NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-25-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Dan Ronan. A state of emergency has been declared in six southern California counties because of relentless rains and high winds that are pounding the region. The declaration will free up resources for first responders and other emergency teams. All across much of the region, it is being devastated by the impact of the downpours, fueled by atmospheric rivers. Alameda resident Michael Burdick says he's trying to prepare for. for that flooding. We got some sandbags, but we figured with this whole downpour coming for the next couple days, we have a pool, so the pool might overflow.

And then plus we have all the debris from up there from up in the fire area. So I was just like, I can go out, grab some sandbags, you know, so we're safe because our house is like a little bit lower, so that slope. It's the why I can. Back in 2016. The high water has made portions of Interstate 5 and the VIII. Ventura Freeway in the Los Angeles area. Impossible. Markets will be closed on Thursday for the Christmas holiday trading resumes Friday morning at 9.30

Eastern Time. On Wednesday, the holiday trading was shortened because on Wall Street, the indexes, though, closed up. The Dow, the S&P, and the NASDAQ finished fractionally higher. The markets will be closed Thursday for Christmas. The Dow gained six-tenths of a point. The NASDAQ edged two-tenths of a point. The S&P added, three-tenths of a point as well. Millions of Americans will be flying this holiday season. NPR's Joel Rose reports the airlines are hoping to avoid a repeat of IT meltdowns that have disrupted the aviation industry.

It's been three years since a major winter storm brought Southwest Airlines to its knees. While other airlines managed to get their operations going within days, Southwest did not. Since then, Chief Information Officer Lauren Woods says Southwest has made big investments in technology, so it can anticipate and respond to outages more quickly. We may have a tech outage, but you care less about it if it's a five-minute recovery, and I have many of those versus I had one major tech outage, and it took me down for a day. Southwest is just one of many airlines that have been forced to ground their planes because of IT outages. The test is how quickly they can get their planes and their customers back in the air.

Joel Rose, NPR News. The Justice Department says it is finishing the release of all of the files concerning Jeffrey Epstein, but it could take a few more weeks further delaying the compliance with a December 19th deadline that was set by Congress. The department did say Wednesday that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, as well as the FBI, found additional documents, one million documents, they say, that could be relevant to the Epstein case. DoD. should not say when it was informed, but when it got those documents. You're listening to NPR News. families are getting ready to sit down at Christmas and the holiday meals, many tables,

especially those of Latino families, will be filled with tamales, Texas public radios. Joey Palacios has more on the story from San Antonio. If it's your first time at a tamalada during the holidays, get ready to be put to work. You'll be handed a spoon, a few dozen corn husks, the masa to spread on them, and probably some pork to stuff it with. It's an annual tradition for Hispanic families like the Riojas in San Antonio. Family member Anna Fossum says gatherings like tamiladas are about connecting with every branch of the family.

That's what the tamalada means to me. Yes, we're making tamales, but we're also making new memories. The whole process takes hours, especially if you're making 20 dozen or so. Oh, and if you're going, be sure to bring a bottle and a few really good stories to share. I'm Joy Palacios in San Antonio. The longtime chief and director of the National Hurricane Center, Dr. Neil Frank,

has died in Houston, Texas at the age of 94. Frank is credited with reshaping the way modern hurricane forecasting is done, significantly expanding the use of weather satellites, and in the 1970s and 80s becoming a regular fixture on television, warning people when and where a storm could hit. In 1987, after 25 years with the Hurricane Center, he left and began a 20-year career in television as a meteorologist at a CBS station and later helping the network on hurricane coverage. I'm Dan Ronan, NPR News in Washington. Support 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.

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