NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2025 2PM EST

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. It's turning out to be an especially rough flu season in the United States. Cases across the country are surging. NPR's Gabrielle Emanuel reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is out with new numbers. The CDC estimates there have been 7.5 million cases so far this season, up from 4.6 million just the week before. and already more than 3,000 deaths. Lisa Grosskoff is a medical officer at the CDC. Probably the most important thing is that if you haven't gotten a vaccine, is to get one.

It is by no means too late. Now, NPR did get a follow-up email from a different CDC spokesperson, saying vaccines are a personal choice and that people should speak with their health care providers about the risks and benefits. Adult flu vaccination rates in the U.S. are just above 40%. Gabriela Emmanuel NPR News. In this part of the world, 2025, is winding down, and new laws are set to take effect in the new year.

In California, consumers will soon have more power to fight companies that track and sell personal information. Rachel Myro of Member Station KQED has details. The end surveillance economy serves up everything to untold numbers of customers, your retail habits, health concerns, even citizenship status. But January 1st, Californians can go to a state-run website and demand 500-plus data brokers registered there, delete most of the personal information they have on you later this year. The Delete Act's author, State Senator Josh Becker, says this won't end-add surveillance, but it's a start. And if it's possible for 40 million Californians to delete their information, then it should be possible for 300 million other people in the rest of this country to do it. His next concern that Congress might try to override the new law with weak. federal standards. For NPR News, I'm Rachel Myro.

A Democratic candidate in Iowa became the first black woman elected to the state Senate last night. Iowa Public Radio's Isabella Liu reports a candidate won in a special election. Democrat Renee Hardman beat her Republican opponent by more than 40 percentage points. Hardman's win also means Republicans are one seat short of a supermajority and will need Democratic support to approve the governor's appointees. Hardman will represent part of West Des Moines where she serves on the city council. She also leads a nonprofit Lutheran Services in Iowa. Hardman says running a successful campaign in the winter was a group effort.

We just decided as a collective that we're going to get this job done and we are going to prevent the supermajority. And that is what helped drive our motivation to get this job done. The seat was formerly held by Democrat Claire Salsy, who died in October. For NPR News, I'm Isabella Liu. De Moines. From Washington, it's NPR News. Guinea has formally elected the head of its military junta for president. Michael Kolochi reports. According to Guinea's election commission, Mamadi Dumbuya garnered over 86% of the votes with his main challenger, former government minister Yarobaldi, obtaining just

over 6% of the votes counted. Dumbuya is head of the country's military junta that seized power in a coup in 2021. Last weekend's polls took place amid concerns about economic challenges facing the West African nation, with the UN saying more than half of Guinea's population are facing record levels of poverty. Critics of the country's military government have accused it of clamping down on political opposition and suppressing civil rights. For NPR News, I'm Michael Kaloki in Nairobi. Celebrations in Cambodia, as heard via the Associated Press not to usher in the New Year, But to welcome home 18 Cambodian soldiers who'd been freed by Thailand, they were captured during a border clash that began in July.

The release is part of a new ceasefire agreement, agreed to buy the two sides over the weekend. Michael Sullivan has the latest from Thailand. It's been nearly six months since the Cambodian soldiers were captured, a period marked by heavy artillery exchanges, Cambodian rocket attacks on Thai border villages, and Thai fighters bombing Cambodian targets. Several hundred thousand people on both sides were displaced by the fighting, and this prisoner release is the most hopeful sign yet that the conflict may be over for now. Michael Sullivan reporting. The Dow is down 66 points.

It's NPR News.