NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-22-2025 5AM EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Dave Mattockley. The U.S. Coast Guard has been in pursuit of another sanctioned oil tanker in international waters off Venezuela. That's what one U.S. official has told NPR. The status of the operation is unclear at this hour. The official says the vessel in question is flying a false flag under a judicial seizure order. The Justice Department has reposted one of the photographs that previously removed from its publicly accessible Epstein files involving the late-convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. As NPR's Andrea Shue reports, the photograph in question showed President Trump. NPR reported on Saturday that more than a dozen files released by the Justice Department a day earlier had been taken down from the Epstein Files website. They included an image that showed a desk covered with photos, including at least one of President Trump, that led to questions about why the photos had been removed. On Sunday morning, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told NBC's Meet the Press that the images were pulled down because a judge had told them to listen to concerns from victims and victim rights groups.

Later, the Justice Department posted on X that it had reviewed the photo of the desk and found no evidence that any Epstein victims were depicted. It has been reposted without any alteration or redaction, the post said. Andrea Shue and PR News. Vice President J.D. Vance called for unity within the Republican Party when he addressed Turning Point USA's annual conference in Phoenix yesterday. As NPR's Elena Moore reports, this was the first national conference hosted by the organization since its founder, conservative activist Charlie Kurt, was shot and killed in Utah in September. Vice President Vance used his speech as a call to action, alluding to recent intra-party riffs. We have far more important work to do than canceling each other. We have got to build.

It comes after conservative commentator Ben Shapiro called out several right-wing media personalities for entertaining conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk's death and singled out Tucker Carlson for his recent interview with white nationalist Nick Fuentes. Carlson later disputed those claims and said he's not anti-Semitic, but the pushback comes as leaders deal with a larger fight over spreading misinformation and amplifying people with anti-Semitic. anti-Semitic views. Elena Moore and PR News Phoenix. Flood watches and warnings are in effect across nearly all of California this morning because of rains from an atmospheric river. Heavy snow was forecast in the Sierra Nevada's. In Washington State, Governor Bob Ferguson describes the flooding in his state this way. This natural disaster that we are facing as a state and that we continue to go through is truly historic in nature. This month's flooding in Washington State has

killed at least one person and damaged thousands of homes. This is NPR News from Washington. They're down to the final eight teams in the college football playoffs. 10th-ranked Miami will play second-ranked Ohio State on New Year's Eve. The other three quarter-final games will be played on New Year's Day. Number six, Ole Miss, will play third-ranked Georgia. Number five, Oregon faces fourth-ranked Texas Tech, and number nine, Alabama will take on top-ranked Indiana.

The championship game will be played January 19th in Miami. Texas A&M is celebrating its first national championship in women's volleyball. As Greg Eklund reports, the ninth-ranked Aggies upset second-ranked Kentucky. The most outstanding player was Texas A&M sophomore Kindle Stowers. She didn't play volleyball last year because of four concussions within a year, but credits her teammates with helping her through the season. I hadn't been a college athlete in a long time, and so season gets long, and I hadn't been through that. And so they were with me every single day regardless of the highs and lows.

And genuinely, I feel like the joy that I'm feeling in this moment genuinely is just a testament to everybody around me. It was the first time in championship history that two Southeastern Conference schools met for the championship. The Aggies finished with a record of 29 and 4. For NPR News, I'm Greg Eclan, Kansas City. Wall Street begins the shortened trading week coming off a positive day for stock. The Dow added 183 points on Friday to close above the 48,000 mark. The NASDAQ gained 301 points or more than 1%. Economists say the rise in unemployment in the U.S. for November

raises the likelihood of the Federal Reserve cutting rates again in January. I'm Dave Mattingly in Washington. 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. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.