NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-28-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

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Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky is on his way to the U.S. where he meets Sunday with President Trump in Florida. But first, he stopped off in Halifax, where he met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Carney announced Canada is providing $1.8 billion in economic assistance for Ukraine. Looking toward his talks with Trump tomorrow, Zelensky says he's hoping for a constructive meeting. We need two things, pressure on Russia and sufficient strong support for Ukraine. We will speak about air defense, and last weeks we had good steps in diplomacy, but we can't live in an illusion that it gives us possibility to have less air defense with Russia doesn't work.

As the year draws to a close, political observers are starting to offer grades for the first-year performance of the Trump administration, NPR's Ron Elving. This term has featured serious policy shifts like the Trump tariffs and the deportation drive and the military strikes without congressional approval. We also see a lot of personal retribution against Trump's political enemies and provocative displays of will such as the partial demolition of the White House and the Trump rebranding of the Kennedy Cultural Arts Center and the Institute of Peace.

In all of this, we see a willingness to test the boundaries, try the locks on the doors, see what's open, see what happens, and ultimately to see who will step up to enforce the law. In the year to come, we can expect these confrontations to continue and quite possibly escalate. That's NPR's Ron Elving. China has passed amendments to a foreign trade law that would make it easier for the state to retaliate in the event of a trade war. But it also opens up its economy to certain kinds of investment. MPIR's Emily Feng has more in that story.

The law takes effect in March, and the amendments were designed with the CPP in mind. This is a trans-Pacific free trade agreement. of now 12 countries, which originally also included the U.S., though the U.S. officially withdrew in 2017 during the first Trump administration. Now China wants to join the CPPP, and it's revised some elements of its law on digital trade and intellectual property to meet the group's standards. It's also beefed up its wording on powers to counteract lawsuits from private and foreign firms. China's revised its foreign trade law only three times. The last time was in 2022 when China moved to streamline import and export procedures. Emily Fang and Peer News.

Hundreds of people gathered outside a mosque in the Syrian city of Homs on Saturday. They were there to mourn eight people killed in a bombing on Friday. 18 other people were also injured in that attack. Officials say a number of explosive devices were placed inside the mosque before the blast, but so far they have not publicly identified anyone as a suspect. You're listening to NPR News. The Kennedy Center is threatening to sue jazz musician Chuck Red, who canceled his long-standing Christmas Eve concert

after learning President Trump's name was added to the building. NPR's Chloe Veltman has more. The center's president, Richard Grunel, 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 handpicked Board of Trustees voted in favor of the name change on December 18th. Legal experts say the move was unlawful. Chloe Veltman, NPR News. Joe Vessa Damuni scored on a four-yard run with two minutes left as Brigham Young University rallied from an 11-point deficit to beat Georgia Tech Saturday 25 to 21 in college football. Freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier was 27 for 38 on the day.

Penn State, meanwhile, beat Clemson by a score of 22 to 10. BYU beat Georgia Tech, 25 to 21. Fresno State beat Miami of Ohio, 18 to 3. Army beat Yukon, 41 to 16, and Virginia beat Missouri, 13 to 7. 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 millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply.