NPR News: 04-18-2026 7PM EDT
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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst. French President Emmanuel Macron today accused the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah of killing a French UN peacekeeper in Lebanon. NPR's Alana Weiss has more.
Florian Montorio was killed in what Macron described as an attack on the UN's peace service. Three additional soldiers had been injured as well. Macron said, quote, The accusation against the group comes just a day into the 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon. The Israeli military says it has conducted strikes against a threatening target in Lebanon. More than a million people in Lebanon have been forced out of the south of the country, where Israel is trying to create a buffer zone to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets into northern Israel. Alana Wise, NPR News.
The Treasury Department says it's extending a one-month pause on sanctions against Russian oil to tamp down global energy prices amid the war with Iran. That reverses an announcement earlier this week by Treasury Secretary Scott Besant ruling out such a move. NPR's Charles Means has more.
The Trump administration first introduced the sanctions waiver in March, part of an attempt to level out global energy prices amid the war in Iran. The policy's extension effectively allows countries to legally purchase previously sanctioned Russian oil for the second month in a row. The Kremlin's U.S. envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said the move amounted to an acknowledgment of the crucial role of Russian energy in maintaining the stability of the global economy. Dmitriev predicted more than 100 million additional barrels of Russian oil would soon reach global markets. Critics of the U.S. sanctions waiver say it provides the Kremlin with a windfall for its war in Ukraine in a moment when the Russian economy had otherwise been struggling.
Charles Mainz, NPR News, Moscow.
President Trump today signed an executive order loosening restrictions on psychedelic drugs. It's meant to accelerate research into the therapeutic benefits of ibogaine, LSD, ecstasy, and other drugs in treating mental health issues, including severe depression and anxiety. Trump says the move will help dramatically accelerate that access to potential treatments.
Today's order will ensure that people suffering from debilitating symptoms might finally have a chance to reclaim their lives and lead a happier life. Just lead a happier life. They've been through so much.
Speaking there from the White House after signing the executive order. The move was long wanted by researchers and drug reform advocates, and veterans groups and others say Ibogaine, which is made from a shrub in West Africa, shows promise in helping people with hard-to-treat conditions recover such as post-traumatic stress disorder and opioid addiction. The FDA is working to clear a way for the first human trials of the drug in the U.S. This is NPR. A threatened strike by doormen in New York City has been averted. The union, representing thousands of doormen, porters, and superintendents across the city, says it reached a tentative agreement with the group that represents building owners. Members had threatened to walk off the job Tuesday over wages and health care in what would have been the first strike since 1991.
Exact terms of the agreement, though, have not been made public. The Census Bureau has released new lists of the most common names of people in the United States from the 2020 census. NPR's Hunzi Lo Wang reports, among last names, Rodriguez has become more frequently used than Davis.
Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Garcia, and Miller held on to their top seven spots from the 2010 list of the most common last names in the United States. In 2020, though, Rodriguez moved up to number eight, bumping down Davis to the ninth spot. They're followed by Martinez, Hernandez, Lopez, Gonzalez, Wilson, and Anderson. The Census Bureau says many of the country's most used last names have stayed the same since the first U.S. headcount back in 1790, but the last names of people who identified as Latino have been on the rise since 2000.
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