WORLD Radio News - WORLD Radio News: 1-12-26 (2/3)

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

The latest headlines in three minutes from WORLD updated three times throughout the day.Sign-up for the daily Sift email at thesift.org.Support sound journalism, grounded in facts and Biblical truth at wng.org/donate.

With World Radio News, I'm Kent Covington. Two months after ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, Congress is staring down the barrel at another potential shutdown. The Stop Gap funding bill passed back in November only keeps the bills paid through the end of this month. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is hopeful that there's enough common ground to avoid another shutdown. Let's do the basic things that the American people expect

and funding the government is one of those, and I'm hopeful that we'll have some cooperation from Democrats. Most analysts believe neither side will have an appetite for another government shutdown in an election year. At the center of last year's 43-day shutdown was a demand by Democrats that Republicans agree to extend Obamacare subsidies. The House of Representatives just passed a bill agreeing to do just that. The Senate, however, is still deciding how to proceed on health care spending. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman said he believes the United States can't, land astronauts on Mars in the years ahead. President Trump has repeatedly pledged to become the first

country to do that, even saying his administration aims to do it by the end of his first term. And Isaacman says that's the kind of vision that gets everyone excited. We've gone to our very close neighbor in the moon. We will return. But to actually set a goal to travel to a planet other than our own for the first time ever is just so inspiring. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has expressed his interest in landing humans on Mars and wants to do it as soon as 2029. Gas prices continue to drop in the U.S. industry analyst Trilby Lundberg says prices are down another dime per gallon over the past two weeks, and her survey puts the new national average at $2.89 per gallon. But she says what will happen with prices from here is less predictable. Now we have a number of oil

supplying nations that are either in trouble or at least in great flux, and they are Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. According to AAA, Oklahoma has the cheapest gas in the country right now at $2.23 per gallon. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Hawaii has again surpassed California as the most expensive state for gas, $4.42. The U.K. says it is in talks with NATO about strengthening security in the Arctic as concerns grow over Russia and China. A British cabinet minister said the discussions are routine and not a response to comments by President Trump about acquiring Greenland. Trump has argued that the island is strategically important for the United States, while Denmark, which governs Greenland, says its sovereignty is not up for debate.

The British government emphasized the importance of a strong deterrent in the Arctic. Liberal Democrat Ed Davy suggests Britain offer to deploy troops to Greenland in collaboration with Denmark. For World Radio, I'm Kent Covington. For more sound journalism grounded in facts and biblical truth, visit worldradiot.new. Additional support comes from MediShare, America's leading healthcare sharing community. Metashare.com slash world.