U.S. Braces for Winter Storm; Tri-Lateral Talks on Russia-Ukraine War | NTD Good Morning (Jan. 23)

Welcome to NTD Good Morning. Here are today's top stories. A massive winter storm is expected to bring snow and ice to more than half the country over the weekend, with more than 230 million people under weather alerts. President Trump returns from Davos. Trump says a fleet of ships heading toward Iran, and he discussed oil companies gearing up for drilling in Venezuela. The U.S., Ukraine, and Russia will hold trilateral talks today in Abu Dhabi. What officials are saying after top-level meetings. TikTok has finalized its deal to avoid a ban in the U.S. after years of scrutiny over national security concerns. We take a look at the majority U.S.-owned joint venture. Multiple people have been arrested following investigations into activists who disrupted a church service in Minnesota last weekend. And NTD's seventh international figure painting competition revealed its award winners last night, with six participants receiving medals for their outstanding technique and skill. This is NTD Good Morning. Live from our global headquarters in New York City, here are Stefania Cox and Kerry Dunst. Good morning, thanks for joining us. Today's Friday, January 23rd. This is NTD Good Morning. In today's top news, a massive winter storm expected to bring snow, ice, and extreme cold to more than half the country this weekend. Residents are bracing for impact. Yeah, here it comes. More than 230 million people are under this National Weather Service alert, and it says that it will now blanket every state east of the Rockies except for Florida, although they've had some flurries already. Here's the details on the storm. People in 46 states are under weather advisories, watches, or warnings for this potentially historic winter storm. 31 years working for NOAA, there's only a handful of times that I can remember watches and warnings stretching 2,000 miles. The storm's footprint will stretch from the plains across the south and into the northeast. In addition to the extreme and record-breaking cold, dangerous ice and heavy snow are major causes of concern. This is gonna be a mixed bag of precipitation of sleet, freezing rain, and ice, all which will impact travel especially. Parts of Tennessee were under an ice storm warning Thursday. The ice set to hit southern states expected to cause treacherous road conditions and extended power outages. Some states, including North and South Carolina, have already declared states of emergency. Some locations could see winter weather like they haven't seen in years. In Texas, where the governor has made a disaster declaration, officials say they're confident the deep freeze won't wreak havoc on their power grid, but warn residents about the potential for slick roads. Roads will be dangerous, so staying off the roads is always the safest option. Record-breaking cold with dangerous wind chills as low as negative 60 in some spots expected this weekend. And the resounding message from weather experts here is for folks to stay home and off the road. That's the safest. Be prepared for the potential for major travel disruption on roads and at airports. Also, stock up on that food and fill up your gas tank and ensure you're prepared so that you can wait it out, essentially. All right, next in news, a top new report showing the crime rate in the US has fallen to the lowest number on record in 125 years. This is according to the nonpartisan think tank Council for Criminal Justice. The homicide rate fell to about four for every 100,000 residents in 2025. So this report analyzed crime trends in 40 large American cities and found that 21% decline in homicides from the year before. And when compared to their peak in 2021, the report found homicides reduced by 44%. Now, the White House is taking credit for the decline, touting the numbers as a result of closing the border and bringing back order on America's streets. The White House said in a statement, this monumental turnaround is a direct result of President Trump's unwavering commitment to making America safe again. The report found other crimes like carjacking and shoplifting are also significantly down after their peak during the pandemic. It said drug-related crimes increased slightly since 2024 and sexual assaults remained relatively even. And in immigration enforcement-related news, three people have been arrested following a disruption that took place at a church in Minnesota. And Vice President J.D. Vance visits the state in an attempt to lower the temperature in Minnesota. NDD correspondent Jason Blair reports. Multiple people have been arrested following an incident at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota. On Sunday, a group is seen on video appearing to disrupt a church service, chanting ice out and justice for Renee Good. Authorities shared photos of three suspects being taken into custody, Nekima Armstrong, an activist and attorney, Chantel Louisa Allen, a St. Paul school board member, and William Kelly, an active protester spotted recently in different places around the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says our nation was settled and founded by people fleeing religious persecution. Religious freedom is the bedrock of this country. Nekima Armstrong says that the group went into the church looking for one of the pastors named David Easterwood, who allegedly is also an acting field director for ICE in St. Paul. Armstrong spoke with former CNN journalist Don Lemon on the day of the incident. We show up somewhere. They don't expect us to come there. And then we disrupt business as usual. Later, Armstrong insisted that the group didn't initially storm into the church, but first sat down with the congregation. We didn't rush in. We didn't bust in. We were a part of the service until I got up and posed that question to the pastor. Some legal experts have been saying that Armstrong and others could be in violation of the FACE Act, which makes it unlawful to impede on others' First Amendment rights to practice their religion. Following the Sunday incident, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed that there would be arrests. People will be brought to justice for how they violated the law in that situation. And a charge for Don Lemon, who was with the group inside the church, was rejected by a magistrate judge in Minnesota. Authorities say that the three arrested are being federally charged with conspiracy to deprive rights. And Vice President J.D. Vance visits Minneapolis, Minnesota in the midst of an ongoing ICE immigration enforcement operation, coupled with heavy protests and incidents of civil unrest. Vance says part of his visit was to meet with business leaders and law enforcement to better understand what's going on so that the temperature can be turned down. Because of a few very far-left agitators, a lot of these guys are unable to do their jobs without being harassed, without being doxed, and sometimes without being assaulted. That's totally unacceptable. Vance says that federal agents have also been seriously harassed while off duty after being doxed. If you can't even go to a restaurant without some agitators locking the door and making you feel like your life is in danger, that is the environment that has been created. Vance says that one of the main reasons so many agents are seen in Minnesota is that additional support is needed to protect the agents making arrests from, quote, rioters. He says this is normally what state and local law enforcement help with in other areas of the country. And there are a lot of things that all of us could do better to lower the temperature, but the number one thing that I learned today is that the best way to facilitate reasonable enforcement of the law, but also to lower the chaos in Minneapolis would be for state and local officials to cooperate. Jason Blair, NTD News. Thank you, Jason, for that report. Next, Senator Amy Klobuchar has taken the next step towards a run for Minnesota governor. The senator yesterday filed paperwork to create a fundraising committee weeks after Governor Tim Walz said he wouldn't seek re-election. That's right, Klobuchar told CNN earlier this month she was seriously considering a run for the state's top office. In 2020, the senator ran for Democratic presidential nominee before withdrawing and backing eventual President Joe Biden. Vice President J.D. Vance in Minnesota yesterday calling for local and state lawmakers to help turn down the temperature when it comes to the tensions surrounding ICE enforcement operations. Joining us for Insight is Simon Hankinson, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us this morning, Simon. Will this press conference shift the dial? The vice president making his way all the way there, making some big, bold statements. What do you think? Well, I think, unfortunately, in this era of political theater, it probably won't change many minds. I am on the side of law enforcement trying to do its job. I believe that opening the borders for four years was a national suicide. I believe that if you impede federal law enforcement from doing its job, you're essentially saying that the rule of law does not apply in your city or your state. You're nullifying the Constitution and federal law. Vance is extremely eloquent. He doesn't have to convince me, but I'm afraid the ideologues in places like Minneapolis are just so dead set on the idea that not only should law enforcement not be allowed to deport people who are here illegally, but it should not be allowed to deport people who are here illegally and have long and often violent criminal records, which is a position that has kind of hardened over time. Yeah, the vice president yesterday also, he kind of pointed to what he thinks of as the far left driving these protests and this unrest in Minnesota regarding ICE. At the same time, a recent Ipsos Reuters poll came out showing that approval for ICE operations and immigration enforcement at the moment is at about 40%, which is lower than previously. It's been an issue that the president has really pulled well on. What do you think is needed for, for example, to turn down the temperature as the VP is calling for? No, you're right. I mean, in the media war, the left controls more than the right. I mean, 80, 90% of the national media are left of center. And so every arrest is a BIPOC grandmother or a transgender puppy or an innocent child. It's never a dangerous gang member or a criminal. So in the context of like the latest one was this five-year-old kid who supposedly was arrested. That was the headline. I don't believe any headlines until I've waited about 24 hours. And then you find out what actually happened, which is that they were trying to arrest the father who had violated immigration law and was deportable. And the father ran away and abandoned the child. So of course they can't let this five-year-old freeze to death in the street and had to take him to the social services or family member or something. So what needs to happen? Well, I don't think the president can back down and simply acknowledge that cities and states have a right to override federal law because where does that end? Can they override tax law? If I don't like speed limits, but they like to drive fast, so I get to say, no, you can't enforce speed limits in this part of my town. But on the other hand, I think they will probably wanna shift tactics so that it's less obvious where they're gonna be and when to give the activists less notice and maybe do some more workplace enforcement and just switch it up a bit because right now the activists seem to have the upper hand on some of these public relations exercises like that church invasion and the public street protests. And the vice president also called for local and state officials to meet the federal government and ICE operations halfway. What would that look like to you? Well, at the very least, local police are supposed to protect civilians in their cities. Even, and I understand the argument that they don't have extra manpower to go and actively assist ICE, but that's not what they're being asked to do. All they're being asked to do is honor detainers. So when they arrest somebody and that person also has an immigration warrant, let Immigration and Customs Enforcement know so that they can then pick the person up when the other judicial process is over for their criminal case or civil case, and they can pick them up quietly in the police station, at the court, but out of sight, not in the street, and they don't have to go out and arrest them. That's what takes so much time and energy and unfortunately muscle and guns is that if you have to go into a neighborhood that is utterly hostile, and you have to find somebody who doesn't wanna be found, and in some cases is an armed criminal, you've gotta bring a lot of resources. But when you do it inside a jail, it's easy. So that's why you don't see so many of these cases in states that are run by Republicans or conservatives or even Democrats who believe in enforcing the rule of law because they're just taking care of business quietly. And we do have some allegations from the FBI and others within the federal government that there may be some kind of organized crime, excuse me, organized protesting operations going on here. It may not be the kind of grassroots operation that it looks like. Just from your perspective though, what can concerned citizens do to make their voices heard without turning the temperature up in ways that are dangerous for themselves and others? Well, they're called elections and they happen every couple of years. You elect members of Congress and local officials and the president to carry out your wishes. And yes, I think the March for Life is this week where people are protesting against abortion. You have every single opinion there could be that has the right to come to Washington DC and march up and down with signs, write editorials, try to convince people in your community, in your neighborhood. But what they've done here is really cross the line. I mean, when you go into some, you can't go into someone's house uninvited and stay when they've asked you to leave and say, no, no, but I'm just here to express my first amendment rights. No, that doesn't work that way. You can't break into a church or a private place of business and force them to listen to you. The first amendment simply allows you to speak, but it does not say you can speak anywhere you want, anytime you want. So I think that's where these activists have really crossed the line. Even in the civil rights movement, when they had a cause that in my mind was much more justified and noble, there were certain rules they respected. They didn't bust into churches in the middle of worship and stop people from praying uninvited. They were much more respectful and trying to win people, the public, over by their higher level of conduct and dignity and not try to take the lowest possible ground, which is what we're seeing now. Glad to have these discussions with you. Thank you so much for joining us. Simon Hankinson. Thank you. Now over to international news. President Trump is outlining a new strategic vision for Greenland, dialing back threatened tariffs on European allies, as questions grow about U.S. influence in the Arctic. At the same time, speaking from Davos, the president unveiled what he's calling the Board of Peace. It's a move that comes amid strained relations with key Western partners. And it is Washington correspondent Mari Otsu was at that launch in Davos. And we now go to her in Zurich for those details. President Trump telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the timeline of that Greenland framework deal is quote, infinity and forever. And he says, this is something he discussed with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos and that the deal is still being negotiated, but that the timeline for it would be long-term. This is coming just a day after President Trump called off those threatened tariffs on European nations over his potential acquisition of Greenland. And on the emerging deal, President Trump now says that the U.S. military will have total access to the island and that it will come at no cost. Well, I'm not gonna have to pay anything. We're gonna have total access to Greenland. He says the deal will also allow the U.S. to install part of his Golden Dome, a multibillion-dollar missile defense system on the island, citing that missile accuracy will improve with part of the dome on Greenland's strategic location. So the Golden Dome will be on Greenland? A piece of it, yes. And it's a very important part because it's everything comes over Greenland. If the bad guys start shooting, it comes over Greenland. What have you got for me? I'm not saying it's gonna happen anytime soon, but what if a foreign country launched a missile at the United States of America? We would need control over the Arctic in order to shoot that missile down. Our entire missile defense system depends on that Arctic security. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Russians and even the Danes who control Greenland admit that they want to control that facility. Those missiles would be flying right over the center of that piece of ice. President Trump's also urging the necessity of tariffs for national security and identity, framing his tariff strategy as a way to keep foreign influence at bay without cost to the U.S. consumer. If they think that the Chinese have inelastic supply to the U.S. so they're gonna just keep dumping their stuff no matter what, then they really, really care about the tariffs. And so the fact that countries move so much where the president threatens tariffs says something about who's bearing the tariff, right? This while he touts his America First economic agenda ahead of the midterms while saying some Western allies have lost their way. China is welcome, but what we need is more Chinese foreign direct investment in Europe. We're gonna reward companies for investing in the United States of America and penalize companies for trying to invest in communist China in places all over the world. Meanwhile, the president unveils the Board of Peace on his last day in Davos, a day after blasting European leaders for policies he says led to vulnerability to hostile adversaries. 19 board members joined President Trump onstage in Davos, including world leaders from Argentina, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, the president notably having brokered a major peace deal between the latter two countries last year. They're friends of mine, I think. Let me see. Yeah, every one of them is a friend of mine. This board has the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created. He says the board will start with a focus on rebuilding Gaza before looking globally. And the president of the United States is a president of action. It is our destiny if we put the time and the effort that it requires, as I know this board will do. But I also think it will serve as an example of what's possible in other parts of the world. Without losing focus on what's before us now, this is what's possible for other places and other conflicts that seem impossible to solve right now. And after that board of peace meeting, President Trump then met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, the White House saying that that meeting lasted around an hour. President Trump then telling us right after the meeting that it was good, and Zelensky then saying that the first trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and the US will happen in the UAE on Friday. Meanwhile, President Trump won't be in the White House for long, as he's expected to set off for Iowa Tuesday to give a speech there on the economy and energy. Reporting from Zurich, Mari Otsu, NTD News. Thank you, Mari. And President Trump returned to the White House late last night after an action-packed visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos. NTD's Daniel Monahan has the key takeaways from the president's remarks aboard Air Force One as he came back. President Trump touched on a wide range of issues while speaking with reporters in flight. On Greenland, the president said there is no time limit on the in-progress agreement, calling it a deal that is meant to last indefinitely. It's forever. That was discussed. We can do anything we want. We can do military. We can do anything we want. And it's being negotiated, and let's see what happens. I think it'll be good. Trump says NATO is going to be involved with securing the Arctic Island, and he spoke about the Golden Dome defense system he plans to build in Greenland. The U.S. won't have any expense because we're not going to have expenses. Other than building the Golden Dome, we're going to build the Golden Dome, and we'll have participation in that also. Because of the Golden Dome, we'll have participation in that also, meaning with the expense of it. Trump also discussed his proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10%, saying the policy is aimed at protecting everyday Americans. The credit card companies are getting 28% interest. So a guy goes out, they don't even know it. You know, these are people, regular people. They don't know that they're paying 28%. Then it's a little bit overdue, and they end up having to file for bankruptcy. Not going to let that happen. So it's a one-year 10% cap on credit cards. We have to get that approved by Congress, too. On Iran, Trump says the U.S. is keeping a close eye on the Islamic Republic. But we have an armada. We have a massive fleet heading in that direction, and maybe we won't have to use it. We'll see. President Trump discussed Venezuela and said he spoke with opposition leader Maria Carina Machado earlier. Very good relationship, just to say. She's a good woman, a very nice woman. She's been through a lot, and at the same time, I'll tell you, they're doing a very good job in Venezuela. So I get along with both sides. I get along with everybody but the media. You know, the fake news that I don't get along, but I get along with everybody. The president says oil companies will start drilling there soon. We have the biggest companies in the world. We have them, and they're gonna be going in. They're all negotiating right now, and we're representing the nation, and the nation is very thrilled by that because we're really good at this, and they'll be taking in more money than they ever have, but we'll be taking in a lot of money too. That's gonna do two things. It's gonna make the United States a lot of money, and it's also, I mean, it's gonna make Venezuela a lot of money, but it's also gonna bring down oil prices even further. Trump also discussed China, saying he's going to visit Communist Party leader Xi Jinping in April. Trump says Xi will come to the U.S. toward the end of the year. Daniel Monahan, NTD News. Thanks to Daniel for that report. In the U.S., Ukraine and Russia are set to hold trilateral talks today in Abu Dhabi. The meeting comes after separate talks in Davos and Moscow. Here's the latest on those negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The U.S. is set to hold talks with Ukraine and Russia today in Abu Dhabi to discuss the future of the war. It comes after top-level talks Thursday in Switzerland and Russia. Aboard Air Force One yesterday, President Trump told reporters that both Russia's President Putin and Ukraine's President Zelensky You know, what's happened here is there were times when Putin didn't want to make a deal, times when Zelensky didn't want to make a deal, and there was, like, opposite times. Now I think they both want to make a deal, but we'll find out. Earlier in the day, Trump met Zelensky on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. Trump said the meeting was very good, and Zelensky called it productive and meaningful. In Moscow the same day, U.S. negotiators Steve Whitkoff, Jared Kushner, and Josh Groenbaum sat down with President Putin. That meeting came after Special Envoy Whitkoff said negotiations to end the war had come down to one last issue. The Kremlin told reporters the talks had been useful. The talks lasted approximately four hours and were exceptionally substantive, constructive, and I would say extremely frank and trusting. But Russia had warned lasting peace would not be possible unless territorial issues were resolved. Most importantly, during these talks between our president and the Americans, it was once again confirmed that without resolving the territorial issue according to the formula agreed upon in Anchorage, there is no hope of achieving a long-term settlement. Russia has demanded Kiev withdraw its troops from the eastern regions of Ukraine. The Kremlin said until this is achieved, Russia will continue to pursue its goals on the battlefield. Russia's army has managed to capture about 20% of Ukraine since hostilities began in 2014 and its full-scale invasion of 2022. But the battlefield gains have been costly. The Russian economy is feeling the consequences of the war and international sanctions. Ukraine is short of money as well. Despite significantly boosting its own arms manufacturing, it still relies on weaponry from Western allies. Focus now shifts to today's meeting in Abu Dhabi. Let's sit by. And coming up, TikTok has finalized a deal to avoid a ban in the U.S. after years of scrutiny over national security concerns. We're going to take a look at the majority U.S.-owned joint venture. We'll be right back. Stay with us. Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. TikTok once faced a precarious future in the U.S., but it's now increasingly clear it's not going anywhere. That's right. The video-sharing platform has now established a majority American-owned joint venture, and it's to run its U.S. business. Now, the deal revealed just one day before President Trump's deadline. Here's more on that. TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance says it has finalized a move to avoid a ban in the U.S. The deal will create a new majority American-owned joint venture aimed at protecting U.S. user data. It's a major step after years of scrutiny by President Donald Trump, who in 2020 unsuccessfully tried to ban the app over national security concerns. In a post on Thursday, Trump said he is, quote, so happy to have helped in saving TikTok. The TikTok-USDS joint venture will be responsible for securing U.S. data and apps in TikTok's recommendation algorithm. Under the agreement, American and global investors will own 80.1% of the venture, while ByteDance keeps the rest. Tech giant Oracle private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based MGX will serve as managing investors, each holding 15%. A White House official says both the U.S. and Chinese governments have approved the deal. The venture will retain and secure TikTok's algorithm using only U.S. data, which will be secured on Oracle's cloud system. President Trump is calling his Davos meeting with Ukraine's President Zelensky positive, and Zelensky said a framework on security guarantees for his country had been established. Would this be a step toward ending the war? Joining us now is geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert, who's also the senior national security editor over at The National Interest. Brandon, always great to see you. Today, we have the trilateral between U.S., Russia, Ukraine, and Abu Dhabi. What are your expectations? Do you expect the war to end? Unfortunately, at this rate, I don't think the war's gonna end through a negotiated settlement. I think what they're doing, really, is keeping the lines of communications open so that when the Russians do actually defeat the Ukrainians, the Americans and Russians could potentially move on in a more positive light. I think this conflict at this point will be determined on the battlefield, unfortunately. So then what do you think the outcome of Trump's meeting with Zelensky was? Because Zelensky seemed to indicate that he had won some flavor of security guarantees. Well, he very well might have, but ultimately, those security guarantees are worthless. The United States cannot keep giving what it doesn't have. We're seeing this, by the way, the downstream effects of this war in that, for instance, we are struggling to maintain an air defense capability in the Middle East, which is about to heat up right now, and that's precisely because those systems were depleted in the Ukraine war, and our defense industrial base cannot replenish them in a meaningful way, in a reliable way. And so whatever Trump is telling Zelensky, he's selling them the dream, as they say in real estate. I don't believe anything that we're doing is going to change the conditions on the ground at all. And let's just talk about Europe's involvement, because after the meeting with Trump, Zelensky did blast Europe in his speech given at Davos. So what's happening with that element of this dynamic? Well, clearly, Zelensky is playing to Trump. I mean, clearly, he has assessed that it's no longer Trump being let around the nose by the Euros, which is how it kind of was for the last eight months. But whatever was said in that meeting between he and Trump, clearly, he now understands he's gonna have to figure out how to appeal to the man in the White House and not the people in Brussels. But again, I mean, Trump is a mercurial guy anyway. So he goes with one way one day, and then he changes course the other, and that gives him some wiggle room. But I think Zelensky realizes that the clock is running out, and he's not gonna be able to keep those eastern portions of the country, that regardless of what happens, that Ukraine is now going to be a bifurcated country. How far we've come from that fiery meeting where he came in, didn't wear a suit, and, you know, was slightly passive-aggressive. Over to Putin. You know, Whitkoff and Kushner, they traveled directly to Moscow. I think they were up till three in the morning. I don't know what they were doing with him so late into the night. So where's Putin's stand in all this? And what's going on with Kushner and Whitkoff? Because they have a couple notches in their belt. They're very seasoned at this. Yeah, in many respects, Whitkoff and Kushner have actually upstaged the Professional Diplomacy Corps in State Department. I mean, they've been very successful at negotiation. I think what's happening is it's less about the Ukraine war. Obviously, that is being discussed, but I think the real momentum is in things like trade deals, rare earth mineral development deals. I think the Trump administration is thinking longer-term trade and things like that beyond the Ukraine war. I think that they realize the Ukraine war is an insuperable wound. Neither side in that conflict will come to the middle. And so they're just gonna keep moving ahead as if the Ukraine war didn't happen. And in fact, this is something you saw Kushner doing in the run-up to the negotiations for the Abraham Accords, where he, I mean, I talked to him about this. He told me personally, he said, look, he goes, I'm going to proceed as if we're never gonna solve the Israel-Palestine issue. We have to just sort of isolate that. And I think they're doing the same thing with Ukraine. Such an interesting way to parlay what happened over in the Middle East to this situation that seems to go on forever with no end or solution. So with that, as we start to finish up, I couldn't let you leave without your view on what's gonna happen in Iran. Obviously, you wrote a book about the Iran threat. So what, you know, Trump said, well, we're moving military assets into place. People thought that action would have already happened coming off the Venezuela action and at the peak of the protests. What's going on? Well, as I said, the last time I was on, he was going to strike until he was talked off the cliff on the 15th. But now he's got the, what is it, the Teddy Roosevelt is now in the Arabian Gulf. He's got the Carl Vinson on site. I think there's a third carrier that's about to be positioned. So my estimation is probably in the next 48 to 72 hours, there probably will be some kind of hostility initiated. Trump is going to go for the regime, I think, in an air war. He's also now got the Syrian Islamists. He has them going into the Kurdish part of Syria, but that's not what that's about. That's to set them up to go into Iraq, to go after those Iranian-backed militias in Iraq because we pulled our troops out of those bases in Iraq. They're now up in Erbil, which is the Kurdish capital of the Kurdish state. So I believe there's a positioning of epic proportions going on. I think in the next 48 to 72 hours, as early as then, you can see things heating up in the Middle East. Well, anybody who watches our program, Brandon, knows that you completely called a midnight hammer when nobody was saying it was going to happen. So you're calling 48 to 72 hours. I hope we can talk next week and break that down. Brandon Weikert, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Have a great weekend. All right, bye-bye. Certainly coming up soon, if it's all according to- He's been right many times before. Wow, that's quite a bold prediction. Okay, and in more domestic news, President Trump has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against the nation's largest bank for dropping him as a customer. That's right. Trump is accusing JPMorgan Chase and CEO Jamie Dimon of improperly closing his bank accounts, including those associated with his family as well as his businesses. The bank notified Trump of the closures in February 2021. That was about a month after the January 6th Capitol breach, if you recall. The lawsuit argues the decision was based on political and social motivations. And the suit says the bank's, quote, woke beliefs that it needed to distance itself from President Trump and his conservative political views also drove the move. JPMorgan Chase says the lawsuit has no merit and it will fight it in court. The bank says it does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. And the interesting bit there is Dimon was at Davos railing against Trump's proposal to cap the interest rates at 10%. So there's side elements to this one as well. And coming up, human fetal tissue from aborted fetuses can no longer be used in government-funded research. More on the decision from the National Institutes of Health. Grab that and more. We'll be right back. Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. House lawmakers avert a partial government shutdown. Some Democrats voted with Republicans to fund the DHS without reforms to ICE, despite pushback from their party's leadership and the progressive left. NTD's Melina Weiskopf has the details. The yeas are 220 and the nays are 207. The bill is passed without objection Lawmakers racing the clock once again to avoid a partial government shutdown. On Thursday, the House overwhelmingly approved a package of spending bills to fund education, defense, labor, health, transportation, and housing. Republicans will have finally replaced the last of any Biden-era spending levels with Trump-era spending levels and policies. We've spent less. We've saved more taxpayer dollars. We've codified efforts to remove waste and fraud and abuse. The speaker has fought to return the chamber to regular order in allocating tax dollars, instead of forcing members to vote on a massive package all at once without time for review. This is the most significant progress towards restoring regular order in this institution in many years, and everybody here knows that. While a separate vote to fund the DHS barely passed due to Democrat pushback over ramped up ICE operations. ICE is out of control. House Democrat leaders led a majority of Democrats to reject funding for the DHS. ICE should be abolished and it should be, and something should be reconstituted so we have immigration enforcement. President Trump on Thursday defended his immigration enforcement efforts, predicting that Senate Democrats may again force another partial government shutdown. The shutdown cost us a lot, and I think they'll probably do it again. That's my feeling. We'll see what happens. People coming in from the Congo, prisons in the Congo, prisons in Venezuela, prisons from all over the world, let them come into our country. And that, you know, we've done an incredible job. We closed up the southern border. Now the Senate will need to approve the funding bills before the January 30th deadline. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would not say whether he'd push for Senate Democrats to reject DHS funding when the bills come up for a vote next week. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Melina Weiskopf. NTD News. The National Institutes of Health announced yesterday it will end the use of human fetal tissue from elective abortions in all government-funded research. The agency called the move a major milestone in the Trump administration's effort to modernize biomedical science. NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya said the decision reflects a shift toward next-generation research technologies and alliance taxpayer-funded science with American values. Policy applies immediately to all NIH internal and external research, including grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements. The change follows an investigation last year by watchdog group White Coat Waste, which found NIH funding multiple projects using fetal tissue. Some medical groups have raised concerns. They're citing its role in this type of research. President Trump says the U.S. intends to bid on hosting the World Expo 2035. In a Truth Social post yesterday, Trump said Florida has expressed strong interest in hosting the expo in Miami. Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Miami native, would chair the effort to coordinate and advance the bid. In a post on Ex Rubio said the event would be an incredible stage to showcase the nation's golden age and American exceptionalism before the world. Trump said the event would create thousands of jobs and add billions of dollars in growth to the economy. President pointed to several other high-profile events that will take place during his second term, including the FIFA World Cup, the 2028 Summer Olympics, and this year's America 250. And the U.S. officially leaves the World Health Organization. President Trump began the year-long withdrawal process on his first day back in office. He then criticized the agency's handling of COVID and what he calls excessive influence from China. And today's Jack Bradley brings us more. The U.S. has just officially exited from the World Health Organization. President Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office, starting the year-long process of withdrawing from the WHO. In the order, he restated his reasons for withdrawing the first time back in 2020, saying that the WHO mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and had too much influence from its members like the Chinese Communist Party. Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by Chinese authorities. At the start of the pandemic, the WHO took China for its word when it said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus, thereby allowing outbound flights from China to continue while the CCP was locking down domestic travel at home. The entire time, China refused to allow outside investigators in. Trump also accused the WHO of helping China to mislead the world about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, but the agency denies these allegations. I always said it came from Wuhan. It did come from Wuhan. President Trump also says that the agency demands disproportionately big payments from the US compared to much larger countries like China. We were paying $500 million a year, and China was paying $37 million a year. Former President Joe Biden, upon taking office in 2021, immediately reversed the move and rejoined the WHO. First thing Biden did is go back into it. You know what he paid? More than $500 million. I made a deal at $37. I could have had $37. They were public about it. We'll give you the same deal that China has for $37. The exit could violate US law, though, which requires the US to pay about $260 million in outstanding fees before leaving. But a State Department spokesperson defended the decision on Thursday, saying the president paused all future US funding to the WHO and that Americans have already paid enough. The US withdrawal from the WHO is forcing the agency to make major budget and workforce cuts, but the director general is seeing the bright side, saying it offers an opportunity. An opportunity for countries to transition away from aid dependency towards self-reliance. The WHO is just one of several United Nations-tied organizations that the US has been withdrawing from over the past year. That includes the UN Human Rights Council, which allows notorious human rights abusers on it, like China and Cuba. Reporting from Washington, D.C., Jack Bradley, NTD News. Thank you, Jack. And House lawmakers heard testimony on the housing crisis in the United States. Regulations and deportation were some of the focal points. NTD's David Lam reports. On Thursday, a House panel looked into how to tackle the nationwide housing crisis today. Representative Eric Burleson of Missouri kicked off the hearing with a reality check. A young American can work full-time, do everything right, and still have no realistic path to owning a home. Not because they're lazy, not because they made reckless choices, but because public policy has made ownership more expensive and further out of reach than it has been in decades. Chairman Burleson also said only one out of four Americans say they're confident that they can buy a home. He blames rent control and federal regulations for discouraging new construction. Well, the immovable object consists of overly restrictive land-use regulations propagated by most of the 33,000-plus state and local jurisdictions. That's how many have zoning and land-use power. This leads to unaffordability and a dearth of starter homes on smaller lots. Burleson pointed to previous federal interest rate policies as well as illegal immigration for driving up housing demand, which he said has outpaced supply growth. The chair highlighted President Trump's one big, beautiful bill, saying it delivered historic tax relief for families and made it easier to build new homes while addressing illegal immigration through deportation. But some argue that deportations risk shrinking the construction labor pool. How does the already existing labor shortage impact our ability to meet the housing demand? Well, it affects it tremendously. I mean, if you simply don't have the trades to do the job, it makes everything more expensive, almost nonexistent. Buddy Hughes with the National Association of Home Builders said 30% of the construction workers in the U.S. is born out of the country, and he hopes the immigration issue can be addressed to support the industry's needs. Burleson said deregulation is a key piece in solving the housing crisis. It will not be restored by distorting markets or importing demand into an already broken system. It will be restored by unleashing American builders, dismantling the regulatory cartel, and putting hardworking American families back at the center of national policy where they belong, and that's why we're here today. David Lamb, NTD News. And next, Microsoft Teams and other services are coming back online after a huge outage. That's right, the outage tracking website downdetector.com reported Microsoft's productivity software suite. It was unavailable to thousands of users yesterday. Microsoft 365 provided an update on X, saying it was rebalancing traffic across all affected infrastructure. Microsoft says it was investigating a potential issue and it affected its services in North America. By the evening, Microsoft had said its infrastructure had returned to a healthy state. And downdetector noted nearly 4,000 incidents as of 6 p.m. Eastern, down from more than 15,800 reports earlier in the day. And up ahead, so many truly touching artworks were honored last night at NTD's Painting Competition Awards Ceremony. It really was a beautiful event. Fantastic, yeah. And next up, we have two of the winners in studio. They're gonna discuss their approach to their art and life as well after this. Welcome back to NTD Good Morning. The seventh International Figure Painting Competition concluded here in New York City last night. That was, of course, NTD's very own. And amongst thousands of paintings submitted by would-be contestants, only a few dozen were selected and displayed. The chief judge of the competition explained, technique is essential, but it alone cannot convey inner meaning. The works that truly stand out are those that combine both skill with a message that uplifts the viewer. Art that embodies pure truth, pure kindness, and pure beauty. And we are very pleased to welcome into the studio two of the competition's winners. Lauren Tilden won the Distinction of Honorable Mention for her piece, Appalachian Hymn. And Miriam Baranov won the Outstanding Technique for her piece, Isa. So good to have you both here with us. And I'm so looking forward to this discussion. Lauren, congratulations on your award. If you'd like to tell us a little about your painting. Thank you. Yeah, it's great to be here with you both. So my painting is a portrait of my daughter, Ava. And about four years ago, we made a major life change. We moved from New Jersey to rural West Virginia. We bought a farm, have chickens, horses, animals. It was a big shift for our whole family. And Ava, when we first moved there, decided she was gonna have an egg business and raising chickens. So this is a portrait of her because we found there's a lot of joy and fulfillment in raising your own food, in working with nature, but it's a huge struggle. There's trials that you face. So this is kind of a portrait that is symbolic of what we went through, of our experience in West Virginia. Capturing all that in an image, it's amazing. And Miriam, we'd love to hear about your painting, that one. Yeah, so thank you for asking. So Portrait of Iza is a portrait of my friend. It's a painting of her wearing this beautiful Moroccan garment, white with a detail of gold that my family acquired when they were in Morocco. I have never had the reason to wear it, but as soon as she came to my studio and we were planning together this painting, I thought it would be great for her to wear it that really shows the luminosity and glow of something that is her. But really how it came together is I met her when I moved to Columbus, Ohio, and she modeled for me maybe a couple of times. And after sitting for me for three hours, I was like, let's try to do something longer. And it turned into 50 hours of us just spending time in the studio. And yeah, and eventually she was like, I love you, we're such good friends. This was really cool, but 50 hours was too much spending time together, so this will be our last sitting. What a great friend. You've got the record there, and you really did capture that gold finishing on the shirt and the expression on her face is really present for both paintings. There's such presence. Thanks, yeah. Yeah, and that's something I wanna talk about too because in this age of AI, we've already had computers and cameras, of course, for many years, but more and more it becomes that ability to create without the creator, the artists themselves. But there's still that gap there. Why do you choose to create artwork with the realistic style? Obviously, the impulse is within you, but what do you value about realism in your paintings, that style? Lauren. Okay, yeah. So I know people have been concerned about AI replacing artists in different jobs, but I do not think AI will replace artists because it has no soul. It's a software construct. So no matter what happens, the product will be spiritless. So with the artist, you have the spirit, the human spirit, you have the mind, you have the eyes, you have the physical touch of the hands, and all of that's being conveyed into the painting. And artwork is a physical object. I mean, I know we get lazy and we view it on the screen, which I think is awful. You lose so much versus seeing it in person. So I would say I'm not concerned about it. I think AI will make the actual objects more valuable in the long run. That's really profound, because having gone yesterday to see the texture and the brush strokes and the reflection off the canvas, it was like I'm so used to just looking at screens all day. So Miriam, I'd love to get from you your perspective on when you have these easy buttons to create imagery, why do you focus on trying to reproduce what is classic realistic painting? So it's a great question, kind of to bounce off of what Lauren has to say. I come from a data engineer background, actually trained in mathematics, and a lot of my family members work in AI startups. So I would have to say that an AI can produce an image with pixels and data. It can create something visually maybe appealing, but what it cannot replace is kind of what we're having right now with you, this experience. So painting is all about the human experience. And when I was talking about my painting with Isa, it was truly not just capturing her essence, but also I think what really speaks to people and make them stop, like when you go to an art museum and really look at an image, whether it was painted 500 years ago or today, and to feel like you can have a conversation with a person, it's because that's what us as artists capture when we're painting and spending hours on our work. Wow, so profound. It's not just the painting itself, but that conversation, connection. That's also what I wanna talk about, because painting I imagine is in many ways a very solitary endeavor. Definitely. And you've been spending quite a few days here together with others who really value classical realism and all of that effort and time that it takes to put into that in that solitary way. What's it been like for both of you? But we'll start with you, Lauren, about coming together with others and communicating and if there's any reflection you have there on your week in New York City. Yeah, yeah, I was completely moved by it. I met artists from all over the world who were so passionate about their craft. And it kind of gives me chills thinking about it. We had artists who were young to much older and everyone was so dedicated to what they were doing to achieving a high level of excellence that for me, it just motivated me to get back in the studio and get to work. And I have all of these new ideas, things I need to work on, things I need to correct, so I am ready to go. And Miriam, on that same point, this concept of being around other artists and sort of reaffirming why you even do it in the first place. Why do you think this type of work that really is looking for that human connection and that divine connection, why do you think that resonates with people? Yeah, so it's a great question. I would say that just coming to the exhibit and looking at all this beautiful artwork and where the technique level is so astound, but everything is done in such a different way. I can even imagine if we were to have one reference to work from, whether it's a photo or from life, each artist would do it in a different way, would be a different painting because what we're seeing there is the vision and the way that this artist is seeing the world. So to me, being a painter is a very esoteric kind of profession, not something I've tried out myself. What's some tips or ways that you keep inspired in rituals that you might have in your daily life to get your ideas? Because there is a real sense of purity and beauty in what you do. Lauren? I would say continuing to read books, read history, read my Bible because a lot of those stories will inspire me. Walking through nature, taking hikes, spending time with people in my family, people in my community, because those are the type of people who I'm trying to capture, their souls and their spirits. So that's usually where most of my inspiration comes from. And Miriam, same question to you. I think that you find that when somebody can achieve a level of accomplishment or mastery in anything, their approach can be applicable to really anything, whether it's sports or education. You've clearly achieved a mastery of painting. So how do you approach, before you're ready to do a session, what gets you sort of in that zone to create such intricate work? Yeah, so very sophisticated question. My answer would be coffee is a must-have for me. I have to have my coffee, yeah. Well, then I should go into painting, apparently. Music and coffee, it may be a nice walk. But really it's just a lot of patience, being kind to others and yourself as well. It's an extremely, it's like a rollercoaster creating a painting, because at some point you start and you have this beautiful vision and the connection with a model. You see a beautiful model in front of you and eventually you start to fall more in love with the model because you really get to know who they are. That's the exciting part. And I think that's what makes me wanna come back to the painting, is just connecting more with a person. It's a really intimate process. You get to really open up to each other during the 50 hours of being in a small space together. Yes, and you really feel it. I was so moved, really, because as I mentioned, the presence in both of your paintings and in so many of the paintings that were displayed. And I wanna come back to this idea of this kind of intimacy and being moved and that connection that we've touched on in so many ways. You spoke about part of your inspiration is your Bible, and of course, the connections with your community. What drew you to this competition? Our mission is to promote purity, beauty, and goodness. And how does that play out through your approach to art and life? Yeah, I would say that the mission of purity, goodness, and truth did draw me to this competition because that's a unique mission for any art competition. I don't think I've ever come across that before. And those ideals are things that are so important to me as well, and things I try to convey through my art. So that's really, that was the thing that pulled me in, I would say, mostly. And those are also elements that, like I said, I do try to show through my art as well. I was thinking of this quote by Van Gogh. He said one time, or he wrote it, and I'm gonna paraphrase. He said, anything that is truly good and beautiful in art or man's work comes from God, and art is worship. So when I heard that quote, when I think about the competition, and when I think about the great master paintings, like we were just talking about, the Pieta, Michelangelo, there is something so special in all that work, and it comes through, and people know it. Like, you can't deny it. When you stand in front of a painting or a sculpture, you feel it. So, and I think that that's what this competition is seeking to cultivate in our culture and in the artist. Well, Lauren Tilden, Miriam Baranov, congratulations to you both, and thank you for your dedication to your craft and inspiring us. Thank you so much. Thank you. And sadly, we do have to round up the show now, but stay tuned for NTD News Today coming up shortly. I'm Stefania Cox. I'm Kerry Dunst. Have a great weekend. We'll see you soon.