NPR News: 12-07-2025 2AM EST

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Live from NPR News in New York City, I'm Duwahlisai Kautau. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending U.S.
military strikes on alleged drug smugglers. He says the U.S.

will continue to find, quote, terrorists who bring in drugs, but he stopped short of saying if the Pentagon would release video of a September operation that killed a pair of survivors shipwrecked by an initial strike.

Some Democrats have called that military attacks illegal.

Here is Hexeth speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum in California, explaining that he did not explicitly order a kill strike as reported in the Washington Post.

Of course not. Anybody that's been in the situation room or they've been in in the the war room there, the Secretary's office, know you don't walk in and say, kill them.
It's just patently ridiculous.

Hexeth added, we will keep killing them so long as they keep killing our people with narcotics so lethal that they are tantamount to chemical weapons.

The official portrait of a transgender health official was recently altered at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services.

And Paris Selena Simmons Duffin has this exclusive report. Admiral Rachel Levine served as President Biden's Assistant Secretary for Health.

She's the first transgender person to be confirmed by the Senate at any federal agency.

NPR has learned that Levine's official portrait, posted outside the office where she served, was recently altered so that a previous name is now typed under her photograph.

Levine told NPR, quote, I'm not going to comment on this type of petty action. In a statement, HHS said the move ensures that, quote, biological reality, unquote, guides public health.

Levine's successor in the role is Admiral Brian Christine, a urologist from Alabama. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.

The Trump administration says it will forgive the last part of a record fine against Southwest Airlines.

The penalty stems back to the airline's historic operational meltdown during the 2022 holiday travel season, as NPR's Matt Bloom reports.

Many travelers may prefer to forget about the airline's scheduling crisis three years ago, when Southwest canceled more than 15,000 flights the week around Christmas due to a winter storm and issues with outdated software.

The following year, the Biden administration fined Southwest a record $140 million.

In a new order, the Department of Transportation announced it will waive the remaining $11 million still owed.

It says it's due to the airline significantly improving its on-time performance and investing in new technology since the meltdown.

The department said the the move will incentivize other airlines to make investments that benefit customers. Matt Bloom, NPR News.

Authorities are still hunting for the last of three inmates who escaped from a Louisiana jail. This is NPR.

Inter-Miami has claimed its first major league soccer championship ever. The team topped Vancouver, the Western Conference representative, by a 3-1 score at Saturday night's MLS Cup.

From Miami, Kayvon Antonio Hedari Reports. The first MLS Cup was awarded in 1996 after the World Cup was first held in the United States in 94.

But now in its sixth year of existence, Inter Miami was led by Argentine superstar Lionel Messi.

The decisive goal for Miami was scored in the 71st minute by Rodrigo de Paul, also a World Cup winner with Argentina.

Two of Messi's teammates in Barcelona and Miami, Sergi Busquets and Jordi Alba, will retire after this season.

Messi added the league trophy after signing a two-year contract extension and will probably play with Argentina as it defends its World Cup title next year.

For NPR News, I'm Kayvon Antonio Haydari in Miami.

It's early Sunday afternoon in Hong Kong, where polls have been opened since 7.30 a.m. local time in the territory's Patriots-only legislative elections.
Polls will close half an hour before midnight.

Hong Kongers are voting to fill 90 seats, but comes as the city is still grieving the deaths of nearly 160 people who died last month when a massive fire spread through seven high-rise towers in Tai Po.

That's a northeast suburb of Hong Kong. The blaze is being called the region's deadliest fire in a century.
I'm Duahalisai Kao Tao and PR News.

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