NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-21-2026 3PM EST

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

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President Trump says he wants Greenland for national security. But at least one Trump official has said it's also about critical minerals. Geologist Greg Barnes knows these minerals well. I just couldn't believe that something of this size and quality was there's sitting out there. On the indicator from planet money, is this really a land of untapped natural riches? Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Nora Rahm. President Trump says he won't use force to take over Greenland and that he's seeking negotiations to acquire the territory from Denmark.

His comments at the World Economic Forum come as Europeans are anxious over how the standoff will play out. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports. European leaders consider Trump's talk of acquiring Denmark's autonomous territory of Greenland and threatening to use sanctions on any country that stands in his way as crossing a red line. Greenland is under NATO's protection, they say, and any forceful attempt to take it would break the alliance. Arctic and Greenland expert Mika Blujan Mered says it's hard to predict what Trump will do, but territorial expansion to mark America's 250th anniversary this year is the kind of thing that would appeal to the president. He wants to provide something for the legacy.

Delivering the massive mineral-rich island would bring an additional 25% to the landmass of the U.S., he says, and make it the world's second largest country after Russia. Eleanor Beardsley in PR News, Paris. The Supreme Court heard arguments today on whether a president has the authority to fire a member of the Federal Reserve. President Trump wants to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook. He accuses her of mortgage fraud, which she denies. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, said allowing this could have consequences in the future. Let's talk about the real-world downstream effects of this.

Because if this were set as a precedent, it seems to me, just thinking big picture, what goes around, comes around, all of the current president's appointees would likely be removed for cause on January 20, 20, 29, if there's a Democratic president or January 20th, 2033. The Federal Reserve Board was set up to be independent to protected from political pressure. A congressional panel heard testimony on a public benefits fraud scandal in Minnesota. One witness was the right-wing influencer whose video allegations sparked new attention to the issue. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports. Nick Shirley said young people have lost trust in public benefits spending. A former Minnesota fraud investigator told lawmakers his early recommendations were not taken seriously, leading him to retire in 2019.

Republicans on the panel repeatedly cast blame on Democrats. though a witness with an independent watchdog called out the Trump administration for undermining anti-fraud efforts by, among other things, firing inspectors general and attacking whistleblowers. Lawmakers also heard from the head of an autism clinic for children who said her center did nothing wrong, yet now it's at risk of closing because all child care funding has been frozen by the Trump administration, which says it's protecting taxpayer dollars. Jennifer Lutton, NPR News, Washington. And you're listening to NPR News in Washington.

Washington. More soldiers are being told to prepare to go to Minnesota. A U.S. official has confirmed to NPR that an Army military police battalion stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has received a repair to deploy order to Minnesota. Last week, 1,500 soldiers with the Army's 11th Airborne Division in Alaska received the same order. A new study from the Pew Research Center finds that over the past decade Catholicism in Latin America has declined sharply. Aleja Hursler-McKane of Religious News Service, which reports. The largest Latin American countries are now only two-thirds Catholic. In some, like Brazil, Catholic adults make up less than half the population.

This represents a significant decrease over the last 10 years. That's largely because many Latin Americans are becoming religiously unaffiliated. But being unaffiliated doesn't mean they don't believe in God, or pray daily. They actually report doing both at almost the same rate as European Christians. Latin American Pentecostals have been an important demographic politically. Their support has been linked to conservative success, but Pugh's data shows that now a smaller share of Latin American Protestants are Pentecostal as compared to a decade ago. For NPR News, I'm Aleja Hertzler-McCain. Pork processor Smithfield Foods will buy Nathan's Famous, which has been selling hot dogs for more than a

century. The deal is worth $450 million. Nathan's was started as a hot dog card in 1916 by immigrant Nathan Handworker on Coney Island, New York, the site of a hot dog eating contest every 4th of July. I'm Nora Rahm. NPR News.