NPR News: 12-04-2025 6AM EST
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Live from NPR News, I'm Janine Hurst. President Trump says he'll release video of the second U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela.
NPR's Mara Liason has more. The U.S. strikes on a boat the White House says was carrying drugs has caused controversy. after reports that there were survivors after the first strike and that those survivors were killed in a second strike. President Trump said he would certainly release the video of the second strike, but that he's not sure what the U.S. government has on tape. The president continues to justify the attacks, saying that the boats the U.S. has been attacking are filled with drugs headed for the U.S. He claims that every boat the U.S. destroys saves 25,000 American lives, a number that experts say is substantially overstated. He also said the U.S. would soon be conducting strikes against Venezuelan drug traffickers on land.
Mara Liason, NPR News, the White House.
The New York Times is suing the Pentagon and its chief, Pete Hegseth, over restrictions saying he's violating First Amendment protections for a free press and freedom of speech by imposing a new policy with restrictions on reporting about the military. NPR's David Fokenflik has more.
Hegs' policy is so sweeping that it bans reporters with press passes even from disclosing unauthorized information that is not classified. The Times and NPR and other major news outlets turned in their badges rather than agree to such conditions. Earlier this year, reporters broke stories challenging the official line on U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites and on Venezuelan boats. A scoop by The Atlantic led an inspector general to conclude that Hegseth's group chat on Signal about pending U.S. airstrikes in Yemen could have placed American troops in harm's way. This week, the Pentagon has welcomed in a replacement press corps. They include pro-MAGA social media influencers and online conspiracy peddlers.
David Folkenflik, NPR News, Washington.
Officials in Minnesota are pushing back against President Trump's comments on the Somali community in the state, some 80,000 strong, when he called them, quote, garbage. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey.
He's wrong, and we want them here. Somali people have been an extraordinary benefit.
Trump says he doesn't want them in the country, and there are reports that ICE agents will target the Somali community in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepik has more.
Jelani Hussain, who leads the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and was born in Somalia, came here as a child, said that the community has reported already seeing an increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel in the Twin Cities. He also said he's received reports of American citizens being asked about their citizenship. Hussain says this is blatantly discriminatory.
Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepik reporting. You're listening to NPR News from Washington. Billionaire private astronaut Jared Isaacman was back on Capitol Hill yesterday for a second Senate hearing to become the head of NASA. President Trump initially picked him to head the space agency, but abruptly pulled the nomination shortly before confirmation. NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boyce has more.
Jared Isaacman said he wouldn't speculate about why the president re-nominated him. One senator asked about donations to Trump's super PAC, but Isaacman said it shouldn't be surprising that he supported the Republican Party and that he donated far more to charitable causes. Pressed on his connections to SpaceX and Elon Musk, he said he was independent.
In a world where everybody has a phone with a camera on it, there are no pictures of us at dinner, at a bar, on an airplane, or on a yacht because they don't exist.
He stressed the urgency of returning Americans to the moon before a rival, China, gets there.
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