NPR News: 12-07-2025 11PM EST
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This is Ira Glass. On This American Life, we tell stories about when things change. Like for this guy, David, whose entire life took a sharp, unexpected, and very unpleasant turn. And it did take me a while to realize it's basically because the monkey pressed the button. That's right. Because the monkey pressed the button. Surprising stories every week, wherever you get your podcasts.
Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Dua-Lisa Cautel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says officials are reviewing the video of a September 2nd strike against an alleged drug boat near Venezuela to determine if it will be made public. NPR's Joe Hernandez has more on this story.
Democratic lawmakers and others have criticized the September 2nd strike after it was revealed that the military fired on survivors of an initial attack. Congressman Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS' Face the Nation that the footage should be made public.
These guys, and this is why the American people need to see this video, these guys were We're barely alive, much less engaging in hostilities.
Defense Secretary Hegseth has said he authorized the initial strike, but that a military commander approved the follow-up attack. Hegseth has not committed to releasing the full video, saying on Friday that officials were trying to determine whether doing so would endanger ongoing operations. Joe Hernandez, NPR News.
The social media platform X has blocked one of the accounts of the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm. The move comes just after EU regulators fined Elon Musk's company $140 million for breaching the bloc's transparency rules. As Terry Schultz reports.
Ex-executive Nikita Beer called it irony that the European Commission posted on the platform that it had found the company in violation of transparency rules. He said the commission had logged on to a dormant ad account and that now this account has been terminated. An ad account is one linked to a user's main account from which advertising campaigns can be run. On Friday, the European Commission announced X was in violation of the EU's Digital Services Act for allowing blue checkmarks to be purchased instead of verifying users' identities, for not being transparent about the advertising it runs, and for not allowing researchers to access public data. The company must amend its practices within three months or face further fines.
For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels.
Policymakers at the Federal Reserve will meet this week to discuss interest rates. NPR's Scott Horsley reports the central bank is expected to lower its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point.
The Fed lowered interest rates at each of its last two meetings, but policymakers were divided on whether a third straight cut would be warranted this coming week, inflation still well above the Fed's 2 percent target, which would ordinarily suggest keeping rates higher. But the central bank's also concerned about a softening job market, which could be cushioned with lower interest rates.
What are the details surrounding the military strike near Venezuela?
Investors think those job market worries will take priority at this week's meeting, and the rate-setting committee will opt for another quarter-point cut. But the decision is not likely to be unanimous. The six-week government shutdown added to the uncertainty by delaying some key economic reports until after this week's meeting. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.
And you are listening to NPR News from New York City. The growing number of satellites orbiting Earth could ruin images taken by telescopes. That's according to a NASA-led study. And Perez Chandelier's Duster has more.
More than 10,000 active satellites are orbiting the Earth. NASA scientists say in a new study that there could be more than 500,000 satellites in the next decade. The scientists found that this increase in satellites could cause more than 95% of images taken by space telescopes, such as Hubble, to have streaks. Astronomers are not only concerned about light streaks showing up on images taken by telescopes.
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