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

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. The Department of Justice began releasing documents yesterday related to the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as required by a law Congress passed overwhelmingly last month. NPR Stephen Fowler has more. The Epstein Library contained well over 100,000 pages of court records, Freedom of Information Act files, memoranda from the Justice Department, and videos from outside Epstein's federal prison cell where he died by suicide in 2019, and documents that the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed in the law last month, compelled the Justice Department to hand over. NPR's Stephen Fowler, but only a small fraction is information that had not been made public before, and many names and pages are heavily redacted.

Justice Department officials say they'll continue to release documents that they are still reviewing hundreds of thousands of pages for possible release. The Supreme Court has stopped the Trump administration's effort to ban immigration judges from making public remarks about their work or the immigration system overall. NPR's Nina Totenberg reports. At issue is a Trump administration policy that bars immigration judges, judges from making any public remarks in their personal capacity about immigration or the agency that employs them unless the remarks are cleared first by administration officials.

The judges who are employees of the Justice Department challenged the policy as a violation of their right to free speech, and when they won an interim victory in a federal appeals court, the administration promptly went to the Supreme Court, warning the justices of dire consequences if they didn't intervene. But in an unexpected action, the court, with no noted dissents, let the immigration judge's case go forward, at least for now. Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington. Defense Secretary Pete Hegsav says the U.S. launched a series of deadly strikes against Islamic State targets in central Syria yesterday. Three Americans were killed by a gunman there last weekend. NPR's Greg Myrie reports.

The U.S. attack involved fighter jets, helicopters, and artillery reports. grounds 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. This is NPR News. A U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly confirms the Coast Guard is in the process of seizing a tanker in international waters off Venezuela. Tensions are mounting between the U.S. and the Venezuelan government of President Nicholas Maduro. The U.S. had seized a tanker off Venezuela on December 10th. Comedian Bowen Yang is quitting Saturday Night Live, midway through the season.

NPR's Chloe Veltman reports, Yang is scheduled to co-host his final show tonight with Wicked Star Ariana Grande. Bowen Yang has not publicly shared the reason for his abrupt departure from SNL. But in a social media post on Saturday, the comedian thanked the team and expressed gratitude for every minute on his time with the show.

A promo for Yang's final appearance on SNL's YouTube, has accrued hundreds of thousands of views. You better be watching Olivia. You hear me. You're not going to want to miss this one. Who's Olivia? The most common name in the US if we capture the Olivia demographic will be guaranteed ratings gold. Yang has risen through Saturday Night Lives ranks since joining as a staff writer in 2018. A year later, he was promoted to on-air talent and eventually an on-screen regular.

Though uncommon, there have been a few other mid-season departures in the past, including Cecily Strong, Dana Carvey and Eddie Murphy. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. had blasted off from West Texas this morning, carrying six passengers for a 10-minute flight. One of them was a paraplegic engineer from Germany, the first wheelchair user in space. Jake Mills, a blue origin engineer, says the company wants to make spaceflight more accessible to a wider range of people. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.