The News Roundup For April 17, 2026

1A

NPR

News

4.3 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We start with the U.S.-Israel war with Iran — a war that President Donald Trump said would end in two to three weeks. Now, in its seventh week, the Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops to the Middle East to pressure Iran into making a peace deal.

On Sunday, Trump posted a long rant on Truth Social calling Pope Leo XIV “weak on crime, and terrible for foreign policy.” Then, later that night, Trump posted an AI-generated photo that appeared to depict him as Jesus Christ.

Rep. Eric Swalwell was a front-runner for the seat of California governor just weeks ago. Now, he’s out of the race and out of Congress after numerous sexual assault allegations were leveled against him.

And, in global news, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz completely open to commercial vessels. This move is expected to lessen severity of the growing global energy crisis and bring the possibility of a peace agreement between Iran and the U.S. closer to becoming a reality.

New reporting from Axios indicates that U.S. and Iranian negotiators made progress in new peace talks on Tuesday. On Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran will be held in Islamabad. But no date has been announced yet.

And it’s the dawn of a new era in Hungary this week. For the first time in 16 years, Viktor Orbán will no longer lead the nation from Budapest, having lost the election for his position as prime minister to conservative rival Peter Magyar.

We cover the most important stories from around the world in the News Roundup.

Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.

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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, it's Todd, your host for this edition of The News Roundup.
0:04.0	Just a quick heads up before we start the show.
0:06.8	The news is rapidly changing, and things may have changed by the time you hear this episode.
0:11.8	You can stay up to date with all the latest by listening to your local NPR member station and by visiting npr.org.
0:26.0	Thank you. visiting npr.org. I'm Todd's Willick, and it's the 1A Friday News Roundup.
0:30.2	Thousands more troops are headed to the Middle East.
0:33.5	Iran says the Strait of Hormuz, from its perspective, is now open.
0:39.6	But talks with Iran are murky,
0:45.5	still uncertain, and Congress has decided not to clip the president's war powers with a warning that time is running out, all as the risk of further escalation despite apparent progress with Iran
0:52.9	still hangs in the air. Plus, a rough and very strange week
0:57.7	in Washington. Two members of Congress resigned because of sexual misconduct allegations,
1:02.9	and President Trump chooses his latest attention grabbing foil. The Pope. How do you trump the Pope?
1:10.7	The President apparently thought posting himself, as Jesus Christ would do the Pope. How do you trump the Pope? The president apparently thought posting himself, as Jesus Christ, would do the trick. Plus, tax day, but how far will bigger refunds go when gas and a lot of other things, too, are costing a lot more? Our Friday panel has it all covered. Megan Scully is here, Congress and Politics Editor at Bloomberg News. Hi, Megan.
1:30.5	Hi, thanks for having me. Great to have you sitting to Megan's right, Olivia Knox, senior national correspondent at U.S. News and World Report. Olivia, welcome back.
1:38.5	Hello. And joining us on the line, Amanda Becker, national reporter at the 19th News. Amanda, as always, great to see you.
1:45.0	Yes, great to be here. And remember that we want to hear from you this hour. You can email us your
1:49.6	questions and comments about the week's news to 1A at wamu.org, and we will put them to our panel of
1:56.9	experts as always. All right, gang, let's jump in with the U.S. Israel War with Iran, a war that
2:03.3	the president said would end in two to three weeks. It's now reaching seven weeks, and now the
2:08.2	Pentagon is sending 10,000 more troops to the Middle East to pressure Iran into making a deal.
2:14.4	We just heard, of course, before going on the air that Iran says the Strait of Hormuz
2:19.2	from its perspective is now open, thanks to the deal between Israel and Lebanon. We'll take all of that
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.