NPR News: 12-06-2025 11PM EST
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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dualisa Kautel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending U.S. military strikes on alleged drug smugglers and says the U.S. will continue to find, quote, terrorists who bring in drugs. He stopped short of saying if the Pentagon would release video of a September Operation that killed a pair of survivors shipwrecked by an initial strike. Some Democrats have called the military strikes illegal. Here is Hegseth speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum today in California.
We are tracking them. We are killing them. And we will keep killing them so long as they are poisoning our people with narcotics so lethal that they're tantamount to chemical weapons.
He told the audience, what I understand then and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself. A Russian mass missile and drone attack hit Ukrainian substations and power generation facilities early Saturday. The Kiev Independent reports a key power line to a nuclear plant in Zaporizhia was also disconnected. And Perez Eleanor Beardsley reports.
Air raid sirens blared over Kyiv in the early morning hours Saturday, but the strikes were targeted at energy facilities more than civilian infrastructure this time. The Kremlin is trying to cripple Ukraine's energy structures ahead of another winter of war.
What military actions are being discussed in relation to drug smuggling?
Generators hum away on the sidewalks of Kyiv, and people plan their lives around the rolling blackouts. 27-year-old Victoria Muskaluk is buying fresh eggs at her weekly street market.
Unfortunately, you are getting used to it, and you need to handle somehow to have your mental state on a normal level.
She says Ukrainians are hanging on and trying to live as they can. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Kyiv.
The Trump administration has added President Trump's birthday, June 14th, to the list of entrance fee-free days at national parks. And Pierce Chloe Veltman reports.
Besides Trump's 80th birthday, which falls on Flag Day, there are seven other no-cost visiting days at national parks in 2026. Among them, a Constitution Day on September 17th and President Teddy Roosevelt's birthday on October 27th. The changes will take effect starting January 1st, when free entrance on these days will be for US citizens and residents only. Non-residents will pay the regular entrance fee and any applicable non-resident fees, according to the National Park Service website. The updates have drawn criticism on social media, with people questioning the Trump administration's decision to favour Trump's birthday over Martin Luther King's. The Interior Department, which oversees the park, did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.
Chloe Veltman, NPR News.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth have been removed from next year's free days schedule. You're listening to NPR News from New York. Police departments across the country are rethinking how to support officers who experience traumatic events on the job. Studies show they face a higher risk of mental health problems. NPR's Lakshmi Singh has more on one officer who found an unexpected lifeline.
Vinnie Montez has worn a lot of hats in his 27 years with the Boulder County Sheriff's Office, deputy, commander, public information officer. This is different. On the comedy club stage, Montez speaks openly about the weight of his day job and his struggles with depression.
I could name over half a dozen deputies that I used to ride with. as a young man who later took their life. I think they were all amazing people, but that is a very sobering fact for me, and I'm glad I never got to that point.
His story is featured in the documentary Vinnyisms. Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.
Polls in Hong Kong's legislative elections opened hours ago and aren't expected to close until half an hour before midnight local time.
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