NPR News Now - NPR News: 04-14-2026 3AM EDT

Episode Date: April 14, 2026

NPR News: 04-14-2026 3AM EDTTo manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below:See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Live from NPR News, I'm Giles Snyder. A number of religious leaders are expressing concern about the dispute playing out between President Trump and Pope Leo, after Trump called the Pope Week for criticizing the Iran War, and Trump briefly posting an image of himself looking Jesus-like. And Pierce-Jason-Darose reports. Pope Leo says he's not afraid of the president and notes that he's not a political figure, but rather a religious leader concerned with the gospel. Cardinal Joseph Tubin, the Archbishop of Newark, has issued a statement saying Pope Leo will continue to speak clearly against the war and other offenses against human dignity and to call for dialogue. The Council on American Islamic Relations also put out a statement saying it stands in solidarity with the Catholic community. It goes on to say, quote, the president's mockery of religion is both deranged and insulting. Jason DeRos, NPR News. President Trump is refusing to apologize.

telling reporters Monday that he is not sorry for lashing out over Leo's opposition to the Iran War. Also Monday, he sought to explain away the AI-generated photo saying he thought it showed him as a doctor. A federal judge has dismissed President Trump's $10 billion lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. Trump sued over an article about a birthday greeting two decades ago to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, MPRs David Focomplick reports. The journal reported the greeting was part of a celebratory book put together in 2003 for Epstein's 50th birthday by his girlfriend, Jelaine Maxwell. Trump said it was fake and sued, as a private citizen, though the Murdox are his political allies. The U.S. District Court Judge Darren Gales wrote that Trump had failed to allege sufficiently that the journal had acted with what's called actual malice, even knowledge a story is false or failure to seek the truth.

Gales found the journal had made numerous efforts to verify its reporting and included Trump's denial. The judge left the door open to Trump refiling the suit, however, and a spokesperson for his legal team tells NPR it will do just that. David Fulkenflick, NPR News. A 20-year-old Texas man has been charged with attempting to kill OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Matt Kobo is the FBI's acting special agent in charge in San Francisco. The defendant is alleged to having traveled across state lines with the intent to dual target an individual. individual and a major technology company. This was not spontaneous.

This was planned, targeted, and extremely serious. According to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court Monday, Daniel Marino Gamma was captured on surveillance video throwing an incendiary device at the gate of Altman's home last week. He was arrested a short time later outside the headquarters of Open AI. police say he threatened to burn down the business. This is NPR News. Democratic California Congressman Eric Swalwell and Texas Republican Tony Gonzalez are stepping down from their House seats. Both are bowing to pressure to leave Congress or face expulsion following sexual misconduct allegations. Gonzalez expected to file to retire later today when the House returns from its two-week Easter recess.

Suval has not said when he will leave Congress. Tax returns due this Wednesday, NPR Stephen Psov reports you're likely to get a bigger refund this year due to last year's tax cuts. So far, the average refund is about 11% higher than this time last year, about $350 more, according to data from the IRS. Michael Pierce with Oxford Economics expects that average will go up. That's because higher income filers typically procrastinate on filing and, and seem to be benefiting more from the new tax changes. But our forecast is that the average refund will end up being something like 20% bigger this time around, so something like $3,800 per household.

While the deadline to file is Wednesday, you can request an extension and move the deadline until October 15th. But you should still pay any taxes you think you'll owe Wednesday to avoid having to pay penalties. Stephen Besaha, NPR News. Former Yukon Star EZ-Fud is on her way to downs. She was the number one pick in Monday night's WMBA draft that Dallas Wings selected Fudd at the outset of the draft in New York. And fresh off winning the national championship, UCLA, had five players drafted in the first round, breaking the record held by the 2002 Yukon team.