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

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

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Support for NPR, and the following message come from the estate of Joan B. Kroc, whose bequest serves as an enduring investment in the future of public radio and seeks to help NPR produce programming that meets the highest standards of public service in journalism and cultural expression. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Roman. Justice Department officials have released 30,000 pages of letters, flight logs, and other documents related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They include a handwritten letter released and published on the DOJ website, but now that same agency is saying the letter is a fake. NPR's Gabriel Sanchez has more. Among the trove of documents released by the Justice Department are redacted photographs,

court records, and a handwritten letter. A photo of the letter shows an alleged correspondence between Jeffrey Epstein and another convicted sex offender, former USA Gymnastics, and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar. The letter from 2019 describes Epstein's and Nassar's love for, quote, young ladies, and later describes President Trump as sharing their same passion. Hours after the release, DOJ officials posted on X they were vetting the validity of the letter they presented online. Two hours later, a second social post described the letter as fake. It wasn't immediately clear what information the department learned in the interim. The FBI declined comment.

Gabriel Sanchez, NPR News, Washington. The Education Department's Office of Federal Student Aid is investigating Brown University in connection with the campus shooting more than a week ago that left at least two students dead and nine others injured. NPR's Caden Mills has more. The Department of Education says it will look into allegations that the university lacked adequate surveillance in the area where the shooting occurred and that emergency alerts of an active shooter threat were delayed. It's requesting several documents from Brown, including annual security. reports from 2024 and 2025, as well as current procedures related to campus safety.

The department says the university may be in violation of the Cleary Act, a law requiring schools accepting federal financial aid to meet specific security standards. Brown responded saying it would launch an independent investigation of the shooting, and that the campus has, quote, an expansive network of security cameras. The university also says its emergency alerts went out minutes after gunshots were first reported. Kaden Mills, NPR News. Two people are reported dead, and Pennsylvania's governor says as many as 21 were injured. This after a suspected gas explosion at a nursing home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,

outside of Philadelphia. A number of people were trapped inside the building. Governor Josh Shapiro spoke with reporters. We believe preliminarily that it was a gas leak that led to that. The explosion was really quite catastrophic. Crews say they are still in the rescue mode, searching for victims using dogs, earth-moving equipment, and sonar to help locate the potential victims.

A local fire official says there are at least five people missing at this hour. This is NPR News. A plane crash Tuesday in Ankara, Turkey has killed Libya's military chief and seven others, including four military officers of that North African nation. The Libyans were in Turkey and were departing after meetings with officials from that country to improve military cooperation. Libya's prime minister is calling the deaths a tragic accident and a great loss for Libya. Two similar murals have appeared in central London this week, one which the mysterious street artist, Banksy so far, is claimed as his own.

NPR's Chloe Veltman reports that. the meaning is a cause of debate. Banksy posted an image of the mural on Instagram on Monday, the artist's usual system for authenticating works. It received close to 1 million likes within a day. The artwork depicts two children lying on their backs in coats, hats and boots. One child has their hands in their pockets. The other points are finger skywards.

It looks just like another mural that recently appeared in a different central London location, though Banksy has not yet acknowledged its authorship. The image presents a cosy, wintry, seen in time for the holidays. But Art World publications like Art News are also interpreting the image as a statement on the UK's escalating child homelessness crisis. According to a report published earlier this year by the British government, more than 160,000 homeless children are currently living in temporary accommodation, the highest number on record. Chloe Valtman, NPR News.

Stocks on Wall Street closed higher Tuesday. The S&P finished at a record high. The NASDAQ and the Dow were also up. I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News. Support for NPR. 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.