Trump and Minnesota, Venezuela's Opposition, Trump's Healthcare Plan

0:02Protests 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 Aimee Martinez. That is Michelle Martin. And this is Up First from NPR News.

0:21Venezuela'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? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

0:56Are you thinking about making any changes in the new year? The Life Kit Podcast is here to help. In each episode, we have research-backed strategies and expert advice on everything from meal prep to strengthening relationships to paying down your credit card debt. Make your resolutions stick. Listen to the Life Kit podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:23I'm Jesse Thorne. on Bullseye, I will talk with Regina Hall about her part in the smash hit movie One Battle After Another and about her time at Columbia University Bartending School, which apparently exists. The class was at Columbia University. That's Bullseye. Find us in the NPR app at MaximumFun.org or wherever you get your podcasts. Genomics pioneer Robert Greene says many parents want their healthy newborns DNA screened for diseases that may or may not show up later in life. There is an argument that knowledge is power, and many families would like to know everything, whether it's treatable or not.

2:03The debate over revealing the secrets in baby's DNA. Listen to the TED Radio Hour on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. President Trump has threatened to take military action against Minnesota to stop the protests in Minneapolis. On Wednesday, immigration officers shot another man, this time in the leg, which sparked unrest on the city's north side. And Pierce 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?

2:35Yeah, 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.

3:03And 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 tear gas, flashbangs, and pepper balls 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.

3:41Residents 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.

4:08She 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.

4:44So 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.

5:20He 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.

5:44Venezuela'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 Nicolás Maduro. Trump has sidelined Machado and is backing Venezuela's acting president, who at the same time yesterday was in Caracas giving a defiant and at times compliant speech before lawmakers. For more, we go to Imperial South America correspondent Carrie Kahn, who joins us from Rio de Janeiro.

6:16Carrie, good morning. Good morning. So Maria Carino Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize, at least her citation to Trump. Why? She told reporters 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.

6:55He 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 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, Delce 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.

7:30Rodriguez gave a scheduled speech, a state-of-the-nation 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.

8:07I 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 of prisoners are still holding vigil at 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.

8:49He was picked up in the widespread repression following the dispute of 2024 presidential elections.

8:59She 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. Rights 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 Carrie Kahn at Rio de Janeiro. Carrie, thank you. You're welcome.

9:35President 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. And NPR's Selena 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.

10:09It'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 Act 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.

10:41These are sometimes called skinny plans or junk plans. That could seriously weaken healthcare.gov, which has plans that can be expensive, but they offer essential benefits and don't discriminate if you have pre-existing 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 healthcare.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.

11:15You've done a lot 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 healthcare.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-up numbers look stronger than I expected. I thought that more people would have dropped off by now.

11:56But 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.

12:30And 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 sails. 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's Selena Simmons. Selena, thank you. You're welcome.

13:00And that's up first for Friday, January 16th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm a 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, Mohammed Elbardisi, and Alice Wolfley.

13:42It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas, our technical director is Carly Strange, and our executive producer is Jay Shaler. We hope you'll join us again on Monday.

13:58On NPR's Wildcard Podcast, comedian Tig Notaro. It always makes me laugh when people say she had her sense of humor to the end. And I always thought it would be so funny to put in my obituary that I lost my sense of humor in the end. Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR Wildcard.