NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-27-2025 3AM EST

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

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Okay, so does this sound like you? You love NPR's podcasts, you wish you could get more of all your favorite shows, and you want to support NPR's mission to create a more informed public. If all that sounds appealing, then it is time to sign up for the NPR Plus bundle. Learn more at plus.npr.org. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Willman. Israel has begun allowing Palestinians to return to northern Gaza. The region has been heavily damaged during the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas. It's the first time people have been allowed to return since the early weeks of the war. The opening was delayed because of a dispute over the terms of the ongoing ceasefire. Vice President JD Vance

Sunday defended President Donald Trump's effort to end birthright citizenship which is protected by the 14th Amendment. Speaking on CBS's Face the Nation, Vance made its case for ending the citizenship which allows anyone born in the US to become a citizen. It's a very basic principle in American immigration law that if you want to become an American citizen and you've done it the right way, and the American people and their collective wisdom have welcomed you into our national community, then you become a citizen.

But temporary residents, people who come in here, whether legally or illegally, and don't plan to stay, their children shouldn't become American citizens. I don't know any country that does that or why we would be different. President Donald Trump says he's still intent on turning Canada into a US state. And Piers Marlison has more on that story. Talking to reporters on Air Force One this weekend, President Trump repeated his threat to somehow make Canada the 51st state. He said he would first pressure Canada by putting 25% tariffs on Canadian imports starting February 1st. Tariffs that are prohibited by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement, an agreement negotiated by Trump himself in his first term.

Tariffs that would likely raise prices for Americans on cars, gasoline and other imported items. Trump went on to claim without evidence that Canada wouldn't survive without what he says, falsely, is a quarter of a trillion dollars in subsidies from the U.S. Trump also repeated his threat to take over Greenland, perhaps by military force. Mara Liason, NPR News. Investors on Wall Street are heading into a busy week with the Federal Reserve set to hold its latest policy meeting and as NPR's Rafael Nam reports, top companies that include Apple will also be reporting their earnings.

It's a key stretch of the month with some of the country's biggest companies set to report their earnings. Tesla, Starbucks, Exxon and big tech companies like Apple are among the companies reporting their results this week. As if that wasn't enough, investors will also face the first Federal Reserve meeting of the year. Policymakers are widely expected to keep interest rates on hold given that inflation remains pretty sticky. Investors will also get the latest GDP data for the October widely expected to keep interest rates on hold, given that inflation remains pretty sticky. Investors will also get the latest GDP data for the October to December period. It will provide an economic report card for the final stretch of the Biden administration. listening to NPR News.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging an underwater cable in the Baltic Sea. As Terry Schultz reports, the case is being investigated as sabotage and comes just a month after several cables between Finland and Estonia were damaged. Sweden's National Prosecutor's Office has opened a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage of an undersea communications cable linked to Latvia. A ship tracked crossing the cable around the time of the damage early Sunday has been detained. A similar incident last month off Finland's coast sparked the launch of a new NATO security

operation involving the deployment of ships, planes and drones to surveil the Baltic Sea. Speaking in Brussels Sunday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kirstutis Budris welcomed the backup. We have to increase the overall security level in the Baltic Sea, better monitoring, better prevention and overall control of what is happening. European Union foreign ministers will discuss increasing threats to critical undersea infrastructure at a meeting in Brussels Monday. For NPR News, I'm Terry Schultz in Brussels. Author Percival Everett has won the American Library Association's Carnegie Mellon for

Excellence in Fiction for his book, James. The award comes with a $5,000 cash prize. Kevin Fadarko's A Walk in the Park was chosen as the non-fiction winner. While critics hated it and moviegoers didn't seem to care for it too much either, the movie Flight Risk opened this weekend with the number one slot at the movie theaters. Directed by Mel Gibson, it brought in a modest $12 million. The Disney film Mufasa placed in second, bringing in $8.7 million. And the Best Picture nominee, The Brutalist, took in $2.9 million.

I'm Dale Willman, NPR News.