NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-08-2026 4AM EDT

Episode Date: April 8, 2026

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Live from NPR News, I'm Jail Snyder. After nearly six weeks of war, the U.S. and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire. President Trump first announced a deal roughly two hours before his Tuesday night deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks. Both sides are casting the ceasefire as a victory. Iran says an Israeli airstrike has destroyed a synagogue in the Iranian capital. M.P.S. J. Araf has more. Iran's mere news agency linked to the Iranian government says an Israeli air strike destroyed the Rafi Nea synagogue in central Tehran. It quoted an Iranian Jewish member of parliament as saying the building was destroyed and Torah scrolls buried in rubble after the attack early Tuesday. The synagogue also served as a community center. The Israeli military said it was reviewing results of the strike, which it said it was aimed at a senior military target. It said it regretted what it called collapse.

lateral damage to the synagogue. Judaism is illegally recognized religion in Iran, which has one of the biggest Jewish populations in the Middle East outside of Israel. Jane Arraf and Pure News Amman. Republican Clay Fuller is heading to Capitol Hill, according to a race call by the Associated Press. Fuller won Tuesday's special runoff election in Georgia for the House seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Green. The grassroots heart of Northwest Georgia was not going to allow the far woke left to take this congressional seat away from us. Fuller speaking to supporters Tuesday night, he is a former district attorney who had President Trump's endorsement. Green resigned from Congress after a public split with Trump.

Democratic-backed candidate Chris Taylor has won election to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Taylor's victory Tuesday is the fourth straight for liberal court candidates dating back to 2020. Liberals will now have a five to two majority on the court. One person in the hospital after a shooting by immigration and customs enforcement officers in central California, Billy Cruz, with member station KQED reports. According to ICE, officers were conducting a targeted vehicle stop in the town of Patterson to arrest someone they allege is a gang member wanted in El Salvador. ICE says the individual, Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, quote, weaponized his vehicle in an incident. attempt to run an officer over. In response, ICE officers fired their guns. FBI acting special agent Eugene Wu is urging patience. This will take time as our agents conduct our investigation.

DHS cites an uptick in the number of attacks on immigration officers. Though in some cases, the administration's account of such events have been challenged or disproven. For NPR news, I'm Billy Cruz. This is NPR News. Vice President J.D. Vance is due back in Washington, D.C. today following a trip to Hungary, where he criticized the European Union, saying the EU is interfering with Hungary's parliamentary election. Vance's visit to Budapest came ahead of Sunday's election in which he endorsed Prime Minister Victor Orban, breaking with norms of the U.S. administration not openly campaigning in foreign elections. Orban has been a power, and for 16 years he's trailing in the polls.

Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman wants to buy Universal Music Group, the record label behind Bad Bunny and Taylor Swift. Ackman is a former Democratic donor who has embraced Donald Trump as a pro-business president. Universal is the world's largest record label, and NPR's Maria Aspen reports Ackman has wanted a piece of it for years. Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Hedge fund first invested in Universal back in 20, 2021, and he sat on its board until last year. Now he wants to own the whole thing. Pershing has offered to pay universal shareholders a mix of cash and stock in a deal valued at more than $60 billion. Ackman is what's known as an activist investor, meaning he pushes for change at the companies he owns. He's long wanted Universal to move its financial listing to New York from Amsterdam, and his new

proposal would do just that. But the deal is far from done. Ackman will have to convince two-thirds of Universal's other investors to agree to sell him the company. Maria Aspen and PR News. And I'm Giles Snyder. This is NPR News.