NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

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This is I wrote glass. On this American life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant term. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right, because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcast. Live from NPR news in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. The suspect wanted for killing two people and injuring nine others at Brown University in Rhode Island

has been found dead in Salem, Massachusetts, New Hampshire. He's been identified as 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valenti, a naturalized citizen from Portugal and former Brown student. U.S. attorney Leah Foley explains how Valenti likely avoided being captured. He was using a phone. that was obfuscating ability to track it and he was using financial, like not credit cards that were tied to his name. And so he was sophisticated in hiding his tracks. Foley says Valente is also suspected in the murder of an MIT professor in Massachusetts on

Monday, then traveling to New Hampshire where he apparently took his own life. President Trump has signed an executive order to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. As NPR's Franco Ordonez reports, the order effectively eases federal restrictions on cannabis use without decriminalizing it. Speaking in the Oval Office, President Trump said the change would allow more research on medical uses and added that many friends have urged him to make the change. I promised to be the president of common sense and that is exactly what we're doing. This is really something having to do with common sense. And it's something having to do with the fact that so many people that I respect

ask me to the people that are having problems, big problems. The Schiff represents one of the most significant federal changes to marijuana policy in decades, and while it does not fully legalize the drug, the executive order equates the dangers of marijuana on par with more common prescription drugs. Franco, Ordonez, NPR News, the White House. TikTok has signed a deal to end the year's long effort to get its China-based owner to sell its U.S. operations. The new entity will be mostly controlled by a group of investors. This is NPR. President Trump has suspended the Green Card lottery program in wake of the

mass shooting at Brown University. The suspect in the attack was a legal U.S. resident from Portugal. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam posted the suspension on the social media platform X. Nearly 20 million people apply for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 winners who still must undergo vetting. Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangio, are asking a judge to drop most of the evidence in his murder case. As WNYC's Walter Woodman reports, Mangione is accused of killing a health insurance executive last year. The Labor Department says consumer prices in November were up 2.7% from a year ago.

That's a smaller annual increase than reported in September and cooler inflation than forecasters had expected. Analyst cautioned, however, the numbers may have been skewed somewhat by the government shutdown, which prevented federal workers from... This is NPR. A Wisconsin jury has found a Milwaukee County judge guilty of helping an undocumented migrant evade federal authorities. Hannah Dugan was accused of directing agents to the chief judge's office to give the defendant time to leave the courthouse during a hearing in a state battery case. Dugan now faces a sentence of up to five years in prison.

Defense attorneys for Luigi Mangione are asking a judge to drive. much of the evidence in his murder case. As WNYC's Walter Woodman reports, Mangione is accused of killing a health insurance executive last year. Defense attorneys argue that police did not read Mangione his Miranda rights and did not have a proper warrant when they interrogated him and searched his backpack at a Pennsylvania McDonald's last December. Attorney Karen Friedman Ignifalos, says prosecutors are now trying to cover their tracks. We want to thank everyone for coming and for sitting through a three-week mini-trial that should have been a half a day. Prosecutors say police did nothing wrong, and the evidence links Mangione to the shooting.

The judge is expected to issue a decision in May. He has not yet set a trial date. For NPR News, I'm Walter Wuthman in New York City. The Department of Health and Human Services is issuing new guidelines on the type of care that hospitals can provide. The new rules ban Medicaid reimbursements to doctors and medical things. facilities that provide gender-affirming care for minors. U.S. futures are flat and after-hours trading on Wall Street. On Asia-Pacific market, shares are higher, up 1% in Tokyo. This is NPR News.

On the TED Radio Hour, for over two decades, Krista Tippett has been helping her listeners get through change. But she was going through her own life crisis when something unexpected happened. I fell in love at 64. And it's the greatest thing ever. Finding your bliss. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.