NPR News: 03-29-2026 11PM EDT

0:00This message comes from Capital One with the Venture X card. Earn unlimited double miles, a $300 annual Capital One travel credit, and access to airport lounges. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Details at capitalone.com. Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. In Iranian officials today accused the U.S. of planning for a ground invasion, and Iran's military says that would be met with force, and Pair's Emily Fang reports. Writing in telegram Iran's parliament speakers struck an aggressive stance. Writing quote, the enemy publicly signals negotiations while secretly planning a ground invasion. He's referring to news that the U.S. is triply, carrying 3,500 U.S. Marines and sailors has arrived in the Middle East, though the U.S. military has not said where the Marines will be deployed and how. Here Iran rejected a 15-point plan the U.S. had proposed to end the war. And put forth its own proposal that would give Iran official control over the street of Hormuz and have the U.S. pay for war damages.

1:03Israel said it had started a new wave of strikes on Iran over the weekend as well, targeting weapon sites. Iranian officials said they hit universities in Tehran and Isfahan. Emily Fang in Pair News, Van Turkey. As the war against Iran passes the one-month mark, the U.S. Central Command did announce the week this weekend the additional 3,500 sailors and Marines arriving in the Persian Gulf. They're on board the U.S.S. triply, but even as the build-up continues, House Majority leader Steve Scalice of Louisiana says, President Trump has almost put an end to the threat Iran has posed to the U.S. and to the world. You're seeing him do it with the naval fleet, with their facilities that actually manufacture those missiles, those drones, and so many other things that he's decimating. We're not there yet, but we're getting close. Scalice made his comments today on ABC News. Police in Israel turned away the Vatican's top official in Jerusalem from praying in one of Christianity's holiest sites today.

2:04The Latin Patriarch had already cancelled public Palm Sunday events and keeping with wartime restrictions, but was also barred from holding smaller private prayers. Here's Karrikhan has our report from Jerusalem. The bells of the Church of the Holy Sepulch are ring out in the old city, but you can't get close to the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and resurrected. Israeli officials are limiting public gatherings in Jerusalem's holy sites to under 50 people. The Holy Al-Aqsa Mosque has been close to just staff during the entire war. Judaism's Holy Western Wall allows 50 worshipers at a time. This year's Palm Sunday procession had been cancelled in accordance to the rules, but police Sunday even prevented Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierre Bautiste de Pizabala and another official for mentoring the site. In what church officials say is, quote, a manifestly unreasonable and grossly disproportionate measure. Israel's president apologized, Karrikhan, and Pierre News, Jerusalem.

3:06World leaders, including US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, all criticized the move. You're listening to NPR News. Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael are considered the three great masters of the high renaissance, and now, for the first time, a retrospective of Raphael's work, is in the US. Pierre's Jennifer Vinesco reports, Raphael has been called the Prince of Painters. These portraits of Madonna's and other religious figures are known for their harmony and balance. He became an extraordinary narrative painter, a storyteller who instantly knew how to capture the plot of a story or a scene at the moment of its greatest drama. That's Carmen Bambach, she's the curator of the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He's collected more than 170 of his drawings, paintings, prints, and tapestries from museums and private collections around the world. Many of them here for the first time.

4:08The show will run until the end of June. Jennifer Vinesco and Pierre News, New York. The men's NCAA basketball final four is now set after Yukon beat Duke Sunday, 73 to 72 with a last second three pointer. Freshman Braille and Mullins hit the last shot. Yukon will now play Illinois, Michigan dominated Tennessee, winning 95 to 62. The Wolverines will play Arizona in the other semi-final match. Arizona, Yaksal Lindenberg scored 27 points in that win. A women's basketball defending national champion Yukon is heading to their 25th final four after beating Notre Dame Sunday, 70 to 52. And Lauren Betts scored 23 points and added 10 rebounds and five blocks as UCLA beat Duke, 70 to 58 to also advance to the women's final four. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.