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NPR News Now

NPR News: 12-16-2025 1AM EST

16 Dec 2025

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.098 - 14.04 Unknown

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org.

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16.501 - 41.935 Shea Stevens

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. Investigators in Australia are calling Sunday's mass shooting in Sydney a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State. Two gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. As Katie Silver reports, one suspect is in custody while his alleged accomplice and father was killed at the scene.

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42.168 - 63.653 Katie Silver

He came on a student visa. He was then shot dead by the authorities. He wasn't known to police, but his 24-year-old son, Naveem, who was born in Australia, we found out he was investigated in 2019 over fears of radicalisation, and we have since seen a video emerge of him pledging allegiance to ISIS. Katie Silver in Melbourne.

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63.633 - 74.115 Shea Stevens

Police in Rhode Island are seeking the public's help in identifying the gunman who killed two people and injured nine others at Brown University on Saturday. Ocean State Media's David Wright has more.

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74.23 - 98.793 David Wright

The FBI and local authorities are going door-to-door in the neighborhood around Brown, asking local businesses and residents to share doorbell camera footage from Saturday that might show the suspect. Providence police released new images of a person of interest, some of them taken hours before the shooting, just two blocks away. His face masked, but his eyes visible.

99.214 - 101.436 David Wright

Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Nerona.

101.72 - 111.018 Peter Nerona

These investigations are like threads that you pull on a garment, and some of them you pull and the garment doesn't open up, and other ones you pull and the garment comes undone.

111.038 - 121.197 David Wright

The FBI is now offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction. For NPR News, I'm David Wright in Providence.

121.615 - 127.424 Shea Stevens

President Trump has signed an executive order classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

Chapter 2: What happened during the mass shooting in Sydney?

127.464 - 133.554 Shea Stevens

NPR's Franco Ordonez reports that Trump has called the opioid crisis a public health emergency.

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134.035 - 145.212 Franco Ordonez

President Trump said there's no doubt that adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. in order to kill Americans. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said the drug kills more Americans than any war.

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145.673 - 160.802 Unknown

No bomb does what this is doing. 200,000 to 300,000 people die every year that we know of. So we're formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction.

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161.255 - 185.44 Franco Ordonez

According to the CDC, the U.S. has roughly 100,000 drug overdose deaths in a year. Fentanyl has been blamed for tens of thousands of those. Trump also said his administration is considering reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug, which he said would allow more research to be conducted. Franco Ordonez, NPR News, the White House.

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185.42 - 206.938 Shea Stevens

U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street following Monday's losses, the Dow fell 41 points. This is NPR. The FBI says it's thwarted a plot to carry out attacks on multiple targets in California. Director Kash Patel says four suspects are accused of plotting New Year's Eve attacks on two companies.

207.34 - 232.15 Shea Stevens

Patel says the four allegedly gathered materials to make explosive devices and test them in the Mojave Desert. Investigators say the suspects are part of a pro-Palestinian anti-capitalist group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The maker of Roomba robot vacuums has declared bankruptcy. NPR's Alina Selyuk reports that iRobot is being acquired by its main supplier based in China.

232.4 - 255.909 Alina Seljuk

iRobot was founded in 1990 by researchers from MIT, and its devices have been used by the military and scientists tracking oil spills. But its claim to fame is the Roomba, the smart floor vacuum. In recent years, the home robot market got very competitive with lots of foreign rivals, often at cheaper prices. Last year, regulatory scrutiny killed iRobot's merger with Amazon.

256.109 - 275.577 Alina Seljuk

Now it faces new tariffs for products. They tend to come from Vietnam. And iRobot has been losing money. It owes nearly $100 million to its main supplier based in Shenzhen. And that firm has agreed to take over iRobot, assuring that devices will keep operating as normal. Alina Seljuk, NPR News.

275.838 - 294.621 Shea Stevens

President Trump is suing another media company. This time, it's the BBC. The lawsuit alleges the British broadcaster misled viewers by heavily editing parts of a speech Trump made before the January 6th Capitol riots. The episode led to an apology and the resignations of two BBC executives. This is NPR.

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