NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-27-2025 4AM EST

Episode Date: December 27, 2025

NPR News: 12-27-2025 4AM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Heavy snow has been hitting 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. Where 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. 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. New York Governor Kathy Hokel, meanwhile, has declared a state of emergency in areas where that storm has dumped as much as eight inches of snow. And flight tracking website, Flight Aware, says thousands of flights were canceled or delayed on Friday because of the storm. China has announced sanctions on several American defense companies over arms sales to Taiwan as she's Valentine reports.

The sanctions hit Northrop Grumman, Boeing's branch in St. Louis, and several other companies. China's foreign ministry said they were retaliation for an $11 billion arms sale the U.S. recently signed with Taipei. It urged the U.S. to stop dangerous arms sales to Taiwan, which Beijing claims is its own territory. The package, which needs to be cleared by Congress, includes long-range weapon systems like the Himars and attackers that the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine and a billion dollars' worth of drones. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense praised the U.S. for helping it build strong deterrent power. For NPR News, I'm Ashish Valentine. It was another record

holiday season for retail sales. I talked to Alfred Mai. His company, ASM Games, sells card games. Think like family trivia or date night ideas. And usually you cannot get him on the phone one week before Christmas. That's the busiest time of year for him. And last week, he was like, yeah, call me now. I'm free. It honestly blew my mind because we just sold out of inventory like a few days ago. Sales just exceeded all my expectations.

And I had this question like, did sales exceed his expectations because his expectations were too low or because people spent with abandon? And he said, it's probably both. That's NPR's Alina Seljuk, who says the amount of money spent was not spread evenly across income brackets. She says the wealthiest Americans spent more this year, while those with less money and more concerns over the shape of the economy spent much less. Police in Israel say a Palestinian man killed two people and injured two others on Friday. They say he rammed his vehicle into people in a northern city and killed a 68-year-old man and later stabbed and killed a teenager. The alleged attacker was hospitalized with injuries.

You're listening to NPR News. Storms are continuing to pound parts of California this weekend, and despite reducing rain, weather officials say there remains a major threat of flooding and mudslides in some areas. In the mountain town of Wrightwood, northeast of Los Angeles, the week of rain has turned the roads into rivers and buried cars up to their windows in rocks, debris, and mud. Trust in federal health agencies has dropped to, this year under the polarizing leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., mostly his critics and supporters deeply disagree and don't often talk to each other. But NPR's Ping Huang reports

on a place where they do. It's a podcast called Why Should I Trust You? And it was started by scientists and journalists that identify more with traditional public health. But they also saw that institutions lost trust during the pandemic when people felt failed or ignored by the rules and the health system. Host Brenda Adikari says people's deeply held beliefs are not easily swayed. happens between people who trust each other, people who really love each other. Usually their values tend to be aligned in some way. The podcasts hosts conversations between traditional public health leaders and organizers in Maha or the Make America Healthy Again movement. Adikari says among their regular guests, they're starting to build some trust. Ping Huang, NPR News.

Officials in Syrips say that explosive devices that were placed in a mosque and the city of Homs exploded on Friday. At least eight people were killed, and 18 others were injured in that attack. A group called Sor Al-Suna has claimed responsibility for the blast. The attack highlights ongoing sectarian tensions within Syria. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News. 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 Millionial of customers and visit wise.com. T's and Cs apply.