NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-21-2026 8PM EST

Episode Date: January 22, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. There is a sense of relief in Europe that President Trump is not pursuing military force to take Greenland. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley says Europeans know that the crisis is far from over. Danish foreign minister Lars Lek-Rasmussen welcomed the fact that Trump now says he won't use force to capture Greenland, but warned that his expansionist ambitions remain intact. Speaking on French television, former NATO General Olivier de Bavévin, Schove remarked on Trump's disdain for Europe. He basically said, you are all ingrates. We Americans do everything, and without us, you are

nothing. Then, a few hours after his speech, Trump said he and NATO Secretary General Mark Ruta have reached agreement on a framework of a future deal on Greenland. No details yet, though it does not apparently entail the U.S. owning the Arctic Island. Eleanor Beardsley and Pierre News, Paris. The Department of Homeland Security today confirmed it has launched an immigration enforcement operation in Maine. Maine public's Ari Snyder has more. The confirmation comes after days of mounting speculation that ramped up enforcement was imminent and as a growing number of videos cropped up on social media purporting to show ICE arrests in southern and central Maine.

Portland mayor Mark Dion says ICE's tactics around the country have put his city on edge. While we respect the law, we challenge the need for a person. paramilitary approach for the enforcement of federal statutes. DHS did not immediately return a request for comment about the number of people arrested so far. For NPR News, I'm Ari Snyder in Portland, Maine. Just 32 companies can be linked to more than half the world's carbon emissions from fossil fuels and cement. That's according to an annual release of data from carbon majors, a project run by a think tank and designed to hold energy producers accountable for their role in climate change.

NPR's Kamila Dominovsky reports. Carbon majors focuses on climate warming emissions from oil, gas, coal, and cement, not things like agriculture or deforestation. It identifies who extracted fuel rather than the buyer who used it as responsible for emissions. In 2024, the year for the most recent data release, the report found that the top 10 companies responsible for more than a quarter of those emissions were all state-owned oil companies, led by Saudi Arabia's Aramco. The report also found that most state-owned oil companies are increasing their emissions, while most investor-owned companies are decreasing theirs. Emissions overall continue to rise. Kamila Dominovsky, NPR News. Iranian state TV has issued the government's official death toll from recent protests, saying 3,117 people were killed in the anti-government demonstrations that began December 28th.

That's lower than the fort, more than 4,500 people, humanitarian observers say died. State television says more than 2400. hundred of those killed were civilians and security forces. This is NPR. Surveys by the Pew Research Center find that the Catholic population in Latin American countries shrank over the last decade. A growing percentage of Latin American adults identify as religiously unaffiliated. But Catholicism remains the dominant religion in the region. Its influence has been eroded by clergy sex abuse scandals and the church's opposition to abortion and LGBTQ plus rights. The United States is among a number of

countries that have expressed worry about violence in South Sudan, Michael Koloki has more. In a joint statement through their diplomatic missions in South Sudan, several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and France, said they were gravely concerned about recent violence in parts of South Sudan, including in jungley and eastern equator states. The joint statement called on all the war in parties to agree on an immediate cessation of hostilities, as well as guarantee safe and unhindered humanitarian access. According to a recent UN report, armed confrontations in several parts of South Sudan have compromised the protection of civilians with the agency noting that the ongoing violence has led to the forced displacement of people. For NPR news, I'm Michael Kaloki in Nairobi.

Handprints on the walls of Indonesian caves, maybe the oldest rock art studied so far, dating back at least 67,000 years. The tan-colored prints uncovered on the island of Sulawesi were made by blowing pigment over hands, placed against the cave walls. Researchers dated mineral crusts and discovered they are the oldest to be found on cave walls. They aren't sure yet whether the prints were made by modern humans or an ancient human group called Denise Evans. This is NPR News from Washington.