According to Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), an electrical substation and several transmission lines were damaged by shrapnel from strikes earlier tonight near the Northern Iranian city of Karaj, causing major power outages in large portions of Karaj and Eastern Tehran.

The United States is expected to have deployed sufficient ground forces to the Middle East by early next week, including thousands of Marines and Paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, to enable a potential ground operation in Iran, a U.S. source told i24NEWS.

While addressing tens of thousands in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City on Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week leading to Easter, Pope Leo XIV said that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and have “hands full of blood,” clearly directed at the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. “This is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war,” Pope Leo said. sunshine. “(Jesus) does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood,” he added citing the Bible.

“(Jesus) did not arm himself, or defend himself, or fight any war,” Pope Leo said. “He revealed the gentle face of God, who always rejects violence. Rather than saving himself, he allowed himself to be nailed to the cross.”

Iranian state-run media reports that power has been restored to Eastern Tehran, following strikes earlier tonight which damaged an electrical substation in the Northern Iranian city of Karaj.

Black smoke can been seen rising from the Camp Victory Complex at Baghdad International Airport, following a rocket attack by Iranian-backed paramilitary groups in Iraq.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announces that he has ordered Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch, be granted full and immediate access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, after the Cardinal and Rev. Francesco Ielpo, the church’s official guardian, were stopped early Sunday by Israeli Police from entering Jerusalem’s Old City to celebrate Palm Sunday Mass.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One that Iran has given the United States a “tribute” of 20 oil tankers that are expected to begin crossing Monday morning through the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump: “I would only say that we're doing extremely well in that negotiation. But you never know with Iran, because we negotiate with them, and then we always have to blow them up.”

Speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One, President Trump claims that there have already been two “regime changes” in Iran, and that the members of both the first and second regimes are all dead, while the third regime has been “very reasonable.”

The New York Times is reporting that the U.S. will allow a Russian-flagged crude oil tanker, possibly the Anatoly Kolodkin, to dock and offload its approximately 730,000 barrels of crude oil amid a 'quarantine' of the island nation of Cuba.

President Trump repeats his recent statement that “Cuba will be next” after Iran, stating that it is a “failing country” and that when it does fail, the United States will be there to help out Cuba and Cuban-Americans.

Asked about today’s report from The New York Times that a Russian-flagged crude oil tanker will be allowed to dock and unload its oil in Cuba, despite the ongoing “quarantine” of the island, President Trump stated that he “has no problem” if a country, whether it’s Russia or not, wants to send a boatload of oil to Cuba.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump is weighing a military operation to extract nearly 1,000 pounds of highly-enriched uranium from at least two sites in Iran, a complex and risky mission that would likely put hundreds of American ground forces inside the country for days or longer, U.S. officials tell the Wall Street Journal.

An Iraqi Air Force An-32B Military Transport Aircraft was reportedly targeted by Iranian-backed militants during a drone and rocket attack earlier tonight on Baghdad International Airport.

Any move to seize the uranium by force would be complex and dangerous, former U.S. military officers and experts said, ranking among the most challenging operations ordered by Trump. The potential operation, which would likely trigger retaliation from Iran, could also lengthen the war well beyond the 4-6 week time frame that Trump’s team has publicly outlined. 

Teams of U.S. forces would need to fly to the sites, likely under fire from Iranian surface-to-air missiles and drones. Once on site, combat troops would need to secure perimeters so that engineers with excavating equipment could search through debris and check for mines and booby traps. 

The extraction of the material would likely need to be conducted by an elite special operations team specially trained to remove radioactive material from a conflict zone. The highly enriched uranium is likely contained in 40 to 50 special cylinders that resemble scuba tanks. They would need to be put into transportation casks to protect against accidents. That could fill several trucks, said Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar at Columbia University and a former nuclear negotiator with Iran.

Unless an airfield was available, a makeshift one would need to be set up to bring equipment in and take the nuclear material out. The entire operation would take days or even a week to complete, experts said. 

Image appears to show the damage caused to an Iraqi An-32B Military Transport Aircraft during a drone and rocket attack tonight by Iranian-backed militants on Baghdad International Airport.

U.S. President Donald J. Trump, in a post earlier on TruthSocial, referred to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is often considered “Europe’s Last Dictator” and has been in power since 1994, as “Highly Respected President Alexander Lukashenko,” adding that he looks forward to seeing him “at the next Board of Peace meeting!”