Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.
Today's top stories
For two consecutive days, President Trump has launched into racist tirades targeting Minnesota's Somali community. Yesterday, his remarks included comments about Somalis as a group and mentioned deporting Somali-American Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. His remarks began after a reporter asked the president about a fraud investigation in Minnesota, where some Somalis, among others, were convicted of defrauding social service programs.
- 🎧 Making derogatory and racist comments about an entire group of people has been a tactic for Trump over the last decade of his political career, NPR's Mara Liasson tells Up First. It generates a lot of attention and has helped him win over some voters with nativist beliefs. The president's remarks come as he is expected to meet some African leaders today, including those from Somalia, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- 🎧 The mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul have defended the Somali community and responded to reports of the Trump administration increasing immigration enforcement targeting the community. Listen to Minnesota Public Radio's Matt Sepic with the latest details.
- ➡️ Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the U.S. Here's a brief history of how they came to settle there.
A Pentagon watchdog has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked the safety of U.S. servicemembers when he shared highly sensitive military plans on the Signal messaging app before an attack on Yemen. An inspector general report, which is expected to be released today, criticizes the way he shared sensitive information about airstrikes against Yemen back in March. The group chat on the encrypted messaging app included journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
- 🎧 NPR's Greg Myre reports that sources, who requested anonymity, have seen the internal report and informed NPR that it concludes Hegseth violated Pentagon regulations by using a personal cellphone for official business. Hegseth's messages reportedly included the precise times the U.S. military was launching F-18 warplanes, drones and Tomahawk missiles at Yemen. In the report, the defense secretary denied sharing classified information and stated that he has the authority to declassify it. However, the report did not mention whether Hegseth actually declassified the information before sharing it.
Vaccine advisers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet today and tomorrow to discuss the safety of established vaccines and to potentially introduce a controversial change to the U.S. vaccine schedule. A key vote expected to happen today concerns whether to withdraw the current recommendation that the hepatitis B vaccine be administered to babies at birth.
- 🎧 The recommendation for the Hep B vaccine has been in place for over 30 years, and independent researchers have found that delaying it by even a couple of months could lead to hundreds of preventable deaths a year, NPR's Pien Huang says. When it comes to the vaccine schedule, the advisers plan to investigate whether vaccines are causing asthma, eczema, and other autoimmune diseases in children, new committee chair Dr. Kirk Milhoan told The Washington Post. However, every vaccine on the schedule has been vetted and is based on the age a child's immune system can provide the best protection after receiving it, Dr. Sean O'Leary with the American Academy of Pediatrics says.
Living better
Living Better is a special series about what it takes to stay healthy in America.
Have you ever sworn off social media for a week or two because you sensed it was dampening your mood? You could be on to something, and a new study backs up that feeling. Research published in JAMA Network Open found that young adults who took just a one-week break from social media showed improvement in depression, anxiety and insomnia symptoms. Here are a few tips to help you participate in a short social media detox:
- 📱 Remove apps from your phone's home screen and disable notifications from social media apps.
- 📱 "Nighttime scrolling" can disrupt sleep and contribute to insomnia. Try going tech-free for at least an hour before bed.
- 📱 If you turn to social media when bored, try replacing scrolling with some form of physical activity like a walk or a run.
From our hosts
by A Martínez, Morning Edition and Up First host
The best way I can think of to describe what it felt like in Uvalde, Texas, after a mass shooting killed 19 elementary school children is that it was hard to breathe. The grief and sadness were suffocating.
I went there to report on the shooting and saw people walking around town with facial expressions ranging from anger, worry, shock and consoling to blank faces with a faraway stare.
I have tried not to think about May 24, 2022. But CBS News reporter Steve Hartman's 35-minute Netflix short film documentary All The Empty Rooms brought me back there — as great journalism can do. The film follows Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they travel across the U.S. memorializing the untouched bedrooms of kids killed in mass shootings. Uvalde was one of the places they went to.
There, they met up with the Cazares family, who lost 9-year-old Jacklyn. I remember standing near them during a vigil at the Uvalde County Indoor Arena. I would not have been able to imagine it back then, but now Steve says there is room for fond laughter when they think of and remember her. I know it still has to be mostly painful for them, but it was nice to see and hear that they have been able to find a way to bring the memories of Jacklyn's joyfulness back into their lives. All the Empty Rooms is hard to watch, but I'm glad I did. Maybe you'll be glad you did too. Listen to my conversation with Hartman here.
3 things to know before you go
- NPR's Student Podcast Challenge is back for 2026 and is open to students in grades four through 12. For its eighth annual year, the competition will feature a special prize to mark the 250th anniversary of the founding of the U.S.
- Check your cheese. Two separate recalls have been issued, citing different food safety concerns. One affects hundreds of thousands of containers of shredded mozzarella and multi-cheese blends, and the other impacts several brands of grated Pecorino Romano.
- This week's NPR's Far-Flung Postcards takes us to western Ukraine, where people head to church on a winter day. Check out the photo and catch up on offerings from other weeks you might have missed here.
This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.
Copyright 2025 NPR