NPR News: 04-10-2026 7PM EDT

Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Libby Casey. Israel says it's ready for direct talks with Lebanon's government to try and end its conflict with Hezbollah. But Lebanon doesn't control the Iranian-backed group, which rejects negotiations with Israel. That standoff could threaten the fragile U.S.-Iran ceasefire ahead of talks this weekend in Pakistan. NPR's Kerry Khan reports from Tel Aviv. Iran's foreign ministry says it won't be involved in talks unless Lebanon is part of the deal. Israel insists its fight with Hezbollah is not part of the two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran and continues hitting Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Wednesday, Israel struck multiple targets, including in Beirut, killing more than 300 people. President Trump says he told Israel's prime minister to pull back. And speaking to NBC, Trump said Benjamin Netanyahu is quote, going to low-key it. Many Israelis, especially northern residents, do not want Netanyahu to stop. And in a video message, Netanyahu told them he is still hitting Hezbollah with quote, great force. Kerry Khan and NPR News, Tel Aviv. Three NASA astronauts and one from the Canadian Space Agency are about to return home after an historic mission around the moon. As NPR's Nell Greenfield-Boise reports, their space capsule will hit Earth's atmosphere going nearly 24,000 miles per hour. One of the Artemis-2 astronauts, Victor Glover, compared re-entry to riding a fireball across the sky. The outside of the crew capsule will be surrounded by superheated gases. Temperatures will reach 3,000 to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The capsule's heat shield is critical, and while NASA found some unexpected damage to the heat shield in an earlier, uncrewed test flight, officials say they're confident in the solutions that they implemented before the Artemis-2 mission. If all goes as planned, parachutes will deploy and the capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, California. Nell Greenfield-Boise, NPR News. A wartime surge in energy prices caused a spike in inflation last month. NPR's Scott Horsley reports on the latest figures from the Labor Department. Consumer prices in March were up 3.3 percent from a year ago. That's the biggest annual increase in almost two years. Prices jumped 9-tens of a percent between February and March, with a spike in gasoline prices accounting for nearly three-quarters of that increase. Gas prices have jumped by more than a dollar a gallon since the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran. Pump prices have remained high this week, despite the tentative ceasefire. Higher prices for jet fuel also pushed up prices for airline tickets last month, while grocery prices were down. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation in March, was 2.6 percent, a rate that's likely to make the Federal Reserve cautious about any further cuts in interest rates. Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Oumal Street trading was mostly flat today. This is NPR News. Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a limited 32-hour ceasefire to mark the orthodox Easter holiday. If the agreement holds, it marks a rare pause in a war now in its fifth year. NPR's Charles Mainz has more from Moscow. In a statement, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces would abide by the ceasefire from 4 p.m. Saturday through end of Easter Sunday. Ukrainian President Flotemir Zelensky had previously called for an Easter truce and agreed to Putin's offer, saying it was a chance for Russia to choose real progress towards peace and avoid a return to hostilities. Yet the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, later characterized the ceasefire as a temporary humanitarian gesture. Peskov made clear in Moscow's view any lasting settlement depended on Ukraine making further territorial concessions. The mankiev is rejected, not least without ironclad security guarantees from the U.S. Charles Mainz and NPR News, Moscow. K-pop band BTS may be back on international stages after a three-and-a-half-year break, but its world tour is skipping China. China has blocked most South Korean entertainment since 2016 in an unacknowledged ban. The ban started when South Korea allowed a U.S. anti-missile system on its soil, angering China. An error in the unveiling of a new statue of baseball Hall of Famer, Ichiro Suzuki at the Seattle Mariners' Home Park today when its bronze bat broke. Suzuki joked that New York Yankees' closer and fellow Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera got the best of him again. Suzuki was inducted into the Hall of Fame last summer. He's the third Mariners player to have his number retired. This is NPR News. This message comes from Subaru. They are continuing their partnership with the Arborette Foundation to distribute 165,000 trees since 2025, growing greener, healthier communities for generations to come. Subaru, more than a car company.