NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-17-2025 9PM 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 Ryland Barton. FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino says he plans to step down from the Bureau in January. NPR's Ryan Lucas reports.

In his message, Dan Bongino thanked President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and FBI Director Cash Patel for the opportunity to, quote, serve with purpose. Bongino was an unusual pick for the number two job at the FBI. He had previously served as a Secret Service agent, but never at the Bureau. He made his name over the past decade as a pro-Trump far-right podcaster who pushed conspiracy theories, including some involving the FBI. His tenure at the Bureau was at time.

tumultuous, including a clash with Justice Department leadership over the administration's handling of the Epstein files. But it also involved the arrest of a suspect in the case of the January 6th pipe bomber, which had gone unsolved for nearly five years. Ryan Lucas and PR News, Washington. With the search for the Brown University shooter in its fifth day, the City of Providence is on edge. Investigators are showing no signs that they're close to figuring out who was behind the attack that killed two students and wounded nine others. In an interview with NPR's All Things Considered, Providence Mayor, Brett Smiley, expressed concerns that the shooter's trail is getting cold.

Certainly it's frustrating that this investigation continues to take time. And I, along with all of my fellow residents, would love to have a suspect in custody and charges pressed. But the investigation is progressing. We're communicating that progress to the community. We're showing new video evidence, new photos as we start to piece together. events of Saturday. Officials in Rhode Island are asking the public to review any security or phone footage from the week before the shooting. A person officials are trying to identify was masked or had their head turned in videos

released by authorities so far. The White House is vowing to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, or Encar, a federally funded research hub headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Sam Brash of Colorado Public Radio has more. Encar was founded in 1960 to improve. improve weather predictions and better understand Earth's atmosphere. It now employs more than 800 people. But in a post on X this week,

White House budget director Russ Vow to promise to break it up, saying the center is now a major source of, quote, climate alarmism. Dan Powers leads Collabs, a group supporting federal research in Colorado. He says the news has left scientists frustrated and disillusioned. Science and research can sometimes be alarming, but closing labs like N-Card, doesn't make decades of facts any less true.

Colorado's Democratic congressional leaders blasted the move and promised to use every tool available to save the research center. For NPR News, I'm Sam Brash in Denver. The U.S. stock market had its worst day in nearly a month today. This is NPR News. Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning that Moscow will extend its gains in Ukraine if Kiev and its Western allies reject the Kremlin's demands in peace talks. Speaking at a top military meeting, Putin said Moscow would prefer to achieve its goals by diplomatic means,

but he added that Russia would, quote, achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means if its demands aren't met. The number of 3D printed guns recovered at crime scenes has skyrocketed in recent years, according to a report released today by the Gun Control Advocacy Group, Everytown for Gun Safety, NPR's Meg Anderson reports. Everytown identified 20 cities with five years of data on 3D printed guns, which can be made at home and are generally untraceable. In 2020, those cities were covered around 30 3D printed guns at crime scenes. In 2024, that number climbed to more than 300.

Nick Soplina is Senior Vice President for Law and Policy at Everytown. We are at the beginning of this crisis of 3D printed firearms. but we do have, I think, a good sense of how we can address it. Soplina says companies that make 3D printers could develop algorithms to block the printing of firearms, for instance, or states could make it illegal to publish blueprints for 3D printing a gun. Meg Anderson and PR News. Starting in 2029, the Oscars will stream on YouTube instead of airing on its longtime broadcaster, ABC. ABC will continue broadcasting the event until 2028.

The shift represents a significant move for one of television's marquee events. 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.