NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2025 7PM EST

Episode Date: December 16, 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. Police say the younger son of Rob Reiner, Nick Reiner, was taken into custody after the deaths of the director-actor and his wife, at their home in Los Angeles.

Detectives are investigating it as an apparent homicide. Rob Reiner was known for directing films that spanned comedy to drama, including this is Spinal Tap and A Few Good Men. He was 78. The Justice Department says it has foiled a plot to bomb sites in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports authorities have arrested four people in connection with the alleged plot. The defendants, Audrey Carroll, Zachary Page, Dante Gaffield, and Tina Lay, faced charges of conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

The charges were announced by the top federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, Bill Ossaly. The defendants are all radical anti-government members of the Turtle Island Liberation Front. An FBI affidavit says the group is dedicated to liberation through decolonization and tribal sovereignty. It says the four defendants were plotting to plant pipe bombs and businesses in the L.A. area to explode on New Year's Eve and had bought materials, including pre-corruption, chemicals to build the bombs. Officials say the alleged plotage were arrested while trying to test an explosive device out in the desert. Ryan Lucas NPR News, Washington. Former Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai has been convicted of conspiracies of sedition and foreign collusion under a national security law. Lie is 78. He's been a vocal critic of China's Communist Party. He was arrested in

2020 following massive anti-government protests. President Trump said he brought up case with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and asked for his release. President Trump is touting progress on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. He said he recently spoke with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Ukraine's President Zelensky, and other European leaders involved in negotiations. NPR's Deepa Shiverum has more. Trump sees himself as a global peacemaker and his inability to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, which started in 2022, has been a point of frustration for him. But now the president, is signaling progress in negotiations that took place in recent days in Berlin.

They're closer now. We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia. And I think we're closer now than we have been ever. U.S. officials say that as part of the peace deal, Ukraine could get some NATO protections, though they would not be joining the alliance. But that and other measures are still under discussion. Deepa Shiverum, NPR News, Washington. Australian leaders are promising to overhaul the country's already tough gun control laws after a mass shooting targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney's Bondi Beach. At least 15 people died in the attack. The proposals include a limit on the number of guns, someone can own, and a review of old licenses. This is NPR News from Washington.

The Colombian government is in peace talks with a Marxist rebel group over an armed strike in response to the U.S. military's naval building. build up in the Caribbean. The National Liberation Army's strike confines civilians to their homes and restricts commercial activity in largely rural areas. civilians who defy the rebels' orders are threatened with death. The maker of Rumba Robot Vacuums has declared bankruptcy. As NPR's Alina Seluk reports, Rumba's parent company, I-Robot, is being taken over by its main supplier based in China. I-Robot was founded in 1990 by researchers from MIT, and its devices have been used by the military and scientists tracking oil spills, but its claim to fame is the Roomba, the smart floor vacuum. In recent years, the home robot market got very competitive with lots of foreign

rivals, often at cheaper prices. Last year, regulatory scrutiny killed iRobot's merger with Amazon. Now, it faces new tariffs for products. They tend to come from Vietnam, and iRobot has been losing money. It owes nearly a hundred million dollars to its main supplier based in Shenzhen. And that firm has agreed to take over iRobat, assuring that devices will keep operating as normal. Alina Seluk, NPR News. Western states are off to their lowest snow levels since at least 2001. According to the desert news, snow covers over 90,000 square miles of the west, about one-third of average levels for early December. California's Sierra and Sierra Nevada Range and the Cascade Range in Oregon and Washington are among the areas suffering the most.

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