NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-16-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 16, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The U.S. military says it's destroyed three more small boats in the eastern Pacific and eight people have been killed. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, the White House claims the strikes are legal because the boats carried drugs, but it has never provided evidence of this. Since September, the Pentagon has announced two dozen strikes killing nearly 100 people. The Trump administration says it is at war with narco-traffickers and can therefore legally kill alleged smugglers, even when the crew's on the boats have no weapons and show no hostile intent. Many military and civilian lawyers call these killings illegal execution without trial. A group of Democratic lawmakers has called on military officers to disobey illegal orders. One of them, Senator and former combat pilot

Mark Kelly, has been notified that the Pentagon has opened an official command investigation into his statement, which could mean calling him to active duty to face court martial. Quill Lawrence NPR News. The U.S. military is hosting a conference in Qatar today to plan a new international force for Gaza. As NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Tel Aviv, it's unclear which countries will send troops to Gaza and what their mandate will be. The U.S. military's central command is gathering representatives from more than 25 countries in Qatar to plan the command structure and to discuss generating forces for the international stabilization force for Gaza, according to a U.S. official who spoke to NPR on condition of anonymity. The U.S. wants international troops in Gaza by early next year. Israel and the U.S. want the force to support the disarming of Hamas in Gaza.

Muslim countries are being considered, but none have committed troops and there are disagreements about their mandate. Countries are not expected at this conference to be committing forces, and the U.S. has not disclosed who is attending. Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv. Authorities in Australia say they have gathered. evidence from two suspects in the mass shooting in Bandai Beach last weekend. Officials say they've recovered two Islamic State flags and some explosive devices from one

suspect's car. The effects of the attack on the Hanukkah gathering reached to one California family. From member station KVPR, Jonathan Linden, reports. The attack killed at least 15 people and hospitalized over 40. We're just devastated. We're broken. We're just broken to pieces. That's Esther Schlanger. She's the co-director of the Habbat of Bakersfield in California's Central Valley. Her brother-in-law, Rabbi Eli Schlanger, was killed in the attack. Esther Schlanger says because of this attack, her Abad has taken safety precautions.

But Schengar says Hanukkah will go on. You know, we're heartbroken, but we still are going to light the menorah, which I just did with my children, and we're going to eat the Lasca's and cry at the same time. For NPR news, I'm Jonathan Linden. On Wall Street at this hour, the Dow was down 150 points. This is NPR. The Labor Department has released its delayed reports on jobs. These were postponed because of the federal government shutdown.

The agency says employers only added 64,000 new jobs in November. Payment firm PayPal is taking steps to establish a bank in the U.S. The San Jose-based companies submitted applications to the FDIC and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to create PayPal, bank. PayPal says the industrial loan company would allow it to provide small business loans more efficiently. PayPal says its bank would also offer savings accounts to customers. Officials on the Hawaiian island of Maui are working to address a housing shortage following the wildfires on the island. Hawaii Public Radio's Catherine Cluette Pactall reports

a new law will address short-term rental housing. A historic law has passed on Maui that will phase out about half of the island's vacation rentals. Spearheaded by the local community, Mayor Richard Bisson proposed the measure last year to free up housing for residents. Amid a housing crisis and high cost of living, more Native Hawaiians now live in the continental U.S. than in the state of Hawaii. And in Maui County, vacation rentals make up over 20% of housing stock, more than anywhere else in the state. Property owners of the nearly 7,000 affected units can convert to long-term rentals, sell, keep them for personal use, or seek a change in zoning. The phase-out will happen over the next five years. For NPR News, I'm

Catherine Cluett Pactol in Maui County. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.