NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-18-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. President Trump has ordered a ban on all sanctioned oil tankers going to and from Venezuela. And the threat of a partial blockade marks an escalation in the Trump administration's pressure campaign against Venezuelan president, Nicholas Maduro. And peers Greg Myrie has more. Now, a monitoring group, tanker trackers, said recently that around 30 of the 80 oil tankers in or near the waters of Venezuela were on the, this U.S. sanctions list, so those 30 could potentially be targets while the others presumably would not be. And we saw an example of this just last week when the U.S. Coast Guard seized a fully loaded tanker that was on the list. NPR's Greg Myrie reporting. The Trump administration says it will

start taking steps to effectively end gender-affirming care for youth. Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, outlined the Trump administration's proposed plans today to deny reimbursement funds for doctors and hospitals that provide the care for transgender young people under the age of 18. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services abruptly terminated seven grants made to the American Academy of Pediatrics. And Piers Maria Godoy reports the group has been a frequent and vocal critic of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s changes to federal vaccine policy. The canceled grants involved initiatives in multiple areas of child health, including reducing sudden infant death, early identification of autism, and prevention of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. In a statement to NPR, Mark Del Monte, the CEO of AAP, said, quote, the sudden withdrawal of these funds will directly impact and potentially harm infants, children, youth, and their families in communities across the United States.

He said the American Academy of Pediatrics is exploring all available. options, including legal recourse to address the grant terminations. HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Maria Godoy and PR News. The Labor Department says inflation in the U.S. cooled a bit last month, and Pierre Scott Horsley has more. Consumer prices in November were up 2.7% from a year ago. That's a smaller annual increase than in September when inflation was clocked at 3%. The inflation reading for October was incomplete. because furloughed federal workers were not able to do their usual price checks during the six-week government shutdown.

Analyst warned that also may have distorted the November reading. While the cost of some food items like eggs has come down in the last year, overall prices continue to climb. Electricity and natural gas prices are up sharply from a year ago, adding to winter heating bills. Persistent inflation has been a drag on President Trump's approval rating. Scott Horsley-MPR News, Washington. And Wall Street is trading higher at this hour.

You're listening to NPR News. Award-winning journalist Peter Arnett, who covered numerous wars and conflicts during his career, has died at the age of 91 in Southern California. Steve Futterman has more. Peter Arnett first won acclaim for his coverage of the Vietnam War for the Associated Press. In 1966, he won the Pulitzer Prize. As a wire service reporter, Arnett received little public attention. All that changed when he joined CNN. In 1991, he reported from Baghdad as the U.S. attacked Iraq.

It's an air raid alert. I have been several today. I think the last three were false alarm. He also covered the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Among his memorable interviews were encounters with Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. Pope Leo has named Illinois Bishop Ronald Hicks to replace Cardinal Timothy Dolan as the leader of New York's Catholic Archdiocese. Dolan, a prominent conservative figure, recently finalized a $300 million fund to compensate victims of sexual abuse who had sued the Archdiocese. Before becoming a bishop, Hicks was a missionary in El Salvador, where he led an orphanage. The 58-year-old will be installed as Archbishop at St. Patrick's Cathedral on February.

February 6th, both Pope Leo and Hicks grew up in Chicago. On Wall Street, the Dow is up 251 points. The NASDAQ is up 388 points. The S&P 500 is up 73. I'm Janine Hurst, NPR News, in Washington.