NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-30-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 30, 2025

NPR News: 12-30-2025 2PM ESTLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News in Washington. I'm Lakshmi Singh. A U.S. official tells NPR that the CIA struck a dock facility in Venezuela. The official also says that the U.S. Coast Guard is still trying to get capabilities to go after a tanker that has been evading them in recent days. President Trump said yesterday that the U.S. had attacked a facility in Venezuela, though he did not specify whether it was the military or the CIA, which he has said was operating in the country. The U.S. has continued its attacks on boats from Venezuela in international waters that it says are carrying drugs. The latest such attack took place Monday, according to U.S. Southern Command. Israel's parliament has voted to cut off water and electricity to the offices of UNR, the U.N. agency, that AIDS Palestinians. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports that the U.N. body calls the move outrageous and an affront to international law.

legislation not only cuts utilities to UNRA's headquarters in East Jerusalem, it also gives the Israeli government the right to expropriate UN properties. Unra calls that a further blow to the international system and part of an ongoing effort by Israel to discredit the main agency that aids Palestinians. Israel accused some UNRah staffers of taking part in the October 7th Hamas-led attack on Israel, the U.S. cut funding to the agency in response. Unra says that Israel, Israel, forces stormed its headquarters earlier this month and forced it to close schools in East Jerusalem, a part of the city that Palestinians want as a future capital of a future state. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Jerusalem.

Police in Australia say there is no evidence two men accused of killing 15 people at a Jewish holiday event in Sydney were part of a broader terrorist cell. Lindsay Arkley reports authorities made the statement after investigating the men's travel to the Philippines weeks before the attack. 24-year-old Navid Akram is facing dozens of charges over the Bondi Beach attack. His 50-year-old father, Sajid Akram, was shot dead by police at the scene. Police alleged the two men were inspired by the Islamic State Group. Federal Police Commissioner Chrissy Barrett says the pair are not believed to have

undergone any training or preparation when they spent most of November in Davao City in the southern Philippines. There is no evidence to suggest these alleged offenders were part of a broader terrorist cell or were directed by others to carry out an attack. However, I want to be clear, I am not suggesting that they were there for tourism. Barrett stressed that the investigation was ongoing.

For NPR News, I'm Lindsay Arkley in Melbourne. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 43 points. This is NPR News. The Spanish woman who infamously restored a fresco of Jesus and became an internet sensation has died. She was 94 years old. Here's NPR's Andrew Limbaugh. At the time, people said to Celia Jimenez botched the painting of Jesus in a red tunic wearing a crown of thorns. This was back in 2012, and the original painting lived at Jimenez's local church in Borja, Spain.

It was looking a little rundown, and Jimenez took it upon herself to fix it. The result ended up looking a little fuzzy with people comparing the new portrait to a werewolf or a monkey. The story quickly went viral and the image got memed and the painting became pretty famous, turning the town into a tourist destination. And although Jimenez was originally ridiculed so much that she was bedridden from anxiety, she eventually became a local celebrity with her life being honored by Borja officials. Andrew Limbong and Pierre News.

An Arctic blast is returning to the eastern U.S. just in time for New Year's, Tens of millions of people could be experiencing below average temperatures and wintry conditions and travel issues. Just as Kristen Schultz, she and her husband had to make their way from Wisconsin and Minneapolis this week, 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 about 20 years.

I'm Lakshmi Singh in PR News in Washington.