NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-23-2025 11AM EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

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Hi, I'm Zach Mack. You might have heard my series Alternate Realities on Embedded. In it, my dad bet me $10,000 on 10 conspiracy theories. He lost. But it turns out he wasn't done trying. I can't believe you want to do this again. Hey.

I got to win my money back, right? This time, things went very differently. Listen to alternate realities on the Embedded podcast from NPR. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. The Justice Department released a new batch of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which contain hundreds of references to President Trump. In a post on social media, the DOJ said the nearly 30,000 documents contain untrue or sensationalist claims about Trump. NPR's Luke Garrett reports. In a 2020 email on unidentified federal prosecutor said flight logs show Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet, quote, many more times than previously reported between 1993 and 1990.

Another file shows a 2021 subpoena to Mara Lago for employment records during the investigation into Galane Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator, and a convicted sex offender. Other documents include a 2019 letter supposedly sent by Epstein to convicted sex offender, Larry Nasser, the U.S. gymnastics team doctor. The letter mentions, quote, our president, though it's unclear whether the DOJ verified, whether this was in fact written by Epstein. These documents continue a piecemeal release by the DOJ, despite Congress requiring them to make all the files public last Friday. Luke Garrett, NPR News, Washington. The divide inside the conservative movement is getting deeper as Republicans continue to battle over who should speak for the party. Several staffers at the Heritage Foundation resigned this week to join a new think tank founded by former vice president, Mike Pence. Chairman of Pence's think tank, Mark Short, tells NPR that the group is attracting staff and momentum from conservatives craving a return to tradition.

The reality is that there's a big reason why a lot of staff are coming to be a part of our organization. We can earn steadily. The size of our budget continues to grow exponentially. And I think there's a hungering to have conservatism back. And I think that that's what this is about. Days earlier, tensions flared on stage at Turning Point USA's annual gathering in Phoenix, revealing even deeper fractures on the right. Scientists have created very primitive artificial human wounds,

in the lab. The goal is to try to find new ways to prevent miscarriages and treat infertility. But as NPRs, Rob Stein reports, the research raises ethical questions. Researchers in the U.S., China, and the U.K., say they have used human cells from the lining of uteruses to create what they say can be called wombs on a chip and already use them to gain new insights into how human embryos implant in a womb. Scientists hope their work will help more people have healthy babies. But the experiments raised many ethical concerns, including using human embryos for research and the possibility that someday the technology could enable babies to develop completely outside the human body. Rob Stein, NPR News. Stogs are trading higher on

Wall Street at this hour. The Dow is up 73 points. This is NPR News. powerful storms moving through the San Francisco Bay Area continue to bring flooding to the area forcing some rescues. Samantha Kennedy from member station KQED reports. Forecasters say more rain is on the way. Meteorologists expect there to be winds of up to 80 miles per hour and widespread power outages across the Bay area this week.

The North Bay is expected to get some of the worst of it. Jeff Duvall of Sonoma County's Emergency Management Department isn't aware of any damages to the North Bay County so far, but... We did have a couple vehicles get stuck in the flood waters overnight to where Sonoma County's public safety had to come out and do two different water rescues. Jan Noll, a consulting meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services, says winds will pick up which could topple trees and power lines. That always poses problems after we've had significant rains

with trees coming down with 30 or 40, some places maybe 50-mile-an-hour guests. Officials say they're prepared for whatever the week brings. For NPR news, I'm Samantha Kennedy in San Francisco. Instacart is pulling the plug on its controversial AI pricing tool, Eversight, after backlash over inconsistent prices. Eversight allowed retailers to run tests that led to shoppers seeing different prices for the same items from the same store. In a blog post, Instacart admitted the pricing model missed the mark. Consumer reports found the AI-driven price swings could add up to more than $1,000 a year for some shoppers. On Wall Street, the Dow up 71 points, the NASDAQ up 57. I'm Windsor Johnston and PR News in Washington.

This holiday season, the team at up first, is still hard at work with all new episodes, but the news does not take a holiday. And we know it's harder than ever to keep up this time of year. Listen for three essential stories in under 15 minutes. Get caught up and get on with your day. Up first, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.