NPR News: 03-29-2026 12AM EDT

0:00Live from NPR News, I'm Dale Wilman. US sailors and Marines are now in the Middle East. NPR's Shandali Stuster reports. US Central Command said Saturday in a social media post that about 3,500 sailors and Marines arrived in a Middle East aboard the USS Tripoli. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, based in Okonawa, Japan, arrived in a Middle East on Friday, the post said. The unit also has transport and strike fighter aircraft, as well as amphibious assault and tactical assets. US Central Command did not say would mission the unit will be carrying out. At least 2,000 additional soldiers have been ordered to deploy to the Middle East, where the US already has 40,000 to 50,000 troops. Shandali Stuster and NPR News. And Israeli Air Strike and Southern Lebanon Saturday killed three journalists who were covering the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah's Al Minar TV said correspondent Ali Shoeib was one of those who died. Israel's military said it had been targeting Shoeib.

1:02They accused him of being a Hezbollah intelligence operative, but offered no evidence to support that claim. In New Orleans, thousands of people attended a No Kings protest on Saturday. There were marches and speeches, including one by civil rights leader Leonate Tate. Mel Bridges with Member Station, WWNO, has our reports. On November 4, 1960, Leonate and three other six-year-old black girls were escorted by federal marshals into New Orleans public schools as the first black students to integrate public schools. I am 71 years old, and I'm still fighting. I'm still showing up. I'm still resisting. So what are you going to do to join me? 65 years later, Tate joined protesters in New Orleans mid-city as they marched against President Trump's policies, including an immigration roundup in southeastern Louisiana. Tate says, though, the state and the country has made some social progress over the years, it's also regressed a lot. And now we're like, we're back in the 50s somewhere, you know, and I hate to see that for the children today.

2:03For NPR News, I'm Mel Bridges in New Orleans. California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed an executive order banning state officials from betting on prediction markets with insider information. NPR's Bobby Allen has more. Services like Calci and Polymarket allow bets on future policies, military strikes, and election outcomes. And some lawmakers are growing increasingly worried that the betting apps can be exploited by people who have access to government and military secrets. Newsom's order prevents appointees of the governor from using non-public information to personally profit on prediction markets. In recent months, well-time bets on things like the ouster of Iran's Supreme Leader and the arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits. Both Calci and Polymarket say they already ban insider trading, relying on their own surveillance tools to catch suspicious bettors, Bobby Allen and NPR News. And you're listening to NPR News. Hundreds of striking employees at the bath iron works in May

3:04are going back to work. The shipyard says employees of one of the Navy's biggest shipbuilding contractors ratified a new four-year deal Saturday ending a week-long strike. The shipyard had negotiated with the Union for weeks before that strike began. The Arctic has set a new record for sea ice this winter. As NPR's Rebecca Hirscher reports, there is less sea ice than ever. A huge swath of the Arctic Ocean freezes in the winter each year. Last year, there was less ice than ever recorded going back to 1979. That's according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. And this year has set a new record again, with even less ice than last year by a slim margin, according to newly released data. Sea ice is disappearing in the Arctic because humans are warming up the planet by burning oil, gas, and coal. Sea ice loss affects weather around the world. It also leaves coastal communities in the Arctic more vulnerable to storms,

4:05which in recent years has caused catastrophic flooding in parts of Alaska. For Rebecca Hirscher and Pierre News. Tanya Latson scored 28 points and Raven Johnson added another 18 to help top-seated South Carolina beat number four Oklahoma Saturday, 94 to 68. The game cocks now move into the elite eight of the women's NCAA basketball tournament. In other games, number two, Michigan beat Louisville, 71 to 52. Texas beat Kentucky, 76 to 54. And TCA, you beat Virginia, 79 to 69. I'm Dale Wilman, NPR News.