NPR News Now - NPR News: 12-31-2025 3PM EST

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

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Live from NPR News, Amalakshmi Seng. Daycare facilities and many parents in Minnesota are scrambling after the Trump administration suspended child care funding pending an investigation into alleged fraud. Officials acted days after conservative influencer posted a video online that's gone viral, promoting disputed claims of daycares in Minneapolis's Somali communities that he alleges were not actually open. Democratic Governor Tim Walz, meanwhile, is in a situation. standoff with state Republicans who accuse him of failing to ensure millions, if not billions, in pandemic-era taxpayer money is accounted for. Minnesota Public Radio's Brian Bax on NPR's here and now.

Minnesota has been going through this reckoning. The governor says that he's trying to take some steps, as many steps as he's allowed by law. But Republicans are not satisfied with what he's done. They note that he hasn't really fired many people within his administration that maybe allowed or didn't catch some of these things. So it's going to be a prominent issue in the next year when the governor is seeking a third term. Brian Baxter reporting. January 1st marks one year since a deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans when a truck plowed into revelers on Bourbon Street killing 14 people.

NPR's Debbie Elliott reports a city is still using temporary security measures to protect the busy tourist thoroughfare. The New Year's terror attack raised questions about pedestrian safety in New Orleans popular French quarter. At the time, the city was in the process of replacing malfunctioning bollards. Steel columns intended to block vehicles from entering Bourbon Street. A year later, the street remains protected by a mix of removable barriers, including bollards, barricades, and police vehicles, what one police official calls a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Now, New Orleans police are asking the city council to approve a one-and-a-half-half-millarred. million-dollar plan to install permanent metal swing gates along Bourbon Street.

Debbie Elliott, NPR News. Mortgage rates have fallen to their lowest level all year to just over 6% for a 30-year fixed mortgage. Here's NPR Scott Newman. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, better known as Freddie Mac, released its final primary mortgage market survey of the year. It shows that at the close of 2025, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was at 6.15%. That's down from 6.85% a year ago and well off the nearly 7.9% seen in October 2023. Since then, rates have largely reversed an upward trend.

While current rates are comparatively low, that's likely little comfort to potential homebuyers who recall the average lows of less than 3% seen during the pandemic. The current average rate on a 15-year fixed mortgage is 5.44%. That's Scott Newman. It's NPR News. A train driver was killed and at least 30 passengers were injured in a head-on rail collision near Peru's famed archaeological site of Machu Picchu. Reporter John Otis has details.

The accident occurred along a single-track rail line connecting the Incan sanctuary of Machu Picchu with the nearby city of Kusko in the Andes Mountains. Authorities said a train coming from Machu Picchu collided head-on. with a train car from a rival rail company on its way there. Peruvian media broadcast images of smash train cars with broken windows and said that evacuation of the injured was hampered by the mountainous terrain. The U.S. Embassy told Reuters that American tourists were among the injured. Machu Picchu receives about 1.5 million visitors annually

with most arriving by trains and buses. The cause of the collision has yet to be determined. For NPR News, I'm John Otis. Depending on where you live, 2026 is already here. The UAE and Armenia just rang in the new year. China's already there. Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Celebrations in Beijing. At a ceremony heard here through the Associated Press, drums boomed on a stage in Beijing as towering images of horses were displayed at the celebration. they mark the upcoming year of the fire horse. The lunar new year starts February 17th. The Dow is down now more than 200 points.

It's NPR News.