NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-25-2025 8AM EST

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Windsor Johnston. Pope Leo celebrated his first Christmas Day Mass as pontiff at the Vatican today. Speaking from the balcony, overlooking St. Peter's Square, the Pope called on the faithful to embrace peace, saying Christ's birth offers a path out of division and hostility. Indeed, he is our peace. He has conquered hatred and enmity through God's merciful love. For this reason, the Lord's birth is the birth of peace.

In Bethlehem, crowds packed manger square last night to celebrate Christmas Eve. Scouts played festive music in Bethlehem and Nazareth, where Christians believed Jesus was born in. raised. It was the largest celebration in years after two seasons of scaled-back events due to the war in Gaza. Southern California is getting slammed by heavy rain. Steve Futterman reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has declared a state of emergency. The declaration comes after a day of floods, floods, traffic jams, and power outages. The move paves the way for the city to deploy adequate resources to deal with the storms. Earlier, California Governor Gavin Newsom also issued

a state of emergency. Right now, the forecast does not look good. A new series of powerful storms will hit the area today. Ariel Cohn is with the National Weather Service. We're going to see the floodwaters be reinforced, landslides, rock slides, and mudslides, all being reinforced across the area. In some mountain areas, more than 10 inches alone fell on Wednesday, the storms are expected to continue into Friday. For NPR News, I'm Steve Futterman in Los Angeles. The Department of Homeland Security is changing the rules for H-1B visas for skilled foreigners.

NPR's John Rewitch reports they're set to take effect in late February. The new rules will be in place for the 2027 fiscal year. The big change is that they do away with the lottery system that has four years determined who gets H-1B visas. Instead, there will be a weighted selection process that favors people with higher skills and higher salaries. The idea is to prevent employers from using the program to import low-wage foreign labor and to protect wages and job opportunities for U.S. workers. The cap on the number of H-1B visas will stay at $65,000 with an additional $20,000 for foreigners

with advanced U.S. degrees. H-1Bs have been widely used in the tech sector, and analysts say changes to the way they're issued, including a $100,000 fee per visa announced by the Trump administration in the fall, could be disrupted. John Rewich, NPR News. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. The Justice Department says it may need a few more weeks to finish releasing files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein case, despite missing a deadline from Congress. Officials say more than a million additional records were recently discovered by federal prosecutors and the FBI. The DOJ says attorneys are working around the clock to review them and apply legal.

required redactions. The most popular Christmas movie on broadcast and streaming TV is Home Alone. NPR's Netta Ulibe reports, the movie from 1990, has been the top-ranked film by Nielsen for three out of the past four december's. Home Alone takes place over Christmas. It's about a little boy left behind when his family goes on vacation. It's been the most watched holiday movie every December since 2021. except for last year when the prime video movie Red One took the top spot. The action movie stars Dwayne Johnson as head of Santa's security detail. Someone took next. Other recent top-ranked Christmas movies include Elf, Home Alone 2,

and National Lampoom's Christmas Vacation. The movie A Christmas Story benefits from a 24-hour marathon that runs on TBS and T&T. And although there's debate about whether Die Hard is really a Christmas movie, Nielsen says last year it landed on the holiday list. at number 11. Netta Ulibe, NPR News. Someone in Arkansas is waking up a billionaire. A single ticket matched all six numbers to win the $1.8 billion dollar powerball jackpot drawn last night, the second largest in U.S. history. This is 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 and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.