NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2025 6PM 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 in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. President Trump signed an executive order today classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. NPR's Franco Ordonia's reports Trump has called the opioid crisis a public health emergency. President Trump said there's no doubt that adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. in order to kill Americans. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said the drug kills more Americans than any war.

No bomb does what this is doing. 200 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon. of mass destruction. According to the CDC, the U.S. has roughly 100,000 drug overdose deaths in a year. Fentanyl has been blamed for tens of thousands of those. Trump also said his administration is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule 3 drug, which he said would allow more research to be conducted.

Franco, Ordonez, NPR News, the White House. A panel of federal judges in Los Angeles, is he. hearing testimony this week in a case challenging the new congressional maps approved by California voters in November. Marisa Lagos of member station KQED reports the California Republican Party brought the lawsuit joined by the U.S. Justice Department. The lawsuit claims that Proposition 50 illegally drew new districts to favor Latino voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The ballot measure, which won nearly 65 percent of the vote, changed California's congressional maps to give Democrats a leg up. It was written after President Donald Trump asked Texas Republicans to

redraw their maps to benefit the GOP. The Supreme Court has held that states can draw maps that benefit one political party but cannot gerrymandered districts based on race. Earlier this month, the court allowed Texas's new map to go forward and mentioned in their ruling that both California and Texas's new districts are likely based on partisan advantage. For NPR News, I'm Marisa Lagos. Investors will get some over. overdue economic data this week. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on what markets hope to learn about prices and jobs. Timely reports on inflation and the job market were disrupted this fall by the six-week government shutdown. But some of that information will come dribbling out this week.

The Labor Department reports tomorrow on job gains for October and November. We'll also get a look at November's inflation rate on Thursday. Some of the missing data will not be made up, though, furloughed federal workers were unable to conduct price checks or tally the unemployment rate for October. So for the first time, there will be gaps in those long-running series. The maker of Roomba, the self-driving vacuum cleaner, is filing for bankruptcy. The company called I-Robot will be sucked up by its main contract manufacturer. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. U.S. stocks fell slightly today ahead of those economic reports. This is NPR. workers at the Louvre in Paris have voted to strike over working conditions,

shuddering the world's most visited museum. The strike follows talks last week between labor unions and government officials, which failed to address all concerns. The recent jewelry heist has intensified worries about security and staffing problems at the museum. Ford is discontinuing the F-150 Lightning electric truck, saying there was no path to make the vehicle profitable. Instead, the company will focus on hybrids. smaller EVs, and making batteries for utilities and data centers.

NPR's Camilla Dominovsky reports. The F-150 Lightning won awards and outsold other electric pickups, but Ford lost money on everyone that it sold. Andrew Frick is the president of Ford Model E. Ford is following the customer. We are looking at the market as it is today. And today's market includes lower than expected sales and President Trump stripping away support for EVs.

Ford will make an extended range, F-150, a form of plug-in hybrid, which can run on gas, as well as a smaller all-electric pickup in the works. That leaves Ford with more battery factories than it needs for its trucks, so it'll use them to supply batteries for the electric grid and data centers instead. Camila Dominooski, NPR News. The final set of pennies minted at the Philadelphia Mint have sold at auction for more than $16 million. The last pennies all bear a special omega symbol, the last letter in the Greek Alps.

alphabet. President Trump instructed the Treasury to stop producing the one-cent coins earlier this year in a cost-cutting measure. I'm Rylan Barton. This is NPR News from 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.