NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2025 10PM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 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 addressed the nation tonight saying he inherited a mess when he took office earlier this year and is now fixing it. One year ago, our country was dead. We were absolutely dead. Our country was ready to fail. Totally failed.

Now, we're the hottest country anywhere in the world. Trump touted the economy, even as polls show most U.S. adults are frustrated with his handling of it. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said last week that Trump's tariffs have been driving prices higher. During the address, Trump said checks worth $1,776 are on their way to members of the military, funded by tariff revenue. He also blamed rising health care costs on Democrats and advocated against extending Affordable Care Act tax credits set to expire at the end of the year. Less than a year into his second term, Trump has issued more executive orders,

221 than he did in his entire first term. That's more than any president since Jimmy Carter, but the record goes to FDR, who issued more than 1,100 ordered in his second term. Lawmakers assailed FCC chair Brendan Carr on Capitol Hill today. It's launched investigations of major networks that have run afoul of President Trump, NPR's David Fulkenflick reports. Carr pressured the Walt Disney Company to take action against Jimmy Kimmel's ABC show, famously saying we can do this the easy way or the hard way. Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar asked him about that.

Do you think it is appropriate to your position to threaten companies that broadcast political satire? I think any licensee that operates on the public airwaves has a responsibility to comply with the public interest standard. That standard was historically seen to ensure the stations covered local matters and represented a wide range of views. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz says no one should interfere with protected speech no matter what party. David Fokinflick and PR News. The acting head of the CDC has accepted controversial recommendations from his vaccine advisory committee on the hepatitis BVat. vaccine. As NPR's Ping Huang reports, it's now official government policy. The CDC's acting director, Jim O'Neill, has changed the agency's guidance to say that pregnant

women who test negative for hepatitis B should talk with their providers first and consider delaying the initial dose of the vaccine. This guidance is not supported by any new evidence of safety concerns. Republican Senator Bill Cassidy had urged the CDC's leadership to reject the recommendations. Cassidy is a doctor who's treated patients with liver disease from hepatitis B. He says ending the previous recommendation for all healthy newborns to get the vaccine makes it more likely for cases to increase. The shift comes over strong objections from professional medical groups. They're suing the health secretary, alleging that his changes to vaccine policy have not followed proper procedure and violate federal law. Ping Huang, NPR News.

This is NPR News. President Trump has added partisan plaques to a refashioned West Wing walkway. he calls the presidential walk of fame. The move continues Trump's efforts to bend the telling of U.S. history to his liking. The additions include references to Sleepy Joe Biden and paint Republican icon Ronald Reagan as a fan of young Trump. They call Barack Obama one of the most divisive presidents in history. As fighting continues in Sudan, the World Health Organization says more than 1,600 people have been killed and at least 276 injured in attacks on health care facilities in the country.

this year. Michael Koloki has more. Tedros Gabriesus, head of the World Health Organization, says the agency has documented 65 attacks on health care facilities in Sudan since January of this year. Gabrieliusius said that the most recent attack occurred last weekend at a facility in the town of Dalange in the country's South Kordofan state. Fighting between the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, and the Sudanese armed forces, has been going on for more than two years now. Last month, the International Rescue Committee warned that the conflict in Sudan has devastated the country's health system, leaving millions of people without access to essential medical care.

For NPR News and Michael Kaloki in Nairobi. A wildlife photographer has discovered one of the oldest and largest collections of dinosaur footprints in an Italian national park, as many as 20,000 footprints dating back to about 210 million years to the Triassic period. the site near the 2026 Milan-Cortino Winter Olympic venue of Bormio. This is NPR. 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. T's and Cs apply.