NPR News: 11-24-2025 2AM EST

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Speaker 2 Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Officials from the U.S., Ukraine, and some European countries are meeting in Geneva in an effort to hammer out a peace deal to end the fighting in Ukraine.

Speaker 2 After discussions on Sunday, Secretary of State Mark Rubio sounded optimistic.

Speaker 3 Now, obviously, like any final agreement, they'll have to be agreed upon by the presidents.

Speaker 3 And there are a couple issues that we need to continue to work on. But I think the report today is that I think today was worthwhile.
It was very, very,

Speaker 3 it is probably the most productive day we have had on this issue.

Speaker 2 The discussions began with a 28-step peace plan. offered by the U.S.

Speaker 2 The plan has been controversial, in part because it strongly favors Russia, but Rubio now says that plan is a living document that will change.

Speaker 2 Brazil's President Lula da Silva expressed concern Sunday over the U.S.

Speaker 2 military build-up near Venezuela, and as Kate Bartlett reports, Lula says he intends to speak to President Trump about the issue.

Speaker 4 De Silva, who was speaking on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg, said there was no reason to have a war.

Speaker 4 He warned against repeating the mistake of what happened between Russia and Ukraine and said, quote, once a shot is fired, it is hard to predict how how it will end. The U.S.

Speaker 4 has conducted more than 20 strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, it says, were drug boats, killing dozens of people. The U.S.

Speaker 4 has also sent an aircraft carrier strike group, Navy warships, and stealth aircraft to the area near Venezuela. Trump accuses Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a terrorist drug cartel.

Speaker 4 Kate Bartlett, NPR News, Johannesburg.

Speaker 2 China's diplomatic battle with Japan is continuing to escalate.

Speaker 2 China's foreign minister said on Sunday that a speech from Japan's prime minister in which she said she considers a Chinese invasion of Taiwan an existential threat was, quote, shocking.

Speaker 2 Empires Emily Feng has our reports.

Speaker 5 Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Japan had, quote, stolen Taiwan from China and that Taiwan was, quote, an inseparable part of China.

Speaker 5 Taiwan is a self-ruled democratic island, and it was a former Japanese colony. And relations between Taiwan and Japan have gotten closer as Beijing's threats towards Taiwan increase.

Speaker 5 China's ambassador to the United Nations also raised Japan's speech about Taiwan this past week, accusing Tokyo of supporting, quote, armed intervention over Taiwan.

Speaker 5 In retaliation, Beijing has also cut off some flights and tour groups to Japan, and it's reportedly blocked some Japanese food imports as well. Emily Fang and Pure News.

Speaker 2 Officials in Nigeria say 50 of the 303 school children abducted by gunmen on Friday have escaped and been returned to their families.

Speaker 2 They were taken from a Catholic school in the western part of that country. More than 250 students and teachers are still being held captive.

Speaker 2 Pope Leo has called for the immediate release of those who are still missing. You're listening to NPR News.

Speaker 2 Israel has killed Hezbollah's chief of staff in Beirut. It's the first time Israeli forces have hit Lebanon's capital since June.

Speaker 2 Lebanon's health ministry says five people were killed and 25 others wounded in the strike.

Speaker 2 Lebanon's president condemned the attack, which came just days before a planned visit to Lebanon by Pope Leo XIV.

Speaker 2 New research from Brown University finds that marijuana use leads people to cut back on alcohol consumption.

Speaker 2 NPR's Will Stone reports that it's one of the first rigorous studies to test this idea in humans.

Speaker 6 In an elaborate and provocative experiment, scientists doled out joints and constructed a fake bar in the laboratory.

Speaker 6 They recruited about 160 people and found those who smoke the higher potency cannabis ended up drinking 27% less alcohol and the lower potency about 19% less compared to the placebo.

Speaker 6 Jane Metrick at Brown University led the study.

Speaker 7 It is telling us that cannabinoids could play a potential therapeutic role in alcohol use disorder.

Speaker 6 Metrick and other researchers acknowledge cannabis itself is not harm-free and concerns about the drug also need to be weighed, and that more research needs to be done before making any kind of recommendations.

Speaker 6 Will Stone, NPR News.

Speaker 2 Ohio State, Indiana, and Texas AM remain at the top of college football this week. They've hung on to the top three spots for six weeks in a row now.

Speaker 2 Georgia is in fourth, followed by Oregon, which moved up to number five after beating USC on Saturday, 42 to 27. Ole Miss fell to sixth after bye week.
Texas Tech is in seventh, followed by Oklahoma,

Speaker 2 two lost Notre Dame and Alabama. This is NPR News.

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