NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-15-2025 8AM EST

Episode Date: December 15, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Corva Coleman, House Speaker Mike Johnson has introduced his plan to lower costs for health care. This comes as federal subsidies will run out at the end of the month for people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans. And Biers-Luc Garrett says the GOP proposal is intended to boost access to employer-sponsored health insurance plans. This bill would give eligible Americans access to what's known as Association Health Plans, a lot of names there. But basically, smaller businesses and self-employed folks could ban together. leverage their power and purchase health care. The idea is it would create competition and lower prices. This GOP proposal would also require pharmacy benefit managers to report more data in hopes of shrinking drug costs. And B.R's Luke Garrett reporting. Separately, today is the last day

for Americans to sign up for health care plans through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. This is for coverage starting January 1st. A federal criminal trial opens today in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A Wisconsin County judge is accused of helping a man evade immigration authorities when they showed up at her courtroom to arrest him. From member station WUWM, Mayon Silver reports. Judge Hannah Dugan is pleaded not guilty to federal charges of obstructing a proceeding and concealing an individual to prevent arrest. Former prosecutor and Loyola Law School professor Lori Levinson says, a big issue for the jury will be Dugan's mindset on April 18th when ICE agents showed up at her courtroom. Whether she was trying to impede an obstruct a proceeding, or whether she was trying to do what she thought was her job,

run her courtroom, deal with her cases, and try to keep from having the Department of Homeland Security interfere with that. Prosecutors will likely argue Dugan tried to impede ICE agents from making an arrest. While the defense is expected to make the case, she was trying to follow court protocol in unchartered waters. For NPR news, I'm Ayon Silver in Milwaukee. The Palestinian militant group Hamas confirms the death of one of its senior leaders in an Israeli air strike. Some Palestinians say the attack, which also killed five other Hamas fighters, was a violation of the ceasefire.

And Pierre's Anas Baba reports on their funeral. The funeral of five Hamas fighters and senior commander Raid Saed was held in a makeshift prayer space, beside a rubble of one of Gaza's many destroyed mosques. La Allah, Allah, al-Ah, Allah. Israel Said Saeed was the deputy commander of Hamas' military wing. Crowds shouted resistant shants as the bodies wrapped in green flags were carried through the narrow alleys of a shaltic camp area of Gaza. Saad's killing marks the highest-level assassination since a ceasefire deal was struck in October. In that period, Israeli forces have killed over 380 Palestinians.

Hamas condemned the target attack as a violation of a truce and demanded the mediators, including the United States, should prevent further bail. Annas Bobo, NPR News, Gazistay. You're listening to NPR. There's an outpouring of sorrow for director Rob Reiner, ante his wife, producer Michelle Singer-Riner. News reports cite a Reiner family's statement that says they are dead. Los Angeles police are investigating after finding two bodies at the Reiner's home yesterday.

They're treating the case as an apparent homicide. Australian lawmakers have agreed to consider tightening the country's already strict gun laws after yesterday's mass shooting. Fifteen people were killed when two suspected gunmen opened fire on a crowd celebrating Hanukkah. One suspect was killed,

the other was wounded. A Chinese activist faces a deportation hearing today in the U.S. He secretly filmed and documented several detention camps in China used to hold ethnic minorities. As NPR's Emily Fang reports, he now fears imprisonment in China.

Guan Heng became intrigued from English news reports about China's detention. of at least hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities in the Xinjiang region. So he went to Xinjiang himself, filming the detention centers which China built or expanded as part of a campaign the U.S. has deemed a cultural genocide against U.S. To publish the footage, Guan left China, fleeing to Ecuador and then the Bahamas, before sailing an inflatable boat by himself to Florida, where he applied for asylum in 2021. But this summer he was arrested and remains in iced detention for illegally entering the U.S. His lawyer, Chin Chon Chong, has argued sending Guang back to China would almost certainly result in physical abuse and prison.

Emily Fang, NPR News. And I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.