This holiday season, the team at up first is still hard at work with all new episodes, but the news does not take a holiday.

And we know it's harder than ever to keep up this time of year. Listen for three essential stories in under 15 minutes.

Get caught up and get on with your day. Up first, listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, before we start the show, a few words about public media.

You've heard a lot about public media this year.

It is what makes NPR podcasts like this one unique.

Now, we are not thinking about shareholders. We're not thinking about

advertisers. We're thinking about you, what you know, what you're curious about, what you want

to understand in a deeper way. Here in the U.S., the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 said

public media should be responsive to the community it serves. That is what NPR and our

member stations still believe in today. And even as paywalls rise everywhere else, our reporting

is free. It is accessible regardless of anyone's ability to pay. These are core commitments of

public media. They still guide our work at NPR.

They always will. But as of this fall, federal funding for public media, including NPR and local NPR stations, it's been eliminated, which means we will rely on your support more than ever to bring you shows like sources and methods. Since we

launched this year, we have brought you insight and analysis on the war in Ukraine, nuclear

tensions with China, the ongoing escalation with Venezuela, the president's use of the National

Guard. We'll keep following all those stories and more for you in 2026. Thank you if you already go the extra

mile as an NPR Plus supporter. And if not, you can join the Plus community. You'll get a bunch

perks like bonus episodes and more from across NPR's podcasts. And you can support public media

by signing up for NPR Plus today at plus.npr.org.

Here's the show.

I think the Europeans keep hoping it's not real or that it was just maybe a mistake or a Trump will backtrack.

...