NPR News: 12-11-2025 3AM EST
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says the FBI and Coast Guard have seized a crude oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast. Bondi says the vessel had been used to circumvent U.S. oil sanctions. President Trump announced the operation during a White House press event Wednesday.
What recent actions has the U.S. taken regarding Venezuela's oil sanctions?
We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large, Largest one ever seized, actually. And other things are happening, so you'll be seeing that later, and you'll be talking about that later with some other people.
The move steps up U.S. pressure on Venezuela's leader, who Trump calls a major drug trafficker. The Venezuelan government is condemning the U.S. operation as an act of international piracy. The Senate in Indiana is set to meet today to consider President Trump's call to redraw the state's congressional districts. As Ben Thorpe of member station WFYI reports, the move follows months of pressure from the White House.
The Indiana House has already passed the redistricting plan that could help Republicans win two seats in Washington now held by Democrats. Senate Republicans have been deeply divided on the issue. Republican Greg Good held a town hall to hear from constituents and was one of several lawmakers to face a swatting attempt recently that he says brought armed law enforcement into his house over a fake emergency call. Good says he's still undecided. I intend to keep an open mind until the very end. Trump has gotten Republicans in Texas, Missouri, and North Carolina to redistrict. He and Republican Governor Mike Braun threatened to support primary challenges against Indiana Republicans who oppose the effort to shape the 2026 midterms.
For NPR News, I'm Ben Thorpe in Indianapolis.
The University of Michigan's head coach was fired this week, hours before being booked on assault charges. Michigan Public's Brett Dahlberg has details.
The University of Michigan says Sharon Moore was terminated with cause after a university investigation turned up credible evidence that he engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Hours after his arrest, police near Ann Arbor responded to an alleged assault. Police said there was no ongoing threat to public safety, but they couldn't share any more details to maintain the integrity of the investigation. Moore led the Wolverine football team for two years. He had a winning record, but he was also sanctioned by the NCAA over sign-stealing and recruiting violations. For NPR News, I'm Brett Dahlberg.
A federal judge in New York has cleared the way for the release of grand jury transcripts from the 2019 sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman says there are no new revelations in the material. He initially ordered the data to remain sealed, citing a new law requiring the government to open its files on Epstein and his imprisoned accomplice, Galen Maxwell. This is NPR. A federal judge in San Francisco is ordering the Trump administration to to end its deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles. Judge Charles Breyer's ruling is the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the administration's efforts to position troops in cities that are being led by Democrats.
Archaeologists in Britain say they found the earliest evidence of humans making fire. As NPR's Neat Rot reports, the findings suggest that humans started making fires 350,000 years earlier than previously thought.
You don't have to be eating cooked meat or sitting next to a fireplace to understand the benefits that fire would have provided to early humans. The ability to start fires was a major evolutionary tool that we continue to benefit from today. But archaeologists have long wondered when that discovery first took place. The iron pyrite and firecracked flint unearthed in a 400,000-year-old hearth in eastern Britain gives us the earliest example yet. The findings detailed in the journal Nature suggest at least some early humans, likely Neanderthals, had the knowledge to start fires far earlier than previously thought.
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