NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-21-2025 4PM EST

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rom. Sarah 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 deepest shiverum. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is urging all countries with influence in Sudan to push for humanitarian truce for the new year. NPR's Michelle Kellerman has more. Sudan came up a couple of times in Rubio's wide-ranging end-of-year news conference. The Secretary of States, as U.S. envoys, have been talking to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others to try to get them to use their leverage with the warring parties

to halt the fighting between a paramilitary known as the RSF and Sudan's armed forces. What we said to everybody on it is that what's happening there is horrifying. It's atrocious that one day the story of what's actually happened there is going to be known and everyone involved is going to look bad. More than 12 million people have been uprooted by the conflict and humanitarian workers are reporting widespread atrocities against civilians. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the state. Department. The Venezuelan government says it will file a complaint with the UN after the US stopped

an oil tanker in international waters off the coast of Venezuela yesterday. Americans had seized another oil tanker there on December 10th. A memorial service was held today in Sydney, Australia. It was one week ago that gunmen fired on a Jewish festival killing 15 people. The BBC's Phil Mercer reports. Thousands of people attended a memorial at Bondi Beach to remember the country's worst mass shooting in three decades. A day of reflection came at the end of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. The Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed by sections of the crowd. His government has been criticized for its response to rising anti-Semitism. Mr. Albanese has promised a crackdown on extremism and a review into the powers and processes of the intelligence agencies and the police.

The BBC's Phil Mercer reporting, and you're listening to NPR News in Washington. The lights are coming back on in San Francisco after a widespread power outage last night. 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. Flu cases are picking up across the U.S. So far, officials have confirmed three pediatric flu deaths, including one in Colorado. From members of Station, Colorado Public Radio, John Daly reports. The Colorado Health Department says the child who died was in elementary school and from Metro Denver. Last year, a record-breaking 288 children died from the flu in the U.S. The CDC says most flu-related pediatric deaths happen in kids who are not fully vaccinated.

In Colorado, more than 300 people are now hospitalized with flu, more than triple the number recorded the same week last year. Here's infectious disease physician. Suchitra Rao of Children's Hospital, Colorado. This year has been this unprecedented season where we're seeing a lot of influenza activity. Flu season can last until May. For NPR News, I'm John Daly in Denver, Colorado. And I'm Nora Rahm, NPR News in Washington.