NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-08-2026 10AM EST

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corvick Holman. Fresh protests are underway this morning in Minneapolis. This comes a day after an ice agent shot and killed a woman in her car. Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noam defended the ice agent, saying the driver, Renee Nicole Good, struck him with her car. NPR has reviewed multiple videos of the scene. The officer does not appear to be hit and can be seen walking after he fired the deadly shots. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison says Noam should not have drawn that conclusion yet.

The Homeland Security Secretary has already said we did nothing wrong, even though there's been no investigation, which is really disturbing. You know, you would think that Homeland Security Secretary would be the first to say, let's suspend judgment and look into it. That's not what we saw. We saw the Homeland Security Secretary defame. you know, Ms. Good by calling her a domestic terrorist. She was anything but that. She spoke to NPR's Morning Edition. The Trump administration has pulled out of 66 international organizations calling them wasteful and too focused on progressive ideology. The list includes many U.N. agencies. NPR's Michelle Kellerman reports from Tel Aviv. Secretary of State,

Marco Rubio, says he's taking aim at what he calls a sprawling architecture of global governance. He blasted programs aimed at gender equity and what he calls climate orthodoxy. And Rubio said this latest move expands on his decision to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development. He's pulling funds from U.N. offices that focus on sexual violence and violence against children and withdrawing the U.S. from the U.N. peace-building fund. That promotes peace around the world and here in this region supports Israeli and Palestinian civil society groups. The U.S. is not among the top 12 donors to that organization. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Tel Aviv.

Stocks open mixed this morning as the Commerce Department reported a sharp drop in the U.S. trade deficit. NPR Scott Horsley reports the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 55 points in early trading. The U.S. trade gap narrowed in October to a little over $29 billion. That's down 39 percent from the previous month. exports rose in October while imports fell. U.S. workers got more productive in the late summer and early fall. The labor department says productivity rose by nearly 5% during the third quarter. That's important because when workers are more productive,

they can earn higher wages without putting upward pressure on prices. Wage growth has slowed in recent months, however, as the job market has softened. New applications for unemployment benefits inched up last week. We'll get a full report on December unemployment tomorrow. Scott Horsley, MPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News from Washington. The Senate is preparing to consider a war powers resolution. This would seek to limit President Trump's ability

to carry out further military attacks in Venezuela without congressional authorization. Some Democratic lawmakers are also putting together a similar resolution. It would try to block Trump from acting against Greenland. The anti-parasitic drug Ivermectum has been been scientifically discredited as a treatment for COVID, and it doesn't hold much promise for cancer. But NPR's Yuki Noguchi reports, over the past year, renewed interest in Ivermectin has doctors increasingly worried. New Orleans oncologist Jonathan Mizrahi sees some cancer patients

spurn normal chemotherapies in favor of Ivermectin, despite there being no evidence it works. Ms. Rahi, like many doctors, worry conservative political social media especially is amplifying this disinformation. The nature of politics today where it really does permeate so many dimensions of people's lives makes its way into the exam room. It does. I mean, there's no doubt about that. So far, five Republican-led state legislatures have made Ivermectin available over the counter. Florida is also funding cancer research using Ivermectin. Yuki NPR News. In Los Angeles yesterday, Nick Reiner was not formally charged with killing his parents, Hollywood director Rob Reiner, and his wife, Michelle.

Nick Reiner never entered a plea. That's because his lawyer has withdrawn from the case but did not explain why. Nick Reiner will now be represented by a public defender. I'm Corva Coleman, NPR News, from Washington.