Up First briefing: Trump and Biden win New Hampshire primaries; a FAFSA fix is coming

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Today's top stories

Former President Donald Trump handily won the New Hampshire primary, bringing him one step closer to securing the Republican nomination. While New Hampshire was seen as Nikki Haley's best chance to disrupt his momentum, the former U.N. ambassador told supporters last night that "this race is far from over." Read more takeaways here.

• NPR's Tamara Keith tells Up First from New Hampshire — which Trump won despite its large share of independents — that Haley needs "a dramatic shift in Republican voting behavior" to knock him down. 
• Nevada is the next state to vote, but Haley is already focused on her home state of South Carolina, where she lags in the polls. NPR's Ashley Lopez says the state has "a very different brand of Republican," adding that GOP voters there aren't looking for a Trump alternative.
• NPR crunched the numbers and found that the earliest a presidential candidate has locked up the nomination was John Kerry in February 2004. Check out this timeline for details.

President Joe Biden won the Democratic primary as a write-in candidate. His name wasn't on the printed ballot because of a dispute between the state and national party over the primary calendar. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., seized the opening to launch a long-shot challenge, which prompted the state grassroots campaign to write in Biden's name. Phillips placed second.

• James McKim, president of the Manchester branch of the NAACP, told Morning Edition that Democratic voters were motivated by issues like immigration, the economy and "the divisiveness of our society today." 
• The country appears to be in for another Trump-Biden rematch, and NPR's Domenico Montanaro says the party apparatuses are preparing for that. 

The U.S. Education Department tells NPR it will fix a math mistake with its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) that would have cost students $1.8 billion in federal aid. The problem is the result of a congressionally-mandated overhaul of the form that didn't adjust for inflation.

• The department says it will fix it in time for the 2024-2025 school year, but hasn't specified how. Financial aid experts and college administrators say it could either try to fix it before sending student FAFSA data to colleges, or send the wrong data for now and promise to update it later.

Life Kit's resolution planner

This month, we are highlighting some of the most popular New Year's resolutions. Find a resolution and stick to it for the entire year with Life Kit's planner.

Make 2024 the year you nurture your relationships. Whether you're ready to take the next step with your partner, still looking for one or content with the single life, let Life Kit support you:

• Paired-up couples: learn to express your needs and craft boundaries to grow and build a life together by crafting a relationship contract.
• Ready to take the next step in your relationship? Discuss these five essential questions with your partner before getting married. 
• Your relationship status has nothing to do with your worth. If you're single, here's how to break free of societal pressures and be confident in yourself.

Get more relationship advice, including how to nurture work friendships, spend more quality time with your kids and be a better aunt or uncle with Life Kit's resolutions planner.

From our hosts

This essay was written by Michel Martin. She hosts Morning Edition and Up First. She's previously hosted Weekend All Things Considered, the Consider This Saturday podcast and Tell Me More.

I asked my in-house young adult focus group if they had ever heard of Playboy; this is the Gen Z take as told to me:

The Girl: Pictures of girls, not porn but provocative pics. Like a joke. People are like Playboy bunnies for Halloween.

The Boy: Hot girls being told by men what to do. Lingerie. Mainly hot girls. A big deal back in the day.

A big deal back in the day is right. The men's mag founded by Hugh Hefner was a VERY big deal in the '60s and '70s for the glossy nude centerfolds but also, yes, for the long-form reporting, top-notch fiction, vocal support for liberal causes like LGBTQ+ rights and marijuana legalization. Hefner's LA home, the Playboy Mansion, was a celebrity hotspot. Of course, many people saw the whole scene as sexist and degrading... because, duh.

On one of my first trips as a reporter, I happened to be staying near the flagship Playboy in Chicago, and even now, I remember the sleek façade. It's not my thing, but I could see why it was some people's thing.

But that's one reason I was interested in reading the new memoir by Crystal Harris Hefner, Hefner's third wife and now widow. What WAS behind that façade?

Maybe it won't shock you to know that there really was ugliness behind that glossy image, but what fascinated me was why, as late as 2008—a year when women were running for President, running corporations, had gone to the moon, had set Olympic records—was a young, college-educated woman like Crystal willing to dress up as a sexy maid to party at the mansion, get picked out of the crowd by Hef's security guards, starve herself, surgically alter herself, all that... just to be part of that crowd?

Interested? Me too.

3 things to know before you go

1. Oppenheimer dominated the Oscar nominations as expected, though there were also plenty of snubs and surprises. 
2. The Los Angeles Times laid off nearly a quarter of its newsroom, just the latest in a wave of major media layoffs. 
3. Billy Joel says he will release his first new song in nearly two decades — called "Turn the Lights Back On" — in February. 

This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi. Suzanne Nuyen contributed.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.