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Jonathan Goldstein
On NPR's wildcard podcast, Heavyweight host Jonathan Goldstein talks about his early years as a writer.
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I was writing and no one was buying what I was selling. I just couldn't get anywhere. And I just kept doing it because I felt compelled to do it, like a spider spinning a web.
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Listen to that wild card conversation on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Lakshmi Singh
Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh. President Trump's Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff says a new phase of the administration's peace plan for Gaza is now underway. NPR's Frank Ordonez reports. Witkoff laid out the next steps as.
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Frank Ordonez
They move into the much anticipated phase two of President Trump's 20 point plan to end the war in Gaza. Steve Witkoff says the sides will transition from the ceasefire phase to demilitarization, governance and reconstruction. But Wyckoff warns that the US Expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations, including return of the final deceased hostage. Palestinian parties are in Cairo to discuss the formation of the Palestinian body that will temporarily administer Gaza and take over from Hamas. Hamas says it's ready to hand over administrative affairs, but negotiations on disarmament have not officially begun. Franco Ordonez, NPR News, the White House.
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Lakshmi Singh
The State Department is pausing immigrant visa processing for 75 countries in an escalation of a crackdown on legal pathways to come to the United States. The full list has not been released, but includes Somalia, Russia, Afghanistan and Brazil, to name a few. NPR's Jimena Bustia reports. The suspensions will start January 21st.
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Jimena Bustia
An immigrant visa is a specific category of visa given to people who want to permanently live in the U.S. the State Department's pause comes after the agency promoted a record number of revocations in 2025. They revoked more than 100,000 visas. The four leading causes for these revoc were overstays, DUIs, assault and theft. This new step of pausing visa processing also comes as other parts of the administration have completely halted immigration processes for those on a list of countries with travel restrictions to the U.S. the move generally further limits legal avenues of travel into the country as the Trump administration increases scrutiny for those who are here without or with legal status. Ximena Bustillo, NPR News.
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Lakshmi Singh
Denmark is resisting a US Takeover of its territory, Greenland. But Foreign Minister Lars Loiket Rasmussen said following a meeting with Vice President J.D. vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio today the kingdom is willing to explore what is doable.
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Lars Loiket Rasmussen
The Kingdom of Denmark has already stepped up our own contribution by committing additional funds for military capabilities, not dog slates but ships, drones, fighter jets, etc. And we are definitely ready to do more.
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Lakshmi Singh
In a social media post hours before the meeting, President Trump said NATO should help the US Control Greenland. Otherwise Russia or China would, he adds, anything less than US Control would be unacceptable. Denmark's foreign minister says what Trump is proposing is totally unacceptable. This is NPR News. A U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly confirms with NPR some American military personnel are leaving the Al Udeid air base in Qatar. Also, the Qatari government said in a social media statement evacuations of some personnel are being undertaken in response to current regional tensions. This as tensions escalate in Iran. Federal agents conducted a court authorized search of a Washington Post journalist's home early this morning. Hannah Natenson is among the paper's lead reporters on the administration's efforts to reshape the federal workforce. Attorney General Pam Bonney said the search was part of a probe into the possible leak of classified material. Dozens of federal data sets have been axed or altered under the Trump administration. Gabriella Paul from member station WUSF reports many track issues such as climate change, food security and drug use.
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Gabriella Paul
In the past year, at least nine federal data sets have been eliminated. Others have been subject to delays due to mass layoffs under doge and furloughs during the government shutdown. Researchers like Elaine Waxman with the Urban Institute say it's not good for transparency, which is not good for democracy.
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Jonathan Goldstein
That's where the loss of data, the loss of trust in data is so concerning because ultimately it affects everybody. Taking data away is also eroding democratic participation.
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Gabriella Paul
The majority of federal data sets are still intact. In agency memos, the administration said it's scrubbing data sets that are, quote, redundant and costly. For NPR News, I'm Gabriella Paul in Tampa.
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Lakshmi Singh
The dow is down 140 points. It's NPR News.
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NPR Announcer
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