NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-25-2025 6AM EST

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Thousands of Christian faithful pack St. Peter's Basilica this morning as Pope Leo led his first Christmas Day Mass as pontiff. The Pope called on worshippers to reflect on the meaning of Christ's birth, not as a distant story, but as a living invitation to grace, humility and renewal. Christ is born in the flesh, and all people receive the life of heaven. With grateful and confident hearts, let us humbly acknowledge our sins so that we may joyfully celebrate the sacred mysteries. On Christmas Eve, thousands of people gathered in Bethlehem's manger Square. It was the largest celebration in years after two seasons of scaled-back events due to the war in Gaza. Scouts played festive music in Bethlehem and Nazareth, where Christians believed Jesus was born and raised.

President Trump spent part of Christmas Eve tracking Santa Claus with help from NORAD. Every year, the North American Aerospace Defense Command monitors Santa's location for kids around the world. NPR's deepest shiver on reports the president took a few of their calls. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump answered calls from their Florida Mar-a-Lago home and spoke with children around the country. Well, we track Santa all over the world. We want to make sure that Santa is being good. He's a very good person. We want to make sure that he's not infiltrating, that we're not infiltrating into our country of Banned Santa.

The president tried to boast about his economy, but he said the kids weren't interested in hearing about that. Trump later made calls to service members as well. Deepa Chivaram and PR News. The holiday period on Wall Street is often all about the Santa Claus rally. As NPR's Raphael-NOM explains, it's when traders get to discover whether stock market Santa will deliver gifts or a bunch of coal. For many households across the country, it's the time of family Christmas traditions. And for Wall Street, there's nothing more traditional than the Santa Claus rally.

For reasons that have never been really clear, stocks have tended to do well in the last five trading days of the year, as well as the first two sessions of the new year. And so far, it's been a promising start. Stocks rose on Wednesday with the S&P closing at a record high. But a warning here, it doesn't happen all the time. Last year, instead of a rally, traders got coal when Santa left behind a market sell-off. Rafael N.P.R. News. Trading is paused on Wall Street today for the Christmas holiday.

Stocks resume trading on Friday. Overseas, markets across Asia closed higher today. This is NPR News. in Washington. A powerful winter storm is slamming Southern California, unleashing flash floods, mudslides, and debris flows. A flash flood warning remains in effect for a number of areas, including Santa Barbara, Ventura, and Los Angeles.

President Michael Burdick says he's doing what he can to get through the next few days. We got some sandbags, but we figured with this whole downpour coming for the next couple of days, We have a pool, so the pool might overflow, and then plus we have all the debris from up there. The northern and central parts of the state have also seen flooded roads, power outages, and down trees as the storm moves inland and interacts with mountain snow. Nearly a month after elections were held, Honduras has declared a U.S. back candidate the winner. But as NPR's Ader Peralta reports, the candidate who came in second says that the declaration is illegal. Voters went to the polls on November 30th. Since then, counting has been halted many times due to what the Electoral Commission said were catastrophic technical issues. One of the three

members of the Electoral Commission has quit claiming fraud. The two leading candidates both say they have independently counted and are declaring victory. Via Zoom, the Commission said Nasirias Fura, the conservative candidate backed by President Trump, won by less than 1% of the vote. Salvador Nasrada, the centrist candidate who had been favored to win, said he does not accept the results. This was a robbery, he shouted at reporters. Adapralta, Imperial News, Mexico City. This is NPR News. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe.

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