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Today's top stories
Two separate incidents that happened this week are calling attention to shootings by federal immigration authorities. Yesterday in Portland, Ore., a Customs and Border Patrol agent shot and injured two people. The mayor of Portland is now calling for an end to all ICE activity in the area. The incident comes a day after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minnesota. Good was shot while inside her car during an encounter with multiple ICE agents.
- 🎧 NPR has confirmed the identity of the shooter to be Jonathan Ross, NPR's Meg Anderson tells Up First. Department of Homeland Security officers say he is an experienced officer, not a recent hire. The FBI has taken over the investigation, Anderson adds. State authorities say they no longer have access to evidence about the shooting, which means the federal government is the only entity investigating a shooting committed by its own agent. Yesterday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz questioned the fairness of the investigation.
- ➡️ Protests are growing in Minneapolis over Good's death. These photos provide a glimpse into the community's reaction since the shooting occurred.
- 🎧 Shootings by immigration authorities appear to be becoming more frequent as the Trump administration ramps up its immigration crackdowns, NPR's Sergio Martínez-Beltrán says. Yesterday, Vice President JD Vance confirmed that immigration agents in Minneapolis were going door to door to find undocumented migrants. Martínez-Beltrán says this strategy is unusual given that ICE operations are typically targeted. He adds that these shootings could be a devastating side effect of this broader approach.
A new NPR/Ipsos poll reveals that while Americans across the political spectrum want the U.S. to be a global moral leader, fewer believe it holds that title today. The survey highlights a significant gap: 61% of respondents believe the U.S. should be a moral leader, while 39% believe it actually is one. The latter figure shows a steep decline from 2017, when 60% of Americans viewed the nation as a moral leader in a similar survey. This is what the poll says about American foreign policy.
A group of 17 House Republicans joined Democrats yesterday to pass a measure to restore health insurance subsidies that expired at the end of last year. While the three-year extension passed by a vote of 230 to 196, the measure faces a likely dead end in the Senate, where a similar proposal failed just last month. However, a bipartisan group of senators says they are close to a deal on a compromise bill.
Special series
President Trump has tried to bury the truth of what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. NPR built a visual archive of the attack on the Capitol, showing exactly what happened through the lenses of the people who were there. "Chapter 5: The pardons and rewriting of Jan. 6" examines how Trump's pardons, political messaging and use of power reshaped the public narrative.
While Trump initially condemned the Jan. 6 attack, he soon switched his stance by embracing the rioters as "political prisoners." On Jan. 12, 2025, just eight days before Trump's inauguration, incoming Vice President Vance said that the administration would not pardon defendants convicted of assaulting police. But one of Trump's first acts in office was to grant full pardons to most defendants. Only 14 defendants — all of whom were linked to extremist groups — received commutations, meaning they were released from prison, but the convictions remained on their records. The Trump administration then deleted a government database containing cases linked to the attack. Evidence began disappearing from a site that shared court exhibits with the media. Explore the aftermath of the pardons, including which Trump appointees advocated for Jan. 6 defendants.
To learn more, explore NPR's database of federal criminal cases from Jan. 6. You can also see more of NPR's reporting on the topic.
Weekend Picks
Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: The true crime thriller Dead Man's Wire centers on businessman Tony Kiritzis, who kidnaps mortgage company president Richard Hall. Kiritzis claims that Hall's company sabotaged his real estate investment.
📺 TV: Critically acclaimed medical drama The Pitt has returned to screens, providing viewers with a surprisingly realistic view of how doctors practice medicine in an age of political division, institutional mistrust, and the corporatization of health care.
📚 Books: If one of your New Year's resolutions was to read more, we've got you covered. Get a jump start (or stay on track) with these new releases coming out in the next few months.
🎵 Music: NPR's All Songs Considered is looking ahead to some of the albums they are most anticipating for 2026. From sure bets like Beverly Glenn-Copeland to rumored releases from some big names, these are the artists you should make room for on your playlists.
❓ Quiz: I scored a nice eight out of 10! Not too bad for my first quiz of the year. Now it is your turn to ace the test.
3 things to know before you go
- NASA is shortening the Crew-11 mission at the International Space Station, returning all four crew members over a month early due to a medical issue affecting a crew member.
- John Kindschuh was chatting with another patient in the hospital in 2013 when his words abruptly slurred. The unsung hero recognized something was wrong and called doctors for help. They were able to quickly take action on the stroke he was having. Kindschuh attributes his current life to the quick response from his unsung hero.
- NPR is sending a team of journalists to Italy for the Winter Olympics! The team will cover over a dozen sports, hundreds of athletes and countless storylines. They want to hear your questions about the event and will work to answer as many as possible.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
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