Chapter 1: What is the situation with the deployment of soldiers to Minnesota?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Hurst. The Pentagon has placed 1,500 active-duty soldiers on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota, NPR has confirmed. This comes as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz mobilized the state's National Guard yesterday to help local law enforcement if needed. NPR's Kat Lonsdorf has more.
That official tells NPR that the troops will be coming from Alaska, where they specialize in cold weather operations. It's very cold in Minneapolis right now. Those troops have been placed unprepared to deploy orders in case the situation here escalates. NPR reached out to the Pentagon to confirm.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, quote, the Department of War is always prepared to execute the orders of the commander in chief if called upon. President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act last week.
Chapter 2: What are the details surrounding the recent deaths at the detention center?
But the situation on the ground has been relatively quiet the past few days, and local leaders have urged calm. Kat Lonsdorf, NPR News, Minneapolis.
ICE is reporting another death at the largest detention center in the country. The Nicaraguan man is the third person to die at the massive detention camp run by a private contractor. Angela Kocherga with member station KTEP has more.
ICE says Victor Manuel Diaz died at the tent facility last Wednesday. The 36-year-old from Nicaragua had been in custody since January 6, when ICE says agents encountered him in Minneapolis and determined he was in the country illegally. According to ICE, staff at the massive detention camp in El Paso found Diaz unconscious and called for emergency medical help.
ICE says the death is a presumed suicide. There are conflicting reports about another death at the camp that ICE says was suicide.
Chapter 3: How is President Trump addressing the reconstruction of Gaza?
A detainee told the Associated Press that man was in an altercation with staff when he died. For NPR News, I'm Angela Kocherga in El Paso.
President Trump is inviting world leaders to join the Board of Peace, a new body that will help rehabilitate Gaza after the war. NPR's Danielle Estrin has more.
The United Nations Security Council officially sanctioned the new Board of Peace to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza. But Gaza is not mentioned once in the charter of the new Board of Peace that President Trump will head. NPR has obtained a copy of the charter being distributed.
Trump seeks a broad mandate to secure peace in conflict zones, suggesting Trump may wish to use it as a kind of alternative UN to handle other world conflicts in addition to Gaza. The charter appears to criticize the United Nations by calling for, quote, a more nimble and effective international peace-building body.
The document says permanent member countries must donate at least $1 billion each, and Trump would have broad powers as chairman.
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of the new Board of Peace established by Trump?
Daniel Estrin, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
You're listening to NPR News from Washington. A beloved Epicurean magazine will make a comeback of sorts this year. As NPR's Netta Ulubi reports, Gourmet magazine is finding new life in a new form.
Gourmet magazine shuttered in 2009, but its former publisher, CondƩ Nast, kept renewing its trademark for years. Recently, a sharp-eyed food writer named Sam Dean noticed the rights had expired. He came up with a plan to reboot Gourmet as an online-only newsletter, along with a group of other journalists. Most are in their 30s and too young to have written for the original gourmet.
That speaks to the original magazine's influence. Its last editor, Ruth Reichel, has given the new newsletter her blessing.
Chapter 5: How is Gourmet magazine making a comeback?
But it will launch on Tuesday as a fully independent operation, owned by its workers, without the imprimatur of CondƩ Nast. Nada Ulibi, NPR News.
A rare purple star sapphire, weighing 3,563 carats and claimed to be the world's biggest of its kind, is going up for sale. The estimated value? $300 to $400 million. One of the owners says the stone, which has been polished, was found in a gem pit near the remote Sri Lankan town of Rathnapura. known as the City of Gems, in 2023.
It was bought together with other stones, but it took around two years for the special sapphire to be discovered amongst the others. Sri Lankan sapphires are known for their unique color, clarity, and shimmer. Asian markets are trading lower at this hour than Nikkei, the main market in Japan, down 1.4 percent.
Chapter 6: What is the story behind the world's largest purple star sapphire going up for sale?
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