Up First from NPR - Jet Down in Iran, Voter Privacy, Dietary Guidelines

Episode Date: April 4, 2026

A U.S. fighter jet went down in Iran and there's been a shakeup of Army leadership. The retirement of a privacy officer at the Department of Justice shines a light on the Trump Administration's interest in voter information.And, the American Heart Association releases its guidance on the pattern of eating that promotes good health and helps fend off disease.Please help us out by completing a short survey telling us what you like and how we could improve our podcast.You can find it right now at www.npr.org/springsurveyWant more analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hello, everyone. We would love to hear about what you like or maybe don't like about up first, and you can help us out by answering a few questions online. Go to npr.org slash spring survey, and again, that's npr.org slash spring survey. Thank you. Two U.S. fighter jets went down over Iran yesterday. American forces are still searching for one of the airmen. The American and Israeli bombardment of Iran has not destroyed their ability to fight back. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Aisha Roscoe, and this is up first from NPR News. President Trump says he plans to end the war in Iran soon.

He's also sent more troops to the region. The Department of Justice has demanded. States turn over their voter rolls, full of sensitive data, and judges have mostly sided with the states that have refused. And new advice on diet from the American Heart Association. It says go easy on meat at the same time that the government is telling us to eat more. So stay with us. Chow down. We've got the news you need to start your weekend. First up today, President Trump says he expects to successfully end the war in Iran in the next two to three weeks.

Yet two U.S. planes went down over Iran yesterday, and there are other hints that much more fighting may be coming. We're joined by NPR National Security correspondent Greg Myrie. Greg, thanks for being with us. Hi, Scott. And let's please begin with those two U.S. planes. What happened? Yeah, Scott, until yesterday, Iran had not shot down a single American warplane despite five weeks of heavy U.S. bombing. We're talking thousands of missions. Well, two were hit on Friday. First, an F-15, which is a very good fighter jet, was struck by Iranian fire in Western Iran. and this set off an urgent rescue operation by U.S. forces for the two crew members, a pilot and a weapons officer. One was rescued. We still don't know the fate of the other. The rescue operation is still ongoing.

This is coming from a U.S. official not authorized to speak publicly. And a little later, we got word of a second plane that went down. This is an A-10 wardhog hit near the Iranian coastline. It's a different kind of aircraft. It flies low and is slow moving. and has a powerful cannon, and the lone pilot in that plane was rescued. Now, on Wednesday night, President Trump gave a big speech, and he said Iran's air defenses had been destroyed, but we've just seen that clearly there's still risk in the skies over Iran.

How does President Trump intend to bring the war to an end? Do we know? Well, he just hasn't offered any details, and perhaps the most pressing question is whether he can reach some sort of deal with Iran or whether he's just willing to walk away without an agreement. He said repeatedly that productive negotiations with Iran are taking place, but there's no real evidence of this. Pakistan has tried to broker talks, but by all appearances, these efforts have stalled. The U.S. and Iran are sticking to maximum positions with no sign of a breakthrough. And right now, the most intractable problem is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran is keeping it closed to oil tankers, with a few exceptions, and there's just no easy way to break this chokehold.

And the president has sent more U.S. troops into the region is a ground invasion, however, still possible. Scott, this is looking less likely by the day. It's difficult to see the point of sending in ground troops if you expect the war to be over before the end of this month. The troops would face huge risks for any mission, and they would be there for very brief and limited operation. The president also says it's up to other countries to open up the Strait of Hormuz. And Trump has declared that Iran's highly enriched uranium, the key element in its nuclear program, is buried under rubble inside a mountain. And he says the U.S. can keep watch with satellites. When you put all this together, Trump sounds like he has very little enthusiasm for sending in ground troops, which would be a move that would extend the war. And if he pulls back U.S. forces, calls off the war without an agreement.

How might – what might that look like? Yeah, it would seem to leave a very big, unfinished mess. Iran would be able to dictate the terms over the Strait of Hormuz and have a huge influence over the world oil markets. Countries from Europe to Asia would face uncertainty about their oil supplies, and U.S. allies in the Gulf, we're talking Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar would be extremely nervous about facing an angry Iran that's been attacking them daily. and more than 90 million Iranians would be left with a country ravaged by war. They have new leaders, but they appear just as committed to theocratic rule as their predecessors. And Perez Greg Mierry, thanks so much. Sure things, Scott. For the past year, the Justice Department has been demanding that states turn over their full voter rolls to the federal government.

They include sensitive data like voters, drivers' drivers' like, license numbers and partial social security numbers. More than a dozen states have agreed to do so. Others are fighting back in court, and now the Justice Department says it is going to share that voter data with the Department of Homeland Security. And Perez Jude Jaffe Block joins us. Thanks for being with us. Oh, thanks for having me. What does the Justice Department say they want this data and want to share it with Homeland Security?

Yeah, the Department of Justice has been arguing they need to make sure the states are doing proper voterless maintenance and taking off ineligible. voters from the rolls. But so far, three federal judges have dismissed the DOJ's lawsuits demanding this data. You know, the judges have found there's no legal basis for them to get the unredacted voter lists with sensitive data. The DOJ has now been asking for this data for over nine months at this point, but it was only last week at a hearing in Rhode Island. Did we finally hear confirmation that the DOJ's plan is to share the data with the Department of Homeland Security? The DOJ's acting head of the voting section told the judge the goal is to run all the voter lists through a DHS data system called SAVE to find non-citizens and deceased voters. Save is a tool the Trump administration

has revamped, but we've reported here at NPR that it's not perfect. So far, some citizens who are eligible voters have been mistakenly flagged by SAVE as potential non-citizens. So it's raising concerns about the potential for voters to be erroneously taken off the roles. And Jude, what kind of of privacy concerns are raised with the federal government collecting this sort of personal data, and doesn't the government already have most of it? It's interesting. We have federal privacy laws in place in this country to prevent the federal government from creating centralized data banks on Americans and aggregating all of our data in one place.

And there are protocols the government has to go through before they collect data for a new purpose. They have to give notice to the public in Congress and explain why they're using it, how it'll be protected, what it's for. But DOJ hasn't taken those steps. I talked to David Becker about this. He's the executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election, Innovation, and Research, based in Washington. He says it's pretty powerful when you combine this kind of personal data in one spot. And it's very dangerous because those three things, Social Security number, driver's license number, and date of birth are the holy trinity of identity theft.

Plus, he points out, we've already seen some things happen in the day of birth. this administration with data being misused. You know, for example, there are investigations going on about former Doge employees mishandling sensitive social security administration data. And how unusual is all this? It's actually unprecedented for DOJ to request this kind of data. And PR learned that a senior privacy officer at DOJ's Civil Rights Division very recently resigned. You know, someone in that role would normally be tasked with working on the privacy compliance aspect of a data project like this, but it's not been happening in the typical way. There's also been a number of instances now where we've seen people leaving their posts as this administration is pushing the boundaries of what the law allows when it comes to data sharing and data use.

For example, the acting IRS commissioner departed that role right at the time the IRS negotiated a data sharing agreement with ICE last year. Now, that agreement has been blocked by federal courts. We're seven months away from the midterms. What effect could all this have? Yeah, the states that are refusing to hand over this data and voting rights advocates, are worried about a chilling effect, that if registering to vote means you're now turning over your data to the Department of Justice, who can turn it over to other agencies, you know, will some people be discouraged?

There's also concerns about this administration using this voter information to make fabricated claims or so doubt on election results they don't like. And if you're Jude Juffy Block, thanks so much. Thank you. If you feel like there's conflicting advice on what makes a healthy diet, you're not alone. The American Heart Association has come to some different conclusions from the food pyramid with red meat and full fat dairy that Health Secretary Robert of Kennedy Jr. recently introduced. NPR's Alison Aubrey joins us now. Thanks, Allison. Good morning, Ayesha. It's great to be here.

All right. So it seems like the diet advice is changing all the time and I was so happy to learn that I could eat all the steak I won't. That's how you heard it. Yes, yes. Yeah, I hear you. You know, it can feel like whiplash because there are so many opinions when it comes to diet. But here's really what is reassuring, Aisha. A lot of nutrition science actually points in the same direction. I think what's been confusing over the last several months is that Health Secretary Kennedy

has repeatedly talked about his preferences, you know, things like beef tallow and red meat on his birthday. There was a social media post showing him smiling with birthday candles in a steak, not Now, steak is a very good source of protein, but there's a lot of criticism that nutrition policy has been politicized. And Dr. Alice Liechtenstein, a nutrition expert at Tufts University, who helped write these new guidelines from the American Heart Association, says the emphasis on meat is not backed by science. We need to shift the fat and the diet. We don't want to eliminate fat, but we want to shift it towards unsaturated fat, particularly from plant sources, rather than saturated Okay, that's a very different message. So who should we trust? You know, Aisha, I would say

you should trust the science. There's actually a lot of convergence when researchers look at the pattern of eating that's linked to good health and lower rates of heart disease. A clear pattern emerges. So more fruits and vegetables, more plant proteins, more healthy fats. This doesn't mean sort of an all or nothing approach when it comes to meat. And Dr. Liechtenstein says the process for making these new guidelines was to dispense with politics and stick to the evidence. Well, I think there's no agenda behind these guidelines that they're evidence-based, and then we added onto it the evidence that has emerged in the past five years, and it essentially makes a stronger argument for the recommendations that we're making.

So it sounds like these dietary guidelines are based on science. So why does it seem like everybody's not on the same page? Well, I would say there's always room for differences of opinion. And, you know, nutrition science does evolve over time. And here's another point I want to make. Despite these differences, there's a lot of agreement on many of the key recommendations, such as minimizing ultra-processed foods full of too much salt and sugar. You know, everyone supports this from the Make America Healthy Again folks to the scientists behind these new heart association guidelines. So remember, Aisha, heart disease is the number one cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. And when I spoke to Dr. Lawrence Apple of Johns Hopkins, he's another co-author of these guidelines, he says that is why diet is such an important factor to consider. You know, the pattern of eating that the American Heart Association is recommending is perfect for not just preventing disease, but controlling disease.

And it's not just heart disease. It's many other conditions, including diabetes and even cognitive to climb. So it's good for overall health. And he says the sooner in life that you start, the better. That's NPR's Alison Aubrey. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ayesha. Please help us out today by telling us what you like and how we could improve our podcast. All you have to do is complete a short survey. You can find it right now at npr.org slash spring survey. One more time, that's npr.org slash spring survey. And that's up first.

For Saturday, April 4th, 2026, I'm Scott Simon. And I'm Aisha Roscoe. Dave Mistich produced today's podcast with help from Gabe O'Connor and Danica Louise Paneda. Diana Douglas was our editor today, along with Christopher Houston, Brett Neely, Hedil Al-Souchi, and Dana Farrington. Here in the studio, our director is Michael Radcliffe. Our technical director is David Greenberg, and we have had engineering support from Valentina Rodriguez, Sanchez. is Stacey Abbott and Zoe Van Goghoun. Shannon Rhodes is our senior supervising editor

and our executive producer, The Big Boss, is Evie Stone. Jim Kane is our deputy managing editor. Tomorrow on the Sunday story, the growing number of Americans getting caught up in the ice web of tracking and surveillance. Thank you so much for listening

and for supporting your local NPR station. And if you need to find yours, go to Stations.m. PR.org. You can also call Scott and he'll look it up for you. Exactly. You have my number, don't you? Anytime. I'm here to tell you. That's also his other job.