NPR News: 04-02-2026 7PM EDT

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryland Barton. Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states today. That comes even as President Trump claims the threat from the country has been nearly eliminated. Iran's strikes and control of the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world's energy supplies. Britain held a call today with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the Strait once the fighting is over. The U.S. is also in the midst of President Trump's trade war, and today marks a milestone in that campaign. NPR's Scott Horsley has more on where things stand. It was exactly a year ago today that President Trump ordered double-digit tariffs on just about everything the U.S. imports. He dubbed it Liberation Day, and he promised those tariffs would usher in a new golden age of stronger factories, lower prices, and a smaller trade deficit. Well, a year later, none of that has happened. U.S. factories have lost 89,000 jobs in the last year. Inflation is higher, not lower, than it was a year ago. And the trade deficit actually widened in 2025. NPR's Scott Horsley reporting the Trump administration is suing Illinois, Connecticut, and Arizona for the exclusive right to regulate prediction markets. As NPR's Bobby Allen reports, the industry has set off debates about profiting off war and insider trading. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has taken the rarest step of launching lawsuits against three states. It argues sites like Cal-Chi and Polly Market should not be regulated as gambling businesses. The question of whether prediction market sites are gambling or what's known as a futures contract has set off more than two dozen lawsuits pitting state gaming officials against the Trump administration. It's the latest legal development over an issue expected to go all the way to the Supreme Court. Lawmakers in Washington have been expressing alarm over the sites where people can bet thousands of dollars on military strikes in Iran, the extent of famine in Gaza, and what Trump official will leave the White House next. Donald Trump Jr. is an advisor to both Cal-Chi and Polly Market. Nearly all childhood cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries. As NPR's Gabriela Emanuel reports, Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the worst mortality rates and they're rising. Pediatric cancers are generally not preventable, but with good medical care they are treatable. Still in 2023, there were nearly 150,000 pediatric cancer deaths worldwide, out of nearly 400,000 cases. Nikhil Bhakda of St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital co-authored the study published in The Lancet. He says in the U.S. the vast majority of children with cancer survive, but not in parts of Africa and Asia. Less than 20% of children will survive. That disparity, that gap is one of the largest in all of global health. That's because treating childhood cancer requires a well-functioning medical system. He says this research demonstrates where health systems need bolstering. Stocks overcame early losses to close mixed today. The stock market will be closed tomorrow for Good Friday. This is NPR News. Google is now allowing users to change their Gmail addresses. The company says the update is a way for users to move on from outdated or embarrassing email handles. An old address can remain as an alternate, allowing emails to the old address to still appear in the new inbox. Google is a financial supporter to NPR. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there's a kind of fish that can scale a 50-foot rock wall behind a waterfall. Researchers say it's the first time the behavior has been documented in Africa. Here's reporter Ari Daniel. Pasifikiwele Mutamballa, a Ph.D. student at the Université de Lubumbashi, spent a few rainy seasons at the waterfall where he saw thousands of these upwardly mobile fish called shell ears. Ah, the first time I was very excited. Yes, yes, very excited. CT scans revealed their front fins have an array of single-celled hooks, which they used to grip the rock. The fish alternate between wriggling rapidly upwards and mostly resting. The entire ascent takes almost 10 hours. Mutamballa says the findings have conservation implications because cutting off the water supply to this waterfall to fill a dam or for irrigation could harm the fish. For NPR News, I'm Ari Daniel. A pencil is running for governor in Oregon. Literacy advocate Jay Schubert launched a write-in gubernatorial campaign dressed as a pencil to raise awareness about persistent reading challenges among the state's students. Schubert is a former teacher at Portland State University and one of the founders of Advocacy Group Oregon Kids Read. We're listening to NPR News from Washington.