NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-23-2026 9AM EST

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

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Live from NPR News in Washington on Krova Coleman, a giant ice and snowstorm is bearing down on much of the U.S. this weekend. NPR's Debbie Elliott reports the National Weather Service says more than 170 million people are in the path of the dangerous winter storm. Forecasters say heavy snow and crippling ice are in store for a large section of the country, and frigid temperatures will persist into next week. More than a half dozen states have declared emergencies and pulled up national. Guard troops, Governor Jeff Landry warns that residents in North Louisiana could be without electricity for days. An ice storm is going to create power outages. Ice accumulates on trees. It accumulates on the lines and then it causes them to fail. School systems, including Chicago, Des Moines and Milwaukee canceled classes today. And airlines have canceled hundreds of

lights. Debbie Elliott, NPR News. A five-year-old boy is at the center of a controversial arrest by ICE agents in Minnesota. He's now in federal custody in Texas. NPR Saraventry reports he's the fourth child detained from the same school district over the last few weeks. The child, Liam Conejo Ramos, was taken from a running car in the family's driveway when federal immigration agents came to arrest his father. That's according to Zina Stenvick, the Columbia Heights Public School Superintendent, the district with a boy as a student. She claims the child was used as bait to bring his family members out of their home. In a post on X, DHS says the child was abandoned by his parents, and that's why he was taken. They've confirmed that both the child and his father are

being held at the Dilley Detention Center outside of San Antonio in Texas. DHS continues to say that it's taking dangerous criminals off the streets of Minneapolis and that its officers have made over 3,000 arrests in the last six weeks. Sarah Ventry, NPR News, Minneapolis. Swing voters will be key in this year's midterm elections. NPR recently spoke to a focus group of 14 voters in Pennsylvania. NPR's Mara Liason reports the group voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

They are right-leaning, more identify as Republicans and independence than Democrats. But one thing they have all in common is they take a very dim view of both major parties. They were asked to use one word to describe each party. Here's what they had to say about Republicans. Trump. Weak. Conservative. Bewildered. Outspoken. Pediatric. Loyal. Immoral. And here's what they said about Democrats. Distracted. I'm prepared. Panicked. Sensitive. Winy. Scary. Disorientant. Corrupt. Members of the group also said they wanted President Trump to focus less on Greenland and Venezuela and more on the U.S. economy. This is NPR. Some 15,000 nurses are still on strike in the New York City area. They're demanding that several hospital systems improve security for nurses, and they

want wage increases. Hospital representatives say the nurses' union is making demands that are costly and unreasonable. The nurses walked off the job January 12th. There are some ongoing negotiations, but contract talks are going slowly. A new report says, shipping companies worldwide left behind a record number of workers in foreign countries last year. They had no way to return home. The International Transport Workers Federation says more than 6,000 workers on ships were left stranded in another country. NPR's Jackie Northam reports. ITF represents international transport workers worldwide. It says Indian seafarers were the worst affected, with more than 1,000 abandoned last year. The Indian government announced it would

blacklist shipping companies with a record of repeat abandonments. Filipinos were the second worst affected, followed by Syrians. The Middle East and Europe are the worst regions overall for abandoning crew members, and specifically Turkey and the United Arab Emirates has significantly higher incidents than any other countries. Jackie Northam, NPR News. Video-sharing app TikTok has finished negotiating a deal to sell most of its Chinese stake to new investors. They're led by billionaire Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

The sale was motivated by a federal law that forces Chinese owners to divest from TikTok over U.S. national security concerns. This is NPR.