NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-18-2026 7PM EST

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

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This message comes from Data Bricks, the data and AI company. Are your AI agents working? Most aren't reliable for business. You need AI that's accurate. Agent Bricks, AI agents grounded in your data and built for your goals. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. The Pentagon is telling 1,500 active-duty troops in Alaska to prepare for possible deployment to Minnesota, NPR has confirmed. This amid growing protests after an ICE agent shot and killed Renee Mackling Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Justice Department has opened criminal investigations into the state's governor and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Fry. Of course, we will comply in it. But at the same time, we need to be understanding how wild this is. And whether it's Senator Slokkin or Governor Walls or myself, this is not the way that we conduct ourselves in America. speaking there on ABCs this week. President Trump is expected to announce a plan letting Americans use their retirement savings for down payments on homes at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that starts tomorrow.

Trump offered few details on how it will work, but the White House says he will present a final plan in Davos this week. Meanwhile, President Trump's approval rating hovers slightly above 40 percent, and he's been working to communicate to voters his plans to limit. life more affordable. Implementation, that's another matter. And here's Daniel Kurtzleben reports. Some of Trump's ideas he has been able to enact himself, like pulling back tariffs he himself instituted on some foods and beverages. Some he would need Congress to pass, like the outline of a health care plan he pitched, which would give Affordable Care Act subsidy money directly to consumers.

Speaker Mike Johnson has given a tepid response to another new Trump idea to cap credit card interest rates at 10%. Trump has been putting more energy into the affordability message since Democrats won November elections by leaning into that topic. However, his administration's attack on Venezuela, ICE troops in Minneapolis, and threats to Greenland have often overshadowed that message. Danielle Kurtzleben and PR News. Syrian government forces have taken control of another major city in northern Syria and peers Emily Fang reports. On Sunday, Israel's energy minister wrote on the social media that he'd moved to implement legislation passed in December to cut off utilities to UNRWA. That's the agency that for decades has provided many social services in Palestinian communities

in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. Though in 2024, Israel banned it from Israeli territory. Israel has accused UNRWA of being infiltrated by Hamas. And while the agency has denied the allegations, it fired around two dozen of its employees as a result. Last week, Israeli security forces raided in UNRWA Healthcare Center, Jerusalem. Unruh still runs facilities in the occupied West Bank, but says that those schools and health care facilities will close down soon if their water and power are cut. Emily Fang and Peer News Tel Aviv. Wall Street is closed tomorrow in observance of the Martin Luther King

Jr. holiday. This is NPR News. More cities are turning to artificial intelligence to help address homelessness using data and predictive algorithms to try to stop it before. It starts. And Pierce-Winzer-Johnston reports. Cities like Los Angeles are using predictive algorithms to scan everything from emergency room visits to public benefits records, identifying people most at risk of losing housing. Janie Roundtree, executive director of the California Policy Lab at UCLA, says the goal is early intervention. We are never going to solve the problem of homelessness unless we cannot only house people

who are already experiencing homelessness. we also have to prevent it before it happens. You need people to find those people in time to help them. People flag by the system get a call from a case manager and possibly one-time financial help. But critics warn the technology could raise privacy concerns and deepen existing inequities. Windsor Johnston, NPR News. In southern Spain, at least 20 people are dead after two high-speed trains collided tonight. officials say one of the trains derailed and then jumped onto the track of a train coming in the opposite direction hitting that oncoming train. Dozens are injured.

Officials say the accident happened in a hard-to-reach area, and the local residents were helping people on the trains with blankets and with water. So far, there's no word on the cause of the accident. Asian markets are trading slightly lower at this hour. The Asia Dow is down about one-tenth of a percent. I'm Janine Herbst, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from the NBC News original podcast, Here's the Scoop. Every evening, join NBC News reporters for a deep dive into the day's top stories, from the front page to the zeitgeist in 15 minutes or less.

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