NPR News: 03-31-2026 9AM EDT
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What are the latest developments regarding U.S. military actions in Iran?
Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Corva Coleman. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not ruling out the possibility that President Trump could send ground troops into Iran. Speaking last hour at the Pentagon, Hegseth says the Trump administration is not going to reveal much about its war plans.
You can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground. Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground. And guess what? There are. So if we needed to, we could execute those options on behalf of the president of the United States and this department. Or maybe we don't have to use them at all. Maybe negotiations work or maybe there's a different approach. The point is to be unpredictable in that.
Hegseth also would not say if there's any kind of timeline to end the war. Israel's military says it still has plenty of targets and ammunition left to hit in Iran. That was in response to questions about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks that Israel has passed the halfway point in the war. And Piers Carey-Kahn reports.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani says it's not up to Israel's military to decide how long troops continue, but he says they're prepared.
At the end of the day, decision-making on timing belongs to the political echelon, to the leaders. We are prepared to keep operating for weeks to come. We have the targets for that, the munitions for that, the manpower for that.
Netanyahu said in an interview the war was, quote, definitely beyond the halfway mark. In military terms, he later clarified. Netanyahu says he has ordered forces deeper into Lebanon, stoking fears of long-term Israeli occupation, and has already displaced more than 1.2 million people. Along with the four Israeli soldiers in a separate incident, two UN peacekeepers were killed Monday. Carrie Conn, NPR News, Tel Aviv.
The war against Iran is more than a month old. Gas prices have soared. AAA reports the average cost for a gallon of regular is now $4. That's a dollar more than what it was a month ago. Federal prosecutors in New York are examining whether large payouts on prediction market sites, like Polymarket, have violated insider trading laws. NPR's Bobby Allen reports.
Polymarket bettors earned hundreds of thousands of dollars on the timing of military strikes in Iran and when Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was captured. Now, prosecutors in the Southern District of New York are investigating the trades. CNN first reported the probe. Both Polymarket and its main competitor, Cauchy, say they ban insider trading, but policing is largely left up to the platforms themselves. Polymarket has had many markets on wars and military actions. It operates an overseas exchange based in Panama. A spokesman for New York's U.S. Attorney's Office said prediction markets are not outside the scope of anti-money laundering and insider trading laws. Billions of dollars are bet every week on polymarket in Kaoshi.
Bobby Allen, NPR News.
This is NPR. TSA agents who've lost pay for more than a month are now getting some of their back paychecks. President Trump used an executive order to find funding for their wages, but the Department of Homeland Security is still partly shut down. The House and the Senate and Democrats and Republicans still disagree on funding. NASA could launch its Artemis II mission tomorrow evening. The crew of four aims to fly around the moon and back. From Central Florida Public Media, Brendan Byrne reports the countdown is underway.
For the first time in more than 50 years, the clock at Kennedy Space Center has been turned on for a crewed lunar mission. Mission managers say that all the issues with the rocket, like its leaking hydrogen and faulty helium system, are fixed. Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson says they'll keep a close eye on the rocket and only launch when ready. But certainly all indications are right now we are in excellent, excellent shape as we get into count.
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