.C. allow the recreational use of marijuana. Ukrainian negotiators say real progress was achieved in the latest

round of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. NPR's Rob Schmitz reports Ukrainian President President Trump's negotiating team wrapped up talks in Berlin today. The U.S. government said in a social media post via President Trump's special envoy Steve Whitkoff's account that, quote, a lot of progress was made between Whitkoff, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, Zelensky, and European leaders. Talks lasted more than that. Talks lasted more than that. than five hours on Sunday in roughly 90 minutes on Monday at the chancellery in Berlin. Speaking at a business forum afterwards, Ukrainian president Zelenskyy said that talks were, quote, not easy, but productive, and that Russia was using its attacks on Ukraine as leverage

in the talks. There is so far no indication that Russian President Vladimir Putin will agree to any terms to end the war. Rob Schmidt and Pierre News, Berlin. U.S. stocks fell slightly today. The S&P 500 slipped a tenth of a percent. This is NPR News. A court battle between the Justice Department and California over the state's new congressional map began today. California voters decisively approved the map favoring Democrats last month. The Trump administration accuses California of racial gerrymandering by favoring Hispanic voters. California's map is a counter to Republican-led efforts in Texas and Missouri backed by President Trump. New Day from the Pew Research Center shows that most Americans who leave their childhood religion do so by

the time they're 30, NPR's Sarah Ventry reports. More than half of U.S. adults still identify with their childhood religion. But of those who have left, nearly half say it's because they stopped believing in the religion's teachings. Around a third say it's because of scandals involving clergy or religious leaders. Most U.S. adults who have left their religion have become nuns. That's N-O-N-E-S, meaning those who identify with no particular religion. More than three quarters of those say it's because they believe they can be moral without a religion. Americans who were raised as Hindus, Muslims, and Jews are among the most likely to have remained in their childhood religions, whereas Catholics, Latter-day Saints,

and Buddhists are much less. Sarah Ventry and PR News. A stray comet from another star is swinging past Earth. The Three-Eye Atlas comet was discovered over the summer. It'll pass within 167 million miles of Earth on Friday. as close as it'll get on its tour. It's only the third known interstellar object to pass through the solar system. Scientists believe it may have come from a star system much older than our own. I'm Ryland Barton. This is NPR News from Washington.