NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-30-2025 12PM EST

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. South Sudanese migrants at risk of being deported have secured a court reprieve. Today, a federal judge delayed the Trump administration from ending deportation protections for about 200 people until the new year. The U.S. extended temporary protected status to citizens from South Sudan in 2011 when it secured independence and seated from Sudan becoming Africa's newest country. Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his army to take more Ukrainian territory despite ongoing talks to end Russia's war on Ukraine. NPR's Joanna Kisses reports that Ukraine is accusing the Kremlin of undermining peace negotiations. Russia controls about 70% of Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizia. President Trump says Putin tells him he wants peace, but Ukrainian president of Vladimir Zelensky says the Russian leader is not sincere.

Zelensky is saying Putin tells the President of the United States that he wants to end the war, but then says through media that he will continue the war, striking Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones. Russia says it is changing its stance in negotiations after claiming Ukraine tried to attack one of Putin's homes. Zelensky says this is a lie and Russia is using it as a pretext to expand attacks on Ukraine. Joanna Kikisasas, NPR News, Kyiv. A Texas-based firm, Ocean Infinity, is resuming a deep-sea search for the missing Malaysian airliner today. NPR's Jennifer Pack reports it's been more than 11 years since the plane went missing. Flight MH370 was on a routine flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished, with 239 people on board.

Among them, American passenger Philip Wood. His partner, Sarah Bejek, says she still needs closure. All of the family members have a right to find out what happened to their loved ones. Malaysian authorities say the plane inexplicably crashed the southern Indian Ocean. The search area is challenging. Picture a mountain range submerged under the ocean sitting in the dark. But experts say technology has advanced a lot. Jennifer Pack and PR News.

Strikes, the U.S. military has been carrying out in international waters in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean may have moved to land in line with previous Trump administration warnings. In the U.S. campaign against Venezuela's Maduro government, President Trump reiterated yesterday that the U.S. knocked out a facility where alleged drugboats, quote, load up. However, that has not been independently verified. While President Trump has claimed the U.S. is targeting drug cartels, Venezuela and President Nicolas Maduro alleges Washington's real goal is to topple his government. From Washington, this is NPR News.

On the heels of a bomb cyclone that cut power to tens of thousands of people across the northern U.S., a winter storm is bringing heavy snow, powerful winds, and bitterly cold temperatures to millions from the Great Lakes to the northeastern U.S. In the run-up to New Year's, the weather's caused widespread travel disruptions. Kristen Schultz and her husband made their way from Wisconsin to Minneapolis, hoping to catch a flight home to Alaska. It took us about four hours to drive down. Roads up north. The plows were out, but they were still pretty snow-packed, slick. But the further south we got, the better it was. Snow in the east, strong Santa Ana winds in the west in parts of Southern California. And on New Year's heavy rain could potentially soak the rose parade in Pasadena for the first time in roughly 20 years. The Kennedy Center has a hole in its calendar for New Year's Eve. NPR's Andrew Limbong reports the jazz band, the course. Cookers, canceled. The band posted a statement on their website that didn't explicitly mention

President Trump adding his name to the Kennedy Center, but did read, quote, jazz was born from struggle and from a relentless insistence on freedom. This is just a week after the jazz artist Chuck Red canceled his annual Christmas Eve performance, and also the dance company Doug Verone and dancers have canceled their upcoming April date. In response, the center's president, Richard Grinnell, sent a statement stating that the artists canceling now were booked by the, quote, previous far-left leadership, and that, quote, boycotting the arts to show you support the arts is a form of derangement syndrome. Andrew Limbong and Pierre News. U.S. stocks are trading lower this hour with a Dow down 125 points. This is NPR News.