NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-18-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. The House has passed a group of health care provisions backed by Republicans. They're intended to lower health care costs for some people, but they do not extend subsidies for those paying for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The subsidies run out at the end of the year. If nothing is done, costs under the ACA will skyrocket for millions of Americans. So, separately, four Republicans joined Democrats to sign a petition yesterday. This now forces the the House to vote on extending the subsidies for three years. And Pierce-Barber Sprint says it is not clear when that vote will happen. Under House rules, there's a waiting period. The Speaker could choose to move the vote sooner as soon as today. But if he doesn't, the vote wouldn't happen until next month because lawmakers are leaving at the end of this week for the holidays. Even if the measure does pass the House, it's not clear it has enough support to pass in the Senate.

Ukraine's President Volodyear Zolensky is in Brussels today. EU leaders are set to decide whether to use frozen Russian central bank assets as collateral for a huge loan to Ukraine. NPR's Joanna Kikis reports. EU leaders are divided over the financial risk in supporting the loan backed by frozen Russian assets. Belgium is the most worried. Russia has sued Euroclear, the Brussels-based firm that's holding most of these assets. Zelensky told reporters he had spoken to Belgium's prime minister. I understand the concern about legal actions from Russia, he said, but it's not as alarming as having Russia on your doorstep. So I believe that as long as Ukraine is defending Europe, Ukraine should be supported.

He said if Ukraine is abandoned, Europe will pay with blood, not money. Joanna Kikisis, NPR News, Kiev. A funeral has been held in Australia for the youngest victim of last Sunday's mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration. 10-year-old Matilda was the youngest of the 15 people killed. Christina Cucleum reports. Morners gathered at a memorial centre in East Sydney to bid farewell to the little girl described as righteous and kind. Matilda's casket was adorned with a toy bumblebee.

The rabbi who delivered her eulogy said the death of the girl who came to Australia from Ukraine with her family was cruel and unfathomable. Earlier in the day, surrounded by a heavy police presence, family and friends held a funeral for the oldest victim, 87-year-old Holocaust survivor Alex Claydman. In a statement, his family says he will be remembered as a fascinating person with an unwavering spirit. For NPR News, I'm Christina Kukoya in Sydney.

President Trump's media company is merging with a nuclear fusion company called T-A-E Technologies. It's backed by Google. The all-stock deal is worth about $6 billion. Nuclear fusion technology is a very new, area of scientific interest. Fusion powers the sun. It's clean energy, but there's no known commercial success for this. You're listening to NPR. The government says consumer prices rose in November by 2.7 percent from a year ago. Costs did not go up as much as some economists expected.

An internal report by the U.S. Forest Service says staff shortages and low morale at the agency are leading to safety concerns. But NPR's Kirk Siegler reports the White House is blaming the Biden administration for hiring too many new workers. This internal memo that was first reported by the Washington Post backs up what former Forest Service officials have been saying since President Trump's Doge team cut thousands of employees. The big takeaway is that hundreds of millions of acres of public lands in the U.S. are being neglected and are under threat of environmental degradation. The report is from a survey of 290 ranger districts nationwide. Some trail maintenance programs lost all of their staff.

It also cites a mass exodus of expertise from the agency through retirements and low morale among those who are still there. In an email, a USDA spokesperson said Secretary Brooke Rawlins is working to restore fiscal responsibility. Kirk Sigler, NPR News, Boise. The federal government admits the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Army were partly to blame in a deadly air crash last January. Sixty-seven people were killed in Washington, D.C., when a Black Hawk helicopter collided with a passenger jet trying to land at Reagan National Airport. But the government response to the lawsuit filed by a victim's family suggests that the pilots of the passenger jet and the airlines may be responsible too. I'm Corva Coleman. NPR News in Washington.