NPR News: 04-24-2026 6AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Kristen Wright. President Trump has announced a three-week extension to pause the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. A 10-day ceasefire was set to expire in the coming days. But as NPR's Katlon store for reports from Beirut, both sides have continued to acknowledge attacks despite the agreement. Hezbollah says it fired rockets into northern Israel Thursday night. The Israeli military says all were intercepted. As after an Israeli air strike killed prominent Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil while she was reporting in the south, the eighth journalist killed by Israel and Lebanon in the past two months. The Israeli military responded to Hezbollah's attack by carrying out several more air strikes in the south on what it says were military structures. All of this occurred as the Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors were in Washington to discuss the extension of the ceasefire. Iran-backed Hezbollah has been opposed to direct talks while Iran insisted on a ceasefire in Lebanon to continue peace talks with the U.S. Katlon store for NPR News, Beirut.

1:01Search and rescue operations will continue this morning in Oklahoma. Multiple tornadoes swept the northern part of the state late last night. The city of Enid is one of the hardest hit areas. It's about 100 miles north of Oklahoma City. Vance Air Force Base is there. It's closed now. David Mason is the mayor of Enid. We did have a tornado hit the south side of Enid. I have been in touch with the base commander, Josh Long to be Colonel Long to be. And he has assured me that they've got minimal damage out on the base to down some benefits and signs. Officials say the number of people injured in the tornado should become more clear as teams resume operations this morning. People are leaving their homes in southern Georgia to escape wildfires. Governor Brian Kemp is planning to tour hard hit areas today. Several fire managers are stepping in to help contain one fire that's destroyed close to 90 homes so far. Emily Jones from Member Station W-A-B-E reports.

2:03Fire crews from all over Georgia have flocked to this rural area in the state's southeast. Local officials have asked for more help. The blaze seemed mostly under control a couple of days ago. Gail Schuman says she didn't even know there was a fire nearby. Then her neighbors shed caught fire. Before you know it, we had fire all around surrounding us. Schuman got lucky. Her house survived. But the fire destroyed the pump for her well so she's staying at a nearby church for now. More people have been forced to evacuate as the shifting winds send the fire in new directions. For NPR News, I'm Emily Jones in Neha, Georgia. An American soldier involved in the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro is charged with using his insider knowledge to place bets on the prediction market site polymarket, winning more than $400,000. This is NPR News from Washington. The White House says China has been engaged in an industrial-scaled campaign to steal U.S.

3:06artificial intelligence models. NPR's John Ruich reports this comes less than a month before President Trump is due to visit Beijing. The accusation came in a White House office of science and technology policy letter to executive departments and agencies. Director Michael Kratzio says the U.S. is leading the world in AI and that reflects decades of research, entrepreneurial risk-taking, and billions of dollars of investment. But now he says the U.S. has information indicating that foreign entities, mostly in China, are engaged in deliberate industrial-scale campaigns to distill frontier AI systems, steal proprietary information, and extract American AI capabilities. Kratzio says this undermines American research and development and is unacceptable. The U.S. will explore measures to hold foreign actors accountable. This escalates the feud between the U.S. and China over technology just weeks before President Trump heads the China for talks with Chinese leaders Xi Jinping. John Ruich and NPR News. Tech giant meta is laying off about 10 percent of its workforce next month.

4:09That's about 8,000 people. The parent company of Facebook and Instagram has been putting a lot of investment into artificial intelligence. The company says it's making cuts for efficiency and to offset AI spending. The Las Vegas Raiders drafted Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza last night as the number one overall pick. The Heisman winner watched from home with his family in Florida. I'm Kristen Wright, NPR News from Washington. If you want to hear this podcast without sponsor breaks, Amazon Prime members can listen to NPR News now, sponsor free through Amazon Music. Or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get NPR Plus at plus dot NPR dot org. That's plus dot NPR dot org.