NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-19-2025 8PM EST

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

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This message comes from Subaru, celebrating the Subaru Share the Love event now through January 2nd. By year's end, Subaru and its retailers will have donated more than $350 million to charity. Subaru, more than a car company. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. has launched a series of deadly strikes against Islamic State targets in central Syria. As NPR's Greg Mirey reports, this comes after three Americans were killed by a gunman there. The U.S. attack involved fighter jets, helicopters, and artillery rounds directed against buildings and weapons belonging to the Islamic State. In a post on X, Pentagon Chief Pete Hegseth said, quote,

Today we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them, and we will continue. President Trump vowed to hit back after a gunman killed two members of the Iowa National Guard and a U.S. civilian interpreter on December 13th. That attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces who was about to be dismissed because of his extremist views linked to the Islamic State. U.S. forces defeated ISIS years ago, but have remained in Syria to prevent a resurgence of the group. Greg Myrie, NPR News, Washington.

The Justice Department has started releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, But it's incomplete. California Democratic Congressman Rokana is one of the sponsors of the bill that compelled the disclosure. He told NPR's all things considered. He's disappointed with it. So far, based on what we've seen, there are just excessive redactions. I mean, there's one document from the New York grand jury, which a federal judge ordered, released, totally redacted, 119 pages, all redacted. And there are not the types of documents so far that we were looking for now. We haven't done the whole review. The DOJ says several hundreds of thousands of pages would be released today with more to follow. A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's controversial overhaul of homelessness funding. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports the judge also accused the federal housing agency HUD of intentionally causing chaos.

In an oral ruling from the bench, Judge Mary McElroy in Rhode Island says it's likely HUD's overhaul is unlawful and agreed with critics that it could push many people back into homelessness in the middle of winter, causing irreparable harm. Hut has sought major cuts to permanent housing and instead wants to beef up transitional housing that requires people to work and get treatment. But the overhaul was announced so late in the year, many places are set to run out of money before new funds flow. If HUD really wants to change policies so dramatically, the judge said, it needs to do the work and go through Congress. Instead, she said the chaos seems to be the point. Jennifer Lutton and NPR News, Washington. President Trump is giving federal workers Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas off. In addition to Christmas Day, presidents have often given federal workers Christmas Eve off, but it's a little unusual to get both the 24th and 26 off. More than 300,000 federal workers have been laid off this year. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.

The live stream of a YouTube content creator talking about investments mysteriously appeared to. take over a White House website, and he says he has no idea how it happened. The live stream appeared for at least eight minutes last night, raising questions about whether the site was hacked. The streamer says he doesn't know what happened, but hopes President Trump is watching his streams. Australia's government says it will launch a national gun buyback program. This follows Sunday's deadly shooting that killed 15 people. Australia's Prime Minister says he expects hundreds of thousands of weapons to be surrendered. Christina Kukolia reports. 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 shows we need to get more guns off our streets. Funding for the buyback 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 license. For NPR news, I'm Christina Kukala in Melbourne. Sony is taking control of the beloved comic strip Peanuts. The company is buying a 41% stake from the Canadian owner Wild Brain for $457 million, increasing its shareholding to 80%. The Schultz family will continue to own the remaining 20%. percent. Peanuts debuted in 1950. This is NPR. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your

money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.