NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-21-2025 11PM EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

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Support for NPR and the following message come from the Limelson Foundation, working to harness the power of invention and innovation to accelerate climate action and improve lives around the world. Learn more at limelson.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. The U.S. says it's pursuing another tanker in the Caribbean. Officials say the vessel is trying to evade sanctions for transporting Venezuelan oil. is part of the Trump administration's ongoing campaign against the government of President Nicholas Maduro in PR's Kerry-Con reports. A U.S. official tells NPR that the U.S. Coast Guard, quote, is in active pursuit of a sanctioned dark fleet vessel that is part of Venezuela's illegal sanctions evasion. The official was not authorized to speak publicly, but did add that the tanker is, quote, flying a false flag and is under a judicial seizure order. The Pentagon and the U.S. Coast Guard referred all inquiries to the White House, which has yet to comment. President Trump said last week that he was ordering a total blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers coming and going from Venezuela. On Saturday, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Christy Nome said the U.S. Coast Guard had boarded an oil tanker,

which a White House official later said was flying a false Panamanian flag. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are expressing frustration. After the Department of Justice released only some of its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Top Democrats claim this violates the Epstein Transparency Act, but they doubt Congress will sue the DOJ. And Piers Luke Garrett has more. Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He tells CNN he can't launch a suit against the DOJ.

It's not clear that we've got standing to do that. Speaker Johnson would clearly, it's standing to do that on behalf of the whole House of Representatives. But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries tells ABC News, the DOJ is required by law to explain themselves. The statute requires the so-called Department of Justice at this moment within 15 days to provide a written explanation to Congress and to the American people as to why they've withheld certain documents. The Justice Department has defended its partial release of the Epstein files

and the removal of around a dozen files, Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. Flash flooding is underway in Shasta County, California right now, which is in the northern part of the state, Have been ordered as water levels continue to rise on the Yuba River and other parts of the state are under a flood watch. In Washington State, meanwhile, officials are watching several levees that failed this week and led to flooding of hundreds of homes there. Washington Governor Bob Ferguson says National Guard troops are now in King County watching for leaks along those levees. We are taking specific steps to prevent further breaches and ensure we're prepared if a breach were to occur. More rain, meanwhile, is expected this week.

Foreign ministers from several Southeast Asian countries are meeting in Malaysia on Monday in hopes of reviving a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand. The two countries have been fighting off and on over a disputed land on their common border. The latest fighting began on December 8th. You're listening to NPR News. A storm-related power outage last week disrupted operations at the Colorado Lab, where the government calculates the official time. of the U.S.

As M.P.S. Joe Hernandez reports, the outage resulted in an almost imperceptible lag in the national clock. The National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST facility in Boulder lost power on Wednesday due to the storm. Then a backup generator failed. That disrupted the connection between some of the atomic clocks on site and NIST's measurement and distribution systems. The result was a 4.8 microsecond drift in official U.S. time, according to the agent.

For reference, it takes a person about 350,000 microseconds to blink. Though most people in the general public wouldn't notice the error, officials said it could have implications for some users in critical infrastructure, telecommunications, and more. Power was restored at the NIST lab in Boulder on Saturday evening, and crews were working to evaluate the damage and correct the error in due time. Joe Hernandez, NPR News. The latest in the James Cameron Avatar series was a big hit at the box

office this weekend. Avatar Fire and Ash brought in $345 million in worldwide sales, with 88 million coming from sales across North America. It's been 16 years since the original Avatar was released. The animated movie David, which tells the story of King David of the Bible, was in second, and it brought in $22 million, while the housemaid pulled in $19 million, the latest SpongeBob movie, meanwhile, finished in fourth, with $16 million from North American movie theaters. 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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