Dua-Lisa Cautel

The Department of Veterans Affairs has been ordered by a federal appeals court to build more than 2,500 housing units at its location in Los Angeles.

Steve Fetterman has details.

Tensions are growing between Congress and the Justice Department over the release of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

NPR's Windsor Johnston reports.

This year, crime rates dropped across the country.

That's what specialists found when they reviewed data for 2025.

NPR criminal justice correspondent Meg Anderson says she looked at something called the Real-Time Crime Index

which uses data from nearly 600 jurisdictions, and she found that crime in general is down by a lot and murders are down by 20%.

And talking to researchers, she adds, some noted Trump's immigration crackdown could have eroded trust in local police, so people may have been too scared to call 911 when they needed help.

This is NPR News.

The remainder of schoolchildren and teachers, 130 people, who were abducted from a Catholic school in north-central Nigeria a month ago have been released by unknown armed gangs or bandits who have been threatening villagers across north and central Nigeria for years.

The Associated Press and the Vatican confirmed the Christmas reunion, where parents hugged and lifted their children into the air, many asking questions about their physical and mental health.

The school, St.

Mary's in Niger State, says most of the children abducted were between the ages of 10 and 17.

People are gathering in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas for the first time since the war in Gaza began.

NPR's Hadil Alsalchi reports the mood there was hopeful and bittersweet.

The Powerball jackpot now stands at an estimated $1.7 billion.

This is NPR News from New York.

Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dua-Lisa Cautel.

The Justice Department has released another batch of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.