NPR News: 12-04-2025 11AM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. The presidents of Congo and Rwanda are in Washington today, where they're due to sign a historic peace agreement. The Trump administration brokered the deal, hoping to solve longstanding conflict in eastern Congo. But fighting on the ground has continued, as Emmett Livingstone reports.
The Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and Rwandan leader Paul Kagame are due at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace in Washington, where they'll sign off on a peace agreement between their countries. While there's some optimism that the US-brokered peace initiative will yield results, that hope is slim. Congo and Rwanda already agreed to the deal over the summer, but it's hardly been implemented. Heavy fighting with M23 rebels in eastern Congo continued this week. It's a tense but symbolic moment. Tshisekedi and Kagame are bitter enemies. Earlier this year, the two African countries nearly descended into war after M23 rebels, who are backed by Rwanda, captured eastern Congo's two largest cities.
For NPR News, I'm Emmett Livingstone in Kinshasa.
A two-day CDC advisory panel meets today on whether newborns should still get the hepatitis B vaccine, the first shot found to prevent cancer. Current health recommendations suggest all babies be vaccinated at birth, but Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's committee is expected to vote to change that. And Pierce Ping Wong has more.
What peace agreement are Congo and Rwanda signing in Washington?
First of all, the group is going to be voting on whether to drop the recommendation that hepatitis B vaccines be given to babies at birth. This is a policy that's been in effect for more than 30 years. Also, they're going to be discussing the overall vaccine schedule, which is who gets which vaccines and when, and also what goes into vaccines.
A dozen former leaders of the FDA are warning that the proposed changes to the current vaccine schedule could put the nation's health at risk and undermine public trust in the health system. Activist groups across southeast Louisiana are conducting trainings as the federal immigration crackdown in New Orleans is underway. Report for America Corps member Alex Cox has more.
Dozens gathered at a church in Baton Rouge for a workshop on filming immigration and customs enforcement officers legally and peacefully. The group, Ojos, had attendees role play as bystanders, people without legal status, and ICE agents.
You need 25 feet! 25 feet!
Organizer Rachel Tabor says encounters with law enforcement can be uncomfortable, even dangerous, so it's important to practice in advance.
It's important to teach our constitutional rights to all of us because we cannot live free unless we actually use our rights.
The federal government is calling the operation Catahoula Crunch. In a press release, the Department of Homeland Security says the operation is targeting violent criminals. For NPR News, I'm Alex Cox in Baton Rouge.
Wall Street is trading in mixed territory at this hour. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has spoken publicly for the first time about his recent conversation with President Trump, calling it cordial and respectful. This as the Trump administration increases military pressure, warning that strikes against the country, allegedly against drug trafficking, could start soon. Julia Carneo has more.
Maduro spoke about his call with Donald Trump during a televised event around 10 days after the exchange. The regime had kept quiet about the call, with Maduro saying he likes to be prudent about important topics. I believe that the path between the United States and the Venezuelan people has to be a path of respect, diplomacy and dialogue, he said, adding in English.
Welcome diplomats. Welcome the pits. Pits.
The Venezuelan president says he knows the U.S. well and Americans, too, are tired of, quote, eternal wars and have collective trauma from past conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
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