NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-07-2026 4AM EST

Episode Date: January 7, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Shea Stevens. A Venezuelan opposition leader is praising President Trump for seizing the country's former leader Likinus Maduro and Maduro's wife. Maria Karina Machado lauded Trump despite being sidelined in any future U.S. plans for her nation. More from NPR's Carrie Khan. Machado has posted little publicly since U.S. Special Forces removed Maduro and his wife, Speaking on Fox News, Machado said she wants to share her Nobel Peace Prize with President Trump. After spending most of the interview exalting Trump, Machado said her opposition party will come to power.

In free and fair elections, we will win with over 90% of the votes. I have no doubt about it. Trump broke with Machado following the U.S. military action, backing Maduro's vice president, who has since been appointed, Venezuela's new interim leader. U.S. officials say elections in Venezuela are not possible at this time. Trump insists the country's oil industry must be rebuilt first. Kerry Kahn, NPR News, Bogota, Colombia. Tuesday marked the fifth anniversary of the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The Trump administration has described the January 6th unrest as a peaceful protest among enthusiastic patriots. But House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffrey, says the nation must never forget what happened. aspire to be a better nation and make clear to the election deniers that we will never allow a violent insurrection to take place on American soil again. Five people died of injuries incurred during the January 6th attacks and more than 1,500 detainees were granted full or partial pardons. A plaque mandated by law to honor law enforcement officers who protected members of Congress that day has never been unveiled. NVIDIA is ramping a production of a kind of artificial intelligence chip that the Trump administration recently approved for sale to China. As NPR's John Bruich reports, the tech giant says demand is strong. The chips are called H-200s.

They're a type of graphics processing unit that's widely used to run AI models. The U.S. government had banned them from being sold to China. but last month, the Trump administration did in about face, giving NVIDIA a green light to sell H-200s to select customers in China. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang says Chinese demand is high and the company has fired up its H-200 supply chain in anticipation. He says Nvidia is working out the last licensing issues with the Trump administration.

Beijing will also have to approve purchases of the chips by Chinese companies, but Huang says he expects that to happen quietly and orders to flow, once the U.S. licensing is worked out. John Rewich, NPR News, Las Vegas. U.S. U.S. futures are flat and after-hours trading on Wall Street. This is NPR. According to the Wall Street Journal, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has told lawmakers that the Trump administration plans to buy Greenland. As the journal reports, Rubio says President Trump's threats to invade Greenland do not indicate any imminent invasion of the Dutch island. Trump has insisted that Greenland must be captured because of its strategic.

location and in order to protect U.S. national security. Convicted spy Aldrich Ames has died at the age of 84. The former CIA case officer was responsible for one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in U.S. history. Details from NPR's Giles Snyder. The Bureau of Prisons confirmed Aldrich Ames' death, saying he died Monday in a Maryland prison where he was serving a life sentence without possibility of parole. Ames was a CIA veteran who began passing secrets to Moscow in 1985 until he was amassed and arrested in 1994. His wife Rosario pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting his activities and was sentenced to 63 months in prison. The day before his own sentencing, Ames told the Washington Bowes said he was motivated by ongoing financial troubles. Ames admitted

to being paid a total of $2.5 million by Moscow for U.S. secrets. His activities are blamed for the executions of multiple agents working for the West. Trial Snyder, NPR News. Self-driving auto technology uses open AI. Its new family of open source models called Alpamayo will power new alternativeist and driver-assistant vehatures. Mercedes-Benz will be the first automaker to include NVIDIA AV stack units in its new EVs as soon as this quarter. This is NPR News.