NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-20-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Thousands of files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were made public by the Justice Department on Friday. Congress had passed a law requiring to have all government documents about Epstein released this week, but the Trump administration has admitted they'll still hold many other files with more being released at the end of the year. Congressman Rokana is a co-sponsor of that law. He says he's frustrated by Friday's release. People are taking a big risk by not. enforcing the law. We also, of course, could have impeachment hearings against either the Pambandi

or the Deputy Attorney General. We could hold them an inherent contempt of Congress. But I don't want to go there just on one day. I mean, what I would prefer is that we get an explanation for where the other documents are and what their timeline is. Many of the documents released on Friday are also heavily redacted. One of President Trump's closest allies in Congress represented of Elise Stefanik is dropping her bid for New York governor. Stefanik also says she won't seek re-election to her house seat. MPR's Brian Mann has more on that story. Stefanik was a rising star in the Republican Party first as an East Coast moderate,

the youngest GOP woman ever elected to a house seat, then pivoting to the right, serving as a close MAGA ally of Trump and confronting Ivy League university leaders in a series of contentious house hearings. But her political climb faltered this year when Trump with drew her nomination to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. Stefanik then announced she would challenge New York Governor Cathy Hokel in next year's election, but polls showed her trailing badly, and she also faced a tough primary challenge. Now, Stefanik says she's dropping her bid for governor and won't run again for her upstate New York house seat.

In a statement, Stefanik says she'll focus instead on parenting her young son. Ryan Mann, NPR News, New York. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. launched a series of deadly strikes against his state targets in central Syria. The attacks occurred on Friday. As MPIR's Greg Myrie reports, this comes after three Americans were killed earlier this week by a gunman in Syria. 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 Hegeseth 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. And you're listening to NPR News. Heart attacks rose in Los Angeles after the wildfires last January. That's according to a new study, as NPR's Alejandro Burunda reports.

Over the three months following the fires, the emergency room at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles saw lots of patients from the city's most affected areas. Now, researchers like cardiologist Joseph Ebbinger have dug into that data to understand the fire's impact on Angelina's health. They didn't see any change in the total number of visits, but they saw big shifts in the health. problems people showed up with. Some were expected, like a jump in lung issues. Others were more

surprising, like a 46% increase in the rate of people presenting for heart attacks during that time period. They also saw huge increases in abnormal blood tests. Ebbinger says that could be a sign of overall stress on people's bodies from the particularly toxic smoke and ash produced by the fires, which burned through toxic materials like home insulation, cars, and batteries. Al-Halajaburanda, MPR News. Health officials in Gaza say Israeli troops fired into the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, killing at least five Palestinians, including a baby. The killings come as the truce between Hamas and Israel has stalled in recent weeks. Israel's military says troops had identified a number of suspicious individuals and fired at them,

and they said an investigation into the shooting is underway. Stocks rose for the second straight day on Friday with tech stocks leading the charge. The tech heavy NASDAQ finished up 1.31%. The S&P 500, meanwhile, rose 0.88%. And the Dow Jones Industrials was also up 183 points. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. 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.

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