U.S. Strikes ISIS In Nigeria, The Year In Congress, Holiday Spending

0:01The U.S. says its military struck Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria. The president says the strikes on Christmas Day were aimed at stopping the killing of Christians, and this is just the beginning. Why is the president focused on Nigeria? I'm Leila Faldin, and this is Up First from NPR News. When Speaker Mike Johnson convened Congress in January, he made a bold declaration. Working together, we have the potential to be one of the most consequential congresses in the history of this great nation. Twelve months later, has Congress lived up to that potential? And holiday spending broke records this year in the U.S.

0:42It honestly blew my mind. Sales just exceeded all my expectations. With polls reporting people feeling glum about the economy, what's driving spending? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.

1:02As you prepare for the ball drop on 2025, listen to NPR Music's All Songs Considered podcast as we look back at the biggest songs and albums of the year, from the unmissable hits to the fascinating other stuff you might not have heard. Search for All Songs Considered wherever you get podcasts to hear us run back some of the best of the best of 2025. On the season finale of Books We've Loved, we're hanging out with four friends looking for love in all the wrong places. We are revisiting Terry McMillan's Waiting to Exhale with Brittany Luce from It's Been a Minute. Find all episodes of Books We've Loved on NPR's Book of the Day podcast feed on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:49This holiday season on the StoryCorps podcast, a Christmas memory from the Cold War. I remember this red phone on his desk. If it rang, there was a national emergency. One time the red phone rang, he answered it, and there was a small voice that asked, is this Santa Claus? Cozy up under the tree and listen to a special holiday edition of the StoryCorps podcast from NPR. On Christmas Day, the president announced the U.S. military struck ISIS militants in Nigeria. The attacks come a month after President Trump threatened on social media to go into Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, quote, guns a-blazing, unless it did more to protect Christians who he continually asserts are being targeted and slaughtered.

2:33Nigerian authorities say allegations of Christian genocide are unfounded and that a mishmash of violent armed groups across the country kill as many Muslims as Christians in the country. Joining us now from Nigeria is NPR Africa correspondent Emmanuel Ekinwatu. Good morning. Good morning, Lila. Emmanuel, this feels like these strikes kind of came out of nowhere. What can you tell us about them? Well, in a post on Truth Social, President Trump said he ordered, quote, a deadly strike against ISIS terrorist scum in northwest Nigeria who have been targeting and viciously killing primarily innocent Christians.

3:10And he said that this was just the beginning. the U.S.-Africa Command, who are in charge of military operations on the continent, they put it differently. In a statement, they said initially the strikes were requested by the Nigerian government, and then they amended that statement to say it was done in coordination with them. But in any case, this is clearly a really significant intervention and an inflection point in U.S. military involvement in Nigeria. And it also comes with the religious symbolism of launching these strikes on Christmas Day. Okay, so the U.S. hasn't really released many details about the strikes.

3:45What can you tell us about who they were targeting? Well, the U.S. strikes targeted ISIS militants in northwest Nigeria along the border with Niger. And it's a region where a faction called IS Sahel province is active. They're known locally as Lukarawa. And they've spread south from the Sahel region in West Africa. And really, they've been a growing threat over the last eight years. Broadly, ISIS has become a major concern in Nigeria. They've become a kind of governing force in rural areas, attacking and enforcing this extreme version of Islam. And they're one actor among several militant groups at large.

4:21And they're all behind really a worsening security crisis in the country. But what's curious about this is that President Trump says this ISIS group has targeted Christians, but according to most experts, this group is not one of the main groups accused of killing Christians. And in fact, the biggest security threat in the region are militants known as bandits who've terrorized local communities made up of Christians and Muslims. But zooming out, a few key questions really are whether these strikes are about defending Christians, as President Trump says, or really about degrading ISIS in the region.

4:51And experts have spoken to question whether airstrikes can even achieve that in a region where armed groups are so deeply entrenched in rural areas and difficult to eliminate from the air. How has the Nigerian government responded to this military operation, and more generally to this growing pressure from President Trump? Well, the government have been really keen to reframe the way that this is being seen, calling it a joint operation that they approved. But the challenge for the government is that this is not really the impression many people will take from President Trump's post, which announced the attacks hours before any statement from Nigerian government officials.

5:26And there are already critics in Nigeria reacting to this who are concerned about whether this is now a new military front for the U.S. going forward and whether Nigeria is strong enough to shape or curtail U.S. aims in the country. That's Emmanuel Akinwatu reporting from Lagos. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Leila.

5:52Congress started 2025 with a big legislative agenda. House Speaker Mike Johnson put it this way in his first address to his chamber this year. And in spite of our great challenges and even our disagreements and our healthy debates, this extraordinary institution, the people's house, will still be standing strong. But 12 months later, Congress has ceded much of its power to President Trump and has passed a record low number of bills. And PR congressional correspondent Claudia Gresalas has been following this and joins us now. Hi, Claudia. Hey, Leila. Okay, so congressional Republicans started the year with these ambitious plans to pass bills to strengthen the economy, address the border crisis, boost the military.

6:35Did any of that happen? Not exactly. Unless you look at their marquee tax and spending plan they called the one big beautiful bill which became law, they would argue that is the key legislation that passed. But the jury's still out if this is going to have the advertised impact on the economy. And it was the exception to the rule. Congress ceded a lot of its power to the president this year. That included dismantling large sections of the federal government, taking over the power of the purse during the government shutdown by directing spending that was prohibited at that time, and triggering the clawback of billions of spending that had been approved by Congress.

7:11And as you mentioned, we heard from Public Affairs Network C-SPAN. They reported the number of laws enacted this year are at that all-time low. Now, Republicans are the majority in both the House and Senate, but that is very narrow. How did leaders fare in 2025? Yeah, it definitely made it more difficult for them. In the House, we saw Speaker Mike Johnson lose more control of his conference. By year end, he faced a rare series of successful discharge petitions. These are bipartisan efforts by rank and file members to bypass the speaker and pass law. And none was more noteworthy than the one securing the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

7:48He also saw Republican pushback when he virtually closed the House down during the 43-day government shutdown. He's facing a record number of House retirements. That includes nearly 30 Republicans. Okay, so some division within his own party. What about the Senate? How did Majority Leader John Thune fare in comparison? Well, he didn't end the year with the same level of animosity, but he saw challenges too. I asked him about lessons learned. Here's what he told me. You know, I mean, sometimes you get frustrated that you don't get the things done you want to get done, but you got to keep your eye on it.

8:22Ultimately, the Senate approved a majority of Trump's nominees for the administration and federal courts. But not until recently did we see more Senate Republicans push back publicly on the president with some issues, such as the strikes on alleged drug traffickers at sea. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told me these challenges and the chaos we've seen with the federal government, the economy, Trump's tariff policies, have all created an opening for Democrats. Now, Congress will face even greater challenges next year with the midterms on tap. What do you expect to see? Well, lawmakers have their eye on exactly those midterms in November.

8:58Even with Republicans redistricting to add seats in the House, it's still not clear they're going to keep their majority. They face the prospect of another government shutdown threat in January. And that's in addition to calls for Washington to address an affordability crisis that we expect will dominate on the campaign trail. And there's also those spiking premiums for health insurance after Congress failed to extend subsidies for Obamacare plants. This is going to likely add fuel to the fire that Congress is not addressing a lot of urgent issues for American families come November. That's NPR's Claudia Gersales.

9:32Thank you, Claudia. Thank you.

9:40We're officially on the other side of the biggest holiday in terms of spending. Shoppers have been expected to drop a record amount of money, even as polling finds Americans are feeling glum about the economy. NPR's retail correspondent, Alina Seljuk, is here to explain. Good morning, Alina. Hello, hello. So what do we know about holiday spending this year? So we don't have total numbers. Those will come in January, but all signs seem to point to a surprisingly big year. You know, for how much we've talked about tariffs, with all the delays and changes, they did not disrupt the holiday season as much as feared.

10:15We saw Black Friday set a record, then Cyber Monday set a spending record. Adobe Analytics, which tracks online shopping, saw people spending over$10 million every minute on the evening of Cyber Monday. MasterCard, which tracks spending online and in stores, estimates that spending grew nearly 4 % in November and December. 4%. Well, that's a bit higher than inflation. So it seems like people aren't just spending more because they're paying higher prices. No, people seem to be buying more. I'll give you another example. I talked to Alfred Mai. His company, ASM Games, sells card games. Think like family trivia or date night ideas.

10:52And usually you cannot get him on the phone one week before Christmas. That's the busiest time of year for him. And last week, he was like, yeah, call me now. I'm free. It honestly blew my mind because we just sold out of inventory like a few days ago. Sales just exceeded all my expectations. And I had this question, like, did sales exceed his expectations because his expectations were too low or because people spent with abandon? And he said it's probably both. He had worried about people's tighter budgets when setting estimates, but also. It's hard for me to say whether consumers have this great amount of cash or if it's because they don't have that kind of great amount of cash where they're just spending it on games.

11:32Because a$20 game is a cheap way to entertain a whole family. And this split that he's put his finger on is actually the big story now in the economy. So tell us more about this, because I'm trying to square this holiday shopping exuberance with the fact that people regularly tell pollsters they're feeling down on the economy and about their own finances. You know, more and more, it's the wealthy that are doing much of the spending. Like, we're seeing more people switch to cheaper stores than what they used to shop before, maybe Walmart or TG Maxx or Thrift Shop. But we also see luxury brands doing well, like Ralph Lauren.

12:11The most stark example I've seen of this was last week on a forecast about auto sales from Cox Automotive. It's a big data firm that owns Kelly Blue Book. And their executive analyst, Aaron Keating, called out this paradox. There are a lot of cars for sale under$40 ,000 that are just sitting. So it looks like people don't want them. Maybe they're not nice enough. But it's actually because their usual buyers cannot afford them. This isn't everyone suddenly preferring SUVs. The people who can still afford new vehicles are buying what they want, larger premium vehicles. Everyone else, they didn't downgrade to a compact car.

12:49They left the new market entirely. And this is starting to happen with more things and to people with higher incomes. So what does this mean for the new year? Overall, economists and companies are not too gloomy about next year. So far, it's been the growing wages fueling much of our shopping. And so one big thing to watch in the new year is the job market. That's Alina Seljuk. Thank you so much. Thank you.

13:16And that's up first for Friday, December 26th. I'm Leila Faudil. Around the end of the year, about this time, many of us like to look back on how far we've come and ask, what would I like to change in the new year? But for a growing number of Americans who have reached retirement age, The question is a bit different. You know, you get at a point where you start asking, what did you do in your life that was, you know, significant? This week on The Sunday Story, a look at the transformative power of human passion and finding your purpose later in life. Listen to The Sunday Story right here on NPR's Up First podcast.

13:56Today's episode of Up First was edited by Jerry Holmes, Jason Breslow, Emily Kopp, Alice Wolfley, and Lisa Thompson, who is leaving us today, even though we don't want her to. Good luck on her next adventure. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from David Greenberg. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler. Join us again on Monday. Fall in love with new music every Friday at All Songs Considered, that's NPR's music recommendation podcast. Fridays are where we spend our whole show sharing all the greatest new releases of the week.

14:35Make the hunt for new music a part of your life again. Tap into New Music Friday from All Songs Considered, available wherever you get your podcasts. This holiday season on the StoryCorps podcast, we're casting our eyes north. We have checked and rechecked our tracking screens. I hate to bring you and all your good listeners the bad news, but it doesn't appear... Just a minute. We have a sighting. Santa is on his way. Hear tales of the fears, hopes, and joys of Christmas past on a special holiday edition of the StoryCorps podcast from NPR. Keeping up with the news can feel like a 24-hour job. Luckily, it is our job.

15:14Every hour on the NPR News Now podcast, we take the latest, most important stories happening, and we package them into five-minute episodes so you can easily squeeze them in between meetings and on your way to that thing. Listen to the NPR News Now podcast. Now.