Today's Top Stories from NBC News |
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2026 |
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In today's newsletter: Trump's latest diplomatic torpedo hits U.K. The Justice Department readies troops for Minnesota. And breaking down the numbers behind the recipients of recent presidential pardons. Here's what to know today. |
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| The best of NBC News.
Fewer ad interruptions.
All in one place. |
- Ad-free articles, podcasts and full episodes of NBC News Shows
- Ad-free live news, streaming on NBC News NOW
- Subscriber-only video briefings and newsletter
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President Donald Trump has pardoned an unusually high number of wealthy people accused of financial crimes, an NBC News analysis of the last four administrations has found. Over half of Trump's 88 individual pardons are for white collar crimes, many committed by business executives, politicians and even a few billionaires. Among those pardoned are Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering on his crypto platform; English soccer club owner Joe Lewis, who pleaded guilty to insider trading charges; and Venezuelan-Italian banker Julio M. Herrera Velutini, who was pardoned last week while awaiting sentencing on campaign finance violations. While net worth statistics for other pardon recipients aren't easily available, the fines and restitution imposed on them was a rough signal of their wealth. "He was very clear when he came into office that he was most interested in looking at pardoning individuals who were abused and used by the Biden Department of Justice and were overprosecuted by a weaponized DOJ," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Compared to previous administrations, Trump's pardons nullified convictions that resulted in more than $276 million in fines and restitution. Obama's pardon recipients owed $2.5 million in total, while Biden's owed just under $700,000. Trump has granted clemency to a broad range of people convicted of federal crimes during his second term. But the pardons have often favored political allies or business interests, raising concerns about potential financial and political influence on the clemency process. Read the full story here. |
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The Pentagon ordered about 1,500 troops to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota days after Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act. Trump said last week that he doesn't think he needs to use the act anymore, but the Justice Department has promised to bring possible federal charges against protesters who disrupted a church service on Sunday, where David Easterwood, a local ICE field office director, is believed to be a pastor. Footage from inside the Cities Church showed a group shouting "ICE out!" and chanting the name of Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot dead in her car by an ICE officer on a Minneapolis street on Jan. 7. Attorney General Pam Bondi said on X that she had spoken with the church's pastor and promised that "attacks against law enforcement and the intimidation of Christians are being met with the full force of federal law." Read the full story here. |
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In a historic speech in the heart of British democracy, House Speaker Mike Johnson said today that he had come to "calm the waters" between the United States and Europe. Yet even as he spoke his hosts were reeling from President Donald Trump's latest diplomatic torpedo, deriding Britain's "stupidity" and renewing his threats to seize territory from his own NATO allies. Marking 250 years of American independence, Rep. Johnson, R-LA, became the first sitting speaker to address the British Houses of Parliament, something he called a "profound honor" akin to returning "to the spiritual birthplace of our own nation." His visit has however been overshadowed by Trump's aggressive campaign to take control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, which shocked and alarmed Europe. The president doubled down on his hostilities late Monday, criticizing Britain's decision to relinquish control of the Chagos Islands, an Indian Ocean archipelago home to an Anglo-American military base. Read the full story here. |
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- The Supreme Court weighs a challenge to a Hawaii gun restriction dubbed the "vampire rule" because, as with the fictional creatures in folk tales and the novel "Dracula," people carrying firearms are required to seek permission before entering private property.
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- U.S.-allied forces guarding prisons holding thousands of Islamic State group militants in northeastern Syria said yesterday that they had lost control of one of the facilities after fighting broke out with fighters loyal to the government in Damascus.
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In the coming days, countries around the world will finalize the athletes who will represent them at next month's Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. For many, qualifying will represent the fruition of a lifelong, viciously competitive goal. Then there is the Macuga family of Park City, Utah, whose three sisters all became Olympic hopefuls without ever intending to. Sam, Lauren and Alli Macuga are unique in that they are close in age but compete in entirely different disciplines. And they fell into those sports by pure happenstance — without any parental pressure, burnout or expectations that are so common among outlier athletes. I went to Park City last summer to write about them because of their laid-back personalities and world-class talent, and found a family whose nonchalance and absence of pressure proves there is a different way to raise elite athletes. — Andrew Greif, sports reporter |
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Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown. Today's newsletter was curated for you by Kaylah Jackson. If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send us an email at: MorningRundown@nbcuni.com If you're a fan, please forward it to your family and friends. They can sign up here. |
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