NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, on Khorva Coleman, the world's leading food security organization says there is no longer famine in Gaza. This comes months after the same group said it had detected famine in the territory's largest city. NPR's Hadil al-Shalje reports. The integrated food security phase classification, or IPC, said that there were, quote, notable improvements in food security and nutrition in Gaza. The group's new report said this comes after a ceasefire deal was brokered between Israel and Hamas. in October. The IPC still warned that the situation is, quote, highly fragile and the Gaza strip as a whole could still face starvation. The Israeli military branch responsible for coordination in Gaza rejected the report's findings, saying it was allowing the agreed amount of aid into Gaza, according to the UN

standards. The IPC declared famine in Gaza City last August. The latest report said that some Palestinians are now able to have two meals a day. Hadil al-Shalchi, NPR News, Tel Aviv. President Trump has moved to reclassify marijuana as a lower-risk drug. For decades, it's been considered one of the world's most dangerous street drugs in the U.S. by the federal government. Trump says he's been lobbied to loosen marijuana restrictions. We have people begging for me to do this, people that are in great pain. Trump's action will allow Medicare to recognize the usefulness of marijuana. Medicare insurance is expected to cover some cannabis.

products starting next year. The Trump administration has announced actions that could essentially ban gender-affirming care for youth all over the country. NPR Selina-Simmins-Duffin reports pediatricians say these moves by federal health officials would cause significant harm. Federal health officials announced a proposal that would withhold federal funding from any hospital that provides gender-affirming care for youth. The American Academy of Pediatrics pushed back forcefully, saying the proposal misconstrued the current medical consensus and would harm transgender patients. A pediatrician who provides this care in Minnesota and spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity says patients are scared that these moves will mean their care is cut off suddenly.

We're going into the holiday break and families are going to be sitting at home terrified, not knowing how they can protect their children. The proposed rule is open for 60 days of public comment on the Federal Register and will need to be finalized before it takes effect. Selina Simmons-Duffin and PR News, Washington. Authorities have located the deceased body of the suspect believed to have killed two students last weekend at Brown University and an MIT professor last Monday. The Trump Immigrant, rather, administration says he is a Portuguese immigrant who came to the U.S. through a visa lottery.

The administration says it is immediately suspending that lottery for legal immigrants. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The National Weather Service has issued one of its most dire warnings for the mountains around Boulder, Colorado. Wind gusts could hit 100 miles per hour today. Wildfires could spread very quickly. Officials in Boulder are telling people to stay home and off the roads. Some 100,000 customers are in the dark as the power company turns off electricity to avoid the risk of sparking fires. Australia's government says it will launch a national gun buyback program.

This follows last Sunday's deadly shooting that killed 15 people. Australia's prime minister says he expects hundreds of thousands of weapons to be surrendered. Christina Kuklia has more. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says there are currently more than 4 million firearms in the country. That's even more than in the late 1990s when a mass shooting attack in Tasmania killed 35 people and prompted a major reform of gun ownership laws. Albanese says tougher action is needed today. The terrible events at Bondi show we need to get more guns off our streets.

Funding for the buy-back program needs to be legislated. Australia's government says the program will target surplus, newly banned and illegal firearms, and surrendered weapons will be destroyed. It also wants to limit how many guns a person can own and to make Australian citizenship a condition of holding a gun licence. For NPR news, I'm Chris. The famed Louvre Museum in Paris is fully reopened today after striking workers returned.

They are protesting working conditions after a robbery of priceless jewels earlier this year. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News.