by Brittney Melton

January 15, 2026

Good morning. Finished a book and itching to discuss it? That's the mark of a truly great book club pick. NPR has compiled 20 tried-and-true titles that are guaranteed conversation starters. Here’s the news we’re following today:

Some media executives are calling the FBI’s search of a reporter’s home yesterday an alarming intrusion into the freedom of the press. The agency searched Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson’s house as part of the Trump administration’s investigation of a leak. Agents seized two computers and her smartwatch. Last month, Natanson documented the purge of hundreds of thousands of federal employees by relying on over 1,000 sources.

A blurred person walks past the The Washington Post Building at One Franklin Square in Washington, D.C.

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

🎧 It is highly unusual for the agency to search a reporter’s home instead of an office, NPR’s David Folkenflik told Up First. The government has informed the newspaper that Natanson is not the focal point of the investigation. Marty Baron, a former executive editor of The Washington Post, told Folkenflik that this administration has displayed a pattern of trying to undermine an independent press and attempting to interfere with its work.

Denmark's foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, says there is still a “fundamental disagreement” between his country and President Trump regarding Denmark’s territory island Greenland. After meeting with Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio yesterday, Løkke Rasmussen said Trump clearly wants to “conquer” the territory. However, the two sides did agree to form a working group to continue discussing U.S. security concerns.

🎧The U.S. seeking to acquire Greenland challenges the rules of international order, specifically the U.N. charter that says a member cannot use force against another country to seize territory, says Stewart Patrick, formerly of the George W. Bush State Department. Denmark has announced plans to build its military presence in Greenland, in what could be considered a pushback at allegations that it can’t defend the country, according to NPR’s Franco Ordoñez. Sweden and Germany also announced they would send military forces to the region, potentially conveying a message to the U.S. that Denmark is not alone.

A Trump administration official confirmed to NPR that sweeping cuts to over $2 billion in funding for mental health and addiction programs are being reversed. The reversal comes after letters about the news went out late Tuesday, sending a shockwave through the U.S.’ public health system. Originally, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration was ending grants for roughly 2,000 organizations, which are frontline programs helping some of the most vulnerable people in the country.

🎧 The reversal comes as relief to people like Hannah Wesolowski, who is with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She says these organizations are deeply demoralized, and over those 24 hours, many people thought they were going to lose their jobs and thought their really sick patients would lose care. NPR’s Brian Mann says people he has been talking to feel rudderless due to the unexplained defunding, and then there was no clear explanation as to why the money was restored. This comes as the Trump administration has been signaling for months that it thinks many of the nation’s public health programs are ineffective and need to be replaced.

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A stock photo shows elementary school students working on laptops.

Adam Kaz/Getty Images

The risks of using generative artificial intelligence to educate children and teens currently outweigh the benefits, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution's Center for Universal Education. The study found that using AI in education can "undermine children's foundational development" and that "the damages it has already caused are daunting," though fixable. Here’s what the report discovered:

💻 AI can help students learn how to read and write. It has been found to be most effective when supplementing, rather than replacing, the efforts of a teacher.
💻 Students increasingly offloading their own thinking onto the technology can lead to the kind of cognitive decline more commonly associated with aging brains.
💻 An issue with kids' overuse of AI is that the technology has been designed to reinforce users' beliefs, which can be a concern when it comes to developing social-emotional skills.

Explore these recommendations to help harness the benefits of AI without exposing children to the risks that the technology currently poses.

Living better

An illustration of four angles of seemingly the same muscular man, who is seen as blue transparent figures, posing and taking pictures of himself with a cell phone. Another figure, brown in color, works out with a dumbbell on a bench.

Sara Andreasson/For NPR

Living Better is a special series about what it takes to stay healthy in America.

Body dissatisfaction is increasing among young people, and it is starting to impact more boys, according to clinicians, including Dr. Jason Nagata. This developing trend challenges a long-held tendency in medicine that associates body image concerns mainly with girls. Some teenage boys striving for muscularity like their social media idols can develop compulsive, dangerous gym and diet habits. Nagata says negative body image attitudes in boys often stem from the feeling that they aren't muscular enough. A small portion of those young men develop an obsession with getting bigger and more muscular, also known as bigorexia.

🏋️‍♂️ Bigorexia was first described in a 1993 case report, but it has remained relatively understudied until recently.
🏋️‍♂️ The three major pressures that contribute to the rise of muscle dysmorphia and men’s desire to build muscle are family, peers and the media.
🏋️‍♂️Nagata estimated that a third of teenage boys in the U.S. try to bulk up. However, the lack of awareness of the condition makes it harder to pin down how many develop bigorexia.

The Facts are Powerful

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This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon capsule departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14.

AP/NASA

NASA's Crew-11 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off San Diego in their SpaceX Dragon capsule after a nearly 10-hour journey from the International Space Station, completing the first medical evacuation from the orbiting lab.

Let Freedom Ring, an annual signature concert celebrating the life of Martin Luther King Jr., is moving from the Kennedy Center to the Howard Theatre to save money.

This week’s Far-Flung Postcard takes you to the Hospitaller Fortress in Acre, Israel. NPR’s Michele Kelemen says as you wander through its underground tunnels and halls, projected lights display moving images of the Knights Hospitaller marching in a funeral procession.

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This newsletter was edited by Yvonne Dennis.

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