NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-21-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

NPR News: 12-21-2025 2PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Several lawmakers say the Trump administration is violating the Epstein Transparency Act, which required the Justice Department to release all its files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by Friday. It released some, but not nearly what was expected. NPR's Deepa Chivaram has more. Congressman Rokana, he's a Democrat who co-sponsored the legislation on the Hill to release these files, he called this release of documents on Friday incomplete at best. There were witness interviews with the FBI that he says should be released as well as

a draft indictment from the first Epstein case that was also something he was looking for. And he wants an explanation from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on the timeline of when the rest of these files are going to be made public. On the other side of the aisle, Congressman Thomas Massey, a Republican, he's been posting a lot on social media agreeing with Kana saying that not releasing all of these documents means that Attorney General, Pam Bondi and the Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, are violating the law. NPR's deep as shiver on. The lights are coming back on in San Francisco after a widespread

power outage last night left 130,000 homes and businesses in the dark. From member station KQED, Dana Kronin reports. Thousands of customers were still without power Sunday morning. PG&E, the city's utility company, is investigating the cause of the outage. The San Francisco Fire Department responded to a fire Saturday afternoon at a PG&E substation in the city, but says it's unclear whether that was the root cause. The outage paused transit services and caused traffic jams across the city due to malfunctioning traffic lights and driverless taxis stuck in intersections. For NPR News, I'm Dana Cronin in San Francisco. Thousands gathered on Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia today, marking one week since two gunmen

targeted a Jewish festival. Fifteen people were killed. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a review of national law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Christina Kukla reports. The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the review will examine if federal police and intelligence agencies have the right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe. That's after Australia's domestic intelligence agency revealed it had investigated the surviving suspect, 24-year-old Navid Akram in 2019 and deemed him not to be a threat. The review is due to be completed in April and the findings released to the public.

The Domestic Intelligence Agency says it will cooperate fully with the process. For NPR News, I'm Christina Kukala in Melbourne. The Venezuelan government says it will file a complaint with the UN after the U.S. stopped an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela yesterday. Americans had seized another oil tanker there on December 10th. This is NPR News in Washington. A manhunt is underway in South Africa for gunmen who shut up a bar early this morning, about 28 miles west of Johannesburg.

Police say they continued to fire at random as they made their escape, shooting people in the street. Nine people died, at least 10 others were wounded. This was the second mass shooting in South Africa in three weeks. Thousands of people gathered at the prehistoric Stonehenge monument in southern England today to watch the winter solstice sunrise. The stones at the Neolithic site are deliberately placed to line up with the sun's movements during the two solstices marking the changing of the seasons.

The BBC's Bernadette Kehoe reports. Some people travelled for hours to be amid the ancient stones as the sun broke through the clouds, marking the occasion with drumbeats, cheering and traditional Morris dancing. From now, the days get longer in the northern hemisphere. Winter solstice is marked by different traditions around the world. In Ireland, people gathered at New Grange in County Meath, where an ancient inner chamber is illuminated at dawn. Across Iran and Central Asia, there were celebrations for the Persian Festival of Yelda. In China, it's been marked by the Donji Festival, which roughly translates as winter's arrival. Lawmakers left Washington for the holiday without reaching an agreement on extending subsidies for people who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. This means premiums will be much higher starting New Year's Day. Analysts say some 22 million people will be affected. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.