Up First from NPR - Trump and Minnesota, Venezuela's Opposition, Trump's Healthcare Plan

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Protests intensify in Minneapolis after a second ICE-related shooting, as President Trump threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota.Venezuela’s top opposition leader brings her Nobel Peace Prize to Washington to press her case with President Trump, even as the U.S. signals support for an interim leader.And President Trump unveils what he calls a new healthcare plan, leaning on cheaper insurance with limited benefits as Congress debates the future of ACA subsidies.Want more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Cheryl Corley, Tara Neill, Diane Webber, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle.It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Nia Dumas and Christopher Thomas.We get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Our Executive Producer is Jay Shaylor.(0:00) Introduction(1:57) Trump and Minnesota(05:29) Venezuela's Opposition(09:20) Trump's Healthcare PlanLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Protests are growing in Minnesota after the second shooting by a federal agent in the state. President Trump is threatening to send in the military on top of the thousands of federal agents already there. I'm A. Martinez, that is Michelle Martin, and this is up first from NPR News. Venezuela's top opposition leader brought her Nobel Peace Prize to Washington and handed it to President Trump. But in Caracas, the country's interim president struck a defiant tone in her national address. So who does the White House actually back to lead Venezuela? And President Trump says he has a health care plan. We're calling it the great health care plan.

It leans on cheaper insurance plans with fewer benefits. What does Trump's plan mean for negotiations over subsidies that kept premiums low under Obamacare? Say with us, we've got the news you need to start your day. This message comes from Databricks, the data and AI company. AI agents work best when they have the right context. Your unique data, your research, your research. rules, your workflows. Agent Bricks helps companies build agents that are accurate, continuously learning, and automate everyday tasks. It's AI built for how your business actually runs.

Agent Bricks by Data Bricks. AI agents grounded in your data and build for your goals. At Radio Lab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or politics. Country music. Hockey. Sex. Of bugs.

Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radio Lab, Adventures on the Edge of what we think we know. Wherever you get your podcast. President Trump has threatened to take military action against Minnesota to stop the protest in Minneapolis. On Wednesday, immigration officer shot another man, this time in the leg, which which spark unrest on the city's north side. And Pyrus, Meg Anderson is in Minneapolis,

and is with us now to give us latest. Good morning, Meg. Good morning. You know, looking at this from the outside, things seem pretty volatile, but thankfully, you're there. So could you just describe what you're seeing? Yeah, there are now as many as 3,000 federal immigration officers on the ground or arriving soon here in the Twin Cities.

That's nearly five times the number of Minneapolis police officers. And, you know, the city is sometimes quiet until it is really, really not. And that's because the fierce resistance to this ice surge continues to be noisy as community members are following immigration officers in their car, honking and whistling. Here's how that sounds. And I should note the observers filming and making noise, those peaceful acts of resistance, even though they're chaotic, are protected by the Constitution. But ICE has responded to some confrontations over the last week with a lot of aggression. Over the last five days, NPR reporters, myself included, we've seen ICE officers using TIA.

Fear gas, flashbangs, and pepperballs to disperse crowds. But the community here, you know, it's responding in quieter ways, too. Well, say more about that if you would. How so? Yeah, so if you drive around the Twin Cities, you'll see parents and other community members standing guard outside of schools and daycares with whistles around their necks. Residents are collecting food donations and giving rides to people who are afraid to leave the house. And people are afraid to leave their homes. I spoke to one woman, an asylum seeker, with two young U.S. citizen children. She has to only be identified by her first initial A

because she's afraid she'll be deported if she's identified. She has not left her home in several weeks. She said she feels like she can't see a future, a stable tomorrow for herself or her family. And these fears being afraid to leave the house, they're not unfounded. NPR reporters have witnessed immigration officers stopping and even detaining people of color seemingly at random on the street. I should note that just

yesterday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the administration, accusing it of racial profiling against Latino and Somali people here. And President Trump also threatened yesterday to use the Insurrection Act against Minnesota. Would you explain exactly what that would mean? Yeah. So first, the president has threatened to use that law many times before and hasn't. Still, in a post on Truth Social, he said he would invoke the act if state officials don't quote, stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of ICE. That law is more than 200 years old. It's controversial. Basically, it would give the president sweeping powers to deploy the military here without the state's

consent. The last time it was invoked was during the 1992 riots in Los Angeles. And how are local leaders responding to this? So Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he would challenge the use of the law in court. He emphasized in a statement to NPR that Minnesotans are responding peacefully. There's no reason for that law to be invoked. Senator Amy Klobuchar has said the administration is escalating the situation and not the other way around. That is NPR's Meg Anderson. Meg, thank you. You're welcome. Venezuela's leading opposition figure came to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Trump for the first time and presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize. Maria Corina Machado is making a push

to remain part of Venezuela's future after the U.S. military operation that led to the seizure of deposed leader Nikola Maduro. Trump has sideline Machado and is backing Venezuela's acting president, who at the same time yesterday was in Caracas, giving a defiant and a times compliance speech before lawmakers. For more, we go to Empire South America, correspondent Kerry Khan, who joins us from Rio National Arrow. Carrie, good morning. Good morning. So Maria Carino Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize, at least her citation to Trump. Why? She told a reporter she presented it to him as, quote, a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom. Trump did confirm. He accepted it on social media. He wrote, Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done.

Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Machado has been trying to curry favor with Trump since she received the prize. Trump has long bemoaned not being awarded it. After the U.S. capture of Maduro, Trump, shockingly, announced he was not backing Machado. He said she didn't have the support or respect within Venezuela. Recent polling by Bloomberg and the economist shows she still has substantial support. And her party is widely believed to have won the disputed 2024 presidential election by a landslide. So let's turn to the person that President Trump is backing in Venezuela, the interim president, Delci Rodriguez, who was obviously a part of the previous regime. She was giving a big speech in Venezuela at the same time that Machado was in D.C. It was kind of an interesting split-screen image. So what did

Rodriguez say? The timing was extraordinary. Rodriguez gave a scheduled state of the nation's speech. She was stepping in for deposed President Maduro. Rodriguez has been walking this balancing act. She tries to appease hardliners in the government with defiant talk while also making sure not to upset Trump. And yesterday she definitely did just that. She's saying, look, pretty much our country was attacked, invaded by the strongest military in the world and nuclear power, so we have to resume diplomatic relations with the U.S., and we can't be afraid to do that. But then she added,

if one day I go to Washington, she says it will be on her terms. I will do so standing tall, not being dragged, never crawling, she said. She says she's also open to foreign investment in the state oil industry. The Trump administration has already announced it's begun. selling Venezuela's oil. Did Rodriguez say anything about releasing more political prisoners? She did say there is a massive release underway and it will continue. And what she says is this new era of tolerance of opposition in Venezuela. Families and prisoners are still holding vigil up prisons and waiting for releases. Here's Aurora Silva. She's at a maximum security prison

outside Caracas. She's been waiting for days for her husband, who's a member of Machado's opposition party to be released. He was picked up in the widespread repression following the disputed 2024 presidential elections. She says they need to fulfill their promise of this massive freeing of prisoners. And she says, and finally end all of our suffering and pain. You know, they've been waiting there for days overnight in the cold and in terrible conditions waiting for these releases. The government says more than 400 prisoners have been released, right?

groups say that number is in the dozens, and there are more than 800 political prisoners still in jails in Venezuela. That is. NPR's Kerry Khan at Rio de Janeiro. Carrie, thank you. You're welcome. President Trump repeatedly promised a replacement for the Affordable Care Act throughout his first term in the White House. Now a year into his second term, Trump says he finally has a plan. Today, I'm thrilled to announce my plan to lower health care prices for all. Americans and truly make health care affordable again. We're doing things that nobody's ever been able to do. We're calling it the great health care plan. NPR, Selina Simmons-Duffin covers health

policy and is with us now. Good morning, Selena. Good morning, Michelle. So what are the highlights? Well, what came out yesterday was a fact sheet. It's very sparse on details, and the policies mentioned there are not really new. It's kind of like a greatest hits of Republican health policy ideas packaged together. You've got the idea of tying drug prices to what people pay in other countries, health savings accounts, and better price transparency. But is this the affordable care replacement that President Trump has been alluding to for years? Well, it doesn't mention repealing Obamacare. And again, it's short on details, but it seems like they'd like to let people use federal dollars to buy plans that don't offer comprehensive coverage. These are sometimes

called skinny plans or junk plans. That could seriously weaken how to be able to. HealthCare.gov, which has plans that can be expensive, but they offer essential benefits and don't discriminate if you have preexisting conditions. Also, there's one idea that was conspicuously missing from Trump's plan, and that is extending the enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. And the timing is really telling since this announcement came yesterday on the day that open enrollment ended for health care.gov, although it's still open in a few states until the end of the month. You know, there have been a lot of stories about people dropping coverage. You've done all of those stories. Do you know yet how open enrollment went? Well, enrollment is down for the first

time in five years. Obamacare Marketplaces have hit records every year since the enhanced subsidies were passed. Last year, total enrollment was 24 million, but now those extra subsidies have expired. And earlier this week, the agency that runs health care.gov released data showing 22.8 million people had picked a plan as of January. Cynthia Cox of the nonpartisan research organization KFF says that surprised her. Honestly, the sign of numbers look stronger than I expected. I thought that more people would have dropped off by now. But she says the numbers aren't final. They show how many people auto-renewed or selected a plan, which is basically like putting it in a shopping cart online. It doesn't show how many people paid their premium and premiums are sky high compared to last year for a lot of

people. Cox also said some people may have signed up hoping Congress would make a deal to revive the enhanced subsidies that make premium costs so affordable. But how likely is that? Well, there was a big boost to momentum when the House passed a bipartisan extension earlier this month, but talks in the Senate seem to have slowed down, and Republican senators involved in the talk seem to acknowledge that Trump releasing this plan, the day open enrollment ended, sort of takes the wind out of those sales. Although Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for one says she is not giving up, she told reporters on Thursday after Trump's plan came out, quote, I don't think it's too late to try to salvage something. That is. NPR, Selena Simmons, DeFleena. Selina, thank you. You're welcome.

And that's up first for Friday, January 16th. I'm Michelle Martin. Enemy Martinez, cognitive disorders are common among criminal defendants. I'd ask them questions, and many of them would struggle with a basic explanation. And it wouldn't even be on significant questions such as, did they do it or not? It would just be like, where were you that day? This weekend on the Sunday story, one pioneering effort to address the needs of those with cognitive disabilities in the criminal justice system. Listen to the Sunday story right here on NPR's Up First podcast. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Cheryl Corley, Tara Neal, Diane Weber, Mohamed El Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley.

It was produced by Ziac Budge, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Highness. Our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Schaeller. We hope you'll join us again on Monday. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air.

I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYCs on the media. want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here and maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. NPR's podcast Trump's terms is your source for same-day updates on big news about the Trump administration. Short, focused episodes, one topic at a time, about five minutes or so. We carry out reporting from across all of NPR's coverage,

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