NPR News: 04-13-2026 1PM EDT
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Lakshmi Singh. The U.S. military says it will start enforcing a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz today. It's an effort to put additional pressure on Iran. NPR's Greg Myrie reports President Trump announced the blockade yesterday after U.S.-Iran peace talks over the weekend failed to produce a breakthrough.
The U.S. Navy has a substantial presence in the region, and President Trump says it won't take long for the U.S. to, quote, clean out the strait. Still, the blockade comes with risks. Iran is believed to have placed mines in the waterway. Also, Iran says that if any of its ports are attacked, it will respond by attacking ports belonging to Arab Gulf countries. Iran has effectively closed the waterway for the past several weeks, aside from a small number of friendly or neutral commercial ships it allows through. It's not clear if any of those ships will attempt to challenge the U.S. blockade. Greg Myhre, NPR News, Washington.
Pope Leo has arrived in Algeria on an 11-day tour in Africa. He will also travel to Equatorial Guinea, Angola, and Cameroon. This trip comes in the wake of a sharp public attack from President Trump amid tensions over the war in Iran. Here's NPR's Emmanuel Akunwotu.
Pope Leo is the first Pope to arrive in Algeria, Africa's largest country. Catholics are a tiny minority among the largely Muslim population, but Algeria is the birthplace of the Order of St. Augustine to which Pope Leo belongs. The trip however comes amid escalating tensions with the White House over the war in Iran, criticised by Pope Leo. And on Sunday night, President Trump attacked the Pope.
We don't like a Pope that's going to say that it's okay to have a nuclear weapon. We don't want a Pope that says crime is okay in our cities. I don't like it. I'm not a big fan of Pope Leo.
And while still on an aircraft landing in Algeria, Pope Leo responded.
Too many people are suffering in the world today. Too many innocent people are being killed. And I think someone has to stand up and say there's a better way to do this.
Emmanuel Akimotu, NPR News, Lagos.
Hungary's new prime minister-elect Peter Magyar is pledging a shift back toward democratic standards from the authoritarian rule of Viktor Orban, who was voted out of power Sunday by a landslide. Hungarian-Americans such as Anna Hajdu spoke to NPR's Frank Lankford about the outcome.
That's incredible. This gives hope to our generation that we can actually make change and democracy is not dead.
Orban was closely allied with President Trump. Russia's Vladimir Putin and other rulers, critics have characterized as hardline or authoritarian. At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is up 12 points at 47,928. This is NPR News. President Trump has fired the board of the San Francisco Presidio Trust, the federal agency that oversees Presidio National Park. Bijan Siavoshi with member station KQED says the board's six members had been appointed by former President Joe Biden.
The San Francisco Chronicle first reported that all six trustees were terminated last week. Lisa Petri is a spokesperson for the trust. She says the park will continue to operate normally. Trump signed an executive order last year cutting any federal funding to the trust, but Petri says it has been self-sufficient since 2013. The trust's website says it raised nearly $60 million in net income just last year. No word yet on when the board will be filled. For NPR News, I'm Bijan Sivoshi in San Francisco.
Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell is suspending his campaign for California governor. A former staff member says a lawmaker sexually assaulted her. At least three other women accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct. He denies wrongdoing. A cloud jaguar may have been spotted in the Honduran Sierra del Merendon mountain range for the first time in a decade. The conservation organization Panthera says it captured images of the lone male in early February. The pictures, shared exclusively with CNN, marks a positive sign for Honduras' conservation efforts to protect jaguars from the threats of poaching and deforestation.
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