NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

NPR News: 12-27-2025 12PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Heavy snow fell in the northeastern U.S. overnight, with almost a foot of snow now on the ground in some places. Connecticut Public Radio's Matt Dwyer has more from Hartford. A winter storm is bringing wet snow to southern New England and New York and ice to part of Pennsylvania. We're New Englanders, we're prepared for the storm. Josh Morgan is a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Transportation. We're asking the public if they can stay off. the roads. If they can stay home and stay safe, that's going to be the best bet for everybody.

It's going to give our crews and those local municipal drivers the space that they need to do their job safely and effectively. Cities and towns put overnight parking bans in place. The storm also prompted the last-minute rescheduling of a number of Kwanza gatherings. For NPR news, I'm Matt DeWire in Hartford, Connecticut. Crime rates dropped across much of the U.S. in 2025. That was true for both property and violent crime. Murders fell by about 20 percent. NPR's Meg Anderson reports the real-time crime index had analyzed data from nearly 600 jurisdictions around the country. Crime declined nearly everywhere. In big cities and small towns, in red and blue states,

murders in particular fell dramatically. And that large decrease was preceded by a large increase. In 2020 and 2021, homicide rates surged across the country. Crime analysts point to the instability of the pandemic for that increase. There were fewer police patrolling, many people lost their jobs, some government services like mental health care and community centers went away for a while. John Roman with Nork, a research group at the University of Chicago, says it's helpful to think of violence as an epidemic. If epidemics cause things to spiral up, they should create virtuous cycles on the way down. More crime leads to more crime and less leads to more.

less. Meg Anderson and P.R. News. Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to a ceasefire that could end three weeks of fighting that have killed more than 100 people. Michael Sullivan reports so far it appears to be holding. The ceasefire assigned by the two countries, defense ministers, says the two sides have agreed to halt their artillery attacks and rocket barrages for three days. The two countries have been involved in fierce combat for weeks that began in July, then reignited earlier this month. Hundreds of thousands on both sides have been displaced by the fighting, whether the ceasefire holds is an open question.

Michael Sullivan reporting, Taiwan's weather agency says a strong earthquake struck the island today. It says it had a magnitude of seven and was felled across northern Taiwan and shook buildings in the capital, Taipei. There were no immediate reports of major damage. This is NPR News, in Washington, Washington. Libya held a military funeral today for five officers, including its western military chief, who died this week in a plane crash in Turkey. They were returning from defense talks in Ankara when their private jet crashed shortly after takeoff. In Syria, a bomb exploded in a mosque during Friday prayers yesterday in the central city of Homs. The Syrian Ministry of Health says eight people were killed. NPR's Hidal-El-Shelchi reports.

The explosion happened in a mosque in the Wadi al-Dehav neighborhood of Homs. The area is known to be predominantly made up of members of the Al-Awaite sect, an offshoot of Islam. Many hardline Islamists consider Al-Oyte's apostates. An offshoot of ISIS called Saraya Ansar Suna claimed responsibility for the attack. The Syrian news agency Sanaa said explosive devices were planted in the mosque. The same group was accused of carrying out a suicide attack last summer inside a church in Syria, killing 25 people. The country has seen a rise in sectarian violence since the fall of Bashar al-Assad last December. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that this attack represented a, quote,

desperate attempt to undermine the country's security. Hadeal al-Shalchi, NPR News. 2026 begins next week, the year of the nation's 250th birthday. To note the occasion after the crystal ball drops in Times Square, the ball will then rise, lit up in red, white, and blue, and accompanied by a second confetti drop. America 250 is the bipartisan commission organizing the anniversary. Cherosi Rio says it will be the most inspirational celebration the country and maybe the world has ever seen.

I'm Nora Rom, NPR News. Listen to this podcast sponsor-free on Amazon Music with a prime membership or any podcast app by subscribing to NPR NewsNow Plus at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org.