NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-20-2026 9PM EST

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The Department of Justice has issued subpoenas from Minnesota Governor Tim Walls, the state's attorney general Keith Ellison, and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry. The Trump administration alleges the Democrats have been obstructing the immigration enforcement surge in the state's two largest cities. Walls, Ellison, and Fry have condemned the crackdown as dangerous, citing the fatal shooting of a 37-year-old woman by an immigration officer. Today, President Trump defended how federal agents have been on. operating. They're going to make mistakes sometimes. ICE is going to be too rough with somebody or, you know, they're dealing with rough people. They're going to make a mistake sometimes. It can happen.

We feel terribly. I felt horribly when I was told that the young woman who was, uh, had the tragedy. It's a tragedy. It's a horrible thing. Everybody would say, ICE would say the same thing. Trump administration officials have previously described the woman, Renee Maclin Good, as a domestic terrorist, who attempted to ram federal agents with her car. President Trump's tariff threats over Greenland are straining relations with America's key NATO allies. French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Trump's approach, warning of potential retaliation. The European Union's top official says tariffs would be a mistake and are threatening

their own economic sanctions. Trump argues the U.S. needs Greenland to counter threats from China and Russia. Legal observers have been waiting for a Supreme Court decision on President Trump's tariff powers, but as NPR's Anita Totenberg reports, it likely won't come until February. Despite what most people think, nobody except Supreme Court personnel, has any idea what cases are going to be announced on opinion days. And today was no exception. Despite the drum role of tariff predictions, the justices delivered three decisions in relatively obscure procedural cases. And with only oral arguments scheduled for tomorrow, after that, the court

is not expected back on the bench until February 23rd, as the coming month is the midterm break reserved for justices to work on writing opinions in outstanding cases. Nina Totenberg and PR News, Washington. Forecasters are warning that a new storm could bring ice and power outages across the south this weekend. The exact timing and path remain uncertain, but an Arctic airmass from Canada is expected to clash with rain, creating a major winter storm from Texas to North Carolina. Temperatures will be slow to warm and merit many areas, meaning ice that forms on roads and sidewalks might stick around. Northern states will remain in a deep freeze due to polar air.

The forecasted high for Minneapolis on Friday is negative 10 degrees. Stock sank on Wall Street today after President Trump threatened to hit European countries with new tariffs over his attempts to take over Greenland. The S&P 500 fell more than 2%. The Dow dropped more than 1.7%. The Nasdaq slid nearly 2.4%. It's NPR. Israeli forces have targeted two United Nations facilities as part of their crackdown on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Cruise bulldozed the United Nations relief and works agencies' offices and fired tear gas at a vocational school. Israel's foreign ministry says the demolition enforced a new law banning UNRWA, claiming the agency has ties with militant groups.

The UN has denied those claims. Israel has long. claim the agency has an anti-Israel bias, often with little evidence. A new study finds that Antarctic penguins are radically shifting their start of their breeding season as temperatures warm. NPR's Nate Rot reports it could disrupt their ability to get food. Over the course of 10 years, researchers used remote-controlled cameras to see when penguins set up colonies to breed at more than three dozen sites. They looked at three different species and found that all had moved up their breeding season by at least 10 days on average. Some population shifted their breeding seasons up by more than three weeks.

The Antarctic is one of the fastest warming places on Earth as human emissions trap more heat in the atmosphere. And the studies authors warn that shifting breeding seasons could throw penguins out of sink with other parts of the environment. Most concerningly, other species they depend on for food. Nate Rod, NPR News. Retired CBS Philadelphia News anchor Jim Donovan has amassed the world's largest collection of socks. Guinness World Records confirmed the collection includes 1,531 unique pairs of socks. Donovan says viewers noticed his colorful socks during his tenure on air and several-cent socks that include his own face. This is NPR News.

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