NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-20-2025 7AM EST

Episode Date: December 20, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jail Snyder. President Trump took his economic message on the road Friday visiting Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, last night. NPR's deepest Chivaram reports his remarks calm as his administration is facing precarious polling. Trump is facing pushback from voters who aren't happy with his economic agenda. An NPR PBS news, Maris poll from this week, showed just 36 percent approve of his handling of the economy. But in North Carolina, Trump mocked the term affordability and once again blamed Democrats for high costs. You talk about affordability, you know, the Democrats, they're the ones that got us into the mess. They're the ones that cost the high prices.

The president spoke about 90 minutes in a long-winded campaign-style rally speech that included a tax on Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Republican Marjorie Taylor Green, who was once an ally to Trump, who now says Green is a fake. Deepa Shiveram and PR News. Also in North Carolina last night, President Trump called Friday's U.S. military attack in Syria a massive blow against the Islamic State Group. The military says it hit dozens of targets across central Syria. Trump had pledged to retaliate following a suspected ISIS attack that killed two U.S. service members and an American interpreter. Trump is now in Florida where he is spending the holidays.

New Mexico Representative Teresa Ledger Fernandez is among the House Democrats who are not satisfied with the Justice Department's partial release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. She spoke to ABC News. They knew this was coming. They have been looking at those files since February. It is shameful that they have failed, the American people, the survivors and women across the America this way. The Justice Department faced a Friday deadline under legislation that required the release. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche acknowledged the release was incomplete, but that he expects to complete the process by the end of the month. Many of the files released Friday have already been made public, others heavily redacted. A mixed week on Wall Street, as investors got some long

away to news on inflation in the job market. MPR. Scott Horsley reports of major stock indexes moved in different directions. After a lengthy data drought caused by the six-week government shutdown, this week brought a deluge of new information, suggesting the job market is cooling off and so is inflation. The unemployment rate ticked up in November to 4.6 percent, the highest in more than four years, while the inflation rate fell to 2.7 percent. Economists note both reports should be treated with caution, thanks to data collection challenges left over from the shutdown. Investors think the combination of a weaker job market and slower price hikes could clear the way for the Federal Reserve to keep cutting interest

rates next year. For the week, the Dow lost two-thirds of a percent, the S&P 500 index gained a tenth of a percent, and the NASDAQ jumped half a percent. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News. Police are giving a social media tipster credit for helping them crack last weekend's mass shooting at Brown University. David Wright is a reporter with Ocean State Media. The turning point came after a witness came forward

with a dramatic story to tell. The man identified in court papers only as John was somebody whose face had shown up in some of that doorbelled camera footage that was taken before the shooting. Police released his picture Wednesday evening, saying they were eager to talk with him, and he walked through the door an hour later. Before this guy showed up, police had noticed a Reddit post covering some of the same ground that he did,

and they were intrigued by it. Turns out the witness was the Reddit poster. The authorities say the Reddit poster helped them link the suspect to the fatal shooting of an MIT professor. Today's college football playoff games will feature Miami, Texas A&M, Old Miss, James Madison, and Oregon. The University of Alabama, the first team to advance. Alabama Public Radio's Pat Duggins has more on last nights come from behind victory over Oklahoma. Oklahoma was on its way to be the first team to beat Alabama twice in one season since Grover Cleveland was president. The Sooners led by 17 in the second quarter.

That's when the tide came to life, tying the game by halftime. The final score was 34 to 24. Quarterback Ty Simpson says the naysayers among the press helped. Yeah, I guess we can thank you guys for that. I mean, y'all kind of wrote us off in a sort of way, so appreciate that. Alabama now faces Indiana in the Rose Bowl on January 1st. For NPR News, I'm Pat Duggins in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. And I'm Jail Snyder.

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