In China, huge numbers of people are expected to travel and gather with family this weekend for the start of the Lunar New Year, just as the country experiences a major surge in COVID infections. 

NPR's Emily Feng reports that the holiday may be bittersweet for some. We also hear reporting from NPR's Wynne Davis, who collected recipes to help ring in the Lunar New Year.

And in Ukraine, many Orthodox Christians marked the feast of the Epiphany on Thursday by plunging into the frigid waters of the Dnipro River. NPR's Elissa Nadworny talked to some of the brave swimmers, who said that this year the ritual felt like a needed respite from the ongoing war.

In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.

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Holiday Traditions in China and Ukraine Offer Comfort During Uncertain Times

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Americans often rank the economy as a number one voting issue. As part of NPR's "We the Voters" series we check back in with four Americans we've been following since the pandemic.

They share how they're faring in a the current economy, and how that might influence the positions they take in the 2024 presidential election.

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How voters from different economic sectors see the 2024 election

The broad outlines of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's case have been known for months. 

Hush money payments to a former porn star made in 2016, when Trump was a presidential candidate. Bragg alleges Trump was involved in a scheme to cover up those payments, one that amounted to criminal fraud.

Now we're getting a more detailed outline of their arguments – and Trump's defense.  

We break down the legal case at the center of the political universe.

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Breaking down the legal case at the center of the political universe

For the last 60 years a transportation revolution has largely passed America by. 

Bullet trains were invented in Japan in the early 1960s. Since then, countries all over the world have adopted the technology and constructed sprawling networks of high speed rail lines. 

Despite spending billions of dollars in federal funding, he U.S. lags far behind. But a recent visit from Japan's Prime minister has revived interest in bullet train projects around the country. 

One of those projects is in Texas – a proposed high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas.

NPR's Andrew Limbong speaks with Dallas Morning News mobility and transportation reporter Amber Gaudet about what it will take to get Texas' high-speed rail project completed, and what it could mean for high-speed rail in America.

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The push to deliver high-speed rail to Texas

Civil War, the new A24 film from British director Alex Garland, imagines a scenario that might not seem so far-fetched to some; a contemporary civil war breaking out in the United States.

And while the film has taken heat for little mention of politics, the question of an actual civil war has everything to do with it. 

Amy Cooter is a director of research at the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Her work has led her to the question that Garland's movie has put in the minds of both moviegoers and political pundits: Could a second civil war really happen here? 

Cooter joins host Andrew Limbong to discuss the actual threat of current political movements in the U.S., outside of the movie theaters.  

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Is this fictitious civil war closer to reality than we think?

Back in 1999 when Donald Trump was flirting with a presidential run, he was pro-abortion rights.  In an interview on Meet the Press with NBC's Tim Russert, the New York real estate developer said he didn't like abortion, but he wouldn't ban it.

Fast forward almost two decades, and Trump was running for the republican presidential nomination, and he had a very different stance on abortion, even suggesting in an MSNBC town hall meeting that women should be punished for seeking abortions.

Trump ultimately won the presidency with the support of white Evangelical voters, many of whom wanted to see Roe v. Wade overturned.  Six years after he won, the Supreme Court justices Trump appointed helped deliver exactly that.

Now as Trump mounts another run for the White House, abortion rights are on the ballot and winning. And Trump has once again evolved his stance on abortion.  Is it a political calculation?

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Holiday Traditions in China and Ukraine Offer Comfort During Uncertain Times

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