NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

NPR News: 12-27-2025 3PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is to meet tomorrow in Florida with President Trump on Russia's war in Ukraine. He was in Halifax today. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced more financial aid for Ukraine. Dan Carpenshuk reports. Carney said the additional $2.5 billion in economic aid will help Ukraine unlock financing from the International Monetary Fund. Carney also said under Zelensky's leadership, there is the possibility of a just and lasting peace. He also reaffirmed Canada's commitment to Ukraine and the need to maintain

pressure on Moscow to negotiate. The Halifax stopover comes after the two leaders spoke by phone on Friday. The Ukrainian leader also said he updated Carney on the status of diplomatic efforts with the U.S. to bring the war with Russia to an end. Zelensky is set to meet with President Trump on Sunday to talk about a 20-point peace plan which will include security guarantees and an economic agreement. For NPR news, I'm Dan Carpenchuk in Toronto. In Syria, a bomb exploded in a mosque during Friday prayers yesterday. Eight people were killed. NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi reports. The explosion happened in a mosque in the Wadi al-Dahab 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-Awai'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.

Hadil al-Shalchi, NPR News. The Kennedy Center is threatening to sue. a jazz musician, who abruptly cancelled his long-standing Christmas Eve engagement. After learning that President Trump's name was being added to the Performing Arts Centre, NPR's Chloe Veltman reports. The centre's president, Richard Grinnell, hit back with a letter on Friday, saying he is seeking $1 million in damages from Chuck Red for his, quote, political stunt. The centre's press team shared the letter with NPR

and said in an email Grinnell intends to file the lawsuit after the holidays. Red did not respond to NPR's request for comment, but the vibraphonist and drummer told the Associated Press earlier in the week that he backed out of the engagement in protest against the name change. Red has hosted the Centre's Christmas Eve Jazz Jam since 2006. The John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts was established through legislation in 1964. Trump's hand-picked Board of Trustees voted in favour of the name change on December 18th. Legal experts say the move was.

unlawful. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. This is NPR News in Washington. This weekend between Christmas and New Year's is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. A major winter storm is complicating matters across the northeast and Great Lakes. The flight tracking site, Flight Aware, says more than 1,200 flights were canceled just today. Less than a month after opening for the winter season, the Telluride Ski Resort in southwest Colorado is closed today. Contract negotiations broke down between the ski resort and the local ski patrol union. Julia Caulfield of Member Station, KOTO, has details. The Telluride Ski Resort, known as TELSki, will be closing just in time for the small mountain community's busiest week of the winter,

when an estimated 9 to 10,000 visitors are in town per day between Christmas and the new year. The privately owned ski company has been in contract negotiations with the local ski patrol union since June. Telski says their contract offer is, quote, generous and market leading. Ski patrol, on the other hand, argues it doesn't provide a livable wage in the expensive resort town. While Telski's owner is placing the blame for the shutdown on ski patrol, union representatives say the ski company would rather close the mountain than give them a fair contract. For NPR News, I'm Julia Culfield in Telluride. Thailand and Cambodia signed a new ceasefire today, designed to end weeks of fighting along their border that killed at least 100 people. Both sides agreed to commit to the original

ceasefire brokered by President Trump. Today's deal also calls for the return of civilians to their homes along the border who are displaced by the fighting. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News in Washington.