NPR News: 12-16-2025 8PM EST
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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.
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton.
What actions is President Trump taking regarding Venezuela's oil sanctions?
President Trump says he's ordering a blockade of all, quote, sanctioned oil tankers into Venezuela. The move comes after the U.S. seized a tanker off of Venezuela's coast last week. Trump said on social media that Venezuela is using oil to fund drug trafficking. The developments come after a series of military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. Prosecutors are charging Nick Reiner with murder for the deaths of his parents. Director Rob Reiner and Michelle Reiner, the couple were found stabbed to death in their home in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon. Here's L.A. District Attorney Nathan Hockman.
These charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty. No decision at this point has been made with respect to the death penalty.
Nick Reiner publicly struggled with mental illness and drug addiction. Prosecutors say any evidence relating to his mental state will come out during court proceedings. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles is criticizing Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and broadly defending Donald Trump's second presidency in a series of interviews published by Vanity Fair today. She says Bondi mismanaged the Epstein case with talk about a client list sitting on her desk, and she's defending Trump's retribution against people he perceives as political enemies. Vanity Fair's Chris Whipple told All Things Considered that Wiles described Trump as obsessive.
What she means by that is that Trump, while he doesn't drink, he does have this grandiose personality. He believes that there's nothing, nothing that he cannot accomplish. And it's reminiscent of her father when he was drinking.
After the story was published, Wiles called it a hit piece. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is urging the European Union to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for a multi-billion dollar loan to help Ukraine recover from war. NPR's Joanna Kikisis reports that EU leaders are set to vote on the loan on Thursday.
Zelensky made the remarks in Amsterdam after intense negotiations in Berlin with Trump administration envoys on a peace deal draft. Speaking to the Dutch parliament, he said the Kremlin cares more about money than the Russian soldiers who die on the front line. Russians don't count their debt, but they do count every dollar and every euro they lose. Zelensky claims 30,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine every month. The Ukrainian military does not reveal its own casualties. European leaders are divided over whether to use frozen Russian assets as collateral for the reparations loan, fearing the financial risk. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.
U.S. stocks drifted lower today following mixed data on the economy's strength. This is NPR News from Washington. Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona says the Pentagon's investigation into his plea to troops to refuse unlawful orders is part of an effort to silence his dissent within the military. He told reporters the administration is sending a message to, quote, not speak out against this president or there will be consequences. The Pentagon says it's investigating, quote,
What are the details surrounding the murder charges against Nick Reiner?
serious allegations of misconduct. Roughly 700 million people around the world live on less than $2.15 a day. As NPR's Jonathan Lambert reports, lifting the vast majority of these people out of extreme poverty may be less expensive than researchers thought.
The question of what it would cost to end extreme poverty is a tricky one. For one, it's difficult to accurately identify everyone who lives on less than $2.15 a day. And it's tough to know the precise needs of each of those people. Researchers at the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley offer an answer. They used AI to analyze how much people spend on things like food or shelter in about a dozen of the poorest countries.
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