Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. During his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Trump announced a war on fraud and Vice President J.D. Vance is leading the charge. Vance says the administration is taking a specific look at Minnesota, a state the administration has targeted on immigration and accusations of fraud in the Medicaid system, NPR's Deepa Shivaram reports.
Vance says they'll withhold $259 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota.
What we're doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously. to stop the fraud that's being perpetrated against the American taxpayer.
He said this could extend to other states, too. It's unclear, though, if there is legal authority to temporarily halt these funds. The administration has been accusing Somali Americans in Minnesota of pillaging billions of dollars from taxpayers. Almost 100 defendants, many of Somali descent, are facing federal charges. Deepa Shivaram, NPR News, the White House.
On social media, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accused the administration of attempting to punish Democratic-run states. Now to the four-year-long war in Ukraine, with talks on ending the war set to resume in Geneva on Thursday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has spoken by phone with President Trump, NPR's Joanna Kakisis reports.
In a post on social media, Zelensky says Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff were also on the call.
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Chapter 2: What recent actions did President Trump announce regarding fraud?
Zelensky says he thanked them for their efforts and that they talked about how to handle sticking points in negotiations. He says he proposed a series of steps to resolve, quote, complex and sensitive issues, though he does not detail those steps. Zelensky says Trump endorsed the idea. The issue of territory remains the most difficult.
The Kremlin wants Ukraine to hand over land in the east that is not occupied by Russia. Ukraine has refused and is pushing for binding security guarantees so Russia does not invade again. Joanna Kekises, NPR News, Kyiv.
NASA is releasing new details on last month's medical event that forced crew members to evacuate the International Space Station for the first time. From Central Florida Public Media, Brendan Byrne reports.
NASA identified 58-year-old Mike Fink as the crew member who experienced a medical event on the station. In a statement, Fink said the health problem required immediate attention, and thanks to the quick response of his crewmates, his status stabilized. That medical issue prompted NASA to bring the entire crew back home a month early so Fink could receive additional care back on the ground.
NASA has not released details on what type of medical issue Fink experienced. The early departure left the space station short-staffed. A replacement crew arrived at the station earlier this month. For NPR News, I'm Brendan Byrne in Orlando.
And you're listening to NPR News. Secretariat of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. is gathering information on the killing of four people who crossed into Cuban waters on a speedboat registered in Florida. Rubio says the Homeland Security Department and the Coast Guard are investigating. The Cuban government says the speedboat's occupants began firing when a Cuban border patrol boat approached.
In addition to the four people killed, Cuba says six others were wounded. Scientists have shown that it is possible to make some artificial intelligence systems smaller and more efficient.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of withholding Medicaid funding from Minnesota?
NPR's Sean Hamilton reports on a new study in the journal Nature.
Researchers set out to shrink an AI model that acts like a part of the brain's visual system. When they started, the model used 60 million variables. But Ben Cowley of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory says the team was able to make a streamlined version that had just 10,000 variables. And that is incredibly small. This is something we could send in a tweet or an email.
Cowley says the key was finding redundant or unnecessary elements and applying statistical techniques like those used to compress digital photos. The results suggest that a type of AI system that now requires a torrent of electricity could get by with just a trickle. John Hamilton, NPR News.
The financial markets in Asia are mostly advancing in Thursday trading following a rally on Wall Street led by the AI chip maker NVIDIA and other tech companies. NVIDIA posted better than expected fourth quarter results up 73 percent from the previous year to more than 68 billion dollars. Profits nearly doubled. I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.