Auto import tax; DOGE staffer; NPR testimony : NPR

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

Democrats are pressing the Trump administration for answers on how it is handling national security after detailed plans for a U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen were mistakenly shared with a journalist from The Atlantic magazine. The editor-in-chief of the magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a high-level group chat alongside top U.S. officials on the messaging app Signal. Republicans say it’s time to shift focus to what they say was a successful bombing campaign.

• 🎧 No formal investigation has been planned, but Democrats say they’ll keep pressing about details like whether national security officials use Signal for other chats because of convenience, NPR’s Greg Myre tells Up First. More broadly, they are questioning President Trump’s foreign policy. Trump has boasted about efforts to arrange ceasefires in Gaza and Ukraine; however, they have not been the quick successes he was hoping for. There is also not enough evidence yet to know if the U.S. bombing of the Houthis was successful.

Trump announced yesterday that he will impose 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts beginning next week. He says the money collected will boost the government’s revenue and encourage automobile manufacturers to build cars in the U.S. Auto service providers like Cox Automotive estimate that if the tariffs go through, car prices could increase by thousands of dollars.

• 🎧 One of the big winners of this move is the auto unionsNPR’s Franco Ordoñez says. The UAW has praised the decision, saying it is time “to end the free trade disaster.” However, the big three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — are concerned because their production is spread worldwide. The new tariffs come just a week before Trump’s promised announcement of reciprocal tariffs on imports for countries he says impose tariffs on the U.S. The president argues tariffs are necessary to national security and significant for the U.S.’s revenue.

Fewer than 50 people have access to the Social Security Administration’s databases, which contain hundreds of millions of people’s private financial information. Only one person also has access to the government’s student loan data and HR files: Akash Bobba, a Department of Government Efficiency employee. The DOGE team, headed by Elon Musk, says it is scouring government records for signs of waste, fraud and abuse. NPR’s Stephen Fowler combed through lawsuits against DOGE and found that the team has provided conflicting answers about what data it has accessed, who has that access and why.

• 🎧 Fowler says it is normal for a small group of employees to access these databasesbut the sources should be compartmentalized. Until now, the people who can access Social Security’s master beneficiary record were not the people who could see everything about student loan borrowers. Some records show that staffers were sometimes brought on board without proper training on how to handle personally identifiable information.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger testified before a House subcommittee yesterdaydefending public broadcasting against accusations of political bias. The hearing, titled “Anti-American Airwaves: Holding the Heads of NPR and PBS Accountable,” was to determine whether public broadcasting should receive federal funding. Here are four takeaways from the CEOS’ testimony.

• ➡️ When NPR is in the newsour journalists aim to cover what’s happening the same way they would any other organization. Here’s how they do it.

Deep dive

The genetic testing company 23andMe is filing for bankruptcy. It is known for having users spit in a tube to create a detailed DNA analysis. The biotech firm announced this week that it entered the federal bankruptcy process and intends to find a buyer to address its fiscal woes. The announcement comes less than two years after 23andMe suffered a massive data breach affecting 6.9 million customer accounts. The possibility of the company being sold has sparked concerns about what would happen to millions of users’ data.

• 🧬 The company holds two sensitive forms of information: the user-provided saliva sample and the detailed genetic profile created from it.
• 🧬 The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, does not apply to direct-to-consumer companies like 23andMe.
• 🧬 At least 11 U.S. states have enacted laws giving consumers a say in how their genetic data is used. Typically, those laws let people request that companies delete their data.
• 🧬 23andMe says any genetic data it shares with researchers is stripped of identifying information. The company hopes to “secure a partner who shares in its commitment to customer data privacy.”

Do you have 23andMe data you want to delete? Here’s California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s 8-step guide on how to do so.

Life advice

There are never enough hours in a day. It can be hard to carve out time for our interests, passions or to-do list tasks. Here are some helpful ways to improve your focus so you can home in on getting the things you want done:

• 🧠 Stress can narrow your attention and trigger your fight-or-flight response. Take a deep breath and calm your body to release that feeling.
• 🧠 Allow your mind to wander. It may make it easier to find innovation and creativity when making decisions.
• 🧠 Eliminate distractions by turning off push notifications and deleting social media apps. You can use screen timers or app blockers to make it harder to log back on.
• 🧠 Research shows that people accomplish more when they have an accountability buddy.

For a more in-depth look at how to improve your focus, listen to this episode of NPR’s Life Kit. Subscribe to the Life Kit newsletter for expert advice on love, money, relationships and more.

3 things to know before you go

1. A re-creation of the annex where Anne Frank and her family hid from Nazis is on display at the Center for Jewish History in New York. It is the first time such an exhibit has been available outside of Amsterdam.
2. The IRS has created a fix for some car owners who couldn’t claim the EV tax credit for vehicles purchased in 2024 because dealers skipped a key sales reporting step.
3. A federal judge yesterday rejected OpenAI’s request to toss out a copyright lawsuit from The New York Times that alleges OpenAI exploited the newspaper’s content without permission or payment.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.