Minnesota ICE Shooting, Venezuela Oil Tanker Pursuit, RFK Jr's New Dietary Guidelines

0:01The Trump administration says the ICE agent who killed a Minneapolis woman did it in self-defense. But the city's mayor says eyewitness accounts and video footage show that's not true. This was an agent recklessly using power. I'm Leila Faldil with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker that spent two weeks fleeing American ships across the Atlantic. The ship even repainted its name and raised a Russian flag mid-pursuit. How far will the conflict over Venezuela's oil industry go? And RFK Jr.'s new dietary guidelines overhaul longstanding nutrition advice and put red meat and dairy at the top of a new food pyramid are the recommendations backed by science.

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0:53An officer with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, shot and killed a Minneapolis woman on Wednesday. The shooting, which was captured on video by multiple observers, immediately sparked protests as community members accused the agent of murder. Arrest no shooter! Arrest no shooter! Minnesota state law enforcement officials say they are working with the FBI to investigate the fatal shooting, which the Trump administration says was an act of self-defense. This as the mayor demanded that ICE get out of Minneapolis and accused the officer of recklessly using their power. And our criminal justice correspondent Meg Anderson was at the intersection where it happened, and she's with us now to give us the latest.

1:35Good morning, Meg. Good morning. So like a lot of people, I was watching the coverage all afternoon, and it just seemed like details were coming out bit by bit. So what can you tell us now? Yeah, so city officials have identified the woman killed as 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good. We don't yet know much more about her, though a witness I spoke to said she was there at the scene as a legal observer. Regarding what happened, community members have been very active here, tracking a surge in ice activity around the Twin Cities. And observers were called to this intersection in South Minneapolis yesterday morning.

2:08Caitlin Callinson was there and videotaped the shooting. She says Good was in her car and received multiple conflicting instructions from officers. She was told to get out of her car and she was also told to get out of the road. She was told to drive away. the ICE officer who ended up shooting her was in front of her vehicle. And when she tried to get away because someone was pulling at her door, the ICE agent who was in front of her shot through the windshield once and then twice through the side. She says when ICE officers pulled good from the car, she was already unresponsive. And as I think people who've been following this have seen and heard, we've heard conflicting interpretations from federal and local officials.

2:48So what have they been saying? Yeah, so in a press conference yesterday evening, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the officer who killed the woman. She claimed he was hit by her vehicle and shot in self-defense. In the video NPR reviewed, however, the officer does not appear to be hit and can be seen walking after he fired the shots. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Fry said in a press conference yesterday that the video of the shooting does not corroborate Noem's account. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is this was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying.

3:28The city's police chief, Brian O 'Hara, also spoke. He stressed that it should be very concerning whenever there's a shooting into a vehicle of someone who is not armed. And I should note, this is not the first time that ICE has shot someone inside their car. A nice officer killed a man in Chicago in September, for instance, inside his car. So what's been the atmosphere like there? Yeah. So last night, there was a very large vigil held here. And it's been mostly peaceful. There's a lot of anger. And it's been very tense. Minneapolis public schools are closing for the rest of the week out of an abundance of caution.

4:02Yesterday, there were hundreds of protesters at the intersection where she was killed, chanting and calling for the shooter to be arrested. And some of the protesters told me, you know, they weren't surprised by the shooting, that ICE officers have been very aggressive towards community members in the city. So what happens next? Minnesota Governor Tim Wall said he gave a warning order to the Minnesota National Guard yesterday, which he said is basically a heads up in case there is unrest. And state law enforcement officials said they couldn't comment more on what is now an active investigation.

4:35That is NPR's Meg Anderson. Meg, thank you. Yeah, you're welcome.

4:47U.S. forces boarded an oil tanker they had been pursuing for nearly two weeks across the Atlantic. Yeah, during the chase, the tanker changed its name and even began flying a Russian flag. All of this comes as the Trump administration begins releasing new details about their plans for Venezuela's oil industry. NPR's Greg Myrie has the details. Good morning, Greg. Hi, Michelle. So this boat was somewhere between Britain and Iceland. How did it get there? It was quite the adventure. U.S. ships in the Caribbean have been targeting sanctioned oil tankers, these ghost ships, for the past month. They homed in on one in late December.

5:24It was called the Bella One and believed to be heading to Venezuela to pick up oil. But the Bella One refused to halt. Instead, it changed course and headed out to the Atlantic with U.S. forces in pursuit. Now, somewhere along the way, the Bella One changed its name. The crew simply painted a new name on the hull. It became the Maranera. And it also changed flags. It lowered the flag of Guyana and used the flag of Russia. Did that make any difference to the U.S. forces chasing it? No. This nautical makeover did not deter the Americans. They caught up with the Maranera in the North Atlantic between Britain and Iceland, as you noted.

6:05several thousand miles from where this chase began. The U.S. forces boarded the tanker, which along with the crew, is now headed to the U.S. So it's been a pretty dramatic week for the U.S. operations related to Venezuela, but many critics are still asking if there's a real plan for the road ahead. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded and said the U.S. does have a strategy to stabilize Venezuela. One component is the U.S. taking control of up to 50 million barrels of oil from Venezuela. We're going to sell it in the marketplace at market rates, not at the discounts Venezuela was getting. That money will then be handled in such a way that we will control how it is dispersed in a way that benefits the Venezuelan people.

6:50So the current price of oil is relatively low, but that amount that he's talking about could work out to somewhere between $2 and$3 billion. I'm wondering about the reaction to the U.S. seizing a tanker with a Russian flag. Has that in any way sort of increasing tensions with Moscow? Well, the Russians certainly are not happy about this, but so far the response has been pretty measured. The transportation ministry says it gave this ship temporary permission to fly the Russian flag back on December 24th. It added that, quote, freedom of navigation rules operate in the open sea and no government has the right to use force against ships.

7:28Russia didn't say why it granted this permission. Perhaps it thought it might deter the U.S. from seizing the ship. Russia is an ally of Venezuela, but didn't really do anything to prevent this recent U.S. campaign. So maybe this seemed like some sort of low-cost way to assist Venezuela. So as the Trump administration talks about its plans for Venezuela, the focus seems to be increasingly on the oil industry. So what else can you tell us about this? Yeah. Trump gave a long interview to The New York Times last night and said U.S. oversight of Venezuela could last for years. And a lot of this focused on running the country's oil industry.

8:03It also looks like Energy Secretary Chris Wright will be playing a key role. He told an energy conference in Florida yesterday that the U.S. will be controlling the sales of Venezuela's oil industry indefinitely. indefinitely. So it looks like this multi-pronged approach, much of it related to the country's oil industry. That's NPR's Greg Meyer. Greg, thank you. Sure thing, Michelle.

8:34Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released new dietary guidelines, which he says aim to, quote, revolutionize our food culture, end quote. The guidelines come with a new food pyramid, replacing the current MyPlate symbol, and they upend years of nutrition advice. NPR's Alison Arbery is with us now to tell us more about this. Good morning to you, Alison. Good morning, Michelle. So what are the main changes in these new guidelines? Well, for decades, Americans have been advised to eat low-fat dairy and limit red meat, but that advice has been turned on its head. At the very top of this new pyramid is a cut of steak, a wedge of cheese, and a whole turkey or chicken.

9:13Here's Secretary Kennedy at the unveiling. Protein and healthy fats are essential, and we're wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines. We are ending the war on saturated fats. Now, ending the war on saturated fat may be a bit strong, as the guidelines do still include a long-held recommendation to limit saturated fat to 10 % of your daily calories. What's been the reaction from public health and nutrition experts? Well, there's some criticism. Keep in mind that both the American Heart Association and the Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition point to the science showing that excessive saturated fat from sources like red meat is linked to heart disease.

9:52I spoke to Christopher Gardner of Stanford University. He's a nutrition expert. He was on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group that spent two years reviewing all the evidence, including the effects of saturated fat on health. I'm very disappointed in the new pyramid that teaches red meat and saturated fat sources at the very top as if that's something to prioritize. It does go against decades and decades of evidence and research. Now, he's in favor of increasing plant-based sources of protein such as beans rather than just emphasizing animal protein. Now, you mentioned earlier that the guidance on how much saturated fat we should eat is actually staying the same.

10:31So are there real changes here, or is it just being presented differently in this chart? Well, there are definitely some real changes. The guidelines call for Americans to cut way back on refined carbohydrates and highly processed foods, including sugary drinks and snacks. Now, this is easier said than done. These foods make up, you know, about 70 % of the food supply, everything from chips and soda to grab-and-go prepared foods. I spoke to Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian. He's a cardiologist who directs the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University. He applauds this call for a, quote, dramatic reduction in highly processed foods.

11:06To have the U.S. government for the first time recommend that a wide class of foods be eaten less because of their processing is a big deal and I think a very positive move for public health. So I'd say Secretary Kennedy has found some common ground with lots of public health experts on this issue. You know, there's this widespread consensus that the standard American diet and poor eating habits are a leading cause of chronic disease. Will these dietary guidelines make a difference? Does anybody really pay attention to them? You know, new guidelines alone can't change people's habits, of course, but they are highly influential.

11:40They dictate what can be served in school meals, on military bases, and determine what's allowed in federal nutrition programs. the worries that people will see meat at the top of the pyramid and ignore the call to also eat more fruits and vegetables and cut back on sugar and highly refined and processed foods, a.k.a. junk food. That is. NPR's Alison Aubrey. Alison, thank you. Thank you, Michelle.

12:05And that's Up First for Thursday, January 8th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faudil. If you enjoy starting your day with Up First, and I hope you do, please consider signing up for NPR+. Your subscription will help keep the NPR network strong and support local public radio stations through a recurring monthly donation. And you get some cool perks with it too, like ad-free listening, bonus episodes, and early access to some NPR content. Visit plus.npr.org to sign up. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Cheryl Corley, Andrew Sussman, Jane Greenhalgh, Mohamed Elbardisi, and Ellis Wolfley.

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