NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-06-2026 2AM EST

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

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Want to get strong in 2026? Turns out you don't need to spend hours at the gym every week. Even just one session, 30 to 45 minutes a week, doing about one or two sets per exercise, that can be quite effective. How to get started with strength training. This week on the Life Kid podcast. Listen in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shay Steven. Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro pleaded not guilty to four U.S. criminal charges in New York Monday.

As NPR's Joe Hernandez reports, Maduro's initial court appearance marks the beginning of what could be a lengthy legal saga. Now that the ousted leader is on U.S. soil, the legal process of pretrial motions, plea negotiations, and possibly even a jury trial begins. Shane Stansberry is a professor at the Duke University School of Law and a former federal prosecutor. He says the case against Nicolas Maduro should mostly follow the typical path of any criminal case, with some notable exceptions. It's just that things may take longer, given the nature of the case, the type of evidence involved, the security considerations, and so forth. Legal experts say Maduro's defense team may raise a number of challenges in the pretrial phase, including Maduro's status as a head of state and whether his arrest was legal. If the case does go to trial, experts say it's unlikely it would begin this year. Joe Hernandez, NPR News.

Florida's large Venezuelan expatriate community is celebrating the capture and arrest of Maduro and curious about what comes next. More from NPR's Greg Allen. President Trump says with Maduro's ouster, his administration now supports another member of the Maduro regime, the newly sworn in interim president, Delci Rodriguez. Especially troubling to Venezuelan expatriates, where Trump's comments about opposition leader, Maria Karina Machado. Trump said he believes she doesn't have the support and respect to be able to lead Venezuela.

Since then, top Republicans, including Florida, Senator Rick Scott, have tried to walk back those comments. And I think it's going to happen, but it's going to take time to make that happen. Maria Karina Machado will be part of leadership of Venezuela, and I think she's well respected by Venezuela. Karina Machado is a Nobel Prize winner. His political coalition, according to the U.S., won the 2024 election before it was stolen by the Maduro regime.

Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami. Cuba is on high alert following the arrest of Nicholas Maduro, fearing U.S. action there, this after President Trump declared that Cuba is ready to fail. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz says he will not seek a third term in office while sites fallout over a viral video, suggesting that publicly funded Somali-run daycare centers in Minneapolis are shell companies. We've got conspiracy theorist right-wing YouTubers breaking into our daycares, demanding access to our children. We've got the President of the United States demonizing our Somali neighbors and wrongfully confiscating funds that Minnesotans rely on.

Malt says he'll leave the governor's office with zero sadness or regret, suggesting that being governor is about service and not a title. U.S. futures are flat and after hours trading on Wall Street on Asia-Pacific market shares are mostly higher up one and a half percent in Hong Kong. This is NPR. Seven more nations have been added to the list of countries requiring their citizens to pay bonds of up to $15,000 to visit the United States. All but three of those countries added to the list recently are in Africa. The others are in Bhutan and Turkmenistan. The African nations of Burkina Faso and Mali have imposed travel bans on U.S. citizens and retaliation for U.S. restrictions on African travelers.

Foreign journalists are still barred from entering and reporting on Gaza despite a three-month ceasefire from Tel Aviv. Etai Stern reports on the official rationale for continuing the ban. The government's lawyers told Israel's Supreme Court that despite the ceasefire, there are, quote, clear security reasons for why the ban should remain in place without much further elaboration. In the written statement to the court, they said journalists should continue to only be allowed in on ambeds with the Israeli military.

The Foreign Press Association, which includes NPR and other major media outlets working in Israel, argues that this unprecedented two-year-s ban must be lifted now that a ceasefire is in place. Israel is also, for the first time, banning dozens of humanitarian organizations from bringing foreign staff into Gaza under new registration requirements. For NPR News, I'm Itai Stern in Tel Aviv. A magnitude 6.2 earthquake rocked Western Japan Tuesday. There are no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage.

This is NPR News. Netflix's Stranger Things has reached its end, and we're unpacking the biggest moments in the final season. We'll talk about what we thought of the finale, what happened to our heroes when they set out to battle the forces of evil one last time, and, of course, the terrible wigs. Listen to pop culture happy hour. in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.