NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-22-2025 8AM EST

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The U.S. Coast Guard is actively pursuing an oil tanker that had been approaching Venezuela in the Caribbean. A U.S. official tells NPR that the tanker is a, quote, dark fleet vessel attempt to illegally evade sanctions. NPR's Kerry Kahn reports, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is condemning the move, calling it piracy. Maduro is called the U.S. actions high seas piracy and profiteering. Venezuela's vice president says it has asked the U.N. and other governments to intervene. In a social media post, the foreign ministry says Iran has offered its full solidarity to confront the U.S. actions that, quote, violate international laws. Maduro continues to flood Venezuelan state TV and social media accounts with videos to crying the U.S. and plays in heavy rotation as pleased in English that. that Venezuela just wants peace, not war. He's printed the slogan on red Maga-style hats. He dons at rallies filled with supporters. Kerry Khan, NPR News, Rio de Janeiro. 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. NPR's Andrea Hsu 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. The lights are starting to come back on in San Francisco after a widespread power outage this weekend. Dana Cronin from member station KQED reports about 130,000 customers were left in the dark. 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. Stocks across Asia posted gains today, Delf Futures are trading higher at this hour. This is NPR News. 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. Injectable GLP1 weight loss drugs have transformed obesity care. But as NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, they don't work for everyone. Roughly half of those who take GLP-1s lose 15% or more of their body weight. But a minority, about one in six, lose very little. Doctors specializing in obesity care say this is because dozens of factors can contribute to a person's obesity. And the new class of popular medicines may not address a person's particular biology.

Dr. Jennifer Mani Guller is a specialist at heart. Harvard. One tool often is not enough over the lifetime of a person to control or to mitigate the health impact of that condition. But in a few years, she says, genetic and other tests will make it easier to personalize those treatments. Yuki 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. I'm Windsor Johnston, and you're listening to NPR News from Washington.

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