Eastern US Snowy Weekend Causes Winter Worries | NTD Evening News (Jan. 18)

Welcome to NTD Evening News. Our top story tonight, winter snow is falling across the east seaboard from New York all the way to Florida. Slippery driving conditions are a major concern and New York City is taking extra precautions. The Trump administration might send 1,500 active duty soldiers to Minnesota. Ariane Pazdar has what the president says about the ongoing violence on immigration enforcement agents. Can Greenland be a counter to China in rare earths? The author of Mineral War and veteran of the mineral industry joins us in studio to unpack it all. Joint pain is one of the top reasons Americans seek care. A renowned orthopedic surgeon shares what you can do to protect your joints and prevent arthritis. And if you've ever wanted to be a samurai, now's your chance. A new museum in Tokyo is celebrating Japan's elite warriors. This is NTD Evening News live from our global headquarters in New York City. Good evening and thank you for joining us tonight. I'm Tiffany Meyer. A winter storm has dumped snow on the ground all along the eastern seaboard. It's set to continue and strengthen tonight. Both the northeast and southeast are set to get more snow with heavier snowfall in the northeast. But even in the southeast where no more than an inch of snow is expected, ice and slippery conditions could create problems. The region is less prepared for freezing weather. AccuWeather predicts a maximum of 10 inches. But even where snowfall is limited, black ice and slippery roads are a concern. In New York City, authorities are responding with a travel advisory and an emergency winter weather plan. Salt trucks and snow plows have been working overnight. Authorities urge drivers to slow down. It's the first snowstorm of the year for the city. The Trump administration is reportedly directing 1,500 active duty soldiers to stand ready and possibly be deployed to Minnesota. Clashes with law enforcement and anti-ice violence are on the rise. NTD's Arian Pazdar has more. This guy needs medical help. Protests in Minnesota escalating this weekend. Anti-ice protesters clashed with right-leaning counter-protesters as anti-ice rhetoric is on the rise. The Trump administration is now reportedly directing 1,500 troops to stand ready and possibly be deployed to Minnesota. That's according to multiple outlets, citing unnamed administration officials on Sunday. White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller commented on the situation in Minnesota while on Fox News. These are acts of insurrection against the laws of the United States and against the sovereignty of the United States. Foreign illegal aliens who broke into this country, who then raped children, who committed human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, protected, shielded, sheltered, coddled, defended at every level by the leadership in Minnesota. Trump on Sunday questioning why Minnesota officials are against ice enforcement, asking do they really want murderers and drug dealers to be ensconced in their community. Miller says another separate issue is that if ice agents get attacked, local law enforcement can't support the ice officers. It's not clear yet if the 1,500 troops will actually be deployed. Reports say for now they only received orders to prepare to possibly be sent to Minnesota. When ice goes out to make these arrests, they unleash violent mobs to attack, assault, and impede ice officers, and they refuse to allow the city police to protect those ice officers in the context of their duties, willfully aiding and abetting this violence. The soldiers subject to deployment specialize in cold weather operations and are currently stationed in Alaska. Ariane Pastar, NTD News. From tensions in Minnesota, Greenland, and Iran, to new health care plans, a major Supreme Court case, and the newly formed Board of Peace. NTD's Daniel Monaghan has your White House Week in Review. There was another ice-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The White House says the agent chased an illegal Venezuelan immigrant by car and then on foot when the incident occurred. Three more of his comrades came rushing out of a house and started ambushing and attacking the ice agent. They used a shovel or broom to smash his face in. And so yes, that agent had to use DHS Secretary Kristi Noem sent hundreds of more agents to Minnesota this week, while Governor Tim Walz continued to criticize the deployment of federal agents. If you see these ice agents in your neighborhood, take out that phone and hit record. Help us create a database of the atrocities against Minnesotans. FBI and ice vehicles were broken into and destroyed in Minneapolis. President Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act over the lawlessness. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson says investigators have uncovered schemes far larger than expected in Minnesota, speaking on Blaze TV. How the hell did this happen? How did it happen? President Trump is outraged. I'm outraged. The American people should be outraged. Meanwhile, independent journalist Nick Shirley released another video from Minnesota showing alleged fraud in transport companies. The Supreme Court heard two major cases about men playing in women's sports. Attorneys representing trans-identifying athletes refused to define what sex means in reference to Title IX. I think, frankly, it was quite alarming to not only hear a couple of justices gravel over that basic fundamental biological fact that men and women are different, but inherently equal, but we are certainly different. President Trump signed a bill this week that allows schools to serve whole milk again alongside fat-free and low-fat versions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released this video, captioned, when you take that first sip of whole milk. The crisis in Iran continued with thousands of deaths reported. Treasury Secretary Scott Besson had a message for the regime. U.S. Treasury knows that like rats on a sinking ship, you're frantically wiring funds stolen from Iranian families to banks and financial institutions around the world. President Trump announced his administration's new health care plan. We're calling it the great health care plan. Instead of putting the needs of big corporations and special interests first, our plan finally puts you first and puts more money in your pocket. Greenland was in the headlines as President Trump has continued to emphasize its need for U.S. security. I'd love to make a deal with them. It's easier. But one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland. The Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers presented President Trump with rings, a stick, and a 47 jersey at the White House. The two cups was pretty good, but that walk with you might have jumped it all there. That was pretty amazing. I know I said it last year, but I mean, nothing beats this. I'm so proud to be an American and so proud to be here with you and everybody else. Venezuela opposition leader Maria Carina Machado gave President Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal at a White House meeting on Thursday. Trump called Machado a wonderful woman who has been through so much. And to wrap up, President Trump announced the Board of Peace to Oversee Gaza has been formed. The board will be chaired by Trump and oversee a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with governing the Gaza Strip. Daniel Monahan, NTV News. Busy week on Capitol Hill where foreign policy took center stage. Lawmakers tackled issues regarding Venezuela, Iran, and Greenland. Our Washington correspondent, Luis Martinez, has the details. Senate Democratic leadership signaled that they will continue to push for war powers resolutions after failing to limit President Trump's powers to take further military action in Venezuela. Republicans in the Senate abdicated their responsibility and said, if you want to go to war in South America, go ahead. How does that look? The other thing we're going to do is this. We're going to be filing a whole lot more war powers resolutions. They can run, but they can't hide. We're going to have it. We're going to have votes on all of these and they're going to have to whip these votes very hard. I know how hard they'll have to whip to get Republicans to support them on the Greenland Denmark vote. They're going to have to whip that very, very hard. A bipartisan group of senators met with Venezuelan opposition leader, Mayra Corina Machado, who confirmed she presented President Donald Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize medal she received last year. I presented the President of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize. The people of Bolivar are giving back to the hair of Washington a medal, in this case, the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom. Republican lawmakers have shown their support to the Trump administration in case the White House decides to take military action or other actions against the Iranian regime after more than 12,000 civilians have been reportedly killed in recent protests. Trump administration potentially taking action on Iran amid the protests and thousands of people being killed by the regime there. Well, I think he's a man of his word and he said he's going to. I think we're positioning troops and assets, so I expect it sooner rather than later. The brutality that we're hearing underground coming out of Iran is truly horrific. Well, I mean, we stand in solidarity with the people of Iran who clearly want change after, what, 50 years of absolute disaster, almost 50 years. And they want freedom. They want to have the rights recognized. And I'm hopeful that the regime's days are numbered. Look, I think that we should work with our international partners and exert our leverage and pressure them to stop the violence. I'm glad to see that SpaceX is considering offering Starlink to people in Iran so they have internet access. But we should not be going to war. Congressman, do you think House Democrats will push for a War Powers Resolution on the Iran issue to prevent President Trump from taking any action against the Iranian regime? We need to have a War Powers Resolution that covers all of these situations. It is time for the United States Congress to retake its constitutional power and reestablish the balance. Don't get me wrong. This is not just about Donald Trump alone. This is a problem that has been 20 years in the making. Republican presidents and Democratic presidents, Republican members of Congress, Democratic members of Congress for decades have allowed the balance of power to be so skewed. A bipartisan group of 11 lawmakers traveled to Denmark this week amid U.S. tensions with European allies over Greenland. And part of the point of this trip is to have a bipartisan group of members of Congress listen respectfully to our friends, our trusted allies and partners here in Denmark and from Greenland and to go back to the United States and share those perspectives so that we can lower the temperature and have a more constructive dialogue about the best path forward. Thank you, Elizabeth. Lawmakers have less than two weeks to finish the appropriations process for fiscal year 2026 or face another government shutdown at the end of the month. Thus far, Congress has passed six out of the 12 appropriation bills for fiscal year 2026. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Luis Eduardo Martinez, NTD News. British politicians and hundreds of protesters gathered to oppose China's proposed mega embassy in London Saturday. If the project is approved, it would give China its biggest embassy in Europe. Protesters are speaking up about the risks of transnational repression and national security, given the site's proximity to sensitive financial data cables. NTD's Malcolm Hudson has more for us from London. Hundreds of people gather in protest outside Royal Mint Court, the proposed site of a new Chinese mega embassy in London. Now, people are here for two reasons. The first being that last week it was revealed that the Chinese plan to expand basement rooms at this site close to highly sensitive fiber optic cables connecting London's two financial centers. And the second reason being that the prime minister, Keir Starmer, plans to go to China in the coming days. And so we're expecting the decision of whether this embassy will go ahead or not. Protesters held flags and banners chanting no mega embassy. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch called for the British government to stop the proposed mega embassy amid serious concerns about China. Whether it's spying, disrupting a lot of our services, issues with trade, the harassment of British nationals with connections to China, the harassment of the people of Hong Kong. There is so much that we're concerned about. The Telegraph newspaper reported that the plans for the site, located near the touristic Tower of London, include 208 secret rooms and a hidden chamber. Critics fear the secret basement rooms could be used to detain dissidents who have fled from the Chinese regime. Hong Kong activist Chloe Cheung is based in London and has a one million Hong Kong dollar bounty on her head. That's around $130,000. She says she fears for her safety. Giving China the biggest embassy in Europe is kind of saying that, OK, you can do whatever you want in this country. You can harass people here. You can sanctions our MP. We don't care. And we are going to give you this embassy. That is the wrong signal to send to the Chinese Communist Party. Royal Mint Court is also between the financial hubs, the City of London and Canary Wharf. The proposed hidden chamber would be located in close proximity to data cables said to be crucial for financial sector communications. Human rights activist Benedict Rogers said this is deeply concerning. You can't imagine it's a coincidence that the Chinese apparently are building these rooms right above these cables. It's been reported that they're going to tear down a wall that separates the rooms from the cables, presumably so that they can hack into them. And that seems to me an extremely dangerous situation. The decision on whether to approve the Chinese embassy plans has been repeatedly pushed back by the government. Ministers have promised to make a decision by January 20th, ahead of Starmer's expected visit to China. Last November, prominent US lawmakers wrote to the British Foreign Secretary urging the UK to deny approval. They said the close proximity to critical communication cables could jeopardize intelligence sharing between the UK, the United States and other Five Eyes partners. Malcolm Hudson, NTD News, London. Chants of mega embassy make a mistake, don't bow to China and no mega embassy echoed through the site. Demonstrators were warned that Chinese police officers may have blended in among the crowd. The British government is expected to rule on the proposal on Tuesday. The local residents have already signaled they'll challenge any approval in court. Coming up, what's the fuss over Greenland? Is this the next front to counter China in Rare Earth? The author of Mineral War and veteran of the mineral industry joins us in studio to unpack it all. And joint pain is one of the top reasons Americans seek care. A renowned orthopedic surgeon shares what you can do to protect your joints and prevent arthritis when we come back. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. All eyes are on Greenland as its strategic location and resources are now front and center. President Trump noting its importance for global security and trade. Joining us to delve into the minerals aspect and the global implications is Thomas Madrovsky, portfolio manager at Ambassador and Critical Minerals Fund and author of Mineral War, China's quest for weapons of mineral destruction. Thomas, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you. Now, Greenland is dominating headlines right now. There's, of course, the strategic location importance aspect, but also the resources are kind of coming up into the headlines, namely rare earth minerals. Tell us about that. How important is it as a resource based location? Yeah, it's actually a very good question because ultimately Greenland illustrates why mineralization and geology are not the answer to the problem. So let me just explain this a little bit. This is the largest island in the world and it's very richly endowed with minerals, including critical elements, rare earths among them strontium, niobium, fluorspar, and other unpronounceable minerals. However, this territory doesn't have a mining industry. There are only two operating mines in Greenland, neither of which produces critical minerals. So it's really not about who owns the rocks. What's missing often is processing infrastructure, regulatory certainty, and, of course, location is very difficult in Greenland. It's a very remote area. So I think this is one of those areas where mining has a potentially future, except it's not the day after tomorrow. This is a very long-term project. Given what you just laid out there, especially on the infrastructure or lacking infrastructure part, there's been several articles about this saying that Greenland could be a potential counter to Beijing when it comes to dominating the rare earth. Is that a factor here? I think it's a very remote possibility. Let me just illustrate this with one number. So Greenland is endowed with about 540 gigawatt hour of energy. Just one copper mine in Chile, arguably a large one, uses seven times more in a year. So it's very unlikely that Greenland becomes an industrial hub anytime soon. Interesting. I want to dig into this, especially the power dynamics. You have a new book out titled Mineral War, China's Quest for Weapons of Mineral Destruction. You have a unique perspective on this. You've long been in this industry yourself. Talk to us about that. Give us a sense of what we can expect in your book. The title is Mineral War. I just wanted to illustrate the intensity of the conflict. It is a conflict, really, between two different systems. One system treats critical minerals as strategic assets of a very long-term vision, and there's a Chinese system. Ours, on the other hand, relies on the market and hopes the market to be self-correcting. There is an opposition between the two approaches. About 200 years ago, Karl von Clausewitz observed that a war starts not with the original aggression, but only at the moment when the aggrieved party reacts to this and starts defending itself. There is no doubt that the West is currently defending itself against the monopolization of this market by China. That's why we can speak of a real conflict taking place. We are, in our fund, trying to exploit this investment opportunity because, of course, we are in front of a multi-year opportunity to redevelop those value chains in America and other partners and allies around the world. There's a lot to dig into here, but I think first to set the stage, why are rare earths so critical? They talk about this is the backbone of modern technology, but also defense, and somehow China has cornered the market. Talk to us about how we got to this point. How did China dominate this sector that is so vital to modern life? Definitely, the approach started not from the mining side, but initially from the center of the value chain, which is so important because this is where the main choke point usually is. If you want to control the value chain, it's not upstream, it's in the middle of that. That's what China has initiated since the 1990s, trying to control the refining area, which is called separation, because rare earths have 17 different elements. If you extract them from the ground, you have to refine them and then separate them. Currently, in terms of some of those elements, heavy rare earths, China has a near monopoly. Why are they important? They're essentially important for permanent magnets. It's not a new technology. It's been around for about 40 years, so we're probably close to some kind of potential breakthrough, but the commercialization of these magnets is very important for any type of actuators or motors. Everything electronic will depend on them. That's the main area. However, rare earths are also used for optoelectronics, so different types of semiconductors, as well as other processing and semiconductor production. It's a very, very important part of modern technology. I want to dig into the national security implications. I think this administration is aware of that threat or that aspect and has been trying to do different things to maybe claw back some of that market or access from China, because the minerals themselves aren't that rare, but the processing is where China has that chokehold. In terms of the geopolitical implications, how does that chokehold give communist China power around the world? Well, when you're near a monopoly and you're trying to weaponize access, then of course, however damaging it can be to your local industry, you have an amazing leverage against countries with which there is trade friction because of the export reliance of the Chinese economy, or whether there are other issues related to national security, as we see right now between China and Japan. Unfortunately, it is a long journey to redevelop these processes. Japan is probably a little closer than other countries in the functional West than the United States and Europe, but it's a work in progress. China used this sector as a leverage for a long period of time and understood the importance of that. I think we in the West, and especially the capital market, failed to see that opportunity, the discursity represents for investors, and I think it's time to unwind that. Talk to us about the infrastructure needed here because you do see President Trump floating the idea of maybe having some refining areas on Pentagon property or lands. How long would it take to set up something like this? Because it does seem China has lax regulatory environmental regulations, part of why maybe they cornered the market. What would it take to develop something to counter that in the West? Let's face it, part of the vulnerability that we're experiencing right now is our own fault in the West. Some of this is related to regulatory changes, such as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the 1980s that decided that the radionuclides, which are often associated over Earth, should be treated, even at very low grades and very low concentration, as a class VII radioactive material. That made logistics and handling of these materials very difficult, costly, and simply mining and processing of rare earths uneconomic in the United States. So we have to look at that. We have to look at the regulatory framework. Europe also is advancing towards processing, and France and Poland, UK and other places, but doesn't have yet legislation dealing with what to do with the radioactive waste, which is generated as some of the byproducts of the production. As you mentioned, China simply doesn't have that concern, although the country has also tightened regulations regarding domestic mining. So they're also moving in this direction. It's possible that some of the recent moves by China, as much as we read them as sort of a national security leverage against Japan and others, are also to protect the reserves and reduce the depletion of the reserves domestically to preserve that industry for a little longer. On Japan, it does seem they've learned their lesson, because China played this back in 2010. So they've shored up part of their supply, if you will, but they are still quite dependent on China. Looking ahead, though, there is a bipartisan group of lawmakers that are trying to create a new agency, wanting to put 2.5 billion into that. We'll see where that goes. It's not passed yet. But also next month, the U.S. will be meeting with dozens of foreign ministers from allied countries to counter Beijing's dominance in critical minerals. According to Bloomberg, the hope is that these countries will sign bilateral deals to diversify supply chains away from China. What do you make of those moves? How successful might they be? They're important, but they're insufficient. I don't think governments themselves can solve this problem. Something has to be done to incentivize capital, the capital market, to go back into this space. To give you an example, our S&P 500 index has only four mining companies that represent less than 1% of the value of the index. And we're not even talking about critical minerals, because only one of them produces critical minerals, and it's not rare earths. So we have a real problem here of the capital market that has failed us because of certain assumptions that we in the West made about markets, supply chain, risk in general. And that has to be unwound. But I don't think the issue can be solved by governments or government or taxpayers' money only, because we have $40 trillion worth of capital market. It's really a question of understanding what the structure of the industry is, and how we can incentivize investment back into this space from the private sources. And the government's role is to regulate this and help that, not probably replace the capital market. That would be the most important conclusion from those efforts. Bilateral meetings and bilateral agreements are very important, because different countries have different strengths. Australia and Canada have mining. Japan and Korea have some processing. So of course, that makes a lot of sense. Well, there's so much more we could talk about. But where can people find your book, Mineral War? Mineral War is available on Amazon, currently on Kindle. As of next Friday, on paperback as well. Well, Thomas Nedrofsky, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Tiffany. And coming up, joint pain is one of the top reasons Americans seek care around now. An orthopedic surgeon shares what you can do to protect your joints and prevent arthritis. And astronauts will soon take flight for a slingshot around the moon for the first time in half a century. NASA's giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for takeoff. Details on the quick lunar trip and more in just a minute. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Pain is the leading reason Americans seek medical care. And joint pain from osteoarthritis is one of the top contributors. Dr. Nicholas Daini-Bunley, former team physician and orthopedic consultant for the Philadelphia 76ers and the Pennsylvania Ballet, Joint Vital Signs host Brennan Fallin, gives your insights on preventing arthritis and joint injury. Here's a preview of that episode. You know, first of all, let's back up. You want to prevent these things in life, right? So, you know, what's the best advice for preventing knee problems? I would say keeping your weight down. Obesity is a direct and indirect cause of osteoarthritis, directly because of the weight. It's a mechanical load on your joints. And it absolutely not only causes arthritis, but it will make arthritis progress more rapidly. So, if you can keep your weight down throughout your life, great. If you're already overweight and you're having a problem, lose some weight because even five pounds will take significant pressure off the knee because every pound you carry, your knee reads as five to seven. It amplifies. And that works to your favor if you lose weight. If you lose five pounds, your knee thinks you lost 30-some pounds. So, weight loss is essential. Staying strong. Your thigh muscles, your leg muscles, we all lose those with age if we're not active. So, trying to keep your quadriceps and all your leg muscles, all the shock absorbers, your core, your quad, your calves, your hamstrings, they protect the knee. They're your shock absorbers. So, keeping your muscle is important. In my case, because I've had knee surgery, I've actually had cartilage removed from my left knee. Your meniscus. Probably part of your meniscus. That's a setup. Yeah. And so, I'm cautious about doing things like squats. How do people approach if they have had an injury in the past or they're already getting some arthritis symptoms, how do they approach exercising these leg muscles? Well, let me back up one second. With obesity, there's an indirect cause. The inflammatory side of obesity that creates inflammation throughout your body is not good if you're already developing some arthritis. So, keeping the weight down. I was going to say avoiding the knee injury is if you can avoid it. Now, you can't always. You didn't avoid it. I didn't avoid it. I got clipped, you know, playing football as a late teenager and, you know, that was the beginning of the end of my knee. You probably did something where you tore your meniscus and that's a, you know, you're losing part of your internal shock absorption system and you're more prone. Now, hopefully they didn't remove the whole thing. Nowadays, we remove small pieces or we repair the meniscus and try to preserve it, but you are more prone. If you've lost some meniscus, you're going to be more prone. You know, you're fit though. You're lean. You're fit. You're strong. Hopefully that works in your favor and we can go over some other preventive things, but preventing the injury is critical and we're seeing an explosion of knee injuries and we can talk about this later, females especially. ACL tears in females is an epidemic and it really worries me. When you tear your ACL, if you think a meniscus is bad, tearing your ACL is, even if you get good surgery and repair the ACL, you're guaranteed 10, 20 years later to have arthritis in that knee, even if it's repaired. Is it people going into, for instance, sporting situations and not knowing how to, how they should be using their bodies or not warming up, not stretching? Is that a... Part of it's that, but, but, you know, anybody can tear their ACL, but women are five to seven times more likely than men to tear their ACL. And there's a lot of different reasons for that. The female frame is different than the male frame. Their biomechanics are different. Where is the ACL? The knee is a kind of a hinge joint. It doesn't just float all over the place. It has collateral ligaments to prevent side to side movement. So when you hear a player gets clipped and they tear their MCL or sprain their MCL, that's one of the inner or outer ligaments or the LCL on the outer side. The cruciate ligaments are inside the knee and they go front to back. And if you can picture my finger in there, it prevents that tibia from moving forward. And if that's torn, the tibia jumps and it's a trick knee. You go to change direction and it goes out on you and you're on the ground and you then sustain more damage to the knee. So boys and girls up until the puberty, if you ask them to jump off a high block, they land identically. Around the age of puberty, women start landing differently. It's the landing gear and they can retrain that. And there are programs, there are great programs to prevent ACL tears in females and in males. They don't do it for whatever reason. We can't, it's hard to get coaches and parents to adopt preventive types of things, but you can reduce the risk in females. There's hormonal issues with females. At certain times in the month, they're more likely to tear their ACL. Some of it is strength related. Guys have testosterone on board. They build bigger muscles, which protect the knees. But there's four or five reasons why women are more prone. So women who, and with Title IX, there was an explosion of girls playing sports, right? And then there was an explosion of ACL tears, concussions, and women respond differently to ACLs and concussions than men. They're more likely to tear their ACL again after you fix it. And women, girls, teenage soccer players, you're almost guaranteed, sadly, to have another ACL. So these are young people who are, so how are you going to prevent? Getting back to your question, how do you, you've had that trauma, how do you then prevent the arthritis down the line? That's an interesting question. I, you know, for me, it's again about keeping your weight down, keeping your legs strong. Maybe if you're starting to get some arthritis, avoiding the high impact loading and changing the kinds of things you do in life. You know, accepting the fact that this is not a, you know, a high mileage kind of thing. I have to treat this differently and I can stay fit, I can stay active, but maybe I can't do all the things I've always wanted to do. To see that full interview and others on how to optimize health, go to ept.ms forward slash Vital Signs. Vital Signs offers general health information not intended as medical diagnosis or advice. Please consult your doctor before undertaking a new health regimen. The Louvre Museum on Wednesday started raising admission for most non-European visitors by 45% from around $26 to now $37. Most visitors from countries that are not part of the European Union are facing the change, including travelers from the United States. Here's what some visitors have to say about the price hike. In general, for tourists, I think things should be a little bit cheaper than local people because we have to travel to come all the way here. So be equal the price or a little bit cheaper. But, you know, we're still gonna go and we're still gonna check it all out and hopefully it'll be all worth it in the end. Culture should be open to everyone. Yes, at the same price, there's no reason not to. When we go abroad, we don't pay more just because we're foreigners. Of course, France has plenty of finances. There are some exemptions to the price hike. Members of guided groups of up to 20 people will pay slightly less than full price, about $33. Some categories also can get in for free, including visitors under 18 years old. The change comes as the museum tries to shore up finances after repeated strikes, chronic overcrowding, and a brazen French crown jewels heist last year. French worker unions have denounced it to getting change, saying it undermines the universal mission of the world's most visited museum. Schools in Finland are teaching young students how to spot fake news. As Russia's war in Ukraine drags on, the Nordic nation is working to teach children how to distinguish what's true from what's not. NTD's Andrew Thomas has warned how advancements such as artificial intelligence are complicating those efforts. North of the Finnish capital of Helsinki, children are learning about fake news. Teacher and vice principal Vilbon Hanen says his students have been studying the topic since the first grade. In a recent class, students were instructed to come up with a list of indicators to look out for when consuming online news. We've been talking about what the news are, what they include, and then from there on we've just evolved, like going deeper and deeper into things. So now we've been studying about how to recognize if a picture or a video is made by AI. Finnish children begin learning about the internet in preschool. Helsinki teaching specialist Kia Hakala says learning how to interpret online information is a fundamental part of education. We think that having good media literacy skills, it's a very big civic skill, it's very important to the nation's safety and to the safety of our democracy. So that's really the whole goal of all of this. Media literacy has been part of the Finnish curriculum for around 30 years. Still, education minister Anders Alderkoit says educators couldn't have predicted fake news as it exists today. I don't think we envisioned that the world would look like this, that we would be bombarded with disinformation, that our institutions are challenged, our democracy really challenged through disinformation. Alderkoit says media literacy is no longer simply academic. Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea set off a wave of disinformation, pushing Finland to ramp up its education efforts. I think initially it was only thought as a basic civic skill that you need to understand media, but now it becomes really a way of trying to protect our democracies. Finland has a long history of combating propaganda from neighboring Russia. Alderkoit says Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 put Finland on the front line. I think it's fairly obvious that Europe in general is targeted more, and I think it's safe to say that Finland also, as a result of us entering NATO, for example, I think that has changed our position globally. Last year, Helsinki-based newspaper Helsinki and Sanomat collaborated on a new ABC book of media literacy. Every 15-year-old in the country received a copy as they began high school. And we know from studies that young people tend to get more of their news on social media in Finland as well. So it's really important for us to be seen as a place where you can get information that's been verified, that you can trust. Russia's war effort in Ukraine has put disinformation front and center in Europe. Martha Turnbull at the Helsinki-based European Center of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats says NATO is a primary target. Certainly around the topic of focusing on anti-NATO agendas has certainly increased since the invasion of Ukraine. But I think generally what we've seen is the information space has become much more polluted over the past few years, and that's a trend that will continue. Turnbull says developments like artificial intelligence can make fighting disinformation even tougher. I think it's definitely becoming harder. It already is much harder in the information space to spot what's real and what's not real. It just so happens that right now it's reasonably easy to spot the AI-generated fakes because the quality of them isn't as good as it could be. But as that technology develops, and particularly as we move towards things like agentic AI, I think that's when it could become much more difficult for us to spot. Andrew Thomas, NTD News. Coming up, astronauts will soon take flight for a slingshot around the moon for the first time in half a century. NASA's giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for takeoff. And if you've ever wanted to be a samurai, now's your chance. A new museum in Tokyo is celebrating Japan's elite warriors. Find out what visitors can see and do there. That and more after this quick break. Welcome back. I'm Tiffany Meyer. NASA's giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts' first lunar flight around in more than half a century. The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February. Here's a closer look. The 322-foot rocket began its slow, four-mile creep from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak, rumbling along at just one mile per hour. Thousands of Space Center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket's exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA's new administrator, Jared Isaacman, and all four astronauts assigned to the mission. And why are we doing this? We are doing this to fulfill a promise, a promise to the American people that we will return to the moon, a promise to all of the pioneers, the engineers, the scientists, the astronauts, the researchers from the 1960s, which laid the foundation that we are standing upon right now. They are so fired up that we are headed back to the moon. They are so fired up that we're going onto Mars. They just want to see humans as far away from Earth as possible, discovering the unknown. Weighing in at 11 million pounds, the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket's extra heft. The first and only other SLS launch, which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon, took place back in November 2022. Now over time, launching missions like this, we are going to learn a lot. And the vehicle architecture will change. And as it changes, we should be able to undertake repeatable, affordable missions to and from the moon. Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyses and tests, pushing back the first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won't orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now. Crew Commander Reed Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Christina Cook, longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience, will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride. They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17's Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar landing program in 1972. 12 astronauts strolled along the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969. NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. I know the teams are prepared. I know this crew is prepared. The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March. He's one of the most beloved bears of all time. Today marks national Winnie the Pooh day. The day honors Winnie the Pooh's creator A.A. Milne's birthday. The British author was born in 1882 and is best known for his cherished children's stories featuring Winnie the Pooh. Pooh Bear, as he was fondly called, is a fictional bear inspired by a real-life black bear named Winnie. She lived at the London Zoo during World War I. Milne's son, Christopher Robin, would visit the bear often and named his own teddy bear after her. And over the years, Milne's stories have been translated into more than 50 languages. They are considered classic stories today. In modern-day Rome, an ancient recipe has been reborn. Little cakes called pandivia are now being cooked up in a factory. But thousands of years ago, they were eaten by Roman legionnaires. And today's Flora Hua has the story. The sweet scent of fresh baking is immediately noticeable upon entering the factory with a distinct smell of sour cherries. What the bakery is making is pandivia, a cake that is light yet highly nutritious. In early 2025, a team was set out to recreate the ancient recipe for pandivia. And the best part of the recipe is that the ingredients are easy to find. It is easy to prepare as it only requires flour, water, a pinch of salt if needed, and a hot surface, either a stone, a terracotta plate or a metal surface to be able to cook it and make a sort of flatbread, as we call it in Italy. A student who tasted the cake said the flavor reminded him of his grandmother's special treats. This bread is very tasty, authentic. You can tell it comes from an ancient recipe because it tastes like a sweet your grandmother would have made. It is honey-like, soft, sweet, but not too sweet. You can taste the real ingredients. The manager of the bakery wanted to make it accessible to anyone who wants a taste. The original Roman cake was a sort of energy bar, and today it is offered as a dessert in restaurants in and around Rome. The samurai, Japan's elite warriors, front and center at a new museum in Tokyo. Visitors can try on armor, hold swords and even try their hand at throwing special weapons. Japan has lived without experiencing war for a rather long time and has passed through a peaceful era. Possibly because of that, samurai forget conflict during the Edo period when relative peace prevailed more than 260 years. I have a slight concern that we are losing the spirit of it too. It was really interesting to see all the accessories they had, that they had collected, all their attires and the swords. Yeah, it was really good. The traditional aspects rather than just the war and battles, it's a completely different world to us. I think that's why people see it as a different thing, especially now, especially in the West, they look like we're going back into wars and we're leaving a peaceful period and into more conflict period. I think people are interested in how other cultures have dealt with that in the past. With the help from people outside Japan who are interested in samurais, I strongly hope that the samurai culture will be rediscovered and reintroduced with its new values. The elegant moves of a samurai and his sword. Ryo Tamura is a descendant of a samurai clan. He's also a martial arts expert. Samurai warriors served Japanese nobles from the late 12th century until the practice was abolished during the Meiji era in the late 1870s. Expertise with weapons was not only the martial skill the samurai were known for. Loyalty, honor and discipline were paramount. This newly opened museum displays armor and weapons from various periods spanning 700 years. It's packed with visitors, especially tourists from overseas. Visitors are allowed to try on samurai items and playfully pose for photos wearing helmets while holding swords. Observing the groups from a polite distance, Tamura laments what he sees as Japanese people's indifference towards his family's culture and heritage. He hopes that opening up to a foreign audience will also allow Japan to reclaim its history. The grace and art of the samurai will be remembered and celebrated at this museum in Tokyo. That's all for today's news. For around the clock coverage, visit us at ntd.com slash live or download our NTD app. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Tiffany Meyer. Good night.