Up First from NPR - Christmas In Bethlehem, Honduras Election Result, Immigration Crackdown

Episode Date: December 25, 2025

After two years of not celebrating because of the war in nearby Gaza, Christmas festivities have returned to Bethlehem. Election officials in Honduras have named the winner of the country’s presidential election, after more than three weeks of counting the votes. And, in a year of record breaking immigration enforcement, deportations and detentions are separating families and in some cases that means the oldest children become the family breadwinner.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by James Hider, Didi Schanche, Eric Westervelt and Lisa Thomson.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zo van Ginhoven. Our technical director is David Greenburg.And our deputy Executive Producer is Kelley Dickens.(00:00) Introduction(03:11) Christmas In Bethlehem(06:58) Honduras Election Result(10:40) Immigration CrackdownLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Oh, my God, guys. It's the Layla show today. Let's go crazy. Merry Christmas. If you're celebrating today and you're starting your day by listening to us, well, what an honor. Thank you for being here. And maybe you're also a Christmas slacker. I've been accused. And you're still looking for that last minute gift. Well, I'm here to help. For the NPR superfan in your life, there's NPR Plus. Forget getting some throwaway gift at the only open gas station nearby.

Am I speaking from experience, maybe? Because if you get NPR Plus, you don't have to leave your house. And you become a huge part of keeping NPR's independent journalism and our bevy of podcasts going. What says love like a gift that says, I believe in a free press? Also, supporters get access to special perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts. And the best part is you'll seem thoughtful. So your mom, your brother, your best friend, or whoever it is, Won't even realize you actually forgot them.

It's okay. You remembered in time. Just go to plus.npr.org. Click on the option you want to gift and then choose give as a gift. That's plus.npr.org. On this Christmas morning, we start in Bethlehem. We're for the first time since the start of the war in Gaza. The Christmas festivities are back.

This is the best breath of Jesus Christ. So we came here to see where he was born. How does it feel to celebrate again? I'm Leila Faudil, and this is up first from NPR News. Election officials in Honduras have announced the winner, and the next president is a Trump-backed construction entrepreneur. The results come after weeks of vote counting and allegations of fraud. What's behind President Trump's support for the next Honduran leader?

And in a year of record-breaking immigration enforcement, deportations and detentions are separating families. And in some cases, that means the oldest child, comes the family breadwinner. Before going to work or after work, I just feel stressed, kiss of everything, and then I just start crying there. Stay with us for the news you need to start your day. 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 Cs apply. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. When you think about the people you love, it's not the big things you miss the most. It's the details.

What memories will your loved ones cherish when you're gone? At Dignity Memorial, the details aren't just little things, they're everything. They help families create meaningful celebrations of life with professionalism and compassion. To find a provider near you, visit DignityMemorial.com. AI expert Alvin Grayland has worked in Silicon Valley and China's tech scene for over three decades. Talk of an AI arms race, he thinks it's a big mistake. When I hear this from people who are very influential in the decision making in America, it feels a little bit ignorant and very scary.

Ideas about AI in 2026 and beyond. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. After two years of not celebrating because of the war in nearby guys, Christmas festivities have returned to Bethlehem. The city is nestled in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and is a place where people from around the world have long gathered to celebrate Jesus' birth. And Pierre Sadil al-Shalchi was at the Christmas Eve celebrations

and joins us now from Bethlehem. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, so set the scene for us. What was it like? I mean, what a day. First of all, it felt like summer. The sun was shining. It got pretty hot also. And Manger Square was packed with hundreds of people. Many were wearing their Sunday best, kids holding balloons. There were all these kiosk selling corn and nuts. People wearing Santa Claus hats. And of course, the huge Bethlehem Christmas tree with red and gold bobbles and twinkling lights, even though it was daytime, loomed over our heads. Bethlehem has a tradition of holding a scouts parade on Christmas Eve. We just heard a little bit from them.

Young men and women played the backpipes, drums. They did a few. few tricks with their batons, throwing them in the air. There's also a tradition where Jerusalem's Latin patriarch marches behind the parade and then gives a speech at the end of it. And indeed, Italian cardinal Pizabala showed up, flanked with an enormous amount of security and gave his message. But today I see in Bethlehem light. So really a message of hope. What did you hear from people in Major Square? You know, people were just like really happy. It's been more than two years of a devastating war in Gaza, and then also since the war started, it's been really restrictive to live as a Palestinian in the West Bank, which is where Bethlehem is. The Israeli military

has set up so many new checkpoints and military raids have increased in cities where it says it's rooting out militants. I talked to a 22-year-old, Asil Jahjah, who said that the festivities were just what Bethlehem needed. She says people needed to let off some of the pressure they felt since the war started. But you know, if you know, It wasn't just Palestinians here. There weren't as many tourists as before the war, but, you know, there were some Americans, Germans, I heard Italian. I even spoke to a couple from Malawi, a pastor and her husband.

They were wearing full-on festive Christmas jammies in the middle of the day. Pastor Matiota said they were encouraged to come after she heard that a ceasefire was brokered in Gaza last October. This is the best breath of Jesus Christ. So we came here to see where he was born. Hadil, you mentioned there how restrictive it's been in the West Bank. Did people talk about that? Absolutely. I mean, people were happy, but it was top of mind.

I met Basal Awat. He's a 30-year-old, and he was manning a coffee kiosk. His family has set up in manger square at Christmas for his whole life. Now, Leila, he described living in the West Bank with this one Arabic word. Sijan. Fad Sijan. Sijin. Prison. Exactly. He says that it's self-ocating to live in the West Bank today, that a simple trip to a neighboring city feels like an ordeal, and that they could easily expect the Israeli military,

even in Manger Square, without notice. I also spoke to 46-year-old Hanan Hirish. She said it took her three and a half hours to get from Ramallah to Bethlehem because of the checkpoints, and that's a trip that normally takes half an hour in a car. But she said, even though they can be intimidated, she was determined.

Since morning, I decided not to make myself nervous because at the end I want to come. And really, that was the atmosphere here. People were defiant, daring to allow themselves a moment of hope in what has been a very, dark time. A moment of hope in what has been a very dark time, a powerful message on this Christmas morning, Hadeel. That's NPR's Hadeel El-Shalchi in Bethlehem. Thank you. Of course. You're welcome.

Election officials in Honduras have finally named the winner of the country's presidential election after more than three weeks of counting the votes. That winner is construction entrepreneur Nasri Asfura, a conservative candidate backed by President Trump. He won by less than 1% of the vote. The election has been clouded by claims of fraud and the loser is refusing to concede. This is the latest swing toward the right in Latin America after Chile elected a far-right president earlier this month. For more on this, NPR's Ader Peralta joins us from his base in Mexico City. Good morning. Hey, good morning. So what were the dynamics at play in this race? Well, look, the president in power now, Siamara Castro is a leftist who had promised to fight corruption and to make the lives of Hondurans better.

And after four years, Hondurans are still struggling. Her party lost. The polls leading up to the election showed a preference for a man called Salvador Nasrala. He's a centrist. He's a former TV show host. And he's widely seen in Honduras as the least corrupt of the politicians. But Hondurans went to the polls on November 30th. And that same night, the problems began the counting softens.

where went haywire. At times, the counting would stop for days at a time. And it wasn't long before the candidates started claiming that the elections were being rigged. There were three electoral commissioners. One of them quit on Tuesday night, saying the process was fraudulent. And then last night on Noche Buena, Christmas Eve, which is a day where most Hondurants are out partying, not thinking about politics, the electoral commission got on Zoom, and they declared that Nasri Asfura had won the presidency. Oh, wow. I'm sure that was an unexpected. Christmas present. Yeah.

So who is Asfura, and why did Trump support him? I mean, Asfura is a former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the candidate for the conservative national party. You know, the U.S. doesn't tend to endorse candidates, but here, President Trump not only endorsed Asfuda, he said if anyone else won, Honduras would face consequences. And look, in a lot of ways, this makes sense. Honduras is important to the U.S. The U.S. has a big military base in the country, and for decades, it has been a staging ground

for U.S. operations in the region. current president, Ciomara Castro, has a tense relationship with the U.S. When Trump began his immigration crackdown, she threatened to shut down the U.S. base in the country. And it seems that Trump made a cold calculation that the most robust U.S. ally in Honduras would be the National Party, Asfudas Party. And now this may seem odd because the U.S. has had major problems with the national party.

The last National Party president, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was extradited to the U.S. and convicted of drug trafficking. Just before this election, Trump pardoned Hernandez and endorsed his ally Nasri Asfuda. In a statement yesterday, the State Department congratulated Asfura and said that they looked forward to working with the new Honduran government. Meanwhile, the losing candidate, Salvador Nasrallah, says he won't accept the results. Why? He says this election was rigged. And let's be clear when it takes more than three weeks to count some four million votes, it doesn't exactly create a whole lot of confidence. but do we know for sure that it was rigged? We don't.

Nazarala was demanding a vote-by-vote recount, and he never got that. He says he doesn't accept the results, but he hasn't detailed what he plans to do about it. Honduras is a country that has faced electoral violence in the past, so that's also a worry, and we've yet to hear from President Castro, who has said the process was flawed. That's NPR's Ader Peralta in Mexico City. Thank you, Ader, and Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you, Leila. It's been a year of unprecedented immigration enforcement across the U.S.

The Trump administration says it has deported more than half a million undocumented immigrants. And more than 65,000 people are currently in immigration detention more than ever before. NPR's Jasmine Garst spent this year talking to families affected by these policies, and she joins us now. Good morning. Good morning. You know, Jasmine, as we approach the end of the year, I think about all the stories you've told. Is there one that sticks out for you, that illustrates for you what the deportation campaign looks like on the ground? Yeah, absolutely.

Earlier this year, I got a call about a pastor who was in detention in Florida. His name was Pastor Marilio Ambrosio from Guatemala. Now, he lived in the U.S. for about 30 years. No criminal record. He's a church leader. He runs a landscaping business. And, you know, across the country, we're seeing this. Records show 74% of those being detained are like Pastor Ambrosio. They have no criminal conviction. For the most part, their violation is crossing into the country illegally, which is a misdemeanor.

Now, he was detained and deported back to Guatemala, and this is the kind of family separation I've been seeing all year, which is wreaking economic havoc on these families. I spent time with Pastor Ambrosio's daughter, Ashley Ambrosio, who is 20 years old, and now she's the breadwinner of a family of six. Before going to work or after work, I just feel stressed, case of everything, and then I just start crying there. So all these teens having to go to work, carrying some or if not all of the burden of the financial strains of a household, what are parents who are undocumented doing to prepare for the possibility of separation from their U.S.-born children? Well, immigration lawyers are advising that undocumented parents set up emergency guardianship for their U.S. citizen children. What that means is legally designating someone who can step in as a guardian if the parents are detained.

Over the summer, I spoke to an American mom in Washington, D.C., who asked to remain anonymous because she didn't want to put the Honduran family she's friends with at risk. She had just signed this paperwork to become the emergency guardian for her teenage. son's best friend in case his parents were deported to Honduras. My husband and I just looked at each other and we were like, yes, of course, right? Like, not a question, not a moment's hesitation. It's not something we entered into lightly at the same time. Like, we love them. President Trump says these deportations will open job opportunities for Americans.

It's been almost a year now. Is that accurate? Well, the most recent labor report showed unemployment rights. rising to the highest. It's been in four years and job growth slowing. Economists I have spoken to say it could be a combination of tariffs and immigration policy. We do know this. The U.S. has an aging population. And this year, we're expected to have lost about 1.2 million workers from the labor force between January and July. That's according to preliminary census data, analyzed by Pew. What I think is that,

that the economic impact of these policies is going to be one of the biggest stories of next year. That's NPR's Jasmine Gar. She covers immigration for us. Thank you so much for all this reporting and for your reporting all year. Thanks for having me. And that's up first for this Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25th. Merry Christmas. I'm Leila Faudel. For your next listen, consider this from NPR. We hear it up first give you the three big. stories of the day. Our consider this colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes.

Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by James Heider, Didi Skanky, Eric Westervelt, and Lisa Thompson. It was produced by Ziad Budge, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zoe Van Genhoeven. Our Technical director is David Greenberg and our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow and again, Merry Christmas.