NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-22-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. President Trump's plans for Greenland are back in the news after he appointed a special envoy on the issue. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports Denmark and Greenland are making it clear they won't allow the U.S. to take over the territory. The leaders of Denmark and Greenland issued a joint statement demanding respect for their territory after Trump announced that he's appointing Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry to be a special envoy. Landry posted on X that he's honored to take up what he called a voluntary position to, quote, make Greenland a part of the U.S. Denmark and Greenland call this totally unacceptable, say national borders are rooted in international law. Greenland belongs to Greenlanders, the statement went on to say. Polls there show that while most Greenlanders want independence from Denmark, an overwhelming majority reject the idea of joining the U.S.

Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. China is criticizing the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan ships. It says doing so is a violation of international law. NPR's Emily Fang reports the statement came after the U.S. announced it was pursuing the seizure of a third Venezuelan oil tanker. The U.S. seized a second oil tanker just over the weekend, and Reuters citing documents reports the ship and its oil had been bound for China. China opposes all, quote, unilateral and illegal sanctions, China's foreign ministry said. It also said Venezuela has, quote, the right to develop relations with other countries. Venezuela has slammed the U.S. seizures as outright piracy.

China buys about 80 percent of Venezuela's oil now. Some of it shipped on unregistered boats to evade U.S. sanctions. But for China, that's just a figurative drop in the bucket. About 4% of its total crude oil imports come from Venezuela. Emily Fang and Pierre News. A segment promoted to run on CBS's 60 Minutes was pulled before it was set to air last night. The report focused on allegations of abuse at a prison in El Salvador, where the Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants this year.

And PR's David Folkenflick reports the network's new editor-in-chief, Barry Weiss, said the story wasn't ready. She argued that CBS News, in particularly 60 Minutes, kind of more storied, television news magazine of all time, needed to advance the ball beyond what had been reported the New York Times and elsewhere earlier this fall, and that they needed to be having senior administration officials on the record on camera in order to do that to make it a story worthy of broadcast. She said, you know, if story's not ripe, I'm not going to put it on the air, even if it's already been promoted. That's NPR's David Fulkenflick reporting. Stocks are trading higher on Wall Street at this hour. The Dow was up 186 points than

NASDAQ up 107, the S&P up 31. This is NPR. One of Kentucky's largest bourbon producers is expected to pause whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam says it's planning to shut down production on January 1st. The move comes as the state's $9 billion bourbon industry grapples with a surplus of whiskey, slowing demand in the U.S., and retaliatory tariffs. Scientists believe they have discovered newsspeople. in a deep part of the Pacific Ocean. NPR Chandeliz Duster has more on what the researchers found. A team of researchers from the California Academy of Sciences retrieved 13 reef monitoring devices that have been placed in deep coral reefs in Guam nearly a decade ago. They found 20 potential

new species, including crabs and sponges. Louise Rocha, a marine biologist and diver on the team, says there could be more new species. It's probably going to be higher because we'd conformed everything with genetics. So we sequence the DNA of the species before we make absolute sure that they're new. Researchers have also started a two-year expedition to retrieve 76 more deep reef monitoring devices across the Pacific Ocean. Shandalee's Duster, NPR News. Betty Reid Soskin, the National Park Service's oldest active ranger, has died. She was 104.

Soskin helped shape the creation of a national park honoring the millions of Americans who worked in defense, jobs during World War II, including women like her, who push forward despite racial discrimination. On Wall Street, the Dow up 207 points, the NASDAQ up 108. I'm Windsor Johnston, NPR News, in Washington.