Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. The Pentagon is telling 1,500 active-duty troops in Alaska to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota, NPR has confirmed. This amid growing protests after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Mackling-Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department has opened criminal investigations into the state's governor and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frye.
Of course, we will comply in it. But at the same time, we need to be understanding how wild this is. And whether it's Senator Slotkin or Governor Walz or myself, this is not the way that we conduct ourselves in America.
Speaking there on ABC's This Week. President Trump is expected to announce a plan letting Americans use their retirement savings for down payments on homes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that starts tomorrow. Trump offered few details on how it will work, but the White House says he will present a final plan in Davos this week.
Meanwhile, President Trump's approval rating hovers slightly above 40 percent, and he's been working to communicate to voters his plans to make life more affordable. Implementation? That's another matter. And here's Daniel Kurtzleben reports.
Some of Trump's ideas he has been able to enact himself, like pulling back tariffs he himself instituted on some foods and beverages. Some he would need Congress to pass, like the outline of a health care plan he pitched, which would give Affordable Care Act subsidy money directly to consumers.
Speaker Mike Johnson has given a tepid response to another new Trump idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10%.
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Chapter 2: What recent events are impacting the deployment of troops in Minnesota?
Trump has been putting more energy into the affordability message since Democrats won November elections by leaning into that topic. However, his administration's attack on Venezuela, ICE troops in Minneapolis, and threats to Greenland have often overshadowed that message. Danielle Kurtzleben, NPR News.
Syrian government forces have taken control of another major city in northern Syria. And Pierre's Emily Fang reports.
On Sunday, Israel's energy minister wrote on the social media site X that he'd moved to implement legislation passed in December to cut off utilities to UNRWA. That's the agency that for decades has provided many social services in Palestinian communities in Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Though in 2024, Israel banned it from Israeli territory. Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas.
And while the agency has denied the allegations, it fired around two dozen of its employees as a result. Last week, Israeli security forces raided an UNRWA health care center in East Jerusalem. UNRWA still runs facilities in the occupied West Bank, but says that those schools and health care facilities will close down soon if their water and power are cut. Emily Fang, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
Wall Street is closed tomorrow in observance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. This is NPR News. More cities are turning to artificial intelligence to help address homelessness, using data and predictive algorithms to try to stop it before it starts. NPR's Windsor Johnston reports.
Cities like Los Angeles are using predictive algorithms to scan everything from emergency room visits to public benefits records, identifying people most at risk of losing housing. Janie Roundtree, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, says the goal is early intervention.
We are never going to solve the problem of homelessness unless we can not only house people who are already experiencing homelessness, we also have to prevent it before it happens. You need people to find those people in time to help them.
People flagged by the system get a call from a case manager and possibly one-time financial help. But critics warn the technology could raise privacy concerns and deepen existing inequities. Windsor Johnston, NPR News.
In southern Spain, at least 20 people are dead after two high-speed trains collided tonight. Officials say one of the trains derailed and then jumped onto the track of a train coming in the opposite direction, hitting that oncoming train. Dozens are injured.
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