Good morning You are reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and Hear The Up First podcast has all the news you need to start your day.

Today’s top stories

A grieving community gathered at a church in Madison, Wisconsin last night after a 15-year-old girl opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School. A teacher and a student were killed in the shooting. The suspect, identified as Natalie Rupnow, also named Samantha, is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Six other people were injured. Here’s what else we know about the shooting.

Abundant Life Christian School students are escorted to a city bus to be reunited with their parents after a school shooting on Dec. 16, 2024, in Madison, Wisconsin.

Andy Manis/Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Andy Manis/Getty Images

• 🎧 Police confirmed that a second-grader called 911 to report the school shootingsays Sarah Lehr of NPR network station Wisconsin Public Radio. They believe the shooting took place in a study hall. According to police, two students remain in critical condition. Mireille Jean-Charles, mother of three school-going boys, said Lehr that while they were uninjured, she expects they will suffer from emotional trauma for a long time. Authorities say they are still trying to determine the motive for the shooting. They recovered a pistol at the crime scene and are working to determine its origin.

President-elect Donald Trump held his first press conference since the election yesterday at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. For more than an hour, he discussed a range of topics, from concerns about his election as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to his promise to lower prices. NPR’s Mara Liasson says Trump has expressed that everything was pretty much perfect when he was in office and that everything will be fine when he returns to the White House.

• 🎧 Trump says everyone is trying to be his friend, and Liasson recounts First up There are a few factors behind this. He is seen as a more legitimate president for his second term after winning the popular vote. The business world also expects a Republican president to be in office. People approach Trump differently and pick their battles because they believe his opinion on certain ideas and policies can be changed.

For the first time, surgeons have implanted a new type of artificial pig kidney into a living human. The milestone operation is part of an effort to save patients with organ failure using genetically modified farm animals. Towana Looney, a 53-year-old grandmother, underwent surgery at NYU Langone Health Hospital in New York City.

• 🎧 NPR’s Rob Stein was given exclusive access to the operating room during the seven-hour procedure, which took place on November 25. The hope is that genetically modified pigs could eventually provide an unlimited supply of kidneys, livers, hearts and other organs to help solve organ shortages. Stein, who visited Looney two weeks after surgery, said she was doing well so far. Looney said she feels like she has a second chance at life. There are concerns that pig organs transmit dangerous viruses to humans, that pigs are bred and slaughtered for their organs, and that seriously ill patients are experimented on.

Deep dive

Stock photo of candy store image and mix display of sugar coated red jelly candies/gum drops.

mtreasure/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Hide caption

Toggle label

mtreasure/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The Food and Drug Administration is considering a ban on Red No. 3, a petroleum-based food coloring that has been used for more than 50 years in thousands of products, from candy to soda. The request to ban the dye has been under consideration since 2022, but an FDA spokesperson told NPR that a decision could come “soon.”

• 🔴 The dye could cause cancer in animals in high dosesbut the agency determined it was safe at the levels used in food.
• 🔴 California passed a law banning Red No. last year. 3 adopted. Legislatures in 10 other states have passed laws banning the dye in foods.
• 🔴 The California Environmental Protection Agency reviewed research on synthetic dyes and came to this conclusion There is evidence that when consumed in the diet they can negatively influence children’s behavior.
• 🔴 Red #3 is banned or severely restricted in many countriesincluding Australia, Japan and countries in the European Union.

Picture show

“Helelani” robot is preparing for competition at Peterman Hill near Lucerne Valley.

Raymond Alva for NPR

Hide caption

Toggle label

Raymond Alva for NPR

NASA technologist Rob Mueller has come up with a new desert festival called RoboPalooza. It shares some elements of other desert festivals, but there is one key difference. In addition to the live rock bands, food trucks and portable toilets, scientists are using the Mojave Desert to test robots. The festival is sponsored in part by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and focuses on building a future for humanity in space. The main characters are essentially space robots and the people who spend their lives building them. View photos inside the festival.

3 things you should know before you go

Sotheby’s employees hold the stone tablet of the Ten Commandments that is to be auctioned.

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

Hide caption

Toggle label

Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images

1. Sotheby’s is set to auction off one of the earliest tablets tomorrow labeled with the Ten Commandments.
2. As this year comes to a close, NPR wants to know what important lessons you’ve learned. Share your story with us and it could be featured in this newsletter on December 29th.
3. An 18-month Senate investigation found this despite Amazon’s claims When it comes to safe working conditions, injury data has been manipulated to make warehouses appear safer.

This newsletter was published by Suzanne Nuyen.