NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-18-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

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Regular insurance is great for your standard day-to-day risks. But for those once-in-a-generation catastrophes, countries like Jamaica have made other preparations. We all realize that hurricanes are inevitable, and we can't just sit here and hope we had to be proactive. On Planet Money, how Jamaica weathered the worst hurricane in the country's history with a bet. Planet Money, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. President Trump today signed an executive order, fast-tracking the reclassification of marijuana from a Schedule 1 drug to a Schedule 3 drug. The move would pave the way for the Food and Drug Administration to study its medicinal uses.

The order, though, doesn't make pot legal nationwide. Trump says his order is for those in chronic pain, not for recreational use. Meanwhile, Health and Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. today announced a series of actions that could essentially ban gender-affirming care for youth all over the country. And here Selina Simmons-Duffin reports there are threatening to withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care. The most significant actions are two proposed rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services led by Dr. Mehmet Oz.

One rule says doctors and hospitals cannot get reimbursed by Medicaid for gender-affirming care for youth. The other is more sweeping. It says hospitals that provide the care would be cut off from all medical. care or Medicaid funding for everything. Because federal funding represents so much of hospital budgets, that rule could shut down gender-affirming care for youth at hospitals if finalized. The rules don't take effect right away. There's a 60-day comment period and health officials acknowledged they would face legal challenges. Selina Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.

Multiple media reports say there are fatalities in a business playing crash in North Carolina this morning. the FAA says a C-550 crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport. That's about 45 miles north of Charlotte. Video shows first responders rushing to the scene as flames burned near the wreckage. That airport provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and NASCAR teams. President Trump's social media company, Truth Social, has merged with a fusion power company in a $6 billion deal. And Pierce Bobby Allen reports it marks a major bet on clean energy by the Trump administration. It was a surprise and somewhat head-scratching announcement.

Trump's social media and crypto company will now become one of the first ever publicly traded fusion firms. Trump Media, the parent company of Truth Social, has seen its stock drop nearly 70% this year as the social media platform struggles to find its footing. So now the company is making a huge pivot to nuclear energy. Backers say the Trump company is expected to start building the world's first fusion power plant that can produce energy at the scale of a utility operator. Meanwhile, many in Silicon Valley, including Open AI Sam Altman, are big investors in nuclear. Tech leaders hope it can be a source of clean energy that can help power the intensive energy demands of AI data centers. Bobby Allen, NPR News.

The Labor Department says inflation cooled a bit in November as consumer prices slowed to 2.7% from a year ago. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The name of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts could be changing as being renamed to the Trump Kennedy Center. This after the board appointed by President Trump voted today to change the name. White House spokesperson Caroline Levitt says on social media, the vote was unanimous. A federal judge is allowing work to continue for now on President Trump's massive ballroom project. As NPR's Tamara Keith reports, the judge denied a temporary restraining order to halt construction that had been sought by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The National Trust for Historic Preservation argued that continued work on the president's ballroom could foreclose changes to the design that might come through the typical review process.

But U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon writes in his order that the government committed to consulting with the appropriate commissions by the end of the month and that the court would hold. them to it. The judge writes that by the government's telling, footings and below-ground structural concrete for the ballroom won't begin until February, and that, quote, nothing about the ballroom has been finalized, including its size and scale. Trump recently described it as a $400 million project, double the sum first announced in July. Tamara Keith, NPR News. There were no winners in the Powerball drawing last night, so the jackpot is set to climb to one and a half billion dollars for Saturday night's drawing with a cash value of just over $686 million. It's the seventh biggest lottery prize ever. I'm Janine Herbst, and you're

listening to NPR News from Washington. On NPR's Wild Card podcast, Jamie Lee Curtis talks about Hollywood's pressure to cover up aging. You can't hide the truth. We are who we are. And if that's Ultimately, what I get to represent in this lifetime, then I will feel it was a life well lived. Watch or listen to that Wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR Wildcard.