NPR News: 12-30-2025 10PM 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. The Trump administration says it's freezing child care funds to Minnesota after a series of alleged fraud schemes. It comes days after a video from a right-wing influencer went viral online. Minnesota Public Radio's Clay Masters reports.
The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Jim O'Neill, made the announcement on the social media platform X. He writes the step is in response to allegations of blatant fraud in Minnesota, and his agency has, quote, "...turned off the money spigot and are finding the fraud." The announcement follows a viral video from a right-wing YouTuber that featured Minnesota daycare facilities that have been part of a state-administered child care program using federal money. Some of the centers recently had operations or payments suspended. In a statement, Democratic Governor Tim Walz tells NPR he has been combating fraud for years, and this is a, quote, transparent attempt to politicize the issue to hurt Minnesotans and defund government programs that help people.
For NPR News, I'm Clay Masters in St. Paul.
A federal judge in Tennessee says there's some evidence the government's case against Kilmar Abrego-Garcia is vindictive. Mariana Bacayau from member station WPLN reports the Justice Department began investigating Abrego-Garcia. only after the Supreme Court mandated his return to the U.S.
Judge Waverly Crenshaw has reviewed internal documents that show the charges against Abrego Garcia from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee were made a, quote, top priority for the DOJ a few days after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered him return to the U.S. That's after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March. Since then, Abrego Garcia's case has become a flashpoint for critics of the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. In a statement, the federal attorney's office says that the decision to prosecute was made based on facts and standard practices. The next hearing in the case is set for late January. For NPR News, I'm Mariana Bakayau in Nashville.
Despite talks to end the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has told his army to take more Ukrainian territory. NPR's Joanna Kikisis reports.
Russia controls about 70% of Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhia. President Trump says Putin tells him he wants peace, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Russian leader is not sincere. Zelensky is saying Putin tells the President of the United States that he wants to end the war, but then says through media that he will continue the war, striking Ukrainian cities with missiles and drones. Russia says it is changing its stance in negotiations after claiming Ukraine tried to attack one of Putin's homes. Zelensky says this is a lie and Russia is using it as a pretext to expand attacks on Ukraine. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, Kyiv.
Stocks fell slightly on Wall Street today. This is NPR News. A new Palestinian report says that in addition to the more than 240 journalists killed in Gaza by Israel in the war, the military also killed more than 700 family members of Palestinian journalists. NPR's Aya Batraoui reports.
The Palestinian Journalist Syndicate report says the families of journalists in Gaza were systematically targeted during two years of war, with approximately 706 family members killed. They are among the more than 70,000 Palestinians Gaza's health ministry says were killed in Israeli attacks in the war. The report noted that the homes of some journalists were bombed, killing their spouses, children and entire families. When asked by NPR, the Israeli military said it rejects allegations that it deliberately targets journalists or their family members. The military said any claim of intentional harm to civilians is unequivocally false.
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