NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-23-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 23, 2025

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duahli Saikal. Days after the Jodunf Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was renamed Trump Kennedy Center. The president now wants to rebuild new warships, also in his name. This latest project is expected to cost billions of dollars per ship. Trump announced his plan yesterday at his home in Mar-a-Lago. NPR's Quill Lawrence says at the same time reporters asked him about U.S. sanctions and military. reaction against Venezuela. Trump didn't answer when the journalist asked what his end game was. What happens if Maduro does fall? And I have to say it was reminiscent of moments 20 some years ago when people were asking what the end game plan was for Iraq post-invasion. Trump also defended the lethal attacks on these small boats the U.S. says are carrying drugs. We're now at over two dozen of those strikes. They've killed over 100 people. There was another one announced just last night, killed one more person. And now we're talking about bigger boats, not the battleships, but massive oil tankers that the U.S. Coast Guard has started seizing.

NPR's Quill Lawrence reporting, the Trump administration is recalling dozens of career ambassadors. It says the president wants diplomats who will advance his agenda, and that's what Foreign Service officers signed up to do, as NPR as Michelle Kellerman reports. The State Department wouldn't comment publicly on the list that have been floating around of the ambassadors being pulled back to Washington, but one official who asked not to be named described this as a, quote, standard process in any administration.

The written statement says an ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president's right to ensure that he has individuals who advance the America First Agenda. Normally, about two-thirds of America's embassies overseas are led by career diplomats. The Trump administration has nominated few career diplomats and is now pulling them back from nearly 30, embassies, many in Africa. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, the State Department. Millions of Americans are on the move during the holiday season. NPR's Joel Rose reports more than 120 million people are expected to travel by plane, train, and automobile. If you're heading over the river and through the woods today, you are not alone.

AAA predicts more than 122 million Americans will travel more than 50 miles from home during the peak end-of-year travel period that started last weekend. The vast majority, more than $109 million, will drive, according to AAA, a slight increase over last year's record total. Air travel may set records as well. The TSA, the Transportation Security Administration, says it's preparing to screen more than 44 million passengers during this holiday season and could set a record for passenger volume for the year. Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Stocks are moving positively on this shortened holiday week and moving closer to record levels

as the economy grew sharply in the third quarter. This is NPR. Israeli air strikes killed three men in southern Lebanon, among them a Lebanese soldier, according to statements from Israel and Lebanon. From Beirut, NPR's Jawad Rizkala reports. The Israeli military says the three men were members of Hezbollah and attempting to re-establish the group's infrastructure,

and that a review found one of those killed, quote, simultaneously served as a Lebanese army soldier in an intelligence unit. The Lebanese army mourned the fallen soldier as a first sergeant in the military's anti-tank regiment. Hezbollah confirmed only the two others as members of the group. Lebanon's defense minister said any claim of ties between soldiers and armed groups is slander that undermines the military. And despite the ceasefire reached last year, Israel continues to strike areas of southern Lebanon

as it and the U.S. seek Hezbollah's disarmament. Jouad Rizkallah, NPR News, Beirut. As Christmas nears in Manger Square in the Holy City of Bethlehem, that's where Christians believe Jesus was born, Palestinian vendors and performers are excited to welcome visitors. Midnight service will return and a local choir will again sing on Christmas Eve. But all of this is under the shadow of a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Gaza is just under an hour from the Nativity celebrations and the recently lived. Christmas tree. Since the ceasefire was signed in October, Gaza's health ministry says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed and at least 1,100 people injured. I'm Doa Halisa Kautau, NPR News in New York.