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National

- What to expect from Trump's Davos speech. And, the DOJ subpoenas Minnesota officials: 2026 Jan 21

- Trump administration claims offshore wind poses a threat. But it won't say how.: 2026 Jan 21

- How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency: 2026 Jan 21

- It's showdown time for the Fed's independence at the Supreme Court: 2026 Jan 21

- Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats: 2026 Jan 20

- Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats: 2026 Jan 20

UP FIRST NEWSLETTER | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 7:11 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

What to expect from Trump's Davos speech. And, the DOJ subpoenas Minnesota officials

By Brittney Melton

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today's top stories

President Trump plans to focus on affordability today in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. But his foreign policy — specifically, Trump's desire to acquire Greenland — and his threats of tariffs on eight European countries if he doesn't get his way are overshadowing the summit. When the president takes the stage, world leaders will be paying close attention to signs of where this confrontation with allies goes next.

- 🎧 When it comes to foreign policy, Trump enjoys taking the world stage and setting the agenda, NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben tells Up First. She adds that, for his second term, Trump is pursuing a belligerent foreign policy that alienates allies and lacks domestic popularity. Kurtzleben says these actions, along with his aggressive tactics in Minnesota, are drawing attention away from the domestic economy, which Trump wants to focus on.

The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to multiple government officials in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. The agency is alleging that state officials conspired to impede law enforcement amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

- 🎧 Minnesota officials suggest the subpoenas do not faze them, says NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán. They say that these actions are an intimidation tactic by the administration that is weaponizing the DOJ. Officials say they pushed back against the administration's immigration crackdown because of what they say are the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency's illegal actions in their state. This includes ICE agents intimidating the people who follow them to alert neighbors to their presence. Day-to-day lives in Minnesota continue to be impacted as dozens of doctors in the state say patients are avoiding the medical care they may need because they fear ICE.

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today regarding Trump's efforts to break with 112 years of law by firing Lisa Cook. Cook is a member of the Federal Reserve's governing board, appointed by former President Joe Biden.

- 🎧 The president's lawyers are expected to tell the Supreme Court that he is not looking for a free pass to fire Cook, but instead fired her for cause, says NPR's Nina Totenberg. The administration claims she committed mortgage fraud when she obtained loans on two different properties because she listed two homes as her primary residences, but at different times. Cook denies any wrongdoing. The Trump administration argues the court cannot review a president's decision to fire a Fed board member once he determines he has cause. This caveat would essentially grant him unrestricted power to purge the Fed and install personal picks, Totenberg says.

Today's listen

What does sexual safety look like these days? It is more than access to public health and medication. It's also about feeling comfortable with your partner. Having the tools you need to feel confident in your own sexual health is an essential part of the pursuit of pleasure. Dr. Leisha McKinley-Beach and Dr. Jasmine Abrams join It's Been A Minute host Brittany Luse to provide listeners with the guidance they need to live their best sex lives and explore how to feel safer in bed.

Deep dive

While Trump was on the campaign trail, he promised to cut Americans' energy bills in half and lower gasoline and electricity prices. One year in, gasoline prices are down about 20%, but electricity prices are going up. The Trump administration has also invested in nuclear power, which could help reduce costs in the long term. Take a look at how he has delivered on his goals:

- ➡️ Presidents don't decide gas prices. The cost of crude oil is the biggest factor. A global oversupply of oil largely drove cheaper crude oil prices this past year.

- ➡️ Electricity prices are increasing due to three primary reasons: an aging power grid, the cost of natural disasters and higher fuel costs, says Charles Hua, who runs the national energy consumer education nonprofit Powerlines.

- ➡️ The administration has ended federal tax credits for large solar and wind projects, which provide more cost-competitive energy than natural gas, nuclear and coal projects.

3 things to know before you go

1. Backlash from ticket buyers, slated performers, and certain board members — including Shonda Rhimes — was swift when Trump was named chairman of the Kennedy Center's board almost a year ago. Here's the running list of who has canceled their performances at the venue.

2. In this installment of NPR's "Word of the Week" series, we trace the origins of the "cravat," a voluminous neckscarf, back to the battlefields of 17th century Europe.

3. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service said Suzanna's Kitchen is recalling approximately 13,720 pounds of ready-to-eat grilled chicken breast fillet products that may be adulterated with Listeria monocytogenes. (via WGCU)

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

Transcript

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

So, Leila, since our star turn in Hollywood...

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Yes, yes.

MARTÍNEZ: ...I've been thinking about, like, your intro line for when they do The Real Hosts of NPR.

FADEL: What is it?

MARTÍNEZ: At work, I read leads. In life, I take the lead, and everyone else follows.

FADEL: Oh, my God, I love it. I love it. I feel like NPR hosts on reality TV would be very boring.

MARTÍNEZ: Oh, it would be riveting.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: European leaders and Canada were united in their message to the U.S. at Davos - stay away from Greenland.

MARTÍNEZ: So what will President Trump say today in his speech at the World Economic Forum after vowing there's no going back on his threats to dominate the territory?

FADEL: I'm Leila Fadel. That's A Martínez, and this is UP FIRST from NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: The Justice Department issued subpoenas to several of Minnesota's top elected leaders. The DOJ alleges that these officials, including the governor and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul, are interfering with immigration enforcement. But those local leaders say this is retribution for pushing back on violent federal tactics that are scaring and endangering Minnesotans.

MARTÍNEZ: And the Supreme Court hears arguments over the president's power to fire a sitting governor of the Federal Reserve. What could it mean for the independence of the central banks? Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start your day.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTÍNEZ: President Trump has been speaking about affordability for weeks and planned to focus on that in his speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

FADEL: But the summit is being overshadowed by the president's desire for Greenland and his threats of tariffs on eight European countries if he doesn't get his way. So when Trump takes the stage in Davos, world leaders will be listening closely for signs of where this confrontation with allies goes next.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben has been following it all. We've known, Danielle, that Donald Trump sometimes weaves around in speeches. So what's on the agenda today?

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Well, he said he's been planning to talk about the economy and specifically, as he put it, how well the United States is doing. And the White House had said that Trump would specifically address housing policy today. But it's nevertheless true that, like you say, everyone just wants to hear about Greenland at this point because Trump has been upending relations with many key allies over Greenland. And in the process, he's been threatening tariffs, complaining about not getting the Nobel Peace Prize, criticizing NATO and posting screenshots of his texts with world leaders. Now, yesterday at a White House press briefing, Trump did strike a less combative tone on Greenland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes.

KURTZLEBEN: But, of course, this is Trump. We have no idea if that means any change in his attitude. But at any rate, he also mentioned he has a slew of meetings set up in Davos about Greenland.

MARTÍNEZ: He spoke for - what? - more than 90 minutes yesterday. I mean, what ground did he cover there?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, he covered all the ground. He really rambled in those 90 minutes. Now, it was the one-year anniversary of Trump taking office again, and so he came out with this thick sheaf of papers. And he said it was a book of his accomplishments over the past year. But really, he just kept veering into this extended riff, parts of which we've heard many times before. He focused heavily on Minnesota. He criticized Minnesotans who are protesting ICE's presence in the wake of the deadly shooting. And he also, once again, railed against the state's Somali population, making this claim without evidence.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: The Somalians vote as one group, even if they're not citizens. And they vote as one group, and, you know, you get 600,000 votes against you. They all ought to get the hell out of here. They're bad for our country.

KURTZLEBEN: Now, he did also hype the U.S. economy, including making exaggerated claims about inflation and the impact of his tariffs, but he didn't really follow up on all of those plans he's proposed in recent weeks to help people with affordability. And there was stuff to talk about there. Just last night, the White House released an executive order aimed at preventing large institutional investors from buying homes. So policies were in the works. He just didn't really bring them up.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. So trying to put all of this together - everything we just mentioned, his press conference, the trip to Davos - I mean, what does all of this mean? Politically or practically, what's his aim?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, on foreign policy, he clearly enjoys being on the world stage and setting the agenda there. And crucially, without some of the guardrails he had in his first term, he's just doing what he wants on foreign policy. So he's pursuing that belligerent policy that's alienating allies. It's not popular domestically. But then, when you take that with his aggressive tactics in Minnesota, it's all continually drawing attention, including his own, away from things like the domestic economy that he ostensibly wants to focus on.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks a lot.

KURTZLEBEN: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTÍNEZ: The Justice Department has issued subpoenas to multiple public officials in Minnesota in an investigation alleging they are impeding the work of immigration agents.

FADEL: Yeah. And this is happening as the Trump administration is cracking down and saying it's targeting undocumented immigrants. At times, it's also targeted U.S. citizens in Minnesota. And doctors there now say immigrants are avoiding vital medical care.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán is in Minneapolis. So, Sergio, DOJ subpoenas served to Minnesota Democrats. What's that about?

SERGIO MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN, BYLINE: Yes. The grand jury subpoenas went out to several local and state leaders. They include Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, state Attorney General Keith Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. The Department of Justice accuses those officials of conspiring to impede the feds on immigration enforcement. Now, you'll remember a comment Mayor Frey made after the deadly shooting of Renee Macklin Good by an ICE agent two weeks ago. Frey called on ICE agents to get out of Minneapolis, and Governor Walz encouraged residents to protest peacefully and to record the operations carried out by immigration authorities. He wants the public to help create a database with evidence for future prosecutions. Leaders with the Trump administration said yesterday that Walz and Frey are using heated rhetoric and accusations to distract from the facts.

MARTÍNEZ: All right. Now, I mean, DOJ subpoenas are serious stuff. So what are Minnesota officials saying?

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You know, they have suggested they are unfazed by these subpoenas. They say it's an intimidation tactic by the Trump administration, one where they're weaponizing the Justice Department. Mayor Frey said, quote, "we should not have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with," end quote.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. And, Sergio, part of the reason state officials have pushed back is because of what they say is ICE's illegal actions in their state.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Yeah. You know, U.S. citizens have been detained, and ICE agents have intimidated people who followed them to alert neighbors of their presence. Federal agents have used pepper spray on protesters, and they're pulling people from their cars. However, Greg Bovino, the Border Patrol chief in charge of the operations, justified the behavior of his agents in a press conference yesterday.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

GREG BOVINO: What we do is legal, ethical and moral. Everything we do every day is legal, ethical, moral, well grounded in law.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: Last week, a federal judge ruled that ICE agents cannot arrest, pepper spray or retaliate against peaceful protesters and observers.

MARTÍNEZ: Now, you've been there for the last two weeks. I mean, tell us how these operations affect the day-to-day lives of people there.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: It's incredible, A. I mean, it feels like there are agents everywhere, and you can see them in residential neighborhoods, the bus stops, parking lots. And two things are notable here. One, some businesses are losing money big time. I talked to Ricardo Hernandez (ph). He owns 11 Mexican restaurants in the region.

RICARDO HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: He says he's lost 60% in revenue since the beginning of the year. And just so you have an idea, A, during the height of the COVID pandemic, Hernandez's sales went down by just 10%. Hernandez says if this continues, businesses will have to shut down for good.

Medical care has also been affected. Dozens of Minnesota doctors in a news conference yesterday said patients afraid of being picked up by ICE are staying home. They say pregnant women are missing prenatal visits. They worry about ICE and patient privacy. And one doctor said a mom was afraid to seek care for her baby who was having trouble breathing for fear she'd be detained.

MARTÍNEZ: Wow. All right. That's NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán in Minneapolis. Thanks a lot.

MARTÍNEZ-BELTRÁN: You're welcome.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTÍNEZ: The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case that has Wall Street and the financial markets in a near panic.

FADEL: At issue is President Trump's efforts to break with 112 years of law and precedent by firing Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board appointed by President Biden.

MARTÍNEZ: NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg has more on this. So, Nina, let's just set the stage for this case being argued right after a huge blowup between President Trump and Jerome Powell, the Fed Reserve Board chairman, who was actually appointed Fed chair in 2018 by Trump himself.

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE: Well, Trump has been pressuring Powell for months, trying to get him to lower interest rates more quickly. This is, after all, an election year, and that would be very helpful to the president and his party. But Powell has proceeded with caution. And then a week and a half ago, the Trump administration hit the Fed with grand jury subpoenas that threatened Powell with criminal indictment for his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June, testimony that dealt with cost overruns at two Federal Reserve buildings being renovated for the first time since the 1930s. And the normally reticent Powell finally blew.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JEROME POWELL: The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president.

TOTENBERG: Indeed, Congress established the Federal Reserve Board 112 years ago after a series of financial panics in the late 1800s. In an effort to stabilize the economy, the legislative branch sought to shield monetary policy from political manipulation by establishing limited terms for Fed governors and barring them from being fired, except for bad behavior.

MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. That video statement by Jerome Powell was quite the thing because normally we don't really hear from the Fed chair, but we're hearing a lot from him. OK. So what is the legal question at the Supreme Court today?

TOTENBERG: The issue is, at least superficially, quite narrow. Trump's lawyers will tell the Supreme Court that he's not asking for a free pass to fire Cook. He's firing her for cause. Namely, the administration claims that she committed mortgage fraud in obtaining loans on two different properties because she listed two homes as her primary residences but at different times. The charges against her were lodged initially by Bill Pulte, a Trump ally who, as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, referred Cook's alleged misdeeds to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.

Cook, for her part, denies any wrongdoing whatsoever. Her lawyers point to recent reporting that four of Trump's Cabinet members, plus his deputy attorney general and even Pulte's own relatives, have recently made applications for multiple mortgages similar to Cook's without any suggestion of wrongdoing.

MARTÍNEZ: OK. So what is Trump arguing?

TOTENBERG: The Trump administration argues that once the president has determined that he has cause to fire a Fed board member, that decision is not reviewable by any court. And that's a big caveat that essentially would hand the president - this president and future presidents - unrestricted power to fire members of the Fed and replace them with their personal picks.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg. Nina, thanks.

TOTENBERG: Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MARTÍNEZ: And that's UP FIRST for Wednesday January 21. I'm A Martínez.

FADEL: And I'm Leila Fadel. The news you hear on UP FIRST is possible because of support from listeners like you. When you give to your local NPR station, you help keep journalists on the ground here at home and around the world. You can make a donation at donate.npr.org/upfirst. And for more news and conversations, listen to our radio show Morning Edition. You can find it on your local NPR station or at .

MARTÍNEZ: Today's episode of UP FIRST was edited by Rebekah Metzler, Gigi Douban, Krishnadev Calamur, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle. It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange. Our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin. Join us again tomorrow.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-106649

CLIMATE | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Trump administration claims offshore wind poses a threat. But it won't say how.

By Michael Copley

Late last month, the Trump administration halted construction on billions of dollars worth of offshore wind projects after the Defense Department allegedly raised new national security concerns about the facilities. But no one outside the federal government seems to know what sort of threats the administration has found. So far, the government has been unwilling to release that information even to the companies building the projects.

The Interior Department sent stop-work orders on December 22 to the developers of five wind projects off the East Coast. The orders were based on classified reports recently completed by the Defense Department. The Interior Department said pausing construction would give federal agencies time to work with project developers to try to mitigate potential risks.

Companies building infrastructure projects routinely work with the federal government to deal with issues that regulators raise, including around national security. Without information about newly-discovered threats, companies building the wind projects have said in court filings that they can't address the government's concerns. They said the lack of transparency suggests the administration's goal is to block wind projects, rather than to deal with legitimate national security issues.

Dominion Energy, which is building a wind project off the Virginia coast, said in a court filing that the government's unspecified national security concerns are "pretext for this Administration's purely political and irrational campaign against wind energy."

A White House spokesperson, Taylor Rogers, said in a statement that U.S. industries, including the defense sector, "cannot depend on the most expensive and unreliable form of energy." The Interior and Justice departments declined to comment. The Defense Department didn't respond to messages seeking comment.

Blocking offshore wind could drive up power prices by restricting new sources of electricity at a time when demand is expected to soar. Trying to kill federally-permitted projects also risks stifling business investment in the United States, across industries.

"It's a big problem, and it impacts the ability of companies to have confidence to invest in the United States," says Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents the offshore oil, gas and wind industries.

Security claims are the administration's latest move against wind energy

The projects targeted by the stop-work orders are Vineyard Wind off the coast of Massachusetts; Revolution Wind offshore Rhode Island; Sunrise Wind and Empire Wind off the coast of New York; and Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind. All of the wind farms are far along in construction, with Vineyard Wind 95% complete. Together, the projects would generate enough electricity to power more than 2.5 million homes.

The companies have argued that the government's stop-work orders were "arbitrary and capricious," among other alleged violations of federal law. So far, federal judges have ruled that three of the wind farms targeted by the Trump administration — projects off the coasts of Rhode Island, New York and Virginia — can resume construction while their lawsuits against the government continue.

It's not unusual for presidents to intervene in energy markets. The fossil fuel industry has long complained that it's been targeted by Democrats. Former President Joe Biden, for example, revoked a key permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline as part of his administration's efforts to limit climate change.

However, the Trump administration's latest moves seem more extreme than what presidents have done in the past, according to energy analysts and stakeholders.

Trump has railed against wind energy after he lost a fight with an offshore project near one of his golf courses in Scotland more than a decade ago. "My goal is to not let any windmills be built," President Trump said at a recent White House meeting with oil executives.

The stop-work orders that the Interior Department sent out in December are the administration's latest effort to hobble the industry in the U.S.

Over the past year, the government has refused to issue new permits and has cancelled hundreds of millions in federal funding for ports that serve as assembly and staging areas for offshore projects. And over the summer, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum directed his staff to examine the impact that offshore wind farms could have on "military readiness." About a month later, in August, the Interior Department tried, unsuccessfully, to stop construction of a wind project off the coast of Rhode Island based on alleged national security concerns.

It's long been known that the spinning turbines of a wind farm can interfere with radar, obscuring legitimate targets and creating the appearance of false ones. But projects face extensive vetting by federal regulators, including military officials. And there are ways to limit the risk. Dominion Energy, for example, which is building the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project, agreed to pay for radar upgrades at the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). And Sunrise Wind has agreed to curtail operations at NORAD's request.

However, in November, the Defense Department shared new classified information with the Interior Department about security risks surrounding offshore wind, said Matthew Giacona, principal deputy director of the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, in a recent court filing.

It's unclear what the Defense Department found. Giacona said the assessment included "a discussion of the rapid evolution of relevant adversarial technologies and the direct impacts to national security that arise from the construction and operation of offshore wind projects" near early-warning and radar systems.

In a separate court filing that was heavily redacted, Dale Marks, a deputy undersecretary in the Defense Department, said the classified material related to an updated assessment of how offshore wind turbines could interfere with military radar.

The stakes are high for regions slated to get electricity from offshore wind

Companies building the wind farms have said in lawsuits that the government has blocked their efforts to get more information. A week after the Trump administration paused construction, a team from Sunrise Wind, including employees with security clearances, met with BOEM officials to try to resolve the government's concerns, according to the company's lawsuit. However, BOEM failed to arrange a classified briefing, Sunrise Wind said, adding that the government "has taken no real steps" to share details about alleged security risks. Other companies have described similar interactions with the government.

The administration "can't just say 'national security,' file a secret report and call it a day," James Auslander, a lawyer for Dominion, told a federal judge at a hearing on Friday.

A DOJ lawyer, Stanley Woodward, said at the Friday hearing that the department hasn't politicized the process. The DOJ doesn't plan to share classified information with Dominion or Sunrise Wind during litigation, according to court filings.

"It would appear, when you see the sequencing of events, that [the stop-work orders are] more related to an administration agenda that doesn't want to see offshore wind move forward" rather than to national security risks, says Milito of the National Ocean Industries Association.

ISO New England, which manages the electric grid across six northeastern states, has said cancelling or delaying two offshore wind farms in the area would drive up power costs by an unspecified amount and jeopardize electric reliability. And PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid from the Mid-Atlantic to the Midwest, has said Dominion's offshore wind project is a critical source of new electricity.

The stakes are also high for companies that have invested billions into projects that now face an uncertain future.

"It's no secret the president has a personal animus toward wind farms," Auslander, the Dominion lawyer, said at the Friday hearing. Now, he said, Dominion's project is "caught in that net."

WHRO's Katherine Hafner contributed to this report.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5678635

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NATIONAL | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency

By Bill Chappell

Just 10 years ago, the annual budget for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was less than $6 billion — notably smaller than other agencies within the Department of Homeland Security. But ICE's budget has skyrocketed during President Trump's second term, becoming the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency, with $85 billion now at its disposal.

The windfall is thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last July. After hovering around the $10 billion mark for years, ICE's budget suddenly benefited from a meteoric spike.

"With this new bill and other appropriations, it's larger than the annual budget of all other federal law enforcement agencies combined," said Lauren-Brooke Eisen, senior director of the justice program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan policy institute.

ICE is now the lead agency in President's Trump immigration crackdown, sending thousands of agents into U.S. communities. As its funding and profile has grown as part of those efforts, ICE has come under increasing criticism for its officers' actions, from masked agents randomly stopping, questioning, and detaining people and thrusting them into unmarked vehicles to the recent killing of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis.

A cycle of more migrants, more money and a larger ICE mission

ICE's sudden growth spurt follows roughly two decades of relatively modest funding since 2003, when the agency was created by merging the U.S. Customs Service with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In 2015, for instance, Congress approved a budget of around $5.96 billion, which was nearly $1 billion less than then-President Barack Obama had requested.

In 2019, during the first Trump administration, border control officer's encounters with migrants attempting authorized entry to the U.S. spiked. Those numbers then plummeted as the COVID-19 pandemic prompted invocation of the Title 42 public health law, allowing CBP to expel migrants more quickly, with restricted pathways to asylum.

Encounters rose sharply under former President Joe Biden and soared above 3.2 million in 2023, when Biden lifted Title 42. By late 2024, fewer migrants were arriving at the border, due to U.S. asylum limits and Mexico bolstering enforcement.

When Trump returned to the White House in 2025, he sought to empower immigration authorities to quickly remove migrants and announced a crackdown led by ICE.

Under the 2025 law, ICE has a $75 billion supplement that it can take as long as four years to spend, along with its base budget of around $10 billion. If the agency spends that money at a steady pace and current funding levels continue, it would have nearly $29 billion on hand each year. That essentially triples ICE's total budget from recent years.

To give that large number a sense of scale, consider that the Trump administration's 2026 appropriations request for the entire Justice Department, including the FBI, stands at a little over $35 billion.

The Trump administration has set lofty goals for ICE, aiming to deport 1 million people each year. And the One Big Beautiful Bill Act also allocates $45 billion for ICE to expand its immigration detention system — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last June that the agency will be able to hold up to 100,000 people in custody daily. By comparison, the federal Bureau of Prisons currently holds over 153,000 inmates.

As of Nov. 30, 65,735 people were held in immigration detention, according to the data tracking project Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

With those metrics in mind, ICE went on a hiring spree in 2025, fueled by its bigger budget. In just one year, the agency says, it "more than doubled our officers and agents from 10,000 to 22,000." (The Office of Personnel Management, which tracks federal workforce statistics, is only updated through Nov. 30 and does not reflect any hiring made by the DHS in the last quarter of the year.)

According to the DHS, ICE received 220,000 applications in 2025, thanks in part to a generous incentive package with perks like a signing bonus of up to $50,000, disbursed over the course of a five-year commitment, and up to $60,000 in student loan repayment.

ICE is still on that hiring spree, looking to hire deportation officers in at least 25 cities around the U.S., according to a job listing on the USA Jobs website that will remain active through the end of September. The starting salary for an ICE deportation officer in the Enforcement and Removal Operations division, or ERO, ranges from $51,632 up to $84,277.

The dramatic growth came in the same year that the Trump administration sharply reduced the number of federal workers, firing thousands of employees and inviting many more to resign.

What else will the new funds be spent on?

With base level funding for DHS and ICE due to expire at the end of January, Democrats in Congress are calling for changes to how ICE operates. It comes after a year in which deaths of people in ICE custody spiked to the highest levels in decades, with ICE reporting seven deaths in December, and three more in 2026, as of Jan. 16.

ICE's increased budget makes sense to Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the right-wing Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group advocating for lower levels of immigration. He says the funding boost " is directly commensurate with the size of the task the agency is addressing."

"ICE exists to find and remove people who are in the country illegally," Mehlman said, referring to a category that grew when the Trump administration stripped legal status from 1.6 million immigrants in 2025.

The focus of the new spending reflects President Trump's emphasis on arrests and removals, said Margy O'Herron, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center's liberty and national security program who worked at the DOJ in the Biden administration.

O'Herron said she agrees with the idea that, for years, a reasonable case could be made that DHS agencies such as ICE and CBP needed more money. But other parts of the immigration system aren't getting as much help, she said.

"All of the money is going to enforcement to arrest, to detain and to deport," she said. "It's not going to things like immigration hearings or immigration judges, to conduct additional review of whether or not somebody should be in the country. And that is a real problem for the system."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5674887

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LAW | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

It's showdown time for the Fed's independence at the Supreme Court

By Nina Totenberg

Heard on Morning Edition

The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments Wednesday in a case that has Wall Street and the financial markets in a near panic.

At issue are President Trump's efforts to break with 112 years of law and precedent by firing Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve's governing board appointed by President Biden.

Cook's case is not unique, as evidenced by the recent blow up between Trump and Jerome Powell, who was appointed Fed chair in 2018 by Trump himself.

Powell, known for a cool head and a quiet demeanor, has consistently avoided direct confrontations with Trump, even as the president's personal displeasure with the Fed chair escalated from behind the scenes pressure to public bashing.

As Trump put it on CNBC in speaking of Powell last week, "Either he's incompetent or he's crooked."

Trump v. Powell

The Trump administration hit the Fed with grand jury subpoenas on Jan. 9 initiating a criminal investigation into Powell for his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony dealt with cost overruns at two Federal Reserve buildings being renovated for the first time since the 1930s.

The normally reticent Powell finally blew.

"This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of federal reserve buildings. Those are pretexts," Powell said in a video posted on social media. "The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public rather than following the preferences of the president."

Congress established the Federal Reserve board in 1913 after a series of financial panics in the late 1800s. In an effort to stabilize the economy, the legislative branch sought to shield monetary policy from political manipulation by establishing limited terms for Fed governors and barring them from being fired, except for malfeasance in office.

Daniel Tarullo, a Harvard law professor and former Fed governor, observes that presidents of both parties always want interest rates to go down, particularly in election years, but he says that inevitably destabilizes the economy.

"When those long-term rates start to go up because of fears of inflation down the road, what gets affected?" he asks. "Mortgages and business investment."

The issue before the court

That said, the actual legal issue before the court Wednesday is, at least superficially, quite narrow. Trump's lawyers will tell the Supreme Court that he is not asking for a free pass to fire Cook. He is firing her for cause; namely, the administration claims that Cook falsified documents to obtain loans on two different properties she listed as her primary residences. Her lawyers say she listed one of the properties as a vacation home. The accusations against her were lodged initially by Bill Pulte, Trump's head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Cook, for her part, denies any wrongdoing whatsoever. Her lawyers in their Supreme Court papers contend that Cook's mortgage applications were "cherry-picked" by Pulte to make it appear that perfectly legal mortgage applications were somehow nefarious. And to underline the point, her lawyers point to recent reporting that four of Trump's Cabinet members, plus his deputy attorney general, and even Pulte's own relatives have recently made applications for multiple mortgages similar to Cook's, without any suggestion of wrongdoing.

But the Trump administration argues that once the president has determined he has cause to fire a Fed board member, that decision is not reviewable by any court. That's a big caveat that essentially hands the president unrestricted power to fire members of the Fed and replace them with his personal picks.

That is as it should be, argues Jacob Huebert, senior litigation counsel at the conservative New Civil Liberties Alliance.

Because Article II of the U.S. Constitution vests all executive power in the president, Huebert explains, the president "has to be able to remove people who he doesn't want to work with. Otherwise he's being forced to share executive power with someone he doesn't want to share it with."

Plus, he adds, just because "we've had a Federal Reserve that functions as it does now for a long time doesn't mean we need to have it forever."

Experts warn Fed's independence is in peril

Economists of varying political stripes see the situation as far more dire. With the exception of Powell, every living Federal Reserve board chair, plus Treasury secretaries, and prominent economists from both parties have signed on to Supreme Court briefs urging the justices not to tinker with the Fed's independence.

Top business leaders like Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorganChase, warned last week that interference with the Fed "will have reverse consequences," likely raising inflation and increasing borrowing rates over time.

Just what the Supreme Court will do is unclear. In other cases last year, the court's conservative majority allowed Trump to remove other agency leaders, at least temporarily overriding federal laws that had protected term-limited agency heads from firing.

But at the same time, the court's conservatives, in one cryptic passage of an emergency docket opinion, said that the Fed is different because it is a "uniquely structured, quasi-private entity that follows in the distinct historical tradition of the First and Second Banks of the United States." Indeed, the first Congress created the first bank in 1791, and the second was created in 1816.

Should Trump prevail, however, he almost certainly would seek to replace not just Cook, but other Fed governors. Powell's term as Fed chair expires this spring, but he has two more years on his term as a Fed governor. Unless Trump is able to remove sitting governors, he will not have a majority of his own appointees on the board during the remainder of his presidency.

Noteworthy is that making the case against Trump and for Cook, and indirectly the Fed, will be Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general for President George W. Bush. Additionally, Chair Powell is expected to be in the Supreme Court chamber when the case is argued.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5674893

NATIONAL | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:37 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats

By Jennifer Ludden

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

President Trump wants to ban large investors from buying more single-family homes. It's a popular idea, but NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that turning it into law has proven hard.

JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Back in 2020, Ashley Maxwell and her husband were looking to buy their first home near Indianapolis.

ASHLEY MAXWELL: We looked at over 80 homes in probably a span of two months.

LUDDEN: They had to move because their landlord was selling their rental.

MAXWELL: And we would pull up to a house. Our agent would get out and be like, there's 10 additional offers - sight-unseen cash offers. Typically, that means that it's an investor.

LUDDEN: It turned out they were caught in a surge of institutional investors across the country snapping up single-family homes to rent out.

SCOTT FADNESS: We have neighborhoods today that are now creeping up to 35-, 38% of the homes have been purchased for investment purposes.

LUDDEN: Scott Fadness, a Republican, is mayor of Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb. Last year, he proposed capping rentals at 10% per neighborhood to protect local homeownership.

FADNESS: It's been a source of generational wealth in our country for a very long time, particularly in the middle class, and I hate to see that go away.

LUDDEN: Realtor groups opposed a cap, saying it infringed on private property rights and could deprive sellers of the highest bid. But the city council backed it unanimously, and the new law just took effect January 1. It is a rare win. Cities and states across the country have debated restricting investor homebuyers, yet most failed to pass such measures. California Governor Gavin Newsom is the latest to say he's determined to do something. But housing experts say it's too easy to blame corporate landlords for skyrocketing prices.

LAURIE GOODMAN: People see the connection, but they don't necessarily separate out the cause and effect.

LUDDEN: Economist Laurie Goodman at the Urban Institute says, sure, prices go up where investors buy. But that's because they pick places that are already growing, and they often buy serious fixer-uppers.

GOODMAN: Most of us don't have the knowledge to do the repairs. If we did, we couldn't get the financing.

LUDDEN: Nationally, the biggest companies own only 3% of the market. The main thing driving up prices is a housing shortage, Goodman says, and investors are actually helping that now. As higher interest rates have made it more pricey to buy single-family homes, some have shifted to building their own homes to rent.

GOODMAN: The best way to make housing affordable is to simply build more of it to increase supply.

LUDDEN: In Las Vegas, Democratic state Senator Dina Neal hears that and still worries it's undercutting people's shot at homeownership. One corporate investor there has built an entire neighborhood of houses to rent.

DINA NEAL: They didn't build the whole entire neighborhood to give it up. They wanted to make sure they were going to secure rental income from 200 different families and keep it.

LUDDEN: And those rents are so high, she says, it's impossible for many to save up for a down payment. Neal has proposed a cap on corporate landlords three times. Nevada's Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, has blocked it, most recently last month. So what does she make of President Trump now taking up her cause?

NEAL: I am trying to figure out how I entered into a universe where I became aligned with a president who is a nemesis to the Democratic Party.

LUDDEN: But if it persuades more Republicans, she'll take it.

Jennifer Ludden, NPR News.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5675241-e1

NATIONAL | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats

By Jennifer Ludden

Heard on Morning Edition

Back in 2020, Ashley Maxwell and her husband were looking to buy their first home, near Indianapolis.

"We looked at over 80 homes in probably a span of two months," she said.

The couple was in a tight spot. They had three kids and were forced to move because their landlord was selling their rental. That pressure made their search all the more frustrating.

"We would pull up to a house, our agent would get out and be like, 'There's 10 additional offers, sight unseen, all cash.' Typically that means it's an investor," Maxwell recalled.

The couple, who eventually found a place, was one of many whose path to homeownership was stymied by a nationwide surge of institutional investors, then driven by record-low mortgage rates, snapping up single-family homes to rent out.

It's an issue that President Trump now aims to take on. In a recent social media post, he said he wants to "ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes," to help bring down housing costs.

It's a popular idea, especially among some Democrats. But passing such laws has proved difficult, and economists say the link of investor-owned homes to high prices is not so simple.

A cap on investor rentals just took effect in this city

In Fishers, Ind., a suburb of Indianapolis, Republican Mayor Scott Fadness was taken aback when he saw new data in a housing report compiled by his team that showed the extent of investor landlords in his city.

"We have neighborhoods today that are now creeping up to 35, 38% of the homes have been purchased for investment purposes," he said.

It got so bad, he recalled, that one of his employees who was house hunting sent letters to homeowners, explaining that they were going to work for the city "and would they please consider allowing them to buy the home" instead of an institutional investor.

To address the problem, Fadness last year proposed capping rentals at 10% per neighborhood to protect local homeownership.

"It's been a source of generational wealth in our country for a very long time, particularly in the middle class," he said. "I hate to see that go away."

It's also more difficult, he said, to deal with code enforcement and other issues when the property owner is an out-of-state corporation.

Realtor groups opposed a cap, arguing it infringed on private property rights and could deprive sellers of the highest bid, but the City Council backed the plan unanimously. The new law just took effect Jan. 1.

"It was the first time I had proposed an ordinance in our community where outside interests, business interests, came into town and spent money trying to kill the legislation," Fadness said.

It was a rare win for such a proposal. Cities and states across the U.S. have debated restricting investor homebuyers, yet most measures have failed to pass. One proposal went nowhere in Congress, which Trump has said would need to codify any ban. California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined Trump this month in saying he's determined to do something.

Economists say large investors are not the biggest factor driving home prices

But housing experts say it's too easy to blame corporate landlords entirely for skyrocketing prices.

"People see the connection, but they don't necessarily separate out the cause and effect," said Laurie Goodman, an economist with the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.

Prices do go up where investors buy, but she said, "That is part of their strategy," because the places they choose are already growing. And often, they buy serious fixer-uppers.

"Most of us don't have the knowledge to do the repairs," Goodman said. "[Even] if we did, we couldn't get the financing."

Nationally, the largest companies own about 3% of the single-family rental market, with larger shares in some places like the Sunbelt. And the institutional buying spree has cooled from its peak in 2022, as higher interest rates have made homes more expensive.

The main driver of rising prices is a housing shortage, Goodman said, and some investors are actually helping to ease that now, by building their own single-family houses to rent.

"The best way to make housing affordable is to simply build more of it — to increase supply," she said.

The debate continues in Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal still worries that the build-to-rent trend is undercutting people's shot at homeownership. She pointed to one corporate investor near her district that built an entire neighborhood of houses to rent.

"They didn't build the whole entire neighborhood to give it up," she said. "They wanted to make sure they would secure rental income from 200 different families and keep it."

What's more, like Fadness in Indiana, Neal worries that investor rentals are priced so high it can become impossible for many people to save up for a down payment. She said her previous next-door neighbor sold to an investor believing she could trade up, but had to rent a place down the street — from a different corporate investor.

Neal has proposed a cap on corporate landlords three times, but Nevada's Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, has blocked it, most recently last month.

Neal is surprised — and cautious — now that Trump is taking up her cause. "I am trying to figure out how I entered into a universe where I became aligned with a president who is a nemesis to the Democratic Party," she laughed.

But if Trump's interest can persuade more Republicans to join the push, she said she'll take it.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump is expected to talk this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, about making housing in the United States more affordable. One of his proposals is to ban large investors from buying more single-family homes than they already own. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports the idea is popular, but turning it into law has proven hard.

JENNIFER LUDDEN, BYLINE: Back in 2020, Ashley Maxwell and her husband were looking to buy their first home near Indianapolis.

ASHLEY MAXWELL: We looked at over 80 homes in probably a span of two months.

LUDDEN: They had to move because their landlord was selling their rental.

MAXWELL: And we would pull up to a house. Our agent would get out and be like, there's 10 additional offers - sight-unseen cash offers. Typically, that means that it's an investor.

LUDDEN: It turned out they were caught in a surge of institutional investors across the country snapping up single-family homes to rent out.

SCOTT FADNESS: We have neighborhoods today that are now creeping up to 35, 38% of the homes have been purchased for investment purposes.

LUDDEN: Scott Fadness, a Republican, is mayor of Fishers, an Indianapolis suburb. Last year, he proposed capping rentals at 10% per neighborhood to protect local homeownership.

FADNESS: It's been a source of generational wealth in our country for a very long time, particularly in the middle class, and I hate to see that go away.

LUDDEN: Realtor groups opposed a cap, saying it infringed on private property rights and could deprive sellers of the highest bid. But the city council backed it unanimously, and the new law just took effect January 1. It is a rare win. Cities and states across the country have debated restricting investor homebuyers, yet most failed to pass such measures. California Governor Gavin Newsom is the latest to say he's determined to do something. But housing experts say it's too easy to blame corporate landlords for skyrocketing prices.

LAURIE GOODMAN: People see the connection, but they don't necessarily separate out the cause and effect.

LUDDEN: Economist Laurie Goodman at the Urban Institute says, sure, prices go up where investors buy. But that's because they pick places that are already growing, and they often buy serious fixer-uppers.

GOODMAN: Most of us don't have the knowledge to do the repairs. If we did, we couldn't get the financing.

LUDDEN: Nationally, the biggest companies own only 3% of the market. The main thing driving up prices is a housing shortage, Goodman says, and investors are actually helping that now. As higher interest rates have made it more pricey to buy single-family homes, some have shifted to building their own homes to rent.

GOODMAN: The best way to make housing affordable is to simply build more of it to increase supply.

LUDDEN: In Las Vegas, Democratic state Senator Dina Neal hears that and still worries it's undercutting people's shot at homeownership. One corporate investor there has built an entire neighborhood of houses to rent.

DINA NEAL: They didn't build the whole entire neighborhood to give it up. They wanted to make sure they were going to secure rental income from 200 different families and keep it.

LUDDEN: And those rents are so high, she says, it's impossible for many to save up for a down payment. Neal has proposed a cap on corporate landlords three times. Nevada's Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, has blocked it, most recently last month. So what does she make of President Trump now taking up her cause?

NEAL: I am trying to figure out how I entered into a universe where I became aligned with a president who is a nemesis to the Democratic Party.

LUDDEN: But if it persuades more Republicans, she'll take it.

Jennifer Ludden, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOGWAI'S "GOLDEN PORSCHE")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5675241

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- Blinken and British counterpart signal trans-Atlantic unity with visit to Ukraine: 2026 Jan 21

- How the word 'cravat' came from the battlefields of 17th century Europe: 2026 Jan 21

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FAR-FLUNG POSTCARDS | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 10:10 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Greetings from Kalk Bay, a South African fishing village where wild seals await scraps

By Kate Bartlett

Far-Flung Postcards is a weekly series in which NPR's international team shares moments from their lives and work around the world.

The colorful old wooden fishing boats rock gently in this harbor, where wild — and suspiciously plump — Cape fur seals bask in the sun, awaiting the entrails from the daily catch as fishermen deftly gut the snoek and yellowtail they've brought in that morning.

Kalk Bay, a small village on the Indian Ocean with a bohemian vibe, about 40 minutes' drive from central Cape Town, is one of my favorite places. It's nestled in the shadow of fynbos-covered mountains and boasts some atmospheric seafood restaurants and bars where, at high tide, the waves smash against the windows as you eat — and occasionally, an unlucky diner gets soaked!

There's also an independent bookshop, a couple of art galleries and a population of dedicated surfers and aging hippies (including my dad).

Like much of the Cape region, Kalk Bay is a melting pot with a complex history. In the 1700s, Dutch settlers arrived at Kalk Bay, and it was later occupied by British colonists who turned it into a major whaling center.

But it was the arrival in the mid-1800s of emancipated slaves — who the Dutch East India Company brought over as laborers from what are now Malaysia and Indonesia — as well as Filipino seamen who jumped ship, that made Kalk Bay into a fishing industry hub. Some of the fishermen today are their descendants.

Despite how gentrified and touristy today's Kalk Bay might be, the harbor is still a real working one — where the weather-beaten fishermen smoke, joke and swear as they throw scraps to the corpulent seals.

See more photos from around the world:

- Greetings from Acre, Israel, where an old fortress recalls the time of the Crusades

- Greetings from a Paris park, where a lone sequoia tree is a marvel to behold

- Greetings from Vienna, where an imperial palace hosts a holiday market for all

- Greetings from Chiloé Island, Chile, where the fast-moving tides are part of local lore

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-106277

WORLD | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 7:05 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Blinken and British counterpart signal trans-Atlantic unity with visit to Ukraine

By Michele Kelemen

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

The Biden administration's top diplomat is joining his British counterpart on a trip to Ukraine this week in a sign of transatlantic unity. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says they are going to listen to Ukrainian officials. What they are likely to hear are more calls to let Ukraine use Western weapons to hit military targets deep inside Russia, as NPR's Michele Kelemen reports.

MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Secretary Blinken calls this a critical time for Ukraine as it heads into a third winter of war. His new big worry is the support that Iran is giving to Russia. He cited U.S. intelligence that the Biden administration just declassified.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANTONY BLINKEN: Dozens of Russian military personnel have been trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 close-range ballistic missile system, which has a maximum range of 75 miles. Russia has now received shipments of these ballistic missiles and will likely use them within weeks in Ukraine against Ukrainians.

KELEMEN: He says that means Russia can use more of its own long-range missiles for targets further from the front line.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BLINKEN: It adds to their capacity, and it fuels the war.

KELEMEN: The U.S. believes Iran is getting something in return - Russian space and nuclear technology, though Blinken provided no details about that, and Iran dismissed the allegations as, quote, "ugly propaganda." A Kremlin spokesman calls Iran an important partner, but says not all American reports are correct. British Foreign Secretary David Lammy spoke alongside Blinken in London, backing up the U.S. claims.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DAVID LAMMY: We're seeing a disturbing pattern of greater Iranian support for the Kremlin's illegal war, and we discussed today our shared commitment to holding Tehran to account for their undermining of global stability.

KELEMEN: The U.K., France and Germany are now canceling bilateral air service agreements with Iran. The U.S. is also adding more sanctions on Iran. Ukraine, though, says sanctions are not enough. The president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, writes on Telegram that Ukraine needs permission to use Western weapons to strike deeper inside Russia. Ukraine is bracing for another tough winter and is trying to defend its critical infrastructure from Russian missile attacks. Secretary Blinken says the U.S. has adjusted and adapted its military aid to meet Ukraine's needs, and that's why he and his British counterpart will be in Kyiv Wednesday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BLINKEN: We're going to look and to listen and to make sure that we have our own best assessment of what's needed, what the objectives are that our Ukrainian partners have in the weeks and months ahead and how we can best support them.

KELEMEN: He says they will bring that back to their bosses, President Biden and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who will meet at the White House on Friday. On the Middle East, Secretary Blinken was asked about an Israeli investigation into the killing of an American activist at a protest in the West Bank last week. Israel says Aysenur Eygi was likely killed by accident by Israeli troops aiming at someone else. Secretary Blinken says this shows that the Israelis need to fundamentally rethink their rules of engagement and the way they operate in the West Bank.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BLINKEN: Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified. No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest.

KELEMEN: The 26-year-old was the second American killed by Israeli security forces in the West Bank in the past year. Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5106395

WORD OF THE WEEK | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

How the word 'cravat' came from the battlefields of 17th century Europe

By Kristina Kukolja

For many in the business world, a return to work after the winter break will mean once again donning the dreaded suit and tie. The corporate neckwear is the everyday counterpart to the traditionally more luxurious cravat – a voluminous neckscarf that conjures up images of opulent dinners aboard a yacht sailing through the Mediterranean.

President Abraham Lincoln wore cravats, as did Hollywood actor Cary Grant and the extravagant entertainer Liberace. In more recent times, the garment has been popularized in the American mainstream by the likes of Madonna and the late Diane Keaton.

In this installment of NPR's "Word of the Week" series we trace the origins of the "cravat" (borrowed from the French "cravate") back to the battlefields of 17th century Europe and explore its links to the modern day necktie, patented in New York more than 100 years ago.

"Scarves worn around the neck existed long before, but the story of the cravat truly begins in the Thirty Years' War when it first gained wider European recognition," explains Filip Hren, a military historian at the Croatian Catholic University in Zagreb.

Hren is referring to the 1618-48 conflict fought between Catholics and Protestants and known as Europe's last religious war.

The word "cravate" first appeared in the French language to describe military attire worn by Croatian mercenaries who were renowned among their enemies for their brutal fighting prowess.

"The Swedish king said they are the new tribe of the devil," says Hren.

The "swift, fast and deadly" Croats, who entered the war in service of the Holy Roman Empire, wore distinctive red scarves around their necks. Made of silk or cotton, the cloth is said to have been used to protect their faces against cold weather and smoke in battle, and to treat injuries.

"Wounded soldiers could use the scarf as a bandage, but it also had symbolic meaning," says Vladimir Brnardić, a historian and journalist who has written extensively about Croatian military history.

"There are legends that young women and the wives of soldiers tied the scarf around the necks of their beloved to show their trust and love for them, and to signify that they would be waiting for them when they return," he adds.

The French army noticed the Croats' fighting skills – and their fashion sense – recruiting many into elite cavalry regiments that would become known as the Royal Cravates.

"The scarves took their names from Croats. It was tied in a Croatian manner, or in French – a la Croate," explains Filip Hren.

King Louis XIV introduced the cravat into French fashion and from Paris it soon spread across Europe.

"King Louis XIV was particularly fond of the cravat and it's said that his pages would bring cravats to him every morning. He was a role model for the French nobility and for many other European rulers as well," says Hren.

The earliest use of the English version "cravat," according to the Oxford English Dictionary, was recorded in 1656 in the writing of English antiquary and lexicographer Thomas Blount.

In the 19th century, the rise of bourgeois society in the Industrial Revolution saw the arrival of the necktie. Historians say the accessory became a symbol of professionalism and social discipline, "particularly in men's clothing." In the 20th century it entered business, diplomatic and political culture, and "became a means of personal expression."

In French and many other European languages, the word for "necktie" still retains an etymological link to the words for "Croats".

"Krawatte" in German. In Spanish, "corbata." "Cravatta" in Italian and "gravata" in Greek.

The necktie as we know it today was patented in New York in the early 1920s by tailor Jesse Langsdorf.

"Langsdorf created a revolution when we talk about neckties. He designed it in a way that it keeps its [form] and not to be soft as a pure silk scarf," says Igor Mladinović, co-founder of the Cravaticum Museum in Zagreb, which among its exhibits hosts a "bulletproof" necktie made in Thailand and another sewn from the skin of a dead snake.

New patterns, colors and fabrics have defined its evolution, often reflecting new fashion trends, social and economic change. Significantly so after the Second World War when the invention of polyester fabric made neckties more affordable to manufacture and buy. The designs also became brighter and more colorful.

"The necktie has changed in terms of material and pattern design, but the way it is produced has remained unchanged for the last 100 years," adds Mladinović.

Over the years, the necktie has come to symbolize success, sophistication and status, but has also been criticized by some as a symbol of power, control and oppression. In that way, perhaps, it echoes in part some of the earliest 17th century origins of its ancestor, the cravat.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682323

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WORLD | UPDATED WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 9:45 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Trump says 'I won't use force' to obtain Greenland in Davos speech

By Danielle Kurtzleben

Heard on Morning Edition

President Trump said Wednesday he is seeking immediate negotiations for the ownership of Greenland but he would not "use force."

"We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won't do that," he said during his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

"That's probably the biggest statement I made because people thought I would use force, but I don't have to use force, I don't want to use force. I won't use force," he said.

Trump said U.S. ownership of Greenland is necessary for national security and that "who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or release, which is a large piece of ice in the middle of the ocean."

"So we want a piece of ice for world protection, and they won't give it. We've never asked for anything else, and we could have kept that piece of land, and we didn't. So they have a choice. You can say yes and we will be very appreciative, or you can say no and we will remember," Trump said.

Trump's push to acquire Greenland has turned to antagonism toward allies in recent days

Just two weeks ago, President Trump posted on social media that he'd address affordability when he spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

But his belligerent foreign policy is once again overshadowing his attempts at a cohesive economic message. Trump's aggressive push to acquire Greenland has turned to open antagonism toward allies in recent days, becoming a central focus of this year's forum.

Just days before the forum began, Trump on social media threatened to tariff goods from eight European nations and NATO members until they support a U.S. deal to purchase Greenland.

Those countries responded with a statement saying that they stand in solidarity with Denmark and Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Over the weekend, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr also revealed a text conversation in which Trump said that not receiving the Nobel Peace Prize – which the Norwegian government does not confer – is influencing his decision to pursue Greenland.

It also became clear in recent days that other world leaders were seeking to dissuade Trump from attempting to take over Greenland, when Trump Monday night posted screenshots of text messages from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Rutte began his message with flattery, praising Trump's recent strikes in Syria. Rutte added, "I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland."

Macron, for his part, was harsher: "I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland," he wrote, but added that he wanted to get dinner after Davos.

And Trump on Tuesday reposted a social media message that cast the U.N. and NATO as the "real threat" to the U.S., as opposed to China and Russia.

All of this buildup has brought American foreign policy to center stage at Davos. When Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took the stage with Fox Business's Maria Bartiromo yesterday, her first question was about Greenland: "How do you justify taking over a country when in fact Denmark and Greenland have said they're not interested?"

"Greenland's becoming more and more attractive for foreign conquest, and he very strongly believes that it must be part of the US to prevent a conflict," Bessent said as part of his answer.

Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday delivered a forceful speech that, without mentioning Trump explicitly, argued that his policies are leading to the breakdown of the international order.

"Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition," Carney said. "Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion, supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited."

"We stand firmly with Greenland and Denmark and fully support their unique right to determine Greenland's future. Our commitment to NATO's Article 5 is unwavering," he later added. "Canada strongly opposes tariffs over Greenland."

But Trump, speaking at length with reporters Tuesday, seemed to step off the gas slightly when it came to his harsh rhetoric. Asked about how his push for Greenland could result in breaking up NATO, Trump seemed to demur.

"Something's going to happen that's going to be very good for everybody," he said.

The foreign policy Trump is bringing to Davos goes beyond Greenland. On Thursday, he will participate in what the White House is calling a Board of Peace Charter Announcement.

The "Board of Peace" is being created as part of Trump's 20-point plan to end the conflict between Israel and Hamas and has come under sharp criticism. A copy of the charter obtained by NPR said that countries that want permanent membership will have to pay $1 billion, and that Donald Trump is the permanent chair, even after he's president. The charter also says that the world needs a more effective international peace-building body – which may signal the board is hoping to act as a rival to the U.N.

The board's membership is still unsettled, but Trump said he has asked President Vladimir Putin to take part. Meanwhile, Macron has said he will not join the board.

Trump told reporters this week that his main message in Davos will be "how well the United States is doing." Economic advisor Kevin Hassett has said the president will also be revealing a new housing policy.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683078

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WORLD | UPDATED WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 6:05 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Israel agrees to join Trump's Board of Peace as some European nations say no

By The Associated Press

JERUSALEM — Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he has agreed to join U.S. President Donald Trump's Board of Peace in a departure from an earlier stance when his office criticized the makeup of the board's committee tasked with overseeing Gaza.

Norway and Sweden, meanwhile, said they would not be joining the board at this stage, following in the footsteps of France, which has expressed concern the board could seek to replace the United Nations as the mediator in global conflicts.

Chaired by Trump, the board was originally envisaged as a small group of world leaders overseeing the Gaza ceasefire plan. The Trump administration's ambitions have since expanded into a more sprawling concept, with Trump extending invitations to dozens of nations and hinting the board will soon broker global conflicts.

Trump headed for the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, where he is expected to provide more details about the board.

Israel, Azerbaijan and Kosovo say yes, Norway and Sweden say no

Netanyahu's office had previously said the composition of the Gaza executive committee — which includes Turkey, Israel's key regional rival — was not coordinated with the Israeli government and ran "contrary to its policy," without clarifying its objections.

Netanyahu's decision to join the board could now put him in conflict with some of the far-right allies in his coalition, such as Israel's Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has criticized the board and called for Israel to take unilateral responsibility for Gaza's future.

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said Wednesday he was also joining, as did Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani.

Norway's state secretary, Kristoffer Thoner, said in a statement Wednesday that Norway would not join the board because it "raises a number of questions that requires further dialogue with the United States." He said Norway would not attend the signing ceremony in Davos.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on the sidelines of Davos on Wednesday that his country isn't signing up for the board as the text currently stands, Swedish news agency TT reported. Sweden hasn't yet formally responded.

Much of Western Europe, Russia and China have not said whether they will join

Those who previously joined the board are the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Morocco, Vietnam, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan and Argentina. Bahrain and Egypt said Wednesday they would also join.

Invitation letters from Trump also have been sent to the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, China, Egypt, Paraguay, Turkey, India, Slovenia, Croatia, Thailand and the European Union's executive arm.

There are many unanswered questions. It was not immediately clear how many other leaders would receive invitations and how broad the board's mandate will be. When asked by a reporter on Tuesday if the board should replace the United Nations, Trump said: "It might."

The makeup of the board

Under the ceasefire deal, the board's Gaza executive committee will be in charge of implementing the tough second phase of the agreement. That includes deploying an international security force, disarming the Palestinian militant Hamas group and rebuilding the war-devastated territory. It will also supervise a newly appointed committee of Palestinian technocrats who will be running Gaza's day-to-day affairs.

The White House says its members include Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan; Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi; Hassan Rashad, director of Egypt's General Intelligence Agency; Emirati minister Reem Al-Hashimy; Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay; and Sigrid Kaag, the Netherlands' former deputy prime minister and a Mideast expert.

Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian politician and U.N. Mideast envoy, is to serve as the Gaza executive board's representative overseeing day-to-day matters.

Separate from the Gaza executive committee, the founding executive committee's members include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff, Kushner, Blair, Rowan, World Bank President Ajay Banga and Trump's deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-106641

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Law

- Federal prosecutors subpoena Minnesota officials as immigration crackdown continues: 2026 Jan 20

LAW | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:37 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Federal prosecutors subpoena Minnesota officials as immigration crackdown continues

By Matt Sepic

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The Trump administration is vowing to continue with what it's calling a major immigration enforcement effort in Minnesota. The Department of Homeland Security says that agents have arrested 3,000 people since last month, a claim that NPR has been unable to verify. At the same time, the Justice Department is now investigating democratic elected officials there for their repeated condemnations of the operation. Reporter Matt Sepic of Minnesota Public Radio joins us now. Hi, Matt.

MATT SEPIC, BYLINE: Hi there.

CHANG: OK, so I saw that federal prosecutors have issued subpoenas to both state and city leaders where you are. How are they responding to those subpoenas?

SEPIC: Well, the offices of Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Saint Paul Mayor Kaohly Her say they all received subpoenas from Minnesota U.S. Attorney Dan Rosen, a recent Trump appointee. Last week, the Justice Department said they would investigate the Democrats over allegations that they conspired to impede federal law enforcement. After the shooting of Renee Macklin Good on January 7, Frey told ICE to get out of Minneapolis and used an expletive.

Today, Walz said Minnesota, quote, "will not be drawn into political theater." And in response to the subpoena, today, Frey said the federal government is weaponizing its power to, quote, "try to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs." Mayor Her in Saint Paul says, quote, "I am unfazed by these tactics. I stand firm in my commitment to protect our residents, neighbors and community."

CHANG: Well, turning to the Department of Homeland Security, has that department given any indication as to how much longer these operations in Minneapolis and Saint Paul will last?

SEPIC: No, not at all. At a news conference in the Twin Cities this afternoon, Customs and Border Protection Chief Greg Bovino said arrests will continue, and he accused local leaders of allowing, quote, "criminal, illegal aliens to roam the streets." Bovino says ICE agents are following the law.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GREG BOVINO: What we do is legal, ethical and moral. Everything we do every day is legal, ethical, moral, well grounded in law.

SEPIC: Bovino's comments fly in the face of documented incidents where masked, heavily armed agents broke into people's homes without judicial warrants. One recent example was reported by the Sahan Journal, which covers immigrant communities here. Sahan says that on Sunday, agents who said they were looking for two sex offenders with deportation orders forcibly entered the Saint Paul home of ChongLy Thao, a longtime American citizen with no criminal record. Thao said agents pointed guns at his family and took him out of his home handcuffed on a 10-degree day wearing only underwear. They drove him around and later released him after verifying his identity. Thao said his 4-year-old grandson was there and witnessed everything. Public records show there are no sex offenders living in Thao's home.

CHANG: Well, what about the local police there? Like, how have they been responding to what's happening?

SEPIC: Well, there was a news conference today where suburban Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley said ICE agents stopped one of his officers who was off duty at the time, as well as a civilian employee of the department. Bruley says both were targeted because they are people of color.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MARK BRULEY: If it is happening to our officers, it pains me to think how many of our community members are falling victim to this every day. It has to stop.

SEPIC: And Bruley says agents asked the off-duty officer to present proof of her citizenship. After the agents drew their guns, she identified herself as a police officer. At that point, the men left immediately with no explanation.

CHANG: That is Matt Sepic with Minnesota Public Radio. Thank you so much, Matt.

SEPIC: You're welcome.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683129

Politics

- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been subpoenaed by the DOJ: 2026 Jan 21

- Trump speaks at length with reporters before heading off to Davos: 2026 Jan 20

- President Trump set to hold the spotlight at Davos as international tension rises: 2026 Jan 20

- Ex-Trump official weighs in on whether the presidency is operating without guardrails: 2026 Jan 20

- Trump's Board of Peace has several invited leaders trying to figure out how it'll work: 2026 Jan 20

- Less personnel drama but still sky-high turnover one year into Trump's new term: 2026 Jan 20

- Gretchen Whitmer says it's not 'paranoia' to fear Trump disrupting elections: 2026 Jan 20

POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 8:08 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been subpoenaed by the DOJ

By Ayana Archie

The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to multiple government officials in Minnesota, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, expanding the agency's probe alleging that Minnesota officials conspired to impede law enforcement amid the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her have also been subpoenaed. NPR has not yet confirmed reports that other state and local leaders have also been issued subpoenas.

Frey's subpoena requires him to appear in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on Feb. 3. The mayor accused the federal government of weaponizing its power to intimidate local leaders.

"We shouldn't have to live in a country where people fear that federal law enforcement will be used to play politics or crack down on local voices they disagree with," he said in a statement.

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino appeared with ICE leader Marcos Charles in a news briefing criticizing Minnesota leaders and defending the work of immigration officers.

"They're everyday people doing a very hard job, trying to enforce the immigration laws in an environment where local and state politicians have been spreading rhetoric that dehumanizes these officers and agents," Charles said.

Protesters in Minnesota have roiled against Immigration and Customs Enforcement after one of its agents shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Macklin Good earlier this month.

"Less than two weeks ago, federal agents shot and killed a Minnesotan in broad daylight," Ellison said in a statement. "Now, instead of seriously investigating the killing of Renee Good, Trump is weaponizing the justice system against any leader who dares stand up to him."

During a White House press briefing Tuesday, President Trump discussed ICE tactics and Good's shooting.

"They're going to make mistakes. Sometimes ICE is going to be too rough with somebody, or, you know, they're dealing with rough people," Trump said. "Are they going to make a mistake sometimes? It can happen. I feel terribly. I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman who was, who had the tragedy. It's a tragedy. It's a horrible thing."

Ellison said the DOJ is asking for records and documents related to his office's work regarding federal immigration enforcement. He pointed out that this action comes shortly after his office sued the Trump administration over ICE's tactics in the region.

"Let's be clear about why this is happening: Donald Trump is coming after the people of Minnesota and I'm standing in his way," Ellison said. "I will not be intimidated, and I will not stop working to protect Minnesotans from Trump's campaign of retaliation and revenge."

NPR has reached out to the White House for comment on the DOJ subpoenas, but has not yet received a response

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683321

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POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:41 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Trump speaks at length with reporters before heading off to Davos

By Tamara Keith

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Today marks the one-year anniversary of President Trump's return to office. He marked the occasion by making a surprise appearance at the White House press briefing. Trump spoke for 80 minutes before taking a question. And for a president who knows how to make news, he made surprisingly little even with a room full of reporters.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Wow, that's a big crowd.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: It's a lot of people. I think it's, like, a record.

DETROW: This all occurred just before Trump heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where Europeans are frantically trying to head off conflict over Trump's insistence that the U.S. takes over Greenland from Denmark. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith is here to break it down. Hey, Tam.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hi, Scott.

DETROW: A lot of words from President Trump today. What should we take from it?

KEITH: President Trump came into the room carrying a large document titled 365 Wins In 365 Days. But what he delivered was not a concise recitation of wins. Instead, it was a low-energy and very long monologue where he complained that his message just isn't getting through to people.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: Maybe I have the bad public relations people, but we're not getting it across.

KEITH: In fact, he said that's why he was doing this press conference. Like so many presidents before him, he thinks that he is his own best messenger.

DETROW: And like so many presidents before, I mean, seems frustrated with how the message is getting out. So I'm curious, do you think this message got through today?

KEITH: Yeah, he certainly held the cable airwaves for a long time, nearly two hours. But he said so much about so many things, repeating the same jokes and falsehoods that he comes back to again and again, that it would be hard to pick out what his precise point was. For quite a while, he was up there just holding pieces of paper with pictures of criminals he says have been arrested in the immigration raids in Minnesota. At one point, he even had an extended back and forth with himself about the ferocity of a binder clip.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: And this is something - oh, I'm glad my finger wasn't in that sucker. That could have done some damage, but you know what? I wouldn't have shown the pain.

KEITH: It was just Trump unfiltered.

DETROW: I mean, this comes at a time where there's a lot of major issues that Trump is facing. He took questions for 25 minutes. Did he get pressed on any of these issues, like Greenland or tariffs?

KEITH: He did. And as he often does, he left his options open. His answers on questions about NATO, Iran, Panama and Greenland were all a little, like, trying to pin down Jell-O. Here's what he said when he was asked about how far he would go to get Greenland.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRUMP: I think that we will work something out where NATO is going to be very happy and where we're going to be very happy. But we need it for security purposes. We need it for national security and even world security.

KEITH: You know, in the middle of the night last night, Trump was on a social media tear where, among other things, he boosted the idea that NATO is the real problem, not Russia and China. He didn't bring any of that same inflammatory language or energy to the briefing room. And when asked about his relationship with European leaders Emmanuel Macron of France and Keir Starmer of the U.K., both of whom were quite pointed in their criticism of him, Trump said they are friends.

DETROW: Tam, Trump talks to the press a lot. What was different about today?

KEITH: You know, in the second Trump era, the briefing room is now packed not just with mainstream journalists from the nation's largest news organizations, but also with influencers who make no secret of how much they love the president. At one point, he was asked if God would be happy with his first year in office. He said, yes, he thinks, quote, "God is very proud of the job I've done." So this press conference definitely covered it all.

DETROW: NPR's Tamara Keith, thanks so much.

KEITH: You're welcome.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683255

POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 6:44 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

President Trump set to hold the spotlight at Davos as international tension rises

By Danielle Kurtzleben , Steve Inskeep

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have a story of very personal diplomacy. President Trump has been texting world leaders, and they have been texting him.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

In one message, Trump told Norway's prime minister that he's trying to seize Greenland in part because he did not receive a Nobel Peace Prize. That was Trump's explanation for shaking the most important U.S. alliance and disrupting the world order. Overnight, Trump shared messages he received. One comes from France's president, who tries flattery on Trump but then raises the issue of Greenland and proposes to discuss it over dinner.

INSKEEP: Now, world leaders meet face-to-face at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. NPR White House correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben is covering all this. Danielle, good morning.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning.

INSKEEP: What's the U.S. delegation doing in Europe?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be speaking in Davos, then Trump is scheduled to talk on Wednesday. And then on Thursday, there's what the White House is calling a charter announcement for the Board of Peace that Trump created to oversee reconstruction in Gaza after the conflict he's been trying to end between Israel and Hamas. In terms of substance, we don't know much yet. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett has suggested that Trump will unveil a new housing policy. Beyond that, we know he likes to talk about tariffs. And days ago, he threatened to tariff goods from eight European countries until the U.S. has a deal to acquire Greenland.

INSKEEP: OK. Thank you for raising that. For those who didn't follow the news over the holiday, what were these threats about tariffs?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, Trump posted that he's going to impose 10% tariffs on those eight countries starting on February 1, then raise it to 25% in June - that is, until a Greenland deal happens. Now, we don't really know details here. I've asked the White House, for example, what law would even authorize this, and I haven't received word yet. But those European countries, meanwhile, they're all NATO members, and they've all said they stand in full solidarity with fellow NATO member Denmark, as well as with Greenland, which is part of the kingdom of Denmark.

INSKEEP: And Trump has certainly drawn all attention to himself once again with these threats, including personal messages with world leaders. What are these text messages?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, maybe most famously over the weekend, Trump texted the Norwegian prime minister that because Trump didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize, he no longer feels the need to think, quote, "purely of peace," adding that the U.S. should have total control over Greenland. Now, of course, the Norwegian government does not decide who gets that prize. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly elaborated to NPR that Greenland is important for national security and that Trump thinks, quote, "Greenlanders would be better served if protected by the United States." That's, of course, certainly not how everyone sees it. In that overnight message from French President Emmanuel Macron that you mentioned, he said at one point, I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland.

INSKEEP: A fascinating message also mixed in some flattery. You're doing a great job in Syria.

KURTZLEBEN: Right.

INSKEEP: Let's get together for dinner. But this is not the only thing Trump is doing on the world stage. There's also that Board of Peace you mentioned, which is what?

KURTZLEBEN: Well, that is something that Trump laid out when he talked about how he wants to solve the conflict between Israel and Hamas. And that announcement - that charter announcement that the White House talked about is happening on Thursday. We've learned more about that charter recently. According to a copy obtained by NPR, permanent seats will cost nations a billion dollars each, and Trump is set to be the permanent chair. And as our colleague Daniel Estrin has reported, the charter says there's a need for a more effective international peace-building body, which makes some fear that the board is attempting to create a rival to the U.N. So we're keeping a close eye on that. Russia says Trump has asked President Vladimir Putin to sign on as part of the board. So it's unclear what he'll do and what traditional U.S. allies will do.

INSKEEP: OK. NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben. Thanks so much - really appreciate it.

KURTZLEBEN: Of course.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682244

POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 6:44 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Ex-Trump official weighs in on whether the presidency is operating without guardrails

By Michel Martin

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

President Trump's aggressive moves on Greenland and immigration, among other things, has even some of his supporters questioning his priorities and tactics. So we've called someone who got a close-up view of President Trump in his first term to ask whether something has changed. Miles Taylor was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. He wrote anonymously about resisting some of Trump's impulses from the inside. That's before he revealed himself and backed Joe Biden for president.

He has since become a target. President Trump yanked his security clearance and told DHS to investigate him. He now leads a nonprofit called DEFIANCE.org that helps people push back against the administration. He's with us now. Good morning, Miles. Thanks much for joining us.

MILES TAYLOR: Good morning, Michel. How are you?

MARTIN: Good. So let me start with Greenland. Trump did talk about this in his first term. But during your time in the administration, was this seen as a serious discussion? I guess what I'm wondering is, is there something different now?

TAYLOR: Well, here's the thing. I mean, Donald Trump always says controversial things. And then aides come out and say that he's joking, but they're not usually jokes. These are trial balloons. And if there's too much blowback, he'll wait until a period where he can move something forward. And if there's not, he'll move forward on the controversial idea anyway and people will see it's not a joke. Greenland was one of those things.

When we first heard about it, I will tell you, 2017 was the first time I heard President Trump say he wanted Greenland. And he proposed swapping it for Puerto Rico because he didn't like spending hurricane recovery money there and he wanted to get rid of Puerto Rico. And we said, Mr. President, there are 3.5 million Americans who live in Puerto Rico. And he dismissed the idea until 2018, when he brought it up again. That's when, Michel, I was worried this was one of those things, that if he didn't have sensible people around him, he would try to do in a second term. He was hell-bent on getting the island.

MARTIN: Then to another point, the immigration move. Now, the president has always taken a hard line against immigration. I mean, that's been clear. But a U.S. official told NPR the president has put active-duty troops on standby for a possible deployment to Minneapolis. And he's threatened to use the Insurrection Act to put down protests there. And, you know, obviously, sort of there are some issues being mixed there. But this big surge of agents into these mainly Democratic-led cities to kind of support these immigration moves, even some of his supporters have questioned this. Is there something different about this?

TAYLOR: Well, look, I will go back to the joke schema. I mean, in, you know, the past 10 years, Donald Trump has joked about locking up his political opponents. He has joked about deploying troops to U.S. cities. He joked about not conceding the election in 2020. And we learned the hard way that these things weren't jokes. And any time he was talked down off the ledge, it was because of sensible folks around him who tried to keep him from going that direction.

Another thing he pushed for in the first term was invocation of the Insurrection Act. I remember, on the eve of the State of the Union in 2019, I got tipped off by aides at the White House that the president was thinking about slipping language into his speech to invoke that act. Of course, this was disturbing because we didn't think any circumstances in the United States justified that there was an invasion or a rebellion. So we rushed to the White House, met the president in the map room where he was practicing the speech and convinced him to drop those lines out of the speech.

But again, keep in mind, this is something he has wanted to do since the first term. He saw the Insurrection Act - this is his words - as his, quote, "magical authorities." He saw it as the apex of his power. And he has been looking for an excuse to implement it. The only difference is, in the second term, he's brought on people who are willing to carry out those orders.

MARTIN: So your - in your view, the president hasn't changed. It's the people around him that have changed. And they are unwilling or uninterested in tempering some of these impulses.

TAYLOR: You know, Susie Wiles said something revealing a month ago about the president's mindset. She said that he had an alcoholic's personality. But Donald Trump, of course, is a teetotaler. He doesn't drink. What I would say, and I don't mean this facetiously, the man is drunk on power. He is addicted to, he is deeply attracted to, demonstrations of power. And you can imagine that the greatest demonstration of his power domestically would be to send American troops into cities to enforce his edicts.

It is something he has, again, talked about for nearly 10 years. And he sees the opportunity to do it with limited to no pushback inside of his administration. The question will be, will the Article III courts do something about it? And I strongly suspect that this will be challenged, if he does it, almost immediately by the state of Minnesota, if not other states.

MARTIN: Let me ask you about something else. And this is a difficult thing to talk about because when you're ever talking about people's personal behavior, you know, this always raises questions of, you know, whose standards are we applying here? Who says or who cares? But the president's use of profanity.

I mean, he went to this auto plant the other day. He made this obscene gesture at a heckler who yelled something at him that he didn't like and was - seemed to have been heard to utter an epithet. You know, again, his staff continues to defend this, but it does seem that he is more unfiltered. We heard him uttering expletives in public comments much more frequently than I think we did in the first term. And I just wonder if you have noticed that yourself and what you make of it.

TAYLOR: Look, I'm not a doctor. But I think, observing this man from afar, you can conclude he is unwell. He is irascible. He is angry. He is quick to impulsive remarks and judgments, not that this was incredibly different from the first term. But it's, you know, a Donald Trump more unhinged than I think people saw in the first administration. And, you know, you're seeing that, as if there was any filter before, now it seems to be gone.

MARTIN: Well, again, I'm not a doctor either. Neither are you. You certainly haven't examined him in any professional capacity here. But I guess it makes me wonder whether, did he use that kind of language in private before in the first term? We just are now being exposed to it publicly because perhaps he just feels more comfortable in doing so? I mean, we know that - we know, like, from the Nixon tapes that, you know, people sometimes talk that way in private. And they forget, perhaps, that other people are listening.

TAYLOR: Yeah. I mean, I think...

MARTIN: But I'm just wondering if you - if it's as you said before, which is that this is the behavior that was the before behavior, and now we're just seeing more of it. Or has something substantively changed?

TAYLOR: Well, I'll give you two direct examples on that, Michel, is, you know, when he said s-hole countries in the first term, that was something he continued to repeat in private, even after aides denied that the president had called third world countries s-hole countries. He continued to say that in meetings. Or a second example would be Somalis. He called the Somali people, Somali Americans, garbage in private. He referred to them derisively. I don't know what the president's biases are towards people from Somalia. But these are things he said in the first term in private in the Oval Office. And in a second term, he's now said those things publicly and almost proudly. And that says to me that he's let that filter drop.

MARTIN: That's Miles Taylor. He's former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. He now runs a group called DEFIANCE.org. Thanks so much for joining us.

TAYLOR: Thanks, Michel.

MARTIN: We reached out to the White House for comment on Miles Taylor. As you might imagine, they replied by insulting both his work and him personally. Their statement ended with, quote, "no one should believe anything he says," unquote.

(SOUNDBITE OF THIS TOWN NEEDS GUNS' "ELK")

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682118

WORLD | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 6:01 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Trump's Board of Peace has several invited leaders trying to figure out how it'll work

By The Associated Press

Israel has been asked to join U.S. President Donald Trump's new Board of Peace that will supervise the next phase of the Gaza peace plan, an Israeli official said Monday, while France is holding off accepting for now.

It's not known whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted the offer, said the Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a behind-the-scenes diplomatic matter.

Russia, Belarus, Slovenia, Thailand and the European Union's executive arm also were among the latest to receive invitations.

It's unclear how many leaders have been asked to join the board, and the large number of invitations being sent out, including to countries that don't get along, has raised questions about the board's mandate and decision-making processes. Also unknown is Israel's potential role on a board in charge of implementing the ceasefire agreement that directly involves them.

A Trump reference in the invitation letters saying that the body would "embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict" suggested it could act as a rival to the U.N. Security Council, the most powerful body of the global organization created in the wake of World War II.

France, though, does not plan to join the Board of Peace "at this stage" despite receiving an invitation, a French official close to President Emmanuel Macron said Monday. The issue is raising questions, particularly with regard to respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, said the official, speaking anonymously in line with the French presidency's customary practices.

Told late Monday that Macron was unlikely to join, Trump said, "Well, nobody wants him because he's going to be out of office very soon."

"I'll put a 200% tariff on his wines and champagnes and he'll join," Trump told reporters in Florida before a flight back to Washington. "But he doesn't have to join."

Morocco's King Mohammed VI accepted a spot Monday, becoming the first Arab leader and at least the fifth world leader to join. Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Hungary and Argentina also have signed on.

Russian President Vladimir Putin received the invitation, and the Kremlin is now "studying the details" and will seek clarity of "all the nuances" in contacts with the U.S., said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Trump confirmed Monday night that Putin had been invited.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is ready to take part, according to the country's Foreign Ministry. The Thai Foreign Ministry said it was invited and reviewing the details.

European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said that Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the commission, would be speaking to other EU leaders about Gaza. Gill didn't say whether its invitation had been accepted, but that the commission wants "to contribute to a comprehensive plan to end the Gaza conflict."

Israel's objections to the board

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday dismissed the Board of Peace as a raw deal for Israel and called for its dissolution.

"It is time to explain to the president that his plan is bad for the State of Israel and to cancel it," Smotrich said. "Gaza is ours, its future will affect our future more than anyone else's. We will take responsibility for what happens there, impose military administration, and complete the mission."

Smotrich, a hard-liner who opposed the Gaza ceasefire, even suggested that Israel renew a full-scale offensive on the territory to destroy Hamas if it doesn't abide by a "short ultimatum for real disarmament and exile."

Netanyahu said later on Monday that while there are differences with the U.S. about the composition of the advisory committee accompanying the next phase in Gaza, it would not harm his relationship with Trump.

"There will not be Turkish soldiers and Qatari soldiers in the (Gaza) Strip," he said.

Netanyahu's office earlier said the formation of an executive board that will work to carry out the vision of the Board of Peace wasn't coordinated with the Israeli government and "is contrary to its policy" without clarifying its objections. Turkey, a key regional rival, is among those invited to join the committee.

The final list

The U.S. is expected to announce its official list of members in the coming days, likely during the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

Board members will oversee an executive committee that will be in charge of implementing the tough second phase of the Gaza peace plan that includes the deployment of an international security force, disarmament of Hamas and reconstruction of the war-devastated territory.

A $1 billion contribution secures permanent membership on the board, with the money going to rebuild Gaza, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity about the charter as he wasn't permitted to speak publicly about details of the board, which hasn't been made public. A three-year appointment has no contribution requirement.

According to the World Bank's Gaza and West Bank Interim Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (IRDNA) report released last year, it'll take $53 billion to rebuild the strip.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday the United Kingdom is talking to allies about the Board of Peace.

Running Gaza

Egypt's top diplomat on Monday met with the leader of the newly appointed committee of Palestinian technocrats who will be running Gaza's day-to-day affairs during the second phase.

Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty met with Ali Shaath, a Palestinian engineer and former official with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, who was named last week as chief commissioner of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.

Abdelatty expressed the Egyptian government's "complete support" of the committee and affirmed its role in running Gaza's daily affairs until the Palestinian Authority takes over the territory, said a statement from the Egyptian ministry.

Gaza humanitarian situation still fragile

The U.N. World Food Program on Monday said it has "significantly expanded" its operations across Gaza 100 days into the ceasefire, reaching more than a million people each month with hot meals and food parcels. But it warned the situation remains "extremely fragile."

It noted that malnutrition has been prevented for 200,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women, as well as children under 5.

Still, the most recent Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis in December indicated that 77% the population is facing crisis-level food insecurity.

Israeli forces move into Hebron

Israeli military and security forces launched what they called a large-scale counterterrorism operation in the West Bank city of Hebron to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure, eliminating illegal weapons possession and strengthening security."

The Israeli military said Monday the operation is expected to continue for several days. Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers patrolled city streets and put up barriers where operations were being conducted.

Hebron Mayor Khaled Dudin said Israeli forces targeted the area that's home to 80,000 people because it obstructs the construction of additional Israeli settlements.

Three Palestinians killed

Israeli forces on Monday killed three Palestinians, including a teenager, in southern Gaza, hospital authorities said.

Two men crossed into Israeli-controlled areas east of Khan Younis before being shot dead, while 17-year-old Hussein Tawfiq Abu Sabalah was shot and killed in the Muwasi area of Rafah, according to the Nasser hospital. It wasn't immediately clear whether the teen had crossed into or came close to the Israeli-controlled area.

More than 460 people were killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect just over three months ago, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682816

Related

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POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Less personnel drama but still sky-high turnover one year into Trump's new term

By Tamara Keith

Heard on Morning Edition

There was a celebratory mood in the Oval Office for the November swearing-in of the new ambassador to India, Sergio Gor. One of President Trump's top lieutenants, Gor had been in charge of selecting staff to serve in Trump's second-term White House. Now he was getting a promotion.

Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality-turned-U.S. attorney, offered praise for Gor's loyalty, then turned to Trump.

"There is in this room, a group of people who love you, who believe in you, and who are so proud to be in this Oval Office," she said.

That lovefest reflects a real change from Trump's first term, with its rival power centers and steady flow of staff shakeups and firings by tweet. One year into this second Trump presidency, high level staff and Cabinet turnover is significantly lower than it was during the same period in 2017. That's according to a new analysis from Brookings Institution visiting fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, shared exclusively with NPR.

In 2017, Trump oversaw turnover in two Cabinet positions and 35% of senior staff posts. This time around, there's been no turnover at the Cabinet level, and senior staff turnover is at 29%. To keep consistency across administrations, for the Cabinet Tenpas only counts officials in the presidential line of succession.

"For the other six presidents before President Trump, the average [high level staff] turnover in that first year is typically around 10%, so he's much higher than the average, but I will say it is less than his first term by a good margin," Tenpas said in an interview with NPR.

Tenpas also documents the nature of the departures. In the first term, there were a lot of people unceremoniously shown the door by a president whose TV tagline was "you're fired." This time, it has mostly been promotions, such as Gor becoming an ambassador.

"There are far fewer resignations under pressure in this first year, 2025, than there were in 2017," said Tenpas.

In 2017, high-profile aides including chief of staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Steve Bannon, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, communications director Michael Dubke and the famously 11-day-serving White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci all exited, often with an announcement by tweet.

The people leaving their jobs this time around aren't household names, says Tenpas, further dialing down the personnel drama.

"You know, I would call these positions influential, but they just weren't public figures, they weren't press secretaries. They weren't chiefs of staff," she said.

People who served in the first Trump administration say this time is different, with Trump learning from his first presidency that he prefers loyalists. He has surrounded himself with aides who more closely align with him personally and with his political agenda.

Gone are the big names he brought on because people suggested he should. Now, loyalty is the coin of the realm.

"I do think that … if you look at what is the core of the stability, it was the emphasis that they put on loyalty in hiring, and that has then subsequently paved the way for less infighting and less drama and a lower rate than in 2017," said Tenpas.

A large share of the departures so far this term were on the National Security Council staff, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, who became U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. He had been responsible for what was known as Signal-gate, the first major scandal of the term, when he inadvertently added a journalist to a group chat where secret plans for airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen were discussed. But he wasn't fired. He was promoted to a position requiring Senate confirmation.

When Waltz left as national security adviser, he was replaced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who added another job to an already long list of assignments from Trump. It was supposed to be temporary, but it's been more than eight months.

The high-level NSC staff departures Tenpas tracked reflect a much larger shedding of staff assigned to the National Security Council.

A White House official not authorized to speak on the record tells NPR there has been a significant reduction in NSC staffing over the past year to create a more top-down foreign policy process.

The official called it a rightsizing — a strategic choice rather than White House intrigue.

This Brookings data does not capture firings and upheaval among career officials in other areas of the Trump administration, such as at the State Department, Justice Department or the Defense Department, all of which have seen significant turnover.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump's second term is one year old, a year of global chaos - largely by design. The president's allies cast this as a revolution aiming to reshape America and the world, based entirely on whatever the president feels like today. The result is instability for federal employees, immigrants, corporate leaders, U.S. adversaries, U.S. allies, news consumers. But one thing is more stable than in the past. The personnel around the president do not change, and that is different than his first term. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith has the numbers and an explanation.

TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: There was a celebratory mood in the Oval Office for the November swearing in of the new ambassador to India, Sergio Gor. A Trump lieutenant, he had been in charge of selecting staff to serve in Trump's second term White House. Now he was getting a promotion. Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News personality turned U.S. attorney, offered praise for Gor's loyalty, then turned to Trump.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JEANINE PIRRO: There is in this room a group of people who love you, who believe in you and who are so proud to be in this Oval Office.

KEITH: That lovefest reflects a real change from the first term, with its steady flow of staff shake-ups and firings by Tweet.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: Reince Priebus is out as President Trump's chief of staff.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: Trump's chief strategist, Steve Bannon, is now out.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #3: And White House press secretary Sean Spicer abruptly resigned from his position.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #4: White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is now out of that position just over a week into the job.

KEITH: Unlike the first term, this time Trump has surrounded himself with people who agree with him and his agenda. Kathryn Dunn Tenpas is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution and for years has carefully tracked cabinet and high-level White House staff turnover. She exclusively shared her latest findings with NPR.

KATHRYN DUNN TENPAS: So far, the turnover rate is 29% of the senior staff members, what I refer to as the A-Team.

KEITH: Now, compared to other presidents, going back to Ronald Reagan, that's still triple the average turnover rate. But it's a significant reduction from Trump's first term. And there are differences in the type of turnover, too. Tenpas finds many of the people leaving their positions this term got promotions, like Ambassador Sergio Gor, rather than humiliating firings.

TENPAS: And there are far fewer resignations under pressure in this first year, 2025, than there were in 2017.

KEITH: And there's another factor that's dialed down the drama. The people leaving weren't household names, says Tenpas.

TENPAS: You know, I would call these positions influential, but they just were not public figures. They weren't press secretaries. They weren't chiefs of staff.

KEITH: A lot of them, however, were on the National Security Council staff, including National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who became ambassador to the United Nations. A White House official not authorized to speak on the record tells NPR there has been a significant reduction in the staffing of the National Security Council over the past year. The official called it a rightsizing, a strategic choice rather than White House intrigue.

Tamara Keith, NPR News.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5677295

POLITICS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Gretchen Whitmer says it's not 'paranoia' to fear Trump disrupting elections

By Steve Inskeep

Heard on Morning Edition

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says her swing state is preparing for Trump administration efforts to disrupt voting in 2026 and 2028.

In an NPR interview, Whitmer did not accuse the administration of specific plans to interfere. But, she said, "it would be a mistake to assume that they're not going to" and said Democrats are preparing through "tabletop" exercises.

The governor sat down with me for the video interview on Thursday during her visit to the Detroit Auto Show, pulling up a chair next to a red Cadillac Escalade. The show is at Huntington Place, the same convention center that was a ballot-counting site in 2020, when pro-Trump protesters banged on windows and tried to stop the count.

Whitmer is beginning her eighth and final year as governor. She is term limited and not currently a candidate for anything, though she is often mentioned as a presidential or vice presidential contender. She has made no public moves toward running in 2028, though as the vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association, she says she is focused on electing other Democrats.

You can watch the full video interview. Below are highlights:

Democratic governors are preparing for further election disruptions

Asked whether she assumed that pro-Trump forces would attempt to interfere with ballot counting, Whitmer said, "It would be a mistake to assume that they're not going to. So I don't know precisely what it is that they might come up with. But we've got smart, sophisticated, savvy people around the tabletop that we will continue to get prepared."

Asked about fears that Trump's immigration crackdown — deploying thousands of federal personnel into American cities — would become a tool for controlling elections, Whitmer said, "I don't think it's paranoia to have that concern."

She said Democratic governors are discussing how to respond and are performing "tabletop" exercises, though she gave few specifics. "There are important reasons that I'm not going to go into a whole lot more detail," Whitmer said.

She says Trump's tariffs have "taken a terrible toll"

Whitmer used that alliterative phrase during a speech at the Detroit Auto Show. She said U.S. auto manufacturing depended on parts and materials sourced from around the world, especially Canada. U.S. automakers have said tariffs cost them billions of dollars in 2025.

The United Auto Workers union has spoken favorably of tariffs, expressing hope that they would return manufacturing jobs to the United States. Whitmer conceded that "some of the leadership says they like tariffs," but "we are seeing a contraction of U.S. manufacturing. That's job losses. And ultimately, their rank-and-file members have got to be able to afford to take care of their families." Asked how she might persuade union leaders, she said, "I'm not working to persuade them to change their mind. I'm doing what I know to be the right thing to do for the Michigan economy, for the United States economy."

She is trying to understand Democrats' loss of support among men in 2024

Her state of the state speech in 2025 warned of "a generation of men falling behind their fathers and their grandfathers."

Asked to explain her thinking, she said, "When we look at the efforts that we undertook to make college or skill sets more affordable, women were signing up 2-to-1," compared with men. She added, "When we announced opportunities that bring down the cost of a first home payment, women were signing up 2-to-1 for men. We were not reaching men."

Asked about analysts who argue that many men are demoralized or disconnected, she said, "I'm listening to all, probably a lot, of the same podcasts that you are to understand what can we do. How do we bridge this gap? It is real. And I think that's the first step."

She says America is ready to elect a woman president

Last year, former first lady Michelle Obama said to voters at a public event, "You are not ready" to elect a woman, judging by the 2024 election results.

"I love Michelle Obama," Whitmer said. "So the last thing I want to do is disagree with her. But, you know, I think America is ready for a woman president." She said Kamala Harris' defeat in 2024 was not "just gender" but a variety of factors. "We have not had a woman president yet. I think we will at some point in the near future," Whitmer said.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Gretchen Whitmer has begun her final year as governor of Michigan. She's not running for anything right now, though she's often mentioned as a presidential contender. And in an NPR interview, she said her swing state is preparing for any efforts to disrupt elections this fall.

GRETCHEN WHITMER: We know that there will be efforts to compromise the election or to dissuade people from showing up, to scare people away, to threaten people. We cannot let that stand. I'm concerned about it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't.

INSKEEP: Some people spin out theories, and they will say, well, homeland security people are everywhere, and they might be used in some way.

WHITMER: I don't think it's paranoia to have that concern.

INSKEEP: Governor Whitmer says sophisticated Democrats are, quote, "around the tabletop" to game out what might happen and how to respond. She said this and more in an NPR video interview on the floor of the Detroit Auto Show.

(SOUNDBITE OF CAR TIRES SCREECHING)

INSKEEP: GM, Ford, Stellantis and other companies showcase their newest models...

(SOUNDBITE OF CAR TIRES SCREECHING)

INSKEEP: ...While letting people test them on indoor tracks. One morning last week, the governor came in out of the snow to test a message.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Please join me in giving a warm welcome to the governor of the state of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer.

INSKEEP: Her speech critiqued President Trump's tariffs on the auto industry.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WHITMER: Which have taken a terrible toll. Manufacturing in America has contracted for nine straight months.

INSKEEP: Afterwards, she sat with us next to a gleaming red Cadillac Escalade. Whitmer has tried with some success to work with President Trump but also finds his actions alarming. Just before our interview, Trump's administration had promised not to prosecute immigration agents while also investigating Democrats, including a Michigan senator.

What does that all add up to?

WHITMER: I think an abuse of power. I think that's pretty clear. That's the through line there, and I think it's a very serious and scary moment in this country.

INSKEEP: Has it gotten to the point where you would have difficulty working with or collaborating with this president, which is something you've tried to do?

WHITMER: Oh, listen, I have worked with people I don't agree with my whole political career. This is not new. I work with people that I disagree with 99% of the things on. My oath is to the people of Michigan, and at the end of the day, that's my north star. But it never means I'm going to not live my values and be the kind of leader that I think we deserve.

INSKEEP: The auto show we can hear in the background is big, though longtime Detroiters say it's less impressive than it once was. Whitmer contends Trump's tariffs on auto parts have hurt the U.S. industry, although she knows the main union supports them.

WHITMER: The United Auto Workers are a big, diverse group of people, and some of the leadership says that they like tariffs, but right now, we are seeing contraction of U.S. manufacturing. That's job losses. And ultimately, their rank-and-file members got to be able to afford to take care of their families and know that they got a job to show up to, and that's very much at risk right now.

INSKEEP: So do you think you're going to persuade them to change their mind?

WHITMER: I'm not working to persuade them to change their mind. I'm doing what I know to be the right thing to do for the Michigan economy, for the United States economy. And that means we can't have a capricious set of rules, depending on one person's mood from day to day. We've got to have a real strategy.

INSKEEP: Mary Barra, the head of General Motors, gave an interview to CBS the other day in which she acknowledged that the tariffs had cost her company billions of dollars. And yet she said the administration had worked with them to minimize the damage and that they had, in fact, been able to bring some production back to the United States. Does that imply that the tariffs are to some extent working as the president wanted them to, bringing jobs back?

WHITMER: I'm not going to put words in Mary's mouth. She does a phenomenal job at General Motors, but she's got a hard job to do, and she's got to figure out how to work with this administration, which we're all trying to do. At the end of the day, though, we know that tariffs have increased costs on the average American consumer, and you can see what the toll is that it's been on manufacturing. Meanwhile, China continues to put their foot on the gas.

INSKEEP: China now makes far more cars than the United States does. Our conversation with Gretchen Whitmer turned to the coming elections. Democrats have the advantage of facing an unpopular president and his party, but Democrats are unpopular themselves.

There are a lot of people who voted for Trump, not because they love him, but because they wanted drastic change. Do Democrats have anything to say to people who want drastic change in the way the country has been run?

WHITMER: I think drastic change might be an oversimplification. I think that people want leaders who understand them and care about them. You know, I've met a lot of Michiganders who voted both for me and Donald Trump twice. I don't understand everything that makes that voter tick. But when I talk to them, they tell me, I think you're the one that understands what I'm going through. You're the one that's talking about the issues that matter to me.

INSKEEP: Democrats did really badly with men in 2024. And then, in your State of the State speech in early 2025, about a year ago, you warned about a generation of men falling behind their fathers and their grandfathers. What were you saying, and is anything better now?

WHITMER: Well, you know, I was addressing a need, right? When I said that, some people kind of pushed back and said, oh, are you abandoning your, you know, plans to help women get ahead? I said, no, of course not. I'm recognizing that there's a unique vulnerability here, though. When we look at the efforts that we undertook to make college or skill sets more affordable, women were signing up two to one to men. When we announced opportunities that bring down the cost of a first-home payment, women were signing up 2-to-1 for men. We were not reaching men. So did we design a bunch of programs for men alone? No. But we do more outreach to make sure that we are meeting men where they are so they understand what's available to them, too.

INSKEEP: There's a whole conversation about the demoralization of men, about men feeling left out, not seeing a way forward. Is society doing something to men?

WHITMER: You know, I don't know all of the different pressures. I've been studying it. I'm listening to probably a lot of the same podcasts that you are to understand...

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

WHITMER: ...What can we do? How do we bridge this gap? It is real, and I think that's the first step. And the second is really reaching out and listening and making sure that every part of our society can take advantage of opportunities that are available, and we create ones where maybe we need to.

INSKEEP: One of your fellow Democrats was on a stage not too long ago - Michelle Obama - and was asked about a woman as president. And she said, we're not ready. And then speaking to the audience, effectively to the American electorate, said, you are not ready. You are lying if you say that you are ready. Do you think she was right about that?

WHITMER: Well, first, I love Michelle Obama, so the last thing I want to do is disagree with her. But, you know, I think America is ready for a woman president. The question comes down to a choice between two people, and what we saw in this last election, while Kamala Harris didn't beat President Trump, we saw women get elected across the country. We saw just recently Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill got elected. We saw Elissa Slotkin get elected - the U.S. Senate here in Michigan. We saw women win up and down the ballot in hard, important states to win. So I do think that there's an appetite. I just, for whatever reason, we have not had a woman president yet. I think we will at some point in the near future.

INSKEEP: Governor, thanks so much. I enjoyed talking with you.

WHITMER: Thanks, Steve. You too.

INSKEEP: Gretchen Whitmer is the Democratic governor of Michigan, and she met us at the Detroit Auto Show. You can see our full video interview on the NPR app or on YouTube.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5675187

Health

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HEALTH | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 7:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

How North Carolina erased medical debt for 2.5 million people

By Alex Olgin

After a routine trip to her mailbox, Dawn Daly-Mack almost threw away an important letter that she thought was junk mail.

"I opened it up and it said, 'Your medical bill has been paid,'" says Daly-Mack, 60, who lives in Gaston, in northeastern North Carolina. "I didn't believe it."

The letter turned out to be legitimate. Daly-Mack is one of about 2.5 million North Carolinians whose medical debt was erased under a new statewide agreement with hospitals. The hospital wiped away her $459 debt, dating back to a 2014 emergency room visit for a sinus infection.

"I was the only breadwinner in the family," says Daly-Mack, who was caring for her disabled husband and two teenagers at the time. "I was not able to pay the bill."

She was also working then as a nurse at the very same hospital trying to collect from her.

Erasing and preventing medical debt

All of the state's 99 hospitals agreed to stop collecting certain debts dating back to 2014. They also pledged going forward to automatically discount care for patients who qualify for financial assistance — without requiring them to apply. For a family of four, that means an annual income of less than $96,000 qualifies.

"I'm excited for the people of North Carolina," says Allison Sesso, CEO of Undue Medical Debt, a charity that uses donor money to buy and erase medical debt. "It pairs not just medical debt relief going backwards, but it fixes the upstream problems."

Hospitals worked with Sesso's team to identify who qualified for the relief and sent them letters.

For Kody Kinsley, the former secretary of health in North Carolina, the issue was personal.

"My second year of college, my father had a massive stroke," says Kinsley. He says that his mom was very anxious about how to pay for his care: "A key thought in her mind was, 'We don't have health insurance. Oh my God. We're gonna end up in debt.'"

Luckily, Kinsley figured out how to get a discount from the hospital.

Years later as health secretary, Kinsley heard similar stories from all over the state. Even after 675,000 people gained Medicaid coverage through the new expansion in 2023, people would tell him about the old medical debt they still carried.

"They had a forward path, but they were still wrestling with that backward," he says.

Kinsley crafted a plan to address that and prevent some patients from accumulating new debt. The state tied additional Medicaid dollars for hospitals to debt relief dating back to 2014 — the earliest date the state could have expanded the health insurance program. Hospitals also agreed to shift the burden of applying for financial assistance away from patients and automatically apply discounts.

"People can walk in the front door of a hospital in an [emergency] situation and not feel like they're taking both their health and their financial well-being at risk in that moment," Kinsley says.

A patchwork of state approaches to medical debt

Other states are taking action to tackle this $220 billion problem estimated to impact 1 in 12 Americans.

Arizona and New Jersey used state dollars to buy and forgive medical debt. Oregon and Illinois screen patients for financial assistance. Colorado and New York ban medical debt from credit reports. The federal government recently rolled back that same protection.

Heather Howard, director of Princeton University's State Health and Value Strategies program, is encouraged to see the flurry of actions but worries about how uneven the help is across the country.

"Your ZIP code is going to determine the protections you have," Howard says.

She thinks to make a dent in this problem, federal rules are necessary. Especially as President Trump's health care policies are expected to lead to 14 million more people without insurance.

"We shouldn't be talking about a static problem," Howard says. "This problem is going to grow."

The looming Medicaid cuts and more people without health insurance mean hospitals are bracing for more unpaid care. The North Carolina Healthcare Association, which represents hospitals, says those cuts could make "sustaining these efforts more challenging."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5678541

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GLOBAL HEALTH | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 7:38 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

The divorce between the U.S. and WHO is final this week. Or is it?

By Gabrielle Emanuel, Jonathan Lambert

A year ago this week, President Trump initiated a divorce — of sorts. As night fell on his inauguration day activities, he signed an executive order saying: He wants out of the World Health Organization, or WHO.

His executive order laid out his displeasures, including "the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states."

It was Trump's second time heading for the exit. He started the process of withdrawing the U.S. from WHO in 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic. President Biden reversed that decision on his first day.

Now — on Trump's second go-around — the divorce seems about to be finalized. He gave one year's notice, which is a condition of the U.S. agreement with WHO.

But as with many divorces, it's complicated.

WHO officials note that there are two requirements to leaving. The first is that one-year notice. That would set the date for U.S. withdrawal as Jan. 22, a year after WHO officials were notified.

The other criteria is the potential problem. In order to leave, the U.S. has to pay all the dues it owes. And that's a lot of money: $278 million for the 2024-2025 period.

The U.S. has not paid up and doesn't plan to. "The United States will not be making any payments to the WHO before our withdrawal," the State Department told NPR in a statement. "The cost born by the U.S. taxpayer and U.S. economy after the WHO's failure during the Covid pandemic — and since — has been too high as it is."

"This is a very, very public and messy divorce," says Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University and the director of WHO's Center on National and Global Health Law. "The man says, 'No, I'm not going to pay you any money, and we're no longer married.' And the woman says, 'No, you can't not be married unless you pay me.'"

The stakes of this high-profile breakup are huge. They could shape the health of both Americans and those around the world for years to come. Here's how it could play out.

Promise ring or not, the U.S. is out

The World Health Organization has 194 member nations. Officially, none of them can pull out of WHO. That's according to its constitution, which has no clause that allows for withdrawal.

"This was not an oversight. It was very deliberate," says Steven Solomon, WHO's principal legal officer. "The drafters understood the historic struggles against the international spread of disease, and they saw how a truly universal organization would make the world safer. So they did not include a withdrawal clause."

But there is one exception to this "no quitting" rule.

In 1948, as the U.S. joined through a joint resolution of Congress, it made an arrangement "reserving for itself, alone among countries, the right to withdraw," explains Solomon.

Even with that exception, there is the matter of dues. Gostin says leaving without paying up is "unlawful."

But he adds: "I don't think there's anything stopping the president, because there's no pending litigation and there's no movement in Congress to stop him."

Indeed, Trump seems set on leaving.

In a statement to NPR, the State Department wrote: "The opinions out of the WHO do not constrain or have an impact on U.S. actions. Those meaningless opinions only serve to generate similarly meaningless headlines for news clicks."

Brett Schaefer — senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute — says it is entirely within the U.S.'s right, as a sovereign country, to leave. "[WHO] comes across, in my mind, as somewhat juvenile, like a boyfriend saying to his girlfriend: 'You can't break up with me because you still have my promise ring. I'm sorry, that's not quite the way these things work," he says.

And what does WHO say about this messy matter? WHO's Solomon says it's up to WHO member states — the other 193 countries — to determine if and when the U.S. withdrawal becomes effective, with or without dues payment. This issue is expected to be discussed late in February at the WHO Executive Board meeting and again at the World Health Assembly in May.

Meanwhile, WHO is hoping the U.S. and WHO can get back together.

"I hope the U.S. will reconsider its decision and rejoin," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, at a press conference last week. "It's not about money. Money can be adjusted. It's about cooperation."

He explained that both the U.S. and the rest of the world are less safe if they are not teaming up to address diseases that easily cross national borders. He called it a "lose-lose" situation, adding: "It's not really the right decision. I want to say it bluntly."

And if the U.S. does leave … then what?

For the past year, Gostin says WHO has been "very upset with the United States leaving but has nonetheless been magnanimous." He notes that WHO has permitted the U.S. to participate in events — like the meeting in February where countries share data about current strains of the flu to figure out the best formula for the next season's flu shot. Traditionally, U.S. scientists and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have played a major role in those meetings. And WHO benefits from their expertise.

That spirit of generosity could end now that the one-year marker has been hit, says Gostin: "In this divorce analogy, it would be like: She locks her door and [says], 'You can't come and get your clothes.' " Except in this case it'd be viral specimens and disease outbreak data.

Gostin says it's up to WHO to decide whether it wants to say: "[We] shut the door — leaving the U.S. on the outside looking in."

He worries that a lockout would put the U.S. — and the rest of the world — in a vulnerable position.

"We will not have access to the WHO Influenza Surveillance Network, which is crucial for the development of vaccines — routine seasonal vaccines but also future pandemic strains of influenza," he says. "Same thing with measles surveillance. We're not going to be able to stop infectious diseases from spreading before they come to our border. We might not be notified of outbreaks as quickly as we should."

Others are grieving this break-up. "It's genuinely a tragedy," says Dr. Gavin Yamey, a professor of global health and public policy at Duke University. "I think it's important for the public to realize how extraordinarily extreme and unusual and unprecedented this is."

Schaefer, of the American Enterprise Institute, is not as concerned. He stresses that the U.S. is still engaged in global health through other arms of the United Nations, such as UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, and UNAIDS, which focuses on HIV/AIDS.

And just as there can be amicable divorces, he thinks the U.S. and WHO should still keep in contact even if the U.S. is not a member state.

"For instance, the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources platform, which takes a look and tries to identify instances of potential pandemics — the U.S. has an interest in trying to participate in that," Schaefer says, explaining that building such a global surveillance system outside of WHO would be very difficult.

So he hopes WHO doesn't block the U.S. from participation. "It's possible, but it would be very petty," Schaefer says. "You wouldn't want to ignore each other in the hallways or something like that, right? So you should be willing to say hello and to engage each other cordially, at least."

However, the State Department says that the breakup will not be followed by any overtures. In its statement, it said: "The United States will not be participating in regular WHO-led or managed events beyond functions related to the withdrawal effort."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/g-s1-106126

HEALTH | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Medicaid has a new way to pay for costly sickle cell treatment: Only if it works

By Phil Galewitz

Serenity Cole enjoyed Christmas last month relaxing with her family near her St. Louis home, making crafts and visiting friends.

It was a contrast to how Cole, 18, spent part of the 2024 holiday season. She was in the hospital — a frequent occurrence with sickle cell disease, a genetic condition that damages oxygen-carrying red blood cells and for years caused debilitating pain in her arms and legs. Flare-ups often would force her to cancel plans or miss school.

"With sickle cell it hurts every day," she said. "It might be more tolerable some days, but it's a constant thing."

In May, Cole completed a several-months-long gene therapy treatment that helps reprogram the body's stem cells to produce healthy red blood cells.

She was one of the first Medicaid enrollees nationally to benefit from a new payment model in which the federal government negotiates the cost of a cell or gene therapy with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of state Medicaid programs — and then holds them accountable for the treatment's success.

Under the agreement, participating states will receive "discounts and rebates" from the drugmakers if the treatments don't work as promised, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS.

That's a stark difference from how Medicaid and other health plans typically pay for drugs and therapies — the bill usually gets paid regardless of the treatments' benefits for patients. But CMS has not disclosed the full terms of the contract, including how much the drug companies will repay if the therapy doesn't work.

A potential cure

The treatment Cole received offers a potential cure for many of the 100,000 primarily Black Americans with sickle cell disease, which is estimated to shorten lifespans by more than two decades. But the treatment's cost presents a steep financial challenge for Medicaid, the joint state-federal government insurer for people with low incomes or disabilities. Medicaid covers roughly half of Americans with the condition.

There are two gene therapies approved by the Food and Drug Administration on the market, one costing $2.2 million per patient and the other $3.1 million, with neither cost including the expense of the required long hospital stay.

The CMS program is one of the rare health initiatives started under former President Joe Biden and continued during the Trump administration. The Biden administration signed the deal with the two manufacturers, Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Bluebird Bio, in December 2024, opening the door for states to join voluntarily.

"This model is a game changer," Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS administrator, said in a July statement announcing that 33 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico had signed onto the initiative.

Asked for further details on the contracts, Catherine Howden, a CMS spokesperson, said in a statement that the terms of the agreements are "confidential and have only been disclosed to state Medicaid agencies."

"Tackling the high cost of drugs in the United States is a priority of the current administration," the statement said.

Citing confidentiality, the two state Medicaid directors and the two manufacturers interviewed for this story also declined to reveal the financial terms of agreements.

New therapies

The gene therapies, approved in December 2023 for people 12 or older with sickle cell disease, offer a chance to live without pain and complications, which can include strokes and organ damage, and avoid hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and other costly care. The Biden administration estimated that sickle cell care already costs the health system almost $3 billion a year.

With many more expensive gene therapies on the horizon, the cost of the sickle cell therapies presages financial challenges for Medicaid. Hundreds of cell and gene therapies are in clinical trials, and dozens could get federal approval in next few years.

If the sickle cell payment model works, it will probably lead to similar arrangements for other pricey therapies, particularly for those that treat rare diseases, said Sarah Emond, president and CEO of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent research institute that evaluates new medical treatments.

"This is a worthy experiment," she said.

Setting up payment for drugs based on outcomes makes sense when dealing with high treatment costs and uncertainty about their long-term benefits, Emond said.

"The juice has to be worth the squeeze," she said.

Clinical trials for the gene therapies included fewer than 100 patients and followed them for only two years, leaving some state Medicaid officials eager for reassurance they were getting a good deal.

"What we care about is whether services actually improve health," said Djinge Lindsay, chief medical officer for the Maryland Department of Health, which runs the state's Medicaid program. Maryland is expected to begin accepting patients for the new sickle cell program this month.

Medicaid is already required to cover almost all FDA-approved drugs and therapies, but states have leeway to limit access by restricting which patients are eligible, setting up a lengthy prior authorization process, or requiring enrollees to first undergo other treatments.

While the gene therapy treatments are limited to certain hospitals around the country, state Medicaid officials say the federal model means more enrollees will have access to the therapies without other restrictions.

The manufacturers also pay for fertility preservation such as freezing reproductive cells, which could be damaged by chemotherapy during the treatment. Typically, Medicaid doesn't cover that cost, said Margaret Scott, a principal with the consulting firm Avalere Health.

Emond said pharmaceutical companies were interested in the federal deal because it could lead to quicker acceptance of the therapy by Medicaid, compared with signing individual contracts with each state.

States are attracted to the federal program because it offers help monitoring patients in addition to negotiating the cost, she said. Despite some secrecy around the new model, Emond said she expects a federally funded evaluation will track the number of patients in the program and their results, allowing states to seek rebates if the treatment is not working.

The program could run for as long as 11 years, according to CMS.

"This therapy can benefit many sickle cell patients," said Edward Donnell Ivy, chief medical officer for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America.

He said the federal model will help more patients access the treatment, though he noted utilization will depend in part on the limited number of hospitals that offer the multi-month therapy.

Hope for sickle cell patients

Before gene therapy, the only potential cure for sickle cell patients was a bone marrow transplant — an option available only to those who could find a suitable donor, about 25% of patients, Ivy said. For others, lifelong management includes medications to reduce the disease's effects and manage pain, as well as blood transfusions.

About 30 of Missouri's 1,000 Medicaid enrollees with sickle cell disease will get the therapy in the first three years, said Josh Moore, director of the state's Medicaid program. So far, fewer than 10 enrollees have received it since the state began offering it in 2025, he said.

Less than a year into the federal program, Moore said it's too early to tell its rate of success — defined as an absence of painful episodes that lead to a hospital visit. But he hopes it will be close to the 90% rate seen over the course of a couple of years in clinical trials.

"Grateful"

Lately Serenity Cole, who underwent gene therapy at St. Louis Children's Hospital, has been able to focus on her hobbies — playing video games, drawing, and painting — and earning her high school diploma.

She said she was glad to get the treatment. The worst part was the chemotherapy, she said, which left her unable to talk or eat — and entailed getting stuck with needles.

Cole said that her condition is "way better" and that she has had no pain episodes leading to a hospital stay since completing the therapy back in the spring. "I'm just grateful I was able to get it."

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682055

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HEALTH REPORTING IN THE STATES | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

New Orleans brings back the house call, sending nurses to visit newborns and moms

By Rosemary Westwood

When Lisa Bonfield gave birth to her daughter Adele in late November, she was thrust into the new world of parenting, and faced an onslaught of challenges and skills she had to learn: breastfeeding, diapering, sleep routines, colic and crying and all the little warning signs that something could be wrong with the baby.

But unlike parents in most of the U.S., she had a kind of extra help that used to be much more common: house calls.

Bonfield's daughter Adele was only a few weeks old when a registered nurse showed up at her door on Dec. 10 to check on them and offer hands-on help and advice.

As a city resident who had just given birth, she was eligible for up to three of these home visits from Family Connects New Orleans, a program of the city health department.

She didn't need to feed and change the baby, and pack everything up for a car trip to the pediatrician or a clinic.

It was a relief; Bonfield was exhausted, and was still trying to figure out how to use the infant car seat.

"Everything is so abstract before you have a baby," said Bonfield. "You are going to have questions you never even thought about."

Bonfield lives in Louisiana, one of the worst-performing states when it comes to health outcomes of mothers and new babies. Now, New Orleans is trying to catch health issues early — and get families off to an easier start — by adding extra health visits during the crucial first months of life.

The hope is that health outcomes can be improved by returning to the old-fashioned medical practice of bringing the nurse to the family.

The Family Connects model has been tried in communities across 20 states. It began in Durham, North Carolina in 2008, as a partnership with Duke University. In 2023, New Orleans' health director, Dr. Jennifer Avegno, helped launch a version of the program locally.

Avegno was concerned by Louisiana's particularly grim statistics for maternal and infant health.

The state has some of the highest rates of pre-term births, unnecessary C-sections, and maternal and infant deaths, according to the March of Dimes. A recent analysis from the United Health Foundation found Louisiana was the "least healthy" state for women and children.

"We got to do some real things, real differently, unless you like being number 50 all the time," Avegno said.

Bringing back the home visits of the past

The home visits are free, available to any person who has just given birth in a New Orleans hospital, no matter their insurance status or income level.

Avegno describes the home visits as going "back to the future," replicating a practice that was far more common a hundred years ago.

"There is no more critical time and vulnerable time than right at birth and in the few weeks to months following birth," Avegno said.

The nurses arrive with diaper bags filled with newborn essentials, from diapers to nipple cream.

They weigh and measure and examine the babies, and check in with the mothers about their health and well-being. They offer referrals to other programs across the city.

They ask if the family has enough food, and whether there are guns in the house and how they're stored, said Avegno.

In Bonfield's case, the nurse stayed for over two hours. Bonfield especially liked their conversation about how to store breastmilk safely.

"I've never felt so well taken care of and listened to," she said.

A reproductive health care intervention with broad support

Louisiana has struggled for a long time with poor maternal and infant health outcomes, but the problem has been complicated by the state's strict abortion ban.

The 2022 law led to risky medical delays and unnecessary surgeries in obstetrical care, and confusion among doctors about what's allowed in ending dangerous pregnancies or treating miscarriages.

Avegno opposes the state's abortion policies, believing they are harmful for women's health. But she says that Family Connects offers other ways to preserve and expand care for women's health. For example, the visiting nurse can check in with the mother about if she needs help with birth control.

"We can't give them abortion access," she said. "That's not the goal of this program, and that wouldn't be possible anyway, but we can make sure they're healthy and understand what their options are for reproductive health care."

Abortion politics aside, the postpartum home visits seem to have bipartisan support in Louisiana, and state lawmakers want to expand access.

In 2025, the Republican-dominated legislature passed a law requiring private insurance plans to cover the visits.

The new law is another way that Louisiana officials can be "pro-life," said state Rep. Mike Bayham (R), an abortion opponent who sponsored the new law.

"One of the slings used against advocates against abortion is that we're pro-birth, and not truly pro-life," Bayham said, "And this bill is proof that we care about the overall well-being of our mothers and our newborns."

Improving health and help for postpartum depression

Two years in, there are already promising signs that the program is improving health.

Early data analyzed by researchers at Tulane University found that families who got the visits were more likely to stick to the recommended schedule of pediatric and postpartum checkups. Moms and babies were also less likely to need hospitalization, and overall healthcare spending was down among families insured by Medicaid.

Research on Family Connects programs elsewhere in the country has found similar results. In North Carolina, one study showed it reduced E-R visits by 50% in the year before a baby turned one.

But the statistic that most excited Avegno related to the program's role in screening mothers for postpartum depression.

The visiting nurses are helping spot more cases of postpartum depression, earlier, so that new moms can get treatment. About 10% of moms participating in the program were eventually diagnosed with postpartum depression, compared to 6% of moms who did not get the visits.

Timely diagnosis is important to prevent depression symptoms from worsening, or leading to more severe outcomes such  suicidal thoughts, thoughts of harming the baby, or problems bonding with their newborn.

Lizzie Frederick was one of the mothers whose postpartum symptoms were caught early by a visiting nurse.

When she was pregnant, she and her husband took all the childbirth and new baby classes they could. They hired a doula to help with the birth. But Frederick still wasn't prepared for the stresses of the postpartum period, she said.

"I don't think there are enough classes out there to prepare you for all the different scenarios," said Frederick.

When her son James was born in May, he had trouble breastfeeding. He was only sleeping for 90-minute stretches at night.

When the nurse arrived for the first visit a few weeks later, Frederick was busy trying to feed James. But the nurse reassured her that there was no rush. She could wait.

"I am here to support you and take care of you," Frederick recalled the nurse saying.

The nurse weighed James, and Frederick was relieved to learn he was gaining weight. But for most of the visit, the nurse focused on Frederick's needs. She was exhausted, anxious, and had started hearing what she called phantom cries.

The nurse walked her through a mental health questionnaire. Then she recommended that Frederick see a counsellor and consider attending group therapy sessions for perinatal women.

Frederick followed up on these suggestions, and was eventually diagnosed with postpartum depression.

"I think that I would have felt a lot more alone if I hadn't had this visit, and struggled in other ways without the resources that the nurse provided," Frederick said.

Home visits save money

Melissa Evans, an assistant professor at Tulane's School of Public Health, helped interview over 90 participating families.

"It was overwhelmingly positive experiences," she said. "This is like a gold standard public health project, in my opinion."

To operate Family Connects costs the city about $1.5 million a year, or $700 per birth, according to Avegno.

But the program also has the potential to save money: Research on North Carolina's program found that every $1 invested in the program saved $3.17 in healthcare billing before the child turned two.

That's another reason to require the visits statewide, according to state Rep. Bayham.

"The nurses and medical practitioners will be able to monitor potential problems on the front end, so that they could be handled without a trip to the emergency room or something even more drastic," he said.

Dr. Avegno is advocating that the program be included in Louisiana's Medicaid program, since more than 60% of births are covered by Medicaid. A recent legislative report made the same recommendation.

This story comes from NPR's health reporting partnership with WWNO and KFF Health News.

Transcript

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

For a long time, Louisiana has struggled with the health of new mothers and babies. Now New Orleans is tackling that problem with a return to an old-fashioned medical practice - the house call. Rosemary Westwood at member station WWNO explains.

ROSEMARY WESTWOOD, BYLINE: Lisa Bonfield is cradling her new baby girl on the couch. She's named Adele (ph), and she has the hiccups.

LISA BONFIELD: I think it's the - she hates the hiccups.

WESTWOOD: Oh, who would like them (laughter)?

BONFIELD: She used to get them all the time in my stomach, and it's just funny that she gets them now. It's just - I know she's mine.

WESTWOOD: Lisa is 43 and a single mom. Adele was born in late November. Soon after, the nurse dropped by. First, they went over Lisa's health.

BONFIELD: Then she did a visit on the baby. She checked her heartbeat, her lungs.

WESTWOOD: Family Connects New Orleans provides up to three home visits for new families in the city, and they're free. No need to feed and change the baby and pack everything up for the bus or the car.

BONFIELD: When you're still learning how the heck a car seat works.

WESTWOOD: Instead, Bonfield could relax in her own living room. When the nurse arrived, she had extra diapers and cream and tips about breastfeeding and what to do when the baby just won't stop crying. Lizzie Frederick also got a home visit, and she was surprised how much she needed it. She had taken all the childbirth classes and even had a doula, but after James (ph) arrived in May...

LIZZIE FREDERICK: I was not prepared for postpartum. I don't think that there are enough classes out there to prepare you for all the different scenarios.

WESTWOOD: Breastfeeding was a struggle, and James wasn't a great sleeper.

FREDERICK: He was sleeping roughly for 90 minutes at a time and then waking up.

WESTWOOD: When the nurse arrived for the home visit, Frederick was busy feeding James. But the nurse said, no problem. She could wait.

FREDERICK: You are a new mom. Like, do what you need to do. I'm here to support you and take care of you.

WESTWOOD: Afterwards, the nurse weighed James. To Frederick's relief, he was gaining weight. Then they talked about her. Frederick was exhausted, anxious and hearing phantom cries. The nurse walked her through a mental health questionnaire. Then she recommended a counselor and group sessions for perinatal women.

FREDERICK: I think that I would have felt a lot more alone if I hadn't had this visit.

WESTWOOD: Frederick was later diagnosed with postpartum depression.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno is the director of the New Orleans Health Department. She launched Family Connects two years ago.

JENNIFER AVEGNO: There is no more critical time and vulnerable time than sort of right at birth and in the few weeks to months following birth.

WESTWOOD: These kinds of postpartum home visits are happening in other places. Research on North Carolina's program showed it cut ER visits for newborns in half. In New Orleans, the nurses are helping spot more cases of postpartum depression earlier so that new moms can get treatment. Frederick says that was crucial.

FREDERICK: The resources that Family Connect provided really allowed me to find a community of people where I could talk about my struggles and hear tips and not feel judged and just come as I am.

WESTWOOD: The nurses are up against some grim statistics. The state has among the highest rates of infant and maternal death. A recent report called Louisiana the least healthy state for women and children. Dr. Avegno says that's unacceptable.

AVEGNO: We got to do some real things real differently unless you like being No. 50 all the time.

WESTWOOD: This year, state legislators passed a new law that will require private insurance to cover these home visits throughout Louisiana. Republican Representative Mike Bayham authored the new law. Given that Louisiana now has one of the country's strictest abortion bans, Bayham says these efforts are another way Louisiana can protect life.

MIKE BAYHAM: One of the slings used against advocates against abortion is that we're pro-birth and not truly pro-life. And this bill is proof that we are - we care about the overall well-being of our mothers and our newborns.

WESTWOOD: Bayham says the home visits will reduce trips to the hospital, and that will bring down health care costs. But Dr. Avegno wants more. Since 60% of births here are covered by Medicaid, she's pushing state officials to add the home visits to Medicaid, too.

For NPR News, I'm Rosemary Westwood in New Orleans.

PFEIFFER: This story comes from NPR's partnership with WWNO and KFF Health News.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5662752

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HEALTH | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:49 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Busting common misconceptions about ways to prevent the flu

By Hosts

Heard on Morning Edition

Transcript

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

OK, Steve. Not trying to get in your biz, but has anybody in your house gotten this awful flu that's going around?

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Oh, yeah. There've been a couple of people. Not me yet.

MARTIN: Oh, my goodness. Well, you're lucky, and you're not alone. The CDC has recorded at least 18 million flu cases and hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations.

INSKEEP: Wow.

MARTIN: And even though reported cases have started dropping, flu season is not over.

INSKEEP: So we asked a professor of infectious disease what works and what does not work when trying to avoid the flu. Dr. William Schaffner teaches at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and he says one common myth leaves him cold.

WILLIAM SCHAFFNER: It's uncomfortable to go outside in the cold with your wet hair, but that really won't predispose you to getting the flu. These flu viruses and common cold viruses are indeed viruses. You have to catch them from someone else.

MARTIN: And that old saw, feed a cold, starve a fever? Nope.

SCHAFFNER: That's an old saying, but the body needs both hydration and energy to fight off an infection. And I put the special emphasis on hydration. Keep your fluids up regardless of the kind of infection you have because if you tend to get dehydrated, you're more likely to get the complication of pneumonia.

INSKEEP: Hydration is everything. But the professor says the No. 1 way to prevent a bad flu is? Go ahead, Michel.

MARTIN: Well, get your flu shot.

INSKEEP: OK.

MARTIN: And contrary to another common myth, getting vaccinated will not make you sick.

SCHAFFNER: You may get a bit of a sore arm, and some people do get a degree of fever. But that is just an example of your immune system starting to develop the protection to fight off the virus.

INSKEEP: Now, the flu strain and heavy circulation this season emerged after the most recent flu shot was developed. But early research from the University of Pennsylvania finds the vaccine still helps.

SCHAFFNER: Getting vaccinated is the single most important thing you can do to prevent influenza. And COVID, for that matter.

MARTIN: Schaffner says that's especially important for people who are older or pregnant or those at high risk because of chronic conditions like diabetes.

SCHAFFNER: If those folks are now going out indoors to crowds, put that mask back on. Keep your hand-washing up and try to avoid people who are coughing and sneezing.

MARTIN: And if you do get sick, Schaffner has one request.

SCHAFFNER: Please stay home. Don't go to work or school and be a dreaded spreader.

MARTIN: Dreaded spreader. He says the flu usually peaks in the U.S. in February, but the flu season can stick around as late as April. Time to get that shot.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5667069

Space

- The aurora borealis was visible in much of the U.S. last night due to a solar storm: 2026 Jan 20

SPACE | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:51 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

The aurora borealis was visible in much of the U.S. last night due to a solar storm

By Henry Larson, Scott Detrow, Justine Kenin

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

If you spent some time outside last night, maybe away from any big city lights, you might have been treated to the pinks and oranges of the aurora borealis. It is caused by charged particles shot out from the sun that hit the Earth's magnetic field and crash against the upper atmosphere. That's what makes all the shimmering colors. The last few years have seen a large number of these kind of storms. Shawn Dahl, a forecaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center, had a busy night tracking all of this. Welcome to the show.

SHAWN DAHL: Yeah, thank you for having us. Happy to be here.

DETROW: Let me just start with this. I feel like this is, like, the third conversation we've had on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED about these big geomagnetic storms in the last year or so. Is this happening more frequently or are we just paying more attention?

DAHL: Both, actually - we are in solar maximum right now. That is when we see more of this type of stronger activity. And it's also that people are aware of it more now because of the activity. People have been looking up, and it's not just from the aurora. It's been total solar eclipses and comets. And there's both factors playing in here.

DETROW: I like that phrase solar maximum. How much longer will it last?

DAHL: Typically, the solar cycle, which is part of solar maximum, you go from minimum to maximum and back down to minimum. Now solar maximums generally last several years, and then you start to slowly trail down. So even though we're starting to see signs of maybe coming out of solar maximum, we can still see activity like this from time to time throughout this year and probably even in 2027.

DETROW: Oh, OK. That's good to know. How big was this one compared to the other recent ones we've been talking about and hearing about?

DAHL: Well, there's two parts to that one. As far as how big the geomagnetic storm was, we did reach G4 severe levels. That's near the top end of our scale. We came close to hitting the top end of our scale, a G5 extreme level, but we didn't quite get there. But the interesting thing about this storm is even though it wasn't a prolific aurora producer across North America - 'cause things weren't favorable most of the overnight hours; it changed later on, so the western part of the U.S. really did get to see something more - it was a very strong magnetic event that passed over Earth, the strongest many of us have seen here in 20 to 30 years.

DETROW: And especially in this world where we all live off of satellite-based technology, that can cause big problems, right? Were there any effects last night?

DAHL: We are starting to try to begin to dig into that. It'll take some time to get anybody who's willing to report impacts from the industries and sectors that could be impacted by these satellite operators during the geomagnetic storm, the intensification periods of that. We do know there were GPS issues for aviation. We've seen some reports, which makes sense. GPS can become less accurate during these storms, especially precision systems that drive them. And as far as the electric power grid goes, we are unaware of any impacts at this time, but that will take some time before they're able to tell us anything that might have unfolded there. But we did give them a very advanced notice. We talked to them early yesterday morning, a number of hours before that CME ever even arrived here at Earth.

DETROW: How easy is it to do your job? I mean, how easy or difficult is it to accurately predict these storms, when they're flaring up, when there might be issues like that?

DAHL: Yeah, it's very hard. Space weather forecasting is a tough business. You have to be willing to take the bumps and the bruises that go along with it. You know, most of us in this profession have been meteorology side of the business for a long time, and we're well aware of how good that's become - forecasting, you know, winter storm, seven days out. Man, when it comes to space weather, we're nowhere close to that. You know, we could have a quiet forecast or a low-level event forecast going on, and then suddenly it changes in one to two days out because of something like that CME that blasted from the sun back on Sunday.

DETROW: We're talking about where things are right now, or we're talking about these 11-year cycles. I'm curious what your hopes are for the next time we're in solar maximum in terms of where your industry is and what sort of resources and technology are around to better predict all of this.

DAHL: Yeah, for the next solar maximum, you know, 11 or so years from now, we hope that there'll be another spacecraft available. We know one is in the plans. And that spacecraft could potentially be at a very critical location for us, and that would be almost a side view of the sun of what's rotating into Earth view. There's been a lot of exploratory science missions that are going to derive a lot more science. It's going to increase our understanding of how these things work, so we can do even a better job of predicting them and have more tools at our disposal for the next solar maximum.

DETROW: That's Shawn Dahl, a space weather forecaster with NOAA. Thank you so much.

DAHL: You're very welcome. Thanks for having us.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683125

Climate

- Trump promised to cut energy bills in half. One year later, has he delivered?: 2026 Jan 20

BUSINESS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Trump promised to cut energy bills in half. One year later, has he delivered?

By Camila Domonoske

Heard on All Things Considered

On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to cut Americans' energy bills in half — cheaper gasoline, cheaper electricity. He also said he'd "unleash" American energy production, often repeating the catchphrase "Drill, baby, drill."

One year in, the price of gasoline is down about 10%. But the U.S. oil industry is definitely not drilling, baby, drilling. The price of oil is just too low to justify more of it — although within the last year, companies have won major lobbying victories that soothe that sting. Meanwhile, electricity costs are rising and expected to rise more.

Cheap gasoline: check

The U.S. benchmark price for oil is down about 20% from where it was a year ago, and the average retail gasoline price — the price drivers pay at the pump — is down nearly 10%.

Now, presidents — whoever they are — do not get to decide the price of gasoline. The price of crude oil is the biggest factor, and crude prices are set in a complex global marketplace that responds to a number of factors.

In the past year, cheaper crude has been largely driven by a global oversupply of oil, which in turn was largely driven by a series of decisions by the oil cartel OPEC+. The cartel repeatedly put more barrels on the market, depressing global prices but seizing more market share for its members.

However, Dan Pickering, the chief investment officer at Pickering Energy Partners, says the president also put significant pressure on OPEC to bring down global crude prices. As a result, he gives Trump partial credit for today's low prices.

"I think if we look at oil down 20% in 2025, that you have to say that political dynamics drove at least half of that," he says. "And as we go into 2026, I think those dynamics will still be at play."

Moving forward, the president's push to produce more oil from Venezuela could also help keep global crude prices lower for longer — if he persuades companies to invest.

Analysts with the gas prices app GasBuddy found that U.S. households spent, on average, $177 less on gasoline in 2025 than 2024, thanks to lower prices, and they predict that expenditures will continue to fall in 2026, saving Americans a collective $11 billion next year.

Drill, baby, drill? Not so much.

Those lower oil prices are exactly why "Drill, baby, drill" didn't happen.

The number of active drilling rigs in the U.S., the largest oil producer in the world, has dropped by more than 6% year-over-year, at last count. That means fewer new wells are being drilled. And that's true even as the Trump administration has made it easier for companies to start new projects, including by making more federal lands and waters available for leases.

With U.S. oil prices under $60 a barrel and the global market generally oversupplied with crude, it's just not profitable for companies to drill a bunch of new wells right now.

The Trump administration has many close allies in the U.S. oil industry. But this is a perennial point of disagreement between them: The president loves cheap oil, while companies would prefer prices to be higher than they are today.

This disagreement was actually called out by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright — a former fracking executive. Speaking to CBS News' Face the Nation this month, he called President Trump "no helper to the oil and gas industry" because "he's driven down the price of oil."

It's true that many U.S. oil workers wince every time the president talks about $50 crude or pushes for more production from OPEC. But it's not quite fair to call the administration "no helper."

The American Petroleum Institute, or API, is the most powerful lobbying arm of the U.S. oil and gas industry. Before Trump was reelected, the group laid out a dozen different policy priorities — a wish list. Tax policy changes that would help oil companies; more access to drilling in the Gulf; a boost in exports of liquefied natural gas; the repeal of requirements for cleaner and more efficient cars, which would have pushed down oil demand over time; the elimination of a fee for releasing planet-warming methane.

"By our count, every single one of them was completed in 2025, with the exception of legislative permitting reform," Mike Sommers, the president and CEO of API, said on a recent call with reporters. ("Permitting reform" refers to a series of changes to federal laws that would make it easier for companies to build things like pipelines and other large projects that often face local opposition. It's been a hot topic in Congress for years.)

Sommers says U.S. companies can weather low oil prices in the short term and make business decisions with an eye toward the future.

And in the long term, the administration's policy changes support higher oil demand for years to come by doing things like slowing down the shift toward electric vehicles, while also cutting the costs of oil production, including by easing environmental rules.

Electricity costs are rising

Electricity prices have been increasing for years now, and 2025 was more of the same.

"Across most states and in most markets, what we see is that prices have gone up," says Helen Kou, an analyst with BloombergNEF.

Based on trends in wholesale power markets — where your local electric company buys its power, an expense they pass on to you — that's likely to continue. Kou said that in New York and New England, wholesale prices are up more than 60%, and in the mid-Atlantic they're up 45%.

"Almost 1 in 3 households, or over 80 million Americans, are struggling to pay their utility bills," says Charles Hua, who runs Powerlines, a national energy consumer education nonprofit that encourages people to get more involved in their public utility commissions.

Why are costs going up? Hua points to three primary reasons: an aging power grid, the cost of natural disasters, and higher fuel costs, especially natural gas.

Kou says that for 2025, natural gas prices were the clear driver of increases. While oil and gasoline are cheap, natural gas — which is used for home heating and power plants — has gone up more than 50% from last year's annual average. U.S. exports of natural gas have increased (one of API's requests), and sending more natural gas overseas means less is available domestically.

Natural gas prices have been up and down over the past few years. They spiked in 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine. And they were unusually cheap in 2024 before rising again in 2025. While they're far from record highs, the increase has been enough to significantly shift electricity markets.

These causes are complex and date back years before Trump's return to office. But experts say the Trump administration's electricity policy has not focused on lowering natural gas costs, improving the grid or mitigating the effects of natural disasters. Instead, it has aligned with his goal of reversing Biden-era climate policies. The White House has ordered coal-powered power plants to stay open for longer. Those power plants are typically expensive to operate, raising concerns about prices. Kou says keeping them online could hypothetically help meet rising demand, but only if those plants are located where demand is growing.

The administration is also investing in nuclear power — that, too, could potentially help with costs, but only in the long term, Kou says, because nuclear plants take so long to approve and build.

Some of the administration's moves could actually increase electricity bills in the future.

Large solar and wind projects provide more cost-competitive energy than natural gas, nuclear and coal projects, according to financial services firm Lazard. But the Trump administration has ended federal tax credits for solar and wind projects early, and canceled more than $13 billion in funds for green energy projects

Trump has also said he won't permit any new wind projects, and the administration has attempted to stop offshore wind projects that are already under construction, leading to court battles. That's been criticized not just by renewable energy advocates, but by many business groups, because it creates uncertainty and discourages investments in projects that could be supplying more energy into the grid.

"As a general matter, the thing that you can do that most clearly helps reduce prices is to remove barriers to new energy investment," says James Coleman, a nonresident senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "And the thing that basically just increases prices is increasing uncertainty or barriers to energy."

The administration is also rolling back efficiency standards for appliances. Those standards actually cut consumer bills by reducing energy use, Hua notes.

Meanwhile, some things that could meaningfully cut costs have simply not been prioritized by this administration. "There are solutions that are available today that can be put on the grid that would meaningfully resolve a lot of these solutions," Hua says, pointing to technologies that allow more power to be moved on the existing grid, or better match supply and demand. "It doesn't solve everything, but it provides some immediate relief … and that just has not been as much of a focus" for the Trump administration, he says.

Lately, President Trump has been talking about making sure that AI data centers pay their fair share for electricity costs. Hua says there is a genuine opportunity to cut energy bills for ordinary Americans as data center demand for electricity goes up, depending on how costs are spread out.

But for now, the Trump administration's pledge to cut utility bills remains an unmet promise.

NPR's Michael Copley and Julia Simon contributed to this report.

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to cut Americans' energy bills in half - cheaper gasoline, lower power bills. He also said he would unleash American energy production with the catchphrase, drill, baby, drill. One year into his second term, how have those promises stacked up? NPR's Camila Domonoske takes a look.

CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: You've probably noticed at your local gas stations...

DAN PICKERING: Oil prices are down. Gasoline prices are down.

DOMONOSKE: Dan Pickering runs Pickering Energy Partners. Crude oil is down about 20% from a year ago, and gasoline prices down about 10%. That's not the promised 50% drop, but it's pretty big. Now, the president doesn't decide these prices. They're set in a global market based on lots of factors. And Pickering says supply and demand were pushing crude prices down even before Trump was reelected. But Trump did ask the oil cartel OPEC to push prices even lower.

PICKERING: I think if we look at oil down 20% in 2025, that you have to say that political dynamics drove at least half of that.

DOMONOSKE: What about the promised boom in oil production? Well, today's low oil prices are the biggest reason why, as Pickering puts it...

PICKERING: Drill, baby, drill didn't happen.

DOMONOSKE: The U.S. still makes huge amounts of oil, but drilling for new wells is actually down. It's just not profitable to send more rigs out. Now, unlike drivers, oil companies would like to see higher oil prices. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who ran a fracking company before he joined the administration, recently said this on CBS's "Face The Nation."

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FACE THE NATION")

CHRIS WRIGHT: President Trump is no helper to the oil and gas industry.

DOMONOSKE: Because Trump likes cheap oil, and companies don't. But, in fact, the president has helped the oil industry in the last year - not on prices but on just about everything else. Before Trump was reelected, the American Petroleum Institute, or API, laid out a dozen policy recommendations, a wish list - changes to taxes to help oil companies, more access to drilling in the Gulf, repealing requirements for cleaner and more efficient cars.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE SOMMERS: By our count, every single one of them was completed in 2025 with the exception of legislative permitting reform.

DOMONOSKE: That's API President and CEO Mike Sommers on a call with reporters last week. Permitting reform, by the way, means changes to make it easier to build things like pipelines. It's a hot topic in Congress. The administration's policy changes have helped slow down a shift toward electric vehicles, which means more people will keep buying gasoline, and they have cut costs for oil companies. So in terms of the president's promises, cheaper gasoline, check. More drilling, no, but the oil industry has plenty to smile about. Now, what about the electric bills the President promised to cut in half?

HELEN KOU: So across most states and in most markets, what we see is that prices have gone up.

DOMONOSKE: Helen Kou is an analyst with a research firm BloombergNEF.

KOU: And a lot of that deals with rising fuel cost so - because of higher natural gas prices in 2025.

DOMONOSKE: That's right. Oil is cheap. Gasoline is cheap. But natural gas, which is used for home heating and a lot of power plants, is getting pricier. The U.S. is exporting more natural gas, which means less for sale here. The annual average is up more than 50% from 2024. Charles Hua runs the nonprofit, PowerLines, which educates consumers about energy. He says there are two other big factors in rising electricity prices.

CHARLES HUA: Our grid is very old. It's aging, and it costs a lot of money to replace and repair that aging grid infrastructure.

DOMONOSKE: And...

HUA: Hurricanes and wildfires that have knocked down and destroyed grid infrastructure.

DOMONOSKE: But in his first year, Trump's electricity policy hasn't focused on any of those things. He's reversing policies designed to fight climate change. He's keeping coal plants open longer, blocking wind projects, rolling back efficiency standards for appliances. But when it comes to things that could actually provide relief on bills, like tweaks to get more out of the grid that we have...

HUA: That just has not been as much of a focus.

DOMONOSKE: Lately, President Trump has been talking about making sure that big AI data centers pay their fair share for electricity. Data centers have not been driving costs up yet, but they could. But for now, cutting electricity bills is a promise that simply hasn't been met. Oil and gasoline have gotten cheaper, but when it comes to power bills, Trump's policies haven't delivered any juice.

Camila Domonoske, NPR News.

CORRECTION

Jan. 20th, 2026

A previous version of this story said that gasoline prices are down about 20% from a year ago. In fact, crude oil prices are down about 20% and gasoline prices are down about 10%.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5670378

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Religion

- Top U.S. archbishops denounce American foreign policy: 2026 Jan 20

RELIGION | MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2026 • 8:27 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Top U.S. archbishops denounce American foreign policy

By Jaclyn Diaz

The three highest-ranking heads of Roman Catholic archdioceses in the United States issued a strongly worded statement on Monday criticizing the Trump administration's foreign policy — without mentioning President Trump by name.

Cardinals Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, Robert McElroy, archbishop of Washington, and Joseph Tobin, archbishop of Newark, say America's actions raise moral questions.

"Our country's moral role in confronting evil around the world, sustaining the right to life and human dignity, and supporting religious liberty are all under examination," the statement reads. "And the building of just and sustainable peace, so crucial to humanity's well-being now and in the future, is being reduced to partisan categories that encourage polarization and destructive policies."

They continued, "We seek a foreign policy that respects and advances the right to human life, religious liberty, and the enhancement of human dignity throughout the world, especially through economic assistance."

The senior leaders cited the recent events in Venezuela, Ukraine and Greenland, which they said "have raised basic questions about the use of military force and the meaning of peace."

The White House did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.

The statement by the American cardinals was inspired by a recent speech Pope Leo XIV gave to ambassadors to the Holy See. In it, he criticized the weakening of multilateralism.

"A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force, by either individuals or groups of allies. War is back in vogue and a zeal for war is spreading," Leo said in his Jan. 9 address. "Peace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one's own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence."

Cupich said in a comment explaining the reasoning behind the archbishops' statement, "As pastors entrusted with the teaching of our people, we cannot stand by while decisions are made that condemn millions to lives trapped permanently at the edge of existence," he said. "Pope Leo has given us clear direction and we must apply his teachings to the conduct of our nation and its leaders."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5682310

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Culture

- Public domain contest challenges filmmakers to remix Betty Boop, Nancy Drew and more: 2026 Jan 21

- Brooklyn Beckham accuses David and Victoria of putting branding before family and sabotaging wedding: 2026 Jan 21

- 'Let them.' The small bit of advice that made a big difference to a grieving widow: 2026 Jan 20

- Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths says she won't let pain be 'the engine that drives the ship': 2026 Jan 20

- Here's who's canceled their Kennedy Center performances since Trump took over: 2026 Jan 20

- Polyester clothing has been causing a stir online. But how valid are the concerns?: 2026 Jan 20

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CULTURE | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 7:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Public domain contest challenges filmmakers to remix Betty Boop, Nancy Drew and more

By Chloe Veltman

One of the most unusual of the creative treasures to enter the public domain this month is King of Jazz. The plotless, experimental 1930 musical film shot in early Technicolor centers on influential bandleader Paul Whiteman, nicknamed "The King of Jazz."

In one memorable scene, the portly, mustachioed Whiteman opens a small bag and winks at the camera as miniature musicians file out one after another like a colony of ants and take their places on an ornate, table-top bandstand.

A new video based on clips from King of Jazz has won this year's Public Domain Film Remix Contest — an annual competition that invites filmmakers from around the world to reimagine often long-forgotten literary classics, films, cartoons, music, and visual art that are now in the public domain. This means creators can use these materials freely, without copyright restrictions. In 2026, works created in 1930 entered the public domain.

Titled Rhapsody, Reimagined, the roughly two-minute video captures the King of Jazz's surreal quality: Cookie-cutter rows of musicians, showgirls, office workers and random furniture cascade across the screen as Whiteman's winking face looks on.

"I wanted to transform the figures and bodies into more dream-like shapes through collage and looping and repetition," said Seattle-based filmmaker Andrea Hale, who created the piece in collaboration with composer Greg Hardgrave. For video artists, Hale said discovering what's new in the public domain each January is a thrill. "We're always looking for things to draw from," Hale said. "Opening that up to a bigger spread of materials is amazing. That's the dream."

A massive repository of content

The Internet Archive, the San Francisco-based nonprofit library behind the contest, digitizes and provides public access to a massive repository of content, including many materials used by contest participants. "These materials have often just been in film canisters for decades," said digital librarian Brewster Kahle, who founded the Internet Archive in 1996.

This year's submissions range from a reworking of the 1930 film The Blue Angel starring Betty Boop — another public domain entrant this year — instead of Marlene Dietrich, to an AI-generated take on the 1930 Nancy Drew book The Mystery at Lilac Inn.

Kahle said the Internet Archive received nearly 280 entries this time around, the highest number since the competition launched six years ago. "Things are not just musty, old archival documentation of the past," Kahle said. "People are bringing them to life in new and different ways, without fear of being sued."

The public domain in the era of AI

Lawsuits have become a growing concern for artists and copyright holders, especially with the rise of generative AI. Recent years have seen a surge in online video takedowns and copyright infringement disputes.

Media companies are trying to address the problem through deals with tech firms, such as Disney and OpenAI's plan, announced late last year, to introduce a service allowing users to create short videos based on copyrighted characters, including Cinderella and Darth Vader.

"On the one hand, these licensing agreements seem quite a clean solution to thorny legal questions," said Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. "But what's exciting about the public domain is that material, after a long, robust 95-year copyright term, is just simply free for anyone — without a team of lawyers, without a licensing agreement, without having to work for Disney or OpenAI — to just put online," Jenkins said.

Jenkins also pointed out an interesting twist for people who create new works using materials from the public domain. "You actually get a copyright in your remix," she said. "Just like Disney has copyrights in all of its remakes of wonderful public domain works like Snow White or Cinderella." (The Brothers Grimm popularized these two characters in their 19th century collection Grimm's Fairy Tales. But their roots are much deeper, going back to European folklore collections of the 1600s and beyond.)

However, this only applies to works created by humans — U.S. copyright law currently doesn't recognize works authored by AI. And Jenkins further cautioned that creators only get a copyright in their new creative contributions to the remix, and not the underlying material.

This year's Public Domain Film Remix Contest winner Andrea Hale said she's using a Creative Commons license for Rhapsody, Reimagined. This means the filmmaker retains the copyright to her work but grants permissions that allow other people to freely use, share, and build upon it. "I'm keeping with the spirit of the public domain," Hale said.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5677702

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CULTURE | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2026 • 2:28 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Brooklyn Beckham accuses David and Victoria of putting branding before family and sabotaging wedding

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — A Beckham family falling-out has spilled further into public view in a series of social media posts from Brooklyn Beckham alleging that his parents David and Victoria Beckham have tried to sabotage his marriage and have always prioritized public branding over their family relationships.

"For my entire life, my parents have controlled narratives in the press about our family. The performative social media posts, family events and inauthentic relationships have been a fixture of the life I was born into," Brooklyn Beckham wrote in several pages of text posted via Instagram stories.

At 26, he's the eldest of the four children of the retired English soccer superstar and former Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer and has worked as a model and photographer, even aspiring to be a chef. He married American actor Nicola Peltz, daughter of activist investor Nelson Peltz, in 2022.

"Recently, I have seen with my own eyes the lengths that they'll go through to place countless lies in the media, mostly at the expense of innocent people, to preserve their own facade. But I believe the truth always comes out," the posts said.

The posts make public a barely veiled feud that had been brewing in anonymously sourced stories in tabloids for months. Younger brother Cruz Beckham said on Instagram in December that Brooklyn had blocked family members on social media.

"I do not want to reconcile with my family." Brooklyn Beckham wrote. "I'm not being controlled, I'm standing up for myself for the first time in my life."

Unlike his three younger siblings, Brooklyn Beckham did not appear in his mother's recent Netflix docuseries, "Victoria Beckham," and did not show up at the October premiere as he and Peltz had for the London premiere in 2023 of the one centered on his father, called just "Beckham."

Many of the grievances described in the Instagram stories stem from the Peltz-Beckham wedding in Florida. He accused his mother of bailing at the last minute on designing Peltz's wedding dress, and said she "hijacked" the first dance he was supposed to have with his wife to music performed by Marc Anthony.

"She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone," Brooklyn Beckham wrote. "I've never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life."

Without giving specifics he also wrote that before the wedding his parents "repeatedly pressured and attempted to bribe me into signing away the rights to my name."

David and Victoria Beckham did not have an immediate public response to the posts, and messages to representatives from The Associated Press were not immediately answered.

In a Tuesday appearance on CNBC, David Beckham, who is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, did not directly address his son's statements, but said that children make mistakes on social media and should be allowed to.

"That's what I try to teach my kids. But you know, you have to sometimes let them make those mistakes as well," he said.

Married since 1999, David and Victoria Beckham have three other children, 23-year-old Romeo, 20-year-old Cruz and 14-year-old Harper.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683820

CULTURE | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 4:05 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

'Let them.' The small bit of advice that made a big difference to a grieving widow

Heard on All Things Considered

Transcript

SCOTT DETROW, HOST:

Time now for "My Unsung Hero," our series from the team at the Hidden Brain podcast. "My Unsung Hero" tells the stories of people whose kindness left a lasting impression on someone else. Today's story comes from Connie Sherburne. In 2020, Sherburne's husband of 31 years, Peter (ph), died in a crash while piloting their small plane. The next morning, she went to their insurance company to transfer his truck's insurance into her name. Because of the COVID pandemic, the office was staffed by just one person.

CONNIE SHERBURNE: So I knocked on the door, and she let me in. And it didn't take her but a few minutes to take care of why I was there. And then when she got done, she stopped, and she looked at me across her desk, and she made sure that I was looking at her, that she had my full attention. And she said, OK. So now that we've finished with that, people are going to stop and ask you, how can I help? And then she gave this pregnant pause, and then she said, let them. And I thought, right, let them, because I was not the type of person that really reached out for a lot of help from a lot of people. But because she said it with such force, it really, really just made sense to me.

So I went home, and right away, I needed help doing a lot of stuff, like I use firewood to heat my house and my plumbing was on the fritz, and a friend came and helped me with that. One of the neighbors actually cooked for me for four years, dinners, and her husband delivered the dinners to me. So if I hadn't gone down to the insurance company and talked to the woman, I would have never never reached out to all these people that helped. In the back of my mind, I kept hearing her voice, you know, let them.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SHERBURNE: I decided to go back after two or three years to let her know what an impression she'd left on me. And unfortunately, she didn't work there anymore. So I just wanted to tell her how much that meant to me. It was such a little thing for this woman just to say that to me, but she didn't realize what a huge thing it was going to be to help me through all this.

DETROW: Connie Sherburne lives in Escondido, California.

You can find more stories of unsung heroes and learn how to submit your own at hiddenbrain.org.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5683170

AUTHOR INTERVIEWS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 1:13 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths says she won't let pain be 'the engine that drives the ship'

By Terry Gross

Heard on Fresh Air

When poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths married writer Salman Rushdie in 2021, she expected the day to be joyful. Their friends and family had gathered and Griffiths' best friend, poet Kamilah Aisha Moon, was set to speak.

But Moon never showed up. Griffiths was still in her wedding dress when she learned that her friend had died. She says Moon's death put her in a dissociative state; it was as though she were standing outside her own body.

"There was a moment literally where I felt I was looking down at this woman who was this gorgeous bride and the agony and anguish in her body," Griffiths says. "She was screaming, people were holding her down so she wouldn't hurt herself. And then I just left."

Even now, Griffiths says, "Many parts of my wedding day are blacked out in my memory and are not available to me. ... It's very hard for me even to look at photographs or anything from my wedding day and feel connected to it."

Eleven months after their wedding, Griffiths was home in New York City when she learned that Rushdie had been stabbed onstage at the Chautauqua Institution while being interviewed at a literary event. As she was rushing to be with him, Griffiths fell down a flight of stairs. It was a clarifying moment.

"When I got up and realized I hadn't broken my neck or broken a bone, I just really was like, 'That's the last time you fall down. You cannot risk your safety. You cannot be running around with your head off your shoulders. You need to focus now,'" she says.

In the new memoir The Flower Bearers, Griffiths looks back on her wedding day and her marriage, and writes about her experience with dissociative identity disorder. She also reflects on her friendship with Moon, and how they initially connected over their shared identity as Black female poets.

Interview highlights

On caring for Rushdie in the immediate aftermath of the attack

I didn't cry in the hospital room because I just didn't think that would be helpful. And really, I didn't have the energy. I had to conserve energy for all of these different balls that were all in the air. And when you've just married someone and now you're responsible for their survival ... you don't really have time to tally up how strong you are, how brave you are, how courageous you are you have to keep going. And I was in survivor mode. ...

There were moments where I cried in a lot of corners and stairwells. And yeah, I threw up a lot. I was really sick. My whole body was in shock. … I don't know how to explain it, I don't know if it's innate or learned, but when there is a lot pressure and things are kind of going to hell, I will focus and bear down.

On the strength of her marriage

It's hard to watch the love of your life struggle with blindness, with impaired mobility, to feel exhausted, but I'm also trying to really look at what is there. The knife didn't take away the mind inside of my husband. It has not taken away his curiosity. It hasn't taken away how romantic he is and how he loves to plan date nights for us and watching movies and traveling and trying to spend as much quality time together as we can.

I think this experience makes you think about time. And I think because I am married to someone who is much older than me, there is a sense of time, time passing, being present, and really filling the time up with love. ... There's a kind of indescribable bridge and bond we have having survived such an experience that has reinforced the most wondrous and beautiful and incandescent spaces of this marriage and this friendship. This friendship is beautiful. And I'm grateful for it. And that gives me a lot of strength and courage to just keep going.

On experiencing dissociation

It's a part of my mind and my body that attempts to protect and cope in moments where I feel flight or fight and I'm trying to get away from something, often externally. Or it can be a memory that might cause me a pain or a kind of mental assault that I will not be able to withstand. ... I've learned to see my dissociative identity disorder as a protector. I've befriended it. I've learned so much about it so that I don't feel like I'm out of control or I don't know what's happening.

On her alter egos

One of the things I write about is how, if you picture maybe the same version of yourself in a car, there are different people driving it at different times, but you're all in the same car. ... My alter as an artist is connected to my alter who was a young child and my alter who in my 20s as a young woman struggling to be an artist and becoming the person I'm still becoming. That's a different set of memories and a different kind of character. But they all kind of visit me. I have a future alter, who is a really lovely, kind of bold, dazzling older woman. And her name is June. And so she helps me not sweat the small stuff. And she has a lot of humor and style and is chic. And she takes care of me.

On pushing back against the cliché of the "tortured" artist

When you glamorize tortured poets or tortured artists, there's an injustice that they become silhouettes and cutouts, their humanity is removed from them. They're not seen as three-dimensional. ... You know, Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath, or even Amy Winehouse ... [and] Whitney Houston. There's so many names of people ... [whose] pain becomes the engine that drives the ship. ...

What has now happened by writing this book is I don't have shame. I don't feel shame. I am using my voice to say this is my journey and I hope it can help someone else. When I was younger, having no money, being broke, being defeated, being depressed, that didn't lead me to write my best work. I was in survivor mode. Once I was able to get stabilized and start to do the inner work and start to heal, I'll always be healing, you know? I'll be healing. But this feels like one of the first steps for me in a new life. And I'm really grateful for that.

Anna Bauman and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

Transcript

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. The day that writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths married writer Salman Rushdie was expected to be one of the best, perhaps the best day of her life. But her dearest friend, Aisha, who was set to speak at the wedding, never arrived because she suddenly, shockingly died. That triggered Griffiths' dissociative identity disorder. She'll explain what that means a little later.

It was only 11 months after the wedding that Rushdie was stabbed multiple times while being interviewed onstage at the Chautauqua festival near Buffalo, New York. Griffiths was home in New York City at the time and had to figure out how to get to her husband, not knowing whether she'd find him still alive, what their future would be, what her future would be. When she got to the ICU, he was hanging on to his life. His face was so disfigured from the wounds, the stab that blinded him and the swelling that she refused to allow him to look in a mirror.

Griffiths' new memoir, "The Flower Bearers," covers this period, as well as her childhood, which pretty much ended when she was 11 or 12 and her mother was diagnosed with kidney disease. She also writes about her relationship with Aisha and how they initially connected over being Black female poets trying to find their voices as writers and a place in the literary world. Rachel Eliza Griffiths is also the author of the novel "Promise" and several poetry collections, including "Seeing The Body."

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, welcome to FRESH AIR. I really like your book a lot.

RACHEL ELIZA GRIFFITHS: Thank you so much, Terry.

GROSS: And I'm going to call you Eliza from here on in because that's how you prefer to be called. So let's start with your wedding day, which you describe as both the best and worst day of your life. Best because you were getting married to a man you really loved and who loved you, too. And worst because of your dearest friend's disappearance and death. How far were you into the wedding when you found out that she was dead?

GRIFFITHS: I did not find out, and I remember it quite clearly, until just after the formal wedding portraits had been done. And so I was in this wonderful state of having just gotten married and this kind of golden light at the end of a September day. And I started to notice that there just seemed to be a shadow on things. And the people, my loved ones who were there, their voices and manners had changed. And I'm there in my wedding dress. I've just gotten married. And something, this kind of storm or coldness, kind of swept over things. And I wanted to go back to my hotel suite.

My phone was missing. I wanted to check on my friend to see if she was OK. I'd been told she'd had COVID and that was why she wasn't coming. Later on, of course, Terry, I realized that my friends and family were just all working really hard to protect myself and my husband and that joy on that day. But the minute I got back to the hotel, in an effort to locate my phone, I suddenly was able to see messages that then - that's how I learned about what had happened.

GROSS: You have dissociative identity disorder. And that kind of kicked in on your wedding day. Could you describe what that is, what the disorder is?

GRIFFITHS: So dissociative identity disorder, some people call it DID. It's a kind of new term to describe a diagnosis of, you know, severe dissociation. Some people have more severe forms of it. I would put myself on a more kind of highly functional scale. DID usually comes into play after experiences of severe childhood trauma. And I have learned and researched and tried to educate myself to help myself live with this diagnosis.

What happened on my wedding day, I think, with my DID is that the level of dissociation that I experienced that day matches the kind of intense trauma and shock that my body went into, which means even now that many parts of my wedding day are blacked out in my memory and are not available to me. Every now and then, I might get a glimpse. Or if I'm triggered, I will see some aspect of myself or that day. But it's very hard for me even to look at photographs or anything from my wedding day and feel connected to it in the way that I'm sitting here having this conversation with you. And that is also a kind of grief.

GROSS: What does dissociation mean?

GRIFFITHS: This is a kind of word, as a writer, I can ask 10 people what it means, and they'll all say something different. For me, I feel that it's a part of my mind and my body that attempts to protect and cope in moments where I feel, you know, flight or fight and I'm trying to get away from something - often externally, or it can be in memory - that might cause me a pain or a kind of mental assault that I will not be able to withstand. And so I've learned to see my dissociative identity disorder as a protector. I've befriended it. I've learned so much about it, so that I don't feel like I'm out of control or I don't know what's happening.

GROSS: But just to be more specific, you actually have alter egos that kick in, like, versions of yourself at different ages. Could you just describe that a little bit so we understand a little bit better what you go through?

GRIFFITHS: Absolutely. I mean, I think one of the things I write about is how if you picture maybe, you know, the same version of yourself, you know, in a car. And there are different people driving it at different times, but you're all in the same car and you're all the same. So it's connected to me, ultimately. It's just that it kind of is a container or a space that is very explicitly attached to often a memory or kind of just a state of being, is what I would describe it.

So there are moments when I'm in my day. For example, I'll think of myself. You know, my alter as an artist is connected to my alter who is a young child. And my alter who, in my 20s, as a young woman struggling to be an artist and becoming, you know, the person I'm still becoming, that's a different set of memories and a different kind of character. But they all kind of visit me. I have a future alter who is a really lovely, kind of bold, dazzling older woman. And her name is June, and so she helps me not sweat the small stuff. And she has a lot of humor and style and a chic. And she takes care of me.

GROSS: Let's get back to your wedding day. Did your alters show up that day?

GRIFFITHS: I don't really remember, I have to say. I know there was a moment literally where I felt I was looking down at this woman who was this gorgeous bride. And the agony and anguish in her body, she was screaming. She was - people were holding her down so she wouldn't hurt herself. And then I just left. And I think that was all that was available to try to prevent myself from witnessing such pain and to see myself surrounded by such love, but also the pain of it. I will never have closure over that. And that's OK. I can accept that now because I've done so much work to comprehend all the different things that were happening on that day.

GROSS: I interviewed your husband, Salman Rushdie, after his memoir "Knife" was published. And "Knife" is about the knife attack on him when he was being interviewed at the Chautauqua festival in western upstate New York. And in that book, he describes the wedding day briefly. And he describes it as a day of, like, beautiful weather, a day of joy. He doesn't mention the death of your friend, Aisha, and the crisis mode that you were in. And I'm wondering if you read the book before publication and what you thought of that omission.

GRIFFITHS: I read different parts of the memoir as Salman was writing it. Salman and I had a discussion about the writing in "Knife" about the wedding day. And he was very clear that, you know, this was my story to tell, as far as what happened on the wedding day. And I think in the arc of "Knife," having suddenly a detour to describe a very traumatizing wedding day would've changed the lens for the arc of "Knife" and what "Knife" was focusing on. You know, unfortunately, to have these two events for me happen within months of each other was something that drove me to write my memoir.

But he and I agreed that I would spend my energy and my attention and my focus on the wedding day because Salman didn't have access to a 17-year friendship and sisterhood with my dear friend. There was so much more dimension and nuance in the day that wouldn't have fit inside the space of "knife." And so that was a decision, Terry, that we made together as writers, but also as husband and wife, that that would be a space for me to go back to when I felt strong enough and kind of fluent enough to write about it or to think about it and think about what mattered most that day to me.

GROSS: So, you know, he helped you through that crisis after Aisha died. And it sounds like you were and are really deeply in love. But as you said, 11 months after your wedding, he was stabbed multiple times by a man fulfilling the fatwa, a religious decree issued by Iran's ayatollah calling for Salman's death because of his novel "Satanic Verses," which the ayatollah considered blasphemous. It's a miracle your husband survived. And he believed that the threat of the fatwa was over, and I don't think he had constant protection anymore. Did you think that, too, that this was no longer anything that the two of you needed to worry about?

GRIFFITHS: I truly thought it was a past chapter of his life. I truly did. We were together for four years. I think we married in four years after meeting. And nothing in our day-to-day life or in our travels, in our journeys or anything seemed to suggest any kind of imminent threat or distant threat or anything. And so there was no anticipation. There was no weariness. There was no, this is this kind of specter or shadow hanging over our lives. We were really enjoying each other, and we still are. But this was not something that was on our radar at all.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." We'll be right back after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE INTERNET SONG, "STAY THE NIGHT")

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." It's in part about the day she married Salman Rushdie, which is also the day her dearest friend suddenly died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and nearly killed while he was being interviewed onstage. She also writes about her mental health issues, her late best friend and her childhood.

Can you describe how you found out about the knifing?

GRIFFITHS: It was August 12. It was a Friday. Again, it was this kind of beautiful summer morning. I was at home with my dog and some books and some coffee and just kind of having a quiet morning by myself. And a dear friend phoned me and said, you know, where are you? And I said, oh, I'm home. And she and I had been trying to make plans to see each other, so when she called that early, I thought, oh, she's calling me to make plans. But her voice immediately was very, very different. And so she said, you know, I'm coming over right now. Salman's been hurt. I'll be right there.

And I just didn't know what that meant. I thought he was up at Chautauqua doing an event. He's done a lot of events since I've known him, and so I just really didn't understand. But the way her voice sounded, I knew it was really terrible. And so I kind of sprang up and was running around the house trying to grab clothes, and I fell down the steps and hurt myself really badly. And she showed up, and, you know, the rest of the day became a nightmare. And that was how it - it was just an ordinary morning. And that is kind of sometimes the thing that can shock you. And that day remains a mark of a different life that opened up immediately for me.

GROSS: When you fell down the stairs, did you feel, like, less competent and less able to hold things together? I mean, falling down the stairs is pretty horrible. But to do that as you really have to rise to the occasion and know what to do - you had to, like, charter a private plane so you could get there as soon as possible. It's like an eight-hour drive. And you had to show up strong. You had to be capable. Did it shake your confidence when you fell?

GRIFFITHS: I think falling down the stairs was one of the best things that could've happened to me, and here's why. When I got up and realized I hadn't broken my neck or broken a bone, I just really was like, that's the last time you fall down. You cannot risk your safety. You cannot be running around with your head off your shoulders. You need to focus now. It was very clarifying because, literally in seconds, I really had no control of my body, my emotions. I was just kind of in free fall.

And when I got to the bottom of this flight of stairs, I just thought, Rachel Eliza, stand up. Get up. Get focused here. You don't have time to fall down the stairs and be a wreck and be crying in a mess. Like, you've got to bear down now. And so when I look back at that moment, you know, in that moment, I actually really did feel like, hey, that's it. You're done with falling down. You have to go forward and get through this day, and you don't know what's coming, but you've got to be present in every single moment. You've got to pay attention now, where you put each foot down and walk. And that's what happened, you know, for me, after taking a really, really violent tumble down the stairs.

GROSS: He describes you during this period when he was really badly injured, and it's a miracle he survived. And then as he slowly started to heal, he describes you as his rock, overseeing his care. Everything was filtered through you. You were the one in contact with his medical team, the police, the FBI, security. It all went through you. You write about your feelings of helplessness, paranoia, hypervigilance. What were you experiencing during that period when he saw you as his rock?

GRIFFITHS: I think there was a great deal of dissonance for me. When I was caring for someone and doing all of these things, I didn't cry in the hospital room because I just didn't think that would be helpful. And really, I didn't have the energy. I had to conserve energy for all of these different balls that were all in the air. And when you've just married someone and now you're responsible for their survival, you're part of being involved in life-or-death situation, you don't really have time to tally up how strong you are or how brave you are or how courageous you are. You have to keep going. And I was in survivor mode. So I would have very vulnerable moments. I cried in a lot of corners and stairwells, and yeah, I threw up a lot. I was really sick. My whole body was in shock. And at the same time, I don't know how to explain it. I don't know if it's innate or learned. But when there is a lot of pressure and things are kind of going to hell, I will focus and bear down.

GROSS: To go in such a short amount of time from bride to caregiver, what were some of your fears as he slowly started to heal? - because I think in situations like this, both people can be really profoundly changed by the experience of trauma. And I mean, did you ever question whether you'd still both be in love with each other when the healing was done? - you know, to the extent that you can heal when one eye is blinded by the knife and, you know, I think three fingers are numb forever. And I mean, there was a lot of permanent damage that was done that you don't heal from.

GRIFFITHS: I never questioned the love. I think what has been more dehabilitating (ph) are the physical consequences of the violence that was done to him and, in a way, to me as well. I think it's hard to watch the love of your life struggle with blindness, with impaired mobility and to feel exhausted. But I'm also trying to really look at what is there, you know? The knife didn't take away the mind inside of my husband. It has not taken away his curiosity. It has not taken away how romantic he is and how he loves to plan date nights for us and, you know, watching movies and traveling and trying to spend as much quality time together as we can. I think this experience makes you think about time. And I think because I am married to someone who is much older than me, there is a sense of time, time passing, being present and really filling the time up with love. And there are moments when we are very human with each other, like any other marriage, but we really laugh a lot, and we really try to support each other.

I think there's something that happens - and you were talking about caretaker and caregiving. You know, caregivers and caretakers can have as much trauma as the person, as the loved one that they are caring for. It's just a different iteration. But there's a kind of indescribable bridge and bond we have having survived such an experience that has reinforced the most wondrous and beautiful and, you know, incandescent spaces of this marriage and this friendship. This friendship is beautiful, and I'm grateful for it, and that gives me a lot of strength and courage to just keep going. I just have to keep going.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." We'll talk more after a break. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir, "The Flower Bearers," is in part about the day she married Salman Rushdie in September 2021. It had a joyous start and a horrible ending when she found out her best friend, Aisha, had suddenly died. Only 11 months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and nearly killed while he was onstage being interviewed at the Chautauqua festival.

Griffiths also writes about her own mental health issues - she has dissociative identity disorder - her relationship with Aisha and her childhood, which ended when her mother was diagnosed with kidney disease, turning Griffiths into a part-time caregiver who was constantly worried about her mother. In this part of the interview, we talk about a mental health crisis. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, you can call or text for help at 988 to reach the suicide and crisis lifeline. That's 988.

I want you to describe a dissociative episode that says something about when the police intervene in mental health crises, how they don't always know how to deal with it. So let's start at the beginning with the dissociative episode that caused you to call the suicide prevention and crisis hotline.

GRIFFITHS: There was a moment where I was in my 20s. I was just having a really difficult time. And I really, at that point in my life, didn't have a grasp yet on my dissociative identity disorder. And a day came, a morning. I was working on poems. I was kind of, again, having this morning where before I had to go teach and be elsewhere, I was just alone. I realized there is an aspect of me that is so distressed, that is so under duress, that is so hopeless and so despairing that I was really concerned for myself, that the other parts of me that wanted to keep working on my poem or to have some breakfast or to sit with the dog for a minute would not be able to counter or withstand this particular aspect of my personality.

And I felt that it was those parts of me that forced me to pick up the phone and call, you know, the suicide prevention number that I kept on my desk. I called that number. There was someone I could speak to and describe, you know, how distraught I was. But I also realized that there were different kind of voices coming from me, saying I'm worried about myself, and at the same time, a voice saying this is the only option for me. No one can help me. I'm tired of bothering my family, burdening my friends. The shame, the stigma, the despair.

I think, on the other end of the line, as it is their job to listen carefully and decide whether you just need to talk to someone or if there needs to be a next action. And the next action involved law enforcement showing up to the door of my apartment in Brooklyn. And unfortunately, what then took place was a kind of criminalizing of this attempt of me to help myself, to go toward professionals rather than, you know, call a family member or a friend.

And, sadly, when I attempted to get the professional help, it immediately torpedoed into a very kind of violent and traumatizing moment. And then that moment ended up with a short ride to Long Island College Hospital. And I'm handcuffed. And, you know, I'm a criminal even though the number that's supposed to help people, you know, was not helping me. What happened to me, I'm hoping it's rare. But sadly, I think it happens more than it should happen. And I'm sorry for those who have had those kinds of experiences.

And I have to tell you, after that experience, that experience, again, the silver lining is I found the therapist who I've now been working with for over 15 years, who has worked with me about DID. That moment in my life pushed me to find the help that has now transformed me. I want to live more than anything. I want to show up. I do not want to die. And in these past years, myself, versions of myself have died on my wedding day, on the attack on my husband. But I wake up and I'm so grateful to wake up. And so I'm looking now back at that episode as a real pivotal moment in my own narrative arc of who I'm becoming as a person.

GROSS: The police mishandling you, that's a problem of who we send to help, you know, to get you to a hospital. I mean, like, if you're having a heart attack, they don't send the police. They send EMTs. They send people who, you know, have equipment to help save you, who have some medical expertise, and they take you in an ambulance. So it's a problem with the system.

GRIFFITHS: And I just want to say that that number exists and helps thousands of people - and that I want to be certain and intentional to say that I saw that number as a lifeline, as a flag, as a place where I could bring my experience in that moment to a space where I felt I could be helped. And so I want to be clear that I don't want to discourage anyone from calling any resource that they need in such a moment for help. The woman that I talked to when I phoned the number was magical, was wonderful. And I felt as though, you know, just talking to someone, someone listening, was excellent. And that I must praise because that is a hard job for someone to have. And I'm very grateful to that woman, whoever she is, that helped me now be who I am now and to be alive.

GROSS: So what I'm about to say isn't to demonize all police. But three officers came to your home to take you to the hospital. And one of them, he not only handcuffed you, but he really hurt your wrists. I mean, the handcuffs were too tight. He struggled to put them on you while you were, you know, like, put on the ground or pushed onto the floor to cuff you. And you were complaining about how much it hurt and how bruised your hands were becoming, and it didn't seem to matter. I mean, that is not the right way to treat someone who voluntarily called a hotline for mental health help. So - and that's why you used the word criminalized because you were treated like a criminal, not like somebody who was, you know, asking for help to save their life. Now, your parents, when they were younger, they were both police officers.

GRIFFITHS: Yes, and that's the irony for me is that I've grown up with wonderful, you know, law enforcement and having a very positive memories of law enforcement and police. My parents met in Washington, D.C. They were both police officers, and that's how they met. My dad was a rookie. My mother was his training officer. He asked her out for a date. And that's part of my, you know, birth story. And so again, for me, it's that kind of real contradictory space of, you know, my parents were officers. I have family members in law enforcement, and yet it can be a same moment where I'm kind of getting body slammed to the ground. And so, you know, that's just really complicated. There's not an easy way to explain that.

And I'm unwilling to make some flat, general statement about law enforcement because I see the faces of my parents in their uniforms. I see the faces of law enforcement who helped my husband and I when we went through just this worst time. So it's very complicated for me. And I'm sad now in that moment for those officers, whatever morning they had or what they were going through, that they felt that that was the appropriate action in that circumstance. You know, I was not armed. I was not violent. I was very weak and troubled, but I was not, you know, threatening.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, you can call or text for help at 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. That's 988. We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." It's in part about the day she married Salman Rushdie, which is also the day her dearest friend suddenly died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times and nearly killed while he was being interviewed on stage. She also writes about her mental health issues, her late best friend and her childhood.

Let's talk about another turning point in your life. You've had some pretty difficult turning points. And the one I'm referring to now is your mother's death. She was diagnosed with kidney disease when you were 11 or 12. You found her in bed one morning with blood dripping from her eyes, which was very traumatic for you, in addition to being traumatic for her. She had a kidney transplant. How did it affect her ability to take care of you and your siblings once she got sick?

GRIFFITHS: I think it changed the course of my childhood. When you have a loved one who is diagnosed with something like kidney disease, the trajectory of the family changes. And what I do know is that my mother tried with all of her strength to maintain a normal household for myself and my siblings. I'm the eldest child of four children, and so I think my friendship with my mother, when this happened, it was hard for the friendship in my mother because I knew I was going to be there for her but help care for her. I mean, she had almost like a bucket of medication that she had to take. She did peritoneal dialysis at our home where, you know, we would have to wear surgical masks to sit with her while she was doing this. Every 5 hours of every day for over a decade, she would have to do this at-home dialysis exchange. And it was really hard to witness.

She was young. She was vibrant. She was very ferocious, and she would have to take medication that sometimes would keep her in bed for half the day. She would get tired. I remember many an evening to sit with her and rub her feet or comb her hair or just take care of her. And, you know, no one would tell an 11- or 12-year-old, like, you're a caretaker now, because this was my mother, this is my best friend. And so it changed me. And she died at age 59. She was a baby. Fifty-nine, you're just getting started, you know? But she was very present and vivid and vibrant and unforgettable in those 59 years that she was here. And I hold on to every single year with all my heart.

GROSS: I will add here, you loved her. She loved you. But you say in your memoir, you know, that as with many mother-daughter relationships, you were also very angry with her a lot of the time and that in expressing her love, she also felt free to harshly criticize you in ways that made you doubt your own capabilities and that she also had a way of damaging the people that she loved. Can you explain a little bit more about what you mean about that?

GRIFFITHS: I think my mother was worried about my security and my safety. And when she made decisions or comments that were critical, I now can look back, and I can put a context around why my mother might have behaved a certain way. I can also, you know, think back to her own childhood. She had to raise herself. Her mother, my grandmother, died at age 36 from cervical cancer. She had eight children who were split up as children. They couldn't stay together. They were kind of orphaned and siphoned out to relatives. And then my mother also worked in law enforcement and saw some really ugly sides of humanity. And so I think she was worried. And also I was this kind of creative, weird awkward - she used to - I found out later after she died, she would tell people that I was her flower child. You know, she would say, oh, my flower child is doing this or that. And so I - you know, I wasn't going to fit the maybe, I don't know, standard manual for parents. I was just really out there.

I think my mother also - if I look at her now as a young woman with four children, and her body is in failure, you know, in this way, the anger she must have had, the frustration, the sorrow, you know, the depression. I can hold all of these things now, and all of these things can be true at the same time. So I think some of the ways that my mother and I, when we clashed, are ultimately, you know, reflected in how much she loved me and wanted to see me be whoever I could be, but I had to do it on my own terms.

GROSS: Yes, and that is a big but because who you wanted to be was a writer. I mean, when you were very young, you were...

GRIFFITHS: Yes.

GROSS: ...Already deep into books. You knew you wanted to write. And your mother's attitude was, that's not a career, stringing sentences together. You're not going to make any money. It's not going to be a thing. So, you know, be a doctor, be a lawyer. A lot of people have heard that from...

GRIFFITHS: Yes.

GROSS: ...From their parents, but it was particularly wounding for you because your identity was so totally wrapped up in books and in words, language, writing. And to be told - it's like being told, you're not who you are. You're a fraud. You're not who - you know, she called you a fraud.

GRIFFITHS: Yes.

GROSS: And, you know, you can't strip an identity from a child who is wired to be that way. I mean, it sounds like it wasn't even your choice. It was your essential being.

GRIFFITHS: Yes. I mean, I just knew when I was a young child, that was fully formed in me. I'm an artist. I'm a storyteller. You know, the minute I could hold a pen or a pencil, you know, I just wanted to make art and listen to stories and tell stories. And growing up, you know, some people in the Black community - if you tell stories, you're a liar. To lie is to tell a story. So immediately, it's like, well, I want to tell stories, you know? Oh, I'm a liar.

But my mother, I would find out, wanted to be a journalist, and she never got to see that through. And so then she has this daughter who arrives after she had actually had a stillborn child, and I'm saying, I'm going to write. I'm going to be - this is a writer. I think that must have been really complicated for her. And I have to share, too, you know, after she died and I was going through her office, I opened up this bookshelf, and on the bottom two shelves were Rachel Eliza shelves. There were newspaper clippings. There were stacks of little literary journals I'd given her. There were...

GROSS: This is all your writing.

GRIFFITHS: Yeah. So the thing that I found out was that she was there holding space with me the entire time. She was showing up for me, but she just couldn't tell me. I couldn't believe the amount of things she had kept in this little kind of archive in her office. She was proud of me, and I know that now. She was so proud of me.

GROSS: My guest is Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers." We'll talk more after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. Let's get back to my interview with poet and novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Her new memoir, "The Flower Bearers," is in part about the day she married Salman Rushdie in 2021, which is also the day her dearest friend suddenly died. Eleven months later, Rushdie was stabbed multiple times while being interviewed on stage. She also writes about her mental health issues. She has dissociative identity disorder. In this chapter of the interview, we refer to a mental health crisis. If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. That's 988.

So before writing your new memoir, which is called "The Flower Bearers," you wrote books of poetry and a novel. And to bring together your writing and your depression, suicidal ideation, dissociative identity disorder, with your work as a poet, you write in your new book that when you tried to write about your depression, suicidal, dissociative episodes that placed you in the emergency room, you coiled in shame and self-loathing.

And you write, my poems did not immediately connect to Black joy. They were not always focused on white people and white supremacy. When I tried to write about these experiences, I was told in workshops that it came off as inauthentic. The Black woman, me, sitting at a round table, composed and articulate, could not also be the wounded, damaged creature who could only use plastic utensils during meals in a psych ward.

Can you talk about how it made you feel being accused of being inauthentic because you were revealing all these problems that you were having, but you looked so self-confident and sounded so confident?

GRIFFITHS: It's soul-crushing. It's soul-crushing. It's maddening. It's frustrating. There's a feeling of hopelessness, of how am I so much? I'm definitely too much, and I can't share it. I think you feel like an impostor because you are actually all of these things. I can feel wounded, broken, overwhelmed and then be, front-facing, polished, poised, you know, articulate. And writing would be kind of my lifeline where I could kind of put some of these disparate and dissonant parts of myself together.

It's soul-crushing to come into a space with other writers and not know how they're seeing you, that there's maybe not anyone else who looks like you also listening in the room and what that feels like for a number of reasons. And that's a complicated thing. And yet, that was the room I wanted to be in. I knew what mattered to me, which was storytelling and visual art and listening to other people and being in community. And yet I was feeling estranged and isolated, but I also was self-isolating because I was afraid that I would be seen as an impostor or not authentic or that I perhaps wasn't fitting all the boxes, checking all the boxes as to what authenticity meant.

But now, at this age, I'm like, I get to decide how authentic I am. I get to define my authenticity because who was defining that and making that definition in the first place? Who can tell me I'm authentic or not? I didn't know that back then, but I know it now.

GROSS: And, you know, in writing about the darkest parts of yourself, you know, the depression and dissociative identity disorder, you say that, but you knew the dangers of romanticizing tortured poets. What are the dangers? And I'm not referring to you as, you know, a tortured poet in that sense, where you're being, like, glamorized for your mental health state. But what are the dangers of romanticizing tortured poets? 'Cause I don't want to have listeners place you in a category that you don't feel part of and that you don't want to be part of.

GRIFFITHS: When you glamorize tortured poets or tortured artists, there's an injustice - is that they become silhouettes and cutouts. Their humanity is removed from them. They're not seen as three dimensional. And I think as a writer, as a poet, as a visual artist, there's such a carousel of, you know, talent gone too soon, voices gone too soon and that people focus on the horror and trauma and devastation of those people. It kind of is an erasure. And, you know, when I think about Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Plath or, you know, even Amy Winehouse - there's just so many names - Whitney Houston. There's just so many names of people who we need them here. And then, you know, their pain becomes the engine that drives the ship rather than how they flew, you know?

And I just think for me, I knew that it would be a bad idea for me to glamorize these aspects of myself because I was more in a category of shame and panic and anxiety if anyone would find out these things for me. When I was younger, having no money, you know, being broke, being defeated, being depressed, that didn't lead me to write my best work. I was in survivor mode. Once I was able to get stabilized and start to do the inner work and start to heal - I'll always be healing, you know? I'll always be healing. But this feels like one of the first steps for me in a new life. And I'm really grateful for that.

GROSS: Eliza, it's just been great to talk with you. Thank you so much for sharing so much. Your book is great. So really happy to be able to talk about it with you.

GRIFFITHS: Terry, this has been a pleasure. Thank you so much for this conversation.

GROSS: Rachel Eliza Griffiths' new memoir is called "The Flower Bearers."

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: To keep up with what's on the show and get highlights of our interviews, follow us on Instagram at @nprfreshair. FRESH AIR's executive producers are Danny Miller and Sam Briger. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Ann Marie Baldonado, Lauren Krenzel, Therese Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Chaloner, Anna Bauman, Susan Nyakundi and Nico Gonzalez-Wisler. Our digital media producer is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. Our cohost is Tonya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5677512

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PERFORMING ARTS | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 12:44 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Here's who's canceled their Kennedy Center performances since Trump took over

By Ivy Buck

When President Donald Trump was named chairman of the Kennedy Center's board almost a year ago, in February 2025, backlash from ticket buyers, slated performers, and certain board members — including Shonda Rhimes — was swift.

One of the first performers to cancel was a touring production of the musical Hamilton. In a statement on X in March 2025, producer Jeffrey Seller said he opposed the Trump administration's ousting of many Democratic board members.

"The recent purge by the Trump Administration of both professional staff and performing arts events at or originally produced by the Kennedy Center flies in the face of everything this national center represents," wrote Seller.

Actress and writer Issa Rae followed suit with a post on Instagram, cancelling her sold-out March performance.

A slew of additional artists and performance companies canceled after Trump-appointed members of the Kennedy Center's board voted to rename the center "The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts" in December. Congress has not yet authorized the name change. Since the power of the venue's board to rename the center is currently in dispute, NPR continues to refer to the Kennedy Center using its legal name.

Kennedy Center executive director Richard Grenell has responded to many cancellations on social media, condemning the artists. After Banjo player Béla Fleck canceled his performance because he said the center had become "political," Grenell wrote on X, "You just made it political and caved to the woke mob who wants you to perform for only Lefties."

"This mob pressuring you will never be happy until you only play for Democrats. The Trump Kennedy Center believes all people are welcome — Democrats and Republicans and people uninterested in politics. We want performers who aren't political — who simply love entertaining everyone regardless of who they voted for."

Find a running list of these cancellations below.

The Martha Graham Dance Company

The Martha Graham Dance Company announced its withdrawal from spring 2026 programming at the Kennedy Center on Jan. 16.

"The Martha Graham Dance Company regrets that, for a variety of reasons, we are unable to perform at the Kennedy Center in April," the company wrote in a statement to NPR. "We hope to perform at the center in the future."

The Martha Graham Dance Company — which is the oldest dance company in the United States — was scheduled to stop at the Kennedy Center for a two-day run in early April as part of its nationwide centennial tour. Its founder, Martha Graham, was a 1979 Kennedy Center Honoree recognized as the "mother of modern dance."

The Washington National Opera

On Jan. 9, the Washington National Opera announced its decision to leave the Kennedy Center, its home since 1971. According to an email statement sent to NPR, the decision came in response to new policies which the 70-year-old performing arts group said strain its financial model.

The Washington National Opera stressed the "amicability" of its decision to end its longtime residency at the Kennedy Center. But it said the center's new business model, which requires productions to be fully-funded in advance, is incompatible with the usual mix of ticket sales, grants and donations that cannot all be secured ahead.

"Opera companies typically cover only 30-60% of costs through ticket sales, with the remainder from grants and donations that cannot be secured years ahead when productions must be planned," the statement said.

On social media, the Kennedy Center's Grenell said it was the center's decision to sever ties with the opera company — and not the other way around.

"The Trump Kennedy Center has made the decision to end the EXCLUSIVE partnership with the Washington Opera so that we can have the flexibility and funds to bring in operas from around the world and across the U.S." Grenell said.

Sonia De Los Santos

On Jan. 8, singer-songwriter Sonia De Los Santos announced on Instagram that she was canceling her upcoming February concert at the Kennedy Center. "As an artist," wrote De Los Santos, "I treasure the freedom to create and share my music, and for many years I have used this privilege to uplift the stories of immigrants in this country."

De Los Santos, who was nominated for a Latin Grammy for best children's album in 2018, stated that "I do not feel that the current climate at this beloved venue represents a welcoming space for myself, my band, or our audience."

Béla Fleck

Performing at the Kennedy Center "has become charged and political, at an institution where the focus should be on the music," wrote American banjo player Béla Fleck about his scheduled appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra in an official statement posted to Instagram on Jan. 7. "I have withdrawn from my upcoming performance with the NSO at The Kennedy Center," he wrote. "I look forward to playing with the NSO another time in the future when we can together share and celebrate art."

The 18-time Grammy winner has performed at the Kennedy Center in the past.

Stephen Schwartz

The composer and lyricist for the beloved musicals Wicked, Godspell and Pippin was expected to host a gala fundraiser for the Washington National Opera in May 2026. On Jan. 2, Schwartz announced his withdrawal. According to NBC News, Schwartz reflected that the Kennedy Center was "founded to be an apolitical home for free artistic expression for artists of all nationalities and ideologies." Today, he said, making an appearance "has now become an ideological statement."

Richard Grenell quickly responded to Schwartz's withdrawal, calling it a "bogus" report in a statement posted on X and saying reporters were plagiarizing a "fake @RollingStone story." Schwartz was "never signed," Grenell wrote.

Reports from NBC and other outlets, including Variety, have refuted this claim, publishing screenshots showing that Schwartz was promoted on the Kennedy Center's website prior to his cancellation.

The Cookers

The seven-piece band of veteran jazz musicians announced shortly before Dec. 31 that they would not perform a planned show called "A Jazz New Year's Eve" at the Kennedy Center.

"We know this news is disappointing," reads the statement on their website. "We are not turning away from our audience, and do want to make sure that when we do return to the bandstand, the room is able to celebrate the full presence of the music and everyone in it. Our hope is that this moment will leave space for reflection, not resentment."

The statement went on to say, "We remain committed to playing music that reaches across divisions rather than deepening them."

Chuck Redd

The American jazz drummer and longtime host of the Kennedy Center's annual Christmas Jazz Jam chose to cancel his 2025 appearance when he "saw the name change on the Kennedy Center website and then hours later on the building," according to a statement sent to the Associated Press.

On Dec. 27, the Kennedy Center announced its plan to file a $1 million lawsuit against Redd. "Any artist canceling their show at the Trump Kennedy Center over political differences isn't courageous or principled—they are selfish, intolerant, and have failed to meet the basic duty of a public artist: to perform for all people," said Kennedy Center spokesperson Roma Daravi.

In a letter shared with NPR, Grenell condemned Redd: "Regrettably, your action surrenders to the sad bullying tactics employed by certain elements on the left, who have sought to intimidate artists into boycotting performances at our national cultural center."

Doug Varone and Dancers

"The renaming for me has kind of pushed me off a cliff," said choreographer Doug Varone on Dec. 31, when he spoke with NPR's Morning Edition. Varone, who was set to showcase members of his Doug Varone and Dancers company at the Kennedy Center in April 2026, pulled the performance.

John F. Kennedy, for whom the Kennedy Center was established as a living memorial, "believed in the arts as kind of the beating heart of our nation," said Varone.

"I believe that the level of artistry has dropped drastically since the administration change, and the employees that were responsible for the quality of the work at the center have all been let go."

After canceling, the company started a crowdfunding campaign to help offset its financial loss. It raised over $42,000, exceeding its $40,000 goal.

Magpie

In a statement posted to Facebook on Jan. 5, Greg Artzner of the American folk duo Magpie announced the decision to pull their Feb. 28 concert, set to play on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.

"There isn't really anything defensible" about Trump, said the statement from Artzner and Magpie's Terry Leonino. Although they had planned an evening of songs with messages of unity and hope, "We are personally and philosophically in agreement with the belief underlying the growing boycott," they said. "The stand being taken by fellow artists we respect and admire has created a moral picket line. We stand with them in solidarity."

An update on Jan. 9 said that Magpie would now be performing a longer version of that concert on Feb. 21 at Seekers Church in Washington, D.C., now called, "The Traveling John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restoration Roadshow."

Kristy Lee

Folk singer Kristy Lee canceled her Jan. 14 Kennedy Center performance due to "recent efforts to impose political branding on the Center," according to a statement posted on her website.

"Public arts spaces should be free from political influence," Lee said in her statement. "I step back out of respect for artistic freedom and the Kennedy Center's founding mission, not in opposition to its staff, artists, or audience."

On Jan. 14, hosted a live-streamed concert instead, titled "Showing Up: From the Kennedy Center to the Couch."

Low Cut Connie

Philadelphia rock and roll band Low Cut Connie pulled their concert, set for February 2025, "Upon learning that this institution that has run non-partisan for 54 years is now chaired by President Trump himself and his regime," according to a statement posted on their Facebook page.

"Maybe my career will suffer from this decision," wrote band frontman Adam Weiner, "but my soul will be the better for it."

Rhiannon Giddens

In Feb. 2025, folk singer Rhiannon Giddens announced her departure from the Kennedy Center lineup in a social media statement. "I cannot in good conscience play at The Kennedy with the recent programming changes forced on the institution by this new board," wrote Giddens.

Giddens transferred her May 11 concert, "Old-Time Revue," to The Anthem concert hall, also in Washington, D.C.

Balún

The Puerto Rican band, based in Brooklyn in New York City, canceled their Kennedy Center performance, which had been set for Feb. 27, 2025.

According to a statement posted to Balún's Instagram account, "recent events made it clear that the space no longer aligns with our values. Our safety, integrity, and commitment to justice come first."

Issa Rae

"Thank you so much for selling out the Kennedy Center for 'An Evening With [Me],'" wrote Issa Rae, the acclaimed star and creator of HBO's Insecure, on her Instagram stories page in February 2025. "Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds through all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue."

"Hamilton"

In March 2025, Hamilton producer Jeffrey Seller announced on X that the Tony-award winning musical phenomenon would no longer run as scheduled at the Kennedy Center. According to the statement, the decision was made both for political and for business reasons. Not only was there "a new spirit of partisanship," the statement read in part, but "it would be "financially and personally devastating to the employees of Hamilton if the new leadership of the Kennedy Center suddenly canceled or re-negotiated our engagement. The actions of the new Chairman of the Board in recent weeks demonstrate that contracts and previous agreements simply cannot be trusted."

The Kennedy Center was swift to respond to Hamilton's cancellation. On X in a now-deleted post, Richard Grenell accused Hamilton star and creator Lin Manuel-Miranda of being "intolerant of people who don't agree with him politically," and stated that the decision was "a publicity stunt that will backfire."

Since the show's cancellation at the Center, Hamilton has continued to sell out theaters on Broadway and in venues nationwide who host its North American touring company.

U.S. Marine Band

The U.S. Marine Band announced in February 2025 that the Marine Band would not perform in the Equity Arc Wind Symphony event, a collaboration between Marine Band members and selected high school musicians.

The U.S. Marine Band, known also as "The President's Own" was founded by an Act of Congress in 1798, making it the country's oldest professional music organization.

Composer Kevin Charoensri, whose music had been scheduled to be performed by the band at the event, stated in a Facebook post that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) orders resulted in the cancellation of the Equity Arc concert:

"It has come to my attention that the program, one based on equity and diversity of voices, is no longer supported at the federal level under this administration," Charoensri wrote. "It was for this reason that the program and performance were canceled."

With additional reporting by Chloe Veltman, Ayana Archie, Elizabeth Blair, Andrew Limbong, Anastasia Tsioulcas and Kristin Wright. Edited by Jennifer Vanasco.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5675192

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CULTURE | TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 • 5:00 AM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Polyester clothing has been causing a stir online. But how valid are the concerns?

By Ayana Archie

Nafeesah Attah is a self-proclaimed "OG fast fashion shopper."

Attah, a lawyer and social media influencer, would typically go after the best deal, not paying much attention to the quality. But her clothes were shrinking, fading and losing shape after a few washes. She decided she would start investing more money and time into curating a higher-quality wardrobe, even if it meant buying fewer clothes.

She began to read the fabric content labels before purchasing new clothes, she said. And she noticed something. So many of the clothes in her closet and offered by retailers where she shops were made out of fabric containing polyester.

"Once you know better, it's like your eyes are opened up to the fact that there's just so many poorly made clothes out there," she said.

She's one of many consumers on social media becoming curious about this synthetic textile that dominates the world of fashion. With the cost of living increasing, they have expressed their frustration at companies charging hundreds of dollars for garments containing polyester. They wonder if they're getting what they pay for, and the impact it could have on human health and the environment. But is polyester's mixed reputation justified?

Why is polyester so common?

Your eyes don't deceive you. The use of polyester has ballooned with time, according to Henry Navarro Delgado, an associate professor at Toronto Metropolitan University's school of fashion.

It's partly because polyester can be quite useful, he said. It is a type of plastic made from petroleum compounds that are cooled and stretched into yarn, according to Michael Palladino, a fashion industry veteran and lecturer at Kingsborough Community College's business of fashion program in New York.

Polyester can give garments unique silhouettes, make them less prone to wrinkling and hold up well against wind and water.

The textile's weatherproofing properties led the military to begin using polyester during World War II for things like windbreakers and camouflage covers for vehicles. After the war, manufacturers wanted to find ways for civilians to use it.

The rise of fast fashion, starting in the 1990s, has made polyester seemingly unavoidable, Navarro Delgado said.

"Fast fashion is a fire that can't be fed fast enough," Palladino said.

It's a symbiotic relationship between consumers and businesses. Navarro Delgado says consumers aren't as willing to care for their clothes as they once were. For example, wool typically has to be handwashed, while water may damage silk. They also want to be up on trends.

Retailers want to meet the demand for those trends and keep expenses low. Polyester is how both parties meet in the middle, since it's often easier to maintain and cheaper to manufacture and buy.

"It's a shared responsibility," Navarro Delgado said.

Natural fibers, like cotton, can be resource-intensive. For example, it takes about 700 gallons of water to get one cotton T-shirt from the farm to the store. But unlike natural fibers, polyester is not biodegradable. Furthermore, the petroleum compounds used in the textile are made from fossil fuels that emit greenhouse gases during production.

The rise of wellness influencers who denounce the plastic-derived fabric has made buying polyester seem like a moral failing, said Ryan Marino, a medical toxicologist and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University. But sometimes, that's just what people can afford.

"Let's say you're buying a top for $12 in New York City. You've got a budget and that's what your budget will stand, so you buy it," Palladino said.

How does polyester affect the environment?

Though polyester has been around for a while, in many cases, manufacturers have begun using polyester for items that natural fibers would be better suited for. For example, polyester is often found in summer clothes, even though the material traps heat, Navarro Delgado said.

"When you don't have access to a product that is effectively designed for its purpose, then you don't use it. You discard it," he said.

As a result, mounds of abandoned clothing are showing up on coastlines in countries like Ghana, India and Chile, Palladino said. Ghana, for example, has a large market for upcycling clothes. But many of the clothes it receives from the U.S. are of increasingly lower quality, so some purchasers dump them in lagoons and landfills, which end up in the oceans, Palladino said.

"We don't see it here, but it shows up somewhere else," he said. "It's almost like reverse colonialism. We're now giving back what we don't want."

Even the polyester clothes people keep can leach microplastics into the environment when they're washed, said Aron Stubbins, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at Northeastern University.

"That flows away and has to be treated and hopefully gets taken out … but not always," he said. Microplastics can then end up in local water supplies, he said.

Polyester can be recycled into other clothes. But even recycled materials end up in landfills. Polyester can also take decades, and even centuries, to break down. Still, it doesn't go away, but disintegrates into smaller pieces, known as microplastics, some of which are invisible to the naked eye, Palladino said.

"When you get closer, it's the sweater you didn't want, it's the pants you didn't want," he said.

There are studies acknowledging and identifying the excessive amount of microplastics lingering in the environment. But there aren't many studies that draw conclusions about how all this microplastic is affecting our health and the health of our planet, Stubbins said.

"For lots of that research, we're kind of at the point of understanding just where the plastics are, and then once we understand where they are, trying to figure out what impact they're having," he said.

Still, brands and manufacturers have started responding. In a 2024 annual report, Adidas said it had set a goal in 2017 to use recycled polyester 100% of the time "wherever technically possible by the end of 2024" because it had a "lower environmental impact" than "virgin" polyester. The company noted that it had achieved 99% of the goal.

On its website, Patagonia said it wanted to stop using virgin polyester by the end of 2025 due to its "high environmental cost." The company told NPR that about 94% of the polyester it currently uses is recycled.

How does polyester affect our health?

We are exposed to plastics through our clothing, air and water, Stubbins said.

Some claims online say exposure to polyester can cause cancer and infertility. However, it has not been proven that polyester causes infertility in humans, Marino said.

Manufacturers may add various types of PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," to polyester to help it repel water, grease and dirt. PFAS have been linked to cancer, but Marino thinks most people are unlikely to get cancer by being exposed to the plastics in polyester, whether through clothing, air or water.

"Unless you are living near a landfill, or dealing with large quantities of polyester … you are not going to encounter a dose of those compounds that is likely to cause significant health concerns," Marino said.

Marino said there's a lot we don't know about polyester's effects on humans. But at the very least, it can trigger skin irritation, he said.

In California, Proposition 65 requires businesses to put labels on products that could contaminate water sources with chemicals known to cause cancer and reproductive harm. As a result, the labels may appear on garments at national retailers.

"It's a well-intentioned thing that they do, but the Proposition 65 sometimes does not accurately reflect the risks associated with these things," Marino said.

Stubbins acknowledges this and says ideally, businesses would be required to list the amount of the chemicals in clothing with the label to improve risk assessment. But on the other hand, the warnings are a valuable consumer tool, as they give consumers a level of transparency they may not get otherwise, he says.

"I would trust those labels, and sometimes they're the only indication to use that there is some concern around a product," he said.

What to keep in mind when shopping for clothes

All polyester is not created equal.

Cheaper polyester items are often made without quality control, and in countries with lax manufacturing regulations, Navarro Delgado said. One style of clothing could be made in several different countries, making consistency hard to achieve, he said.

Buying higher-end goods could help some, as luxury companies often have a representative at warehouses doing quality checks. But "for somebody who is not trained, it is very hard to know" the quality of polyester you're getting, Navarro Delgado said.

Palladino recommends reading books about textiles and going to fashion exhibits at museums. You can also ask yourself specific questions when you're buying clothes: What do you want to use the garment for? What happens to it after it's disposed of? How much did the people who made it get paid?

And if you're concerned about keeping polyester out of landfills, it's valuable to learn to mend your clothes instead of replacing them, Navarro Delgado said.

"The general population, we have lost a lot of touch with craft," he said.

But some people are doing their part to get it back.

"I'm always the person touching the clothing and removing it from the hanger, and then lifting it up and checking that fabric in composition to see what it's actually made of," Attah, the influencer, said.

Attah still buys polyester clothing, but only if she really loves it, and typically if it is no more than about 50% of an item's composition. But more often, she's opting for natural fibers. Palladino says his students are doing the same.

"It might have cost you a little more, but you're going to have it longer," Palladino said. "You're going to cherish it, and I think that's the word people have to start thinking about."

Full article: https://www.npr.org/nx-s1-5670290

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CULTURE | MONDAY, JANUARY 19, 2026 • 2:58 PM EST | VIEW ON NPR

Italian fashion designer Valentino dies at 93

By Maison Tran

Italian fashion designer Valentino died Monday at his Roman residence. He was 93.

His foundation announced his death on Instagram.

Dubbed an "international arbiter of taste" by Vogue, notable women wore his designs at funerals and weddings, as well as on the red carpet. He dressed the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Onassis, as well as modern stars from Anna Wintour to Gwyneth Paltrow and Zendaya.

The image of style and lavish living, Valentino's signature features included crisp suits and a "crème brûlée" complexion — due to his fervor for tanning. He was heavily inspired by the stars he saw on the silver screen and had a lifelong fixation with glamour.

"I love a beautiful lady, I love a beautiful dog, I love a beautiful piece of furniture. I love beauty, it's not my fault," he said in The Last Emperor, a 2008 documentary about him.

In the world of haute couture, Valentino embraced sophistication, elegance, and traditional femininity through his dresses and trademarked a vibrant red hue. His work embodied romance, luxury and an aristocratic lifestyle.

He was born Valentino Garavani and named after the silent movie star Rudolph Valentino. A self-described spoiled child, the designer acquired a taste for the expensive from a young age; his shoes were custom-made, and the stripe, color, and buttons of his blazers were designed to his specifications.

His father, a well-to-do electrical supplier, and his mother, who appreciated the value of a well-made garment, catered to their young son's refined palate and later supported his fashion endeavors, sending him to school and financing his early work.

Growing up in the small town of Voghera, Italy, he learned sewing from his Aunt Rosa in Lombardy. After high school, he moved to Paris to study fashion and take on apprenticeships.

Valentino owed much of his success to his former lover and business partner, Giancarlo Giammetti. The two met in a café on the famed Via Condotti in Rome in 1960, where Valentino had opened his first couture studio.

They founded Valentino Company the same year, and its first ready-to-wear shop opened in Milan in 1969. Together, the pair built a fashion empire over five decades.

They separated romantically when Valentino was 30, but remained business partners and close friends. Valentino knew little about business and accounting before meeting Giammetti; together, they formed two parts of a whole — Giammetti the business mind, and Valentino the creative force.

"Valentino has a perfect vision of how a woman should dress," Giammetti told Charlie Rose in 2009. "He looks for beauty. Women should be more beautiful. His work is to make women more beautiful."

They sold the Valentino company in 1998 for nearly $300 million. It made $1.36 billion in revenue in 2021, according to Reuters.

Even after his retirement in 2008, he couldn't completely leave fashion behind and continued to design dresses for opera productions.

Once the fashion world became more accessible to the public, millions of aspiring fashionistas bought jeans, handbags, shoes, umbrellas, and even Lincoln Continentals with his gleaming "V" monogram. By the peak of his career, Valentino's popularity would rival that of the pope's in Rome.

Full article: https://www.npr.org/1114518694

Table of Contents

National Public Radio: 2026 Jan 21

National

What to expect from Trump's Davos speech. And, the DOJ subpoenas Minnesota officials: 2026 Jan 21

Trump administration claims offshore wind poses a threat. But it won't say how.: 2026 Jan 21

How ICE grew to be the highest-funded U.S. law enforcement agency: 2026 Jan 21

It's showdown time for the Fed's independence at the Supreme Court: 2026 Jan 21

Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats: 2026 Jan 20

Wall Street-backed landlords a target for both Trump and Democrats: 2026 Jan 20

World

Greetings from Kalk Bay, a South African fishing village where wild seals await scraps: 2026 Jan 21

Blinken and British counterpart signal trans-Atlantic unity with visit to Ukraine: 2026 Jan 21

How the word 'cravat' came from the battlefields of 17th century Europe: 2026 Jan 21

Trump says 'I won't use force' to obtain Greenland in Davos speech: 2026 Jan 21

Israel agrees to join Trump's Board of Peace as some European nations say no: 2026 Jan 21

Law

Federal prosecutors subpoena Minnesota officials as immigration crackdown continues: 2026 Jan 20

Politics

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey have been subpoenaed by the DOJ: 2026 Jan 21

Trump speaks at length with reporters before heading off to Davos: 2026 Jan 20

President Trump set to hold the spotlight at Davos as international tension rises: 2026 Jan 20

Ex-Trump official weighs in on whether the presidency is operating without guardrails: 2026 Jan 20

Trump's Board of Peace has several invited leaders trying to figure out how it'll work: 2026 Jan 20

Less personnel drama but still sky-high turnover one year into Trump's new term: 2026 Jan 20

Gretchen Whitmer says it's not 'paranoia' to fear Trump disrupting elections: 2026 Jan 20

Health

How North Carolina erased medical debt for 2.5 million people: 2026 Jan 21

The divorce between the U.S. and WHO is final this week. Or is it?: 2026 Jan 20

Medicaid has a new way to pay for costly sickle cell treatment: Only if it works: 2026 Jan 20

New Orleans brings back the house call, sending nurses to visit newborns and moms: 2026 Jan 20

Busting common misconceptions about ways to prevent the flu: 2026 Jan 20

Space

The aurora borealis was visible in much of the U.S. last night due to a solar storm: 2026 Jan 20

Climate

Trump promised to cut energy bills in half. One year later, has he delivered?: 2026 Jan 20

Religion

Top U.S. archbishops denounce American foreign policy: 2026 Jan 20

Culture

Public domain contest challenges filmmakers to remix Betty Boop, Nancy Drew and more: 2026 Jan 21

Brooklyn Beckham accuses David and Victoria of putting branding before family and sabotaging wedding: 2026 Jan 21

'Let them.' The small bit of advice that made a big difference to a grieving widow: 2026 Jan 20

Poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths says she won't let pain be 'the engine that drives the ship': 2026 Jan 20

Here's who's canceled their Kennedy Center performances since Trump took over: 2026 Jan 20

Polyester clothing has been causing a stir online. But how valid are the concerns?: 2026 Jan 20

Italian fashion designer Valentino dies at 93: 2026 Jan 19