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Lead As of Dec. 17, 2025, more than a tenth of sitting members of the U.S. Congress have indicated they will not hold their current seats after the 2026 midterm elections, citing retirements, redistricting and runs for other offices. NPR’s tracker counts 54 lawmakers — 10 senators and 44 representatives — who announced departures or … Read more

Lead: On Wednesday, December 17, 2025, Google announced that its vibe-coding toolkit Opal is now built into the Gemini web app, enabling users to create and reuse AI-powered mini-apps called Gems. The integration places Opal inside the Gems manager and adds a visual, no-code editor that converts natural-language prompts into ordered steps. Users can refine … Read more

Nick Reiner, 32, is expected to face a first court appearance in Los Angeles after his parents, director Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found dead at their Brentwood home on Sunday. Los Angeles prosecutors have charged Nick Reiner with two counts of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of multiple murders; … Read more

Prime Video’s second season of Fallout has arrived, bringing Ella Purnell back as Lucy and renewing attention on the franchise’s crossover between television and games. The show’s creators worked closely with Bethesda veterans to preserve series “canon,” while the TV exposure has driven renewed interest and sales for several Fallout titles. Developers say the collaboration … Read more

Dec 16, 2025 — The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) on Dec. 16 issued a statement from President Antonio Busalacchi responding to media reports that the Trump administration is proposing to break up the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR). UCAR, which manages NSF NCAR on behalf of the NSF … Read more

Lead Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) announced on Wednesday that he will not run for re-election in 2026, ending a decade-long tenure that began with his 2014 victory. Newhouse is one of the last House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. In a statement … Read more

Gil Gerard, the actor best known for playing the title role in the NBC science-fiction series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, died Dec. 16, 2025, in hospice care in Georgia. He was 82. Gerard’s wife, Janet Gerard, announced his death on social media and said the cause was cancer. His career spanned commercials, soap … Read more

Finland’s representative to last month’s Miss Universe pageant in Thailand triggered an international backlash after a photograph showing her pulling the corners of her eyes circulated online. The 22-year-old, Sarah Dzafce, uploaded the image on 11 December with a caption that referenced eating with a Chinese person; the gesture and wording were widely judged disrespectful … Read more

Warner Bros. Discovery’s board on Wednesday unanimously recommended that shareholders reject Paramount Skydance’s unsolicited $30-per-share cash tender offer, saying the bid—which Paramount values at an enterprise value of $108.4 billion—is inadequate and carries significant risks. The board reaffirmed its support for a pending transaction with Netflix, which it describes as a superior and more certain … Read more

Metropolitan and Greater Manchester police announced they will arrest people who hold placards or chant the slogan “globalise the intifada” at protests, saying the phrase can have violent consequences. The move followed a mass shooting at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people and a UK synagogue knife attack on 2 October that killed two, incidents … Read more

U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed an indictment on Dec. 17, 2025, charging Tricolor Holdings founder and CEO Daniel Chu and COO David Goodgame with a years-long, “systematic fraud” scheme that prosecutors say helped the bankrupt subprime auto lender obtain billions. The charges allege misconduct dating at least from 2018 through September 2025 and center on … Read more

Lead: NASA’s MAVEN orbiter has not transmitted any telemetry since Dec. 4, and engineers working the mission reported an update on Dec. 15 that a fragment of tracking data recovered on Dec. 6 suggests the vehicle may be rotating. Launched in November 2013 and arriving at Mars about 10 months later, MAVEN was built to … Read more

Close friends and long-time collaborators of Rob and Michele Reiner, including Billy Crystal, Albert Brooks, Martin Short and Larry David, issued a joint statement mourning the couple two days after they were found dead in their Brentwood, Los Angeles, home. The statement—released first to The Associated Press—praised Rob Reiner’s range as a director and performer … Read more

Lead On Monday, 16 December 2025, a private jet attempting an emergency landing crashed in San Mateo Atenco, about 50 kilometres west of Mexico City, killing at least seven people and sparking a large fire. The aircraft had departed Acapulco earlier and was reported to have registered eight passengers and two crew; hours after the … Read more

The Office for National Statistics reported that UK consumer price inflation eased to 3.2% in the year to November, down from 3.6% in October, marking the lowest annual rate in eight months. The November decline was led by falls in food, clothing and alcohol prices and came ahead of the Bank of England’s interest-rate decision … Read more