The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reportedly reached a tentative four-year deal for a new contract.
Puck co-founder and reporter Matt Belloni first reported news of the tentative deal Saturday. The agreement represents a departure from standard practice, adding one more year to the WGA’s usual three-year contract. Additionally, it includes health plan and pension increases, bumps in streaming pay and protections that will police licensing for AI training.
The new contract is still subject to ratification following a vote by union members. The WGA and AMPTP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This tentative deal is a promising signal that the Writers Guild could avoid a strike after 2023’s historic work stoppage that lasted 148 days.
Separately, the Writers Guild of America West’s staff union has been on strike since mid-February.
The union’s current contract is set to expire May 1. WGA is the first of the Hollywood unions to reach a deal. SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America still need to reach an agreement with the studios.
The actors’ union began negotiations with the studios in February and extended those talks in March, but paused in order for the AMPTP to finish negotiations with the writers’ union. SAG-AFTRA and DGA’s contracts each expire June 30.
United States President Donald Trump has issued another threat to Iran, writing that it has two days to “make a deal or open up the Hormuz Strait”.
Saturday’s brief, three-sentence post on Truth Social did not reference the ongoing search for a US pilot who is believed to have ejected over Iran after an F-15 fighter jet crashed in the country. Iran has taken responsibility for the downing, the first of its kind since the US and Israeli launched attacks on Iran on February 28.
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A separate incident on Friday saw Iran claim it shot down an A-10 Warthog near the Strait of Hormuz, raising questions about Trump’s earlier assertion that the US has established dominance over Iran’s airspace.
Rather than remark on the recent crashes, Trump’s post focused on a 10-day deadline he announced on March 26.
He had called on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz to international traffic, or else face the “destruction” of its energy plants. That 10-day period is set to expire on Monday.
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote. “Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”
Stalled negotiations
While Trump did not provide further details about Saturday’s threat, in a series of posts this week, he pledged to attack Iran’s power plants, oil facilities and “possibly all desalinization plants”.
During a national address on Wednesday, he also threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, and on Friday, he cheered a strike on a bridge that connects Tehran to the Caspian Sea.
Just this week, more than 100 international law experts published an open letter, warning that targeting civilian infrastructure is a violation of the Geneva Convention and could constitute war crimes.
The Trump administration has also offered shifting objectives and plans for ending the war.
Administration officials have repeatedly said that the US prefers a diplomatic solution. Trump, meanwhile, has touted “victories” even as he has hinted at more weeks of attacks.
At the same time, Iran and the US have sent contradictory messages on the progress of peace talks.
On Saturday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran remained open to diplomacy, after Iran rejected an “unreasonable” 15-point plan put forward by the Trump administration.
“What we care about are the terms of a conclusive and lasting END to the illegal war that is imposed on us,” Araghchi said in a post on X.
The US, however, has argued that Iran’s demand that it maintain “sovereignty” over the Strait of Hormuz is a non-starter.
Pakistan has indicated it will continue to try to support ceasefire negotiations despite the ongoing “obstacles”.
No mention of downed pilot
While Trump has not publicly addressed the ongoing search for the US pilot, NBC News reported on Friday that he did not believe the incident would affect any negotiations with Iran.
“No, not at all. No, it’s war,” he reportedly told the network in a phone call.
Nevertheless, experts have warned that the possible Iranian capture of the pilot could create a crisis for Washington, giving Tehran a major leverage point that could snarl any diplomatic resolution.
The incident could also undermine US claims it has a dominant position in negotiations.
Marina Miron, a researcher at King’s College London, said the shooting down of the F-15 undercuts statements from Trump and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth that the US has established complete control over Iranian airspace.
“Now we have a visible example that Iran still has the capability to target and successfully shoot down US aircraft, making this, of course, very important for Iran to demonstrate the capability to resist,” Miron told Al Jazeera.
“Most likely, the kinds of air defences that Iran is using, such as man-portable air defences, will be much more difficult to locate.”
Any US efforts to rescue the pilot would risk US casualties, Miron added, heightening the risk of further military escalation.
“It’s a race for time, because right now we have this critical window of up to 72 hours where both sides are trying to get hold of the pilot for both military and political purposes,” she said.
FANCY a day at the theme park over Easter? Well, how about two days out for the price of one?
Drayton Manor has launched a brand-new offer for the month of April where visitors can buy one ticket and return again at no extra cost.
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You can go to Drayton Manor twice for the price of one ticket in AprilCredit: AlamyYou can go on all the rides again at no extra costCredit: Alamy
Fans of the theme park in Tamworth won’t want to miss its newly launched free return deal.
If you buy a standard day ticket between now and April 19, 2026, you can return for no extra cost on or before April 30, 2026.
From just £29.50, guests can go on more than 50 rides and attractions at the park – and then do it all again before the end of April for free.
Drayton Manor has plenty of thrilling rollercoasters, as well as family-friendly rides, and a zoo with over 500 animals like red pandas, bears, reptiles and birds of prey.
The theme park is the only one in Europe with a dedicated area for Thomas the Tank Engine.
Thomas Land has lots of attractions including a rollercoaster, water ride, drop tower and of course train rides with Thomas, Percy and Rosie.
Throughout the Easter holidays, until April 19, is a Care Bear takeover with character meet-and-greets.
At the end of the day, there’s even a Care Bears end-of-day show on the lake.
In 2024, Drayton Manor opened its Wild West themed world called Frontier Falls.
Inside is a new rollercoaster called Gold Rush where visitors are whisked away in a runaway mining cart.
It’s the first of its kind in the UK to have a backward launch into an outdoor gravity track.
The rollercoaster has a two-minute ride time, with Drayton Manor claiming it to be the longest track length for a family coaster in the country.
Drayton Manor has Europe’s only Thomas LandCredit: Drayton Manor
This Spanish hotel is right next to a huge theme park with over 40 attractions…
*If you click on a link in this box, we will earn affiliate revenue
Hotel Best Punta Dorada, Salou
The Spanish resort is a popular destination near PortAventura World, a theme park with over 40 attractions and huge rollercoasters. It’s also close to sandy beaches like Platja de Llevant, and the scenic Camí de Ronda coastal walk. The hotel itself has an outdoor swimming pool to enjoy, as well as two bars along with evening entertainment and shows.
The awards were organised by ThemeParks-UK.com, and winners were announced after a series of votes made by 330,000 members of British public along with scores from expert judges.
Drayton Manor scooped up the award for Best Value Theme Park.
It also came in second place for Best (Large) Theme Park for Families, and for Best Theme Park for Toddlers.
Drayton Manor came in first place for Best New Accessibility Initiative, and third for Best Use of IP in an Attraction.
WASHINGTON — In his first formal address to the nation since launching a war on Iran more than a month ago, President Trump on Wednesday night repeated a familiar list of claimed successes — and brushed aside setbacks — while providing little clarity on a clear path to ending the conflict.
“We are going to finish the job, and we’re going to finish it very fast. We are getting very close,” the president said from the White House.
Trump said Iran is “no longer a threat,” yet spoke of potentially needing to escalate the conflict and increase bombings on Iran’s energy and oil infrastructure if it continues to fight back.
“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants, very hard and probably simultaneously,” he said. “We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding. But we could hit it, and it would be gone, and there’s not a thing they could do about it.”
In his speech, Trump did not lay out a specific timeline for an exit strategy, but said the the U.S. is “on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly.”
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” he said. “In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”
He also repeated his assertions, made for weeks, that the U.S. has basically already defeated Iran and won the war, which he characterized as a “decisive, overwhelming victory.”
He also stressed that it is “very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” before listing out — by month and day — the length of World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.
Prior to Wednesday night’s formal address, Trump had only spoken of the war — which U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on Feb. 28 — in less formal settings, during media gatherings and other public events.
The speech was a key messaging moment for the president, who, 33 days into the war, has struggled to clearly explain the scope and objectives of a conflict that has killed thousands of people in Iran and neighboring countries and disrupted global markets.
Trump repeatedly insisted that the U.S. is doing great, is “in great shape for the future,” and doesn’t need the oil that Iran has put a stranglehold on in the Strait of Hormuz, ignoring the clear effects of the war and those disruptions on the U.S., including on gas prices.
Those effects are already contributing to fractures within Trump’s base. Some have expressed frustration with the administration’s decision to enter a new conflict in the Middle East, concerns that could become a political liability for Republicans ahead of the high-stakes midterm elections in November.
In his remarks, Trump appeared to be speaking to those who have criticized him for deviating from his campaign promises by entering the war, saying he had promised to never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon “from the very first day” he announced his first presidential campaign in 2015.
Trump has repeatedly downplayed the economic pressure the war has placed on Americans, including rising gas prices, arguing that the short-term financial strain is necessary for national security. He has also promised that gas prices will “come tumbling down” when the conflict ends.
“Gas prices will rapidly come back down,” Trump repeated on Wednesday. “Stock prices will rapidly go back up. They haven’t come down very much. Frankly, they came down a little bit, but they’ve had some very good days.”
Trump appeared less energetic during his evening speech than during some of his previous daytime events, where he has consistently maintained an upbeat tone about the war, while offering inconsistent accounts of what his administration aimed to achieve, or how long and what it would take to meet those objectives.
Those inconsistencies were evident even hours ahead of the address. In an interview with Reuters, he said he was not concerned about the enriched uranium held by Tehran — a statement that appeared to undercut a central justification for the war.
“That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that,” Trump said, adding that the U.S. military will be “watching it by satellite.”
In public remarks ahead of the address, Trump said the war was launched to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, but also that the U.S. had completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities months prior, in separate attacks over the summer. He also said he was worried about Iran’s enriched uranium, wanted the U.S. to take it, and would even consider sending U.S. forces inside Iran to collect it.
There have also been mixed messages about the U.S.’s intentions for Iran’s leadership since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed at the start of the conflict, leaving a leadership vacuum that was filled by his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a 56-year-old hard-line cleric who Trump initially called an “unacceptable choice.”
As Iran’s clerical rulers maintained a firm grip on the country, Trump administration officials, such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, argued that U.S. war objectives had “nothing to do” with Iran’s leadership. But Trump in recent days has repeatedly talked about how “regime change” was achieved.
On Wednesday, Trump said a deal remained within reach with Iran’s new leaders, who he called “less radical and much more reasonable.”
Hours before Trump was to deliver his speech, Rubio posted a video which he began by saying, “Many Americans are asking, ‘Why did the United States have to attack Iran now?’” — an apparent acknowledgment that Trump’s own answers to that question in recent days may have failed to resonate.
Rubio also pushed another rationale for the war that the administration has floated on and off for the past month — saying Iran was building up an arsenal of missiles and drones to shield its nuclear ambitions, and that the war was the “last best chance” for the U.S. to eliminate those weapons capabilities before it was too late.
“We were on the verge of an Iran that had so many missiles and so many drones that nobody could do anything about their nuclear weapons program in the future,” Rubio said. “That was an intolerable risk.”
Others also tried to frame the war narrative Wednesday.
Prior to Trump’s speech, Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian issued a public letter denouncing what he described as “a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives” from the U.S., and arguing Iran is not a threat and has only ever defended itself against U.S. aggression.
He called on the American people to “look beyond the machinery of misinformation” from the Trump administration and reach their own conclusions about the war and its purpose, at one point echoing a question also being asked by some in Trump’s base: “Is ‘America First’ truly among the priorities of the U.S. government today?”
He noted Iran was in the midst of nuclear negotiations with the U.S. when the U.S. attacked it “as a proxy for Israel,” and accused U.S. leaders of committing a “war crime” by targeting Iran’s energy and industrial facilities.
“Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?” he asked.
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
President Donald Trump claims that Washington and Tehran have had “very good and productive conversations regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East.” On the back of this development, the U.S. leader said today that he would order a five-day pause in all U.S. airstrikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. Iran has denied any knowledge of these talks, however. Over the weekend, the Trump administration had also given 48 hours for Tehran to lift its blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz, or to face the consequences.
Speaking to reporters today, Trump reaffirmed his claim that discussions were taking place with Iran about ending the war and that there were “major points of agreement” between the two parties. He said he expects a deal to be agreed on very soon, adding “I didn’t call, they called — and they wanted to make a deal.”
Trump on Iran:
We have major points of agreement and we both want to make a deal.
On Saturday, Trump had threatened to bomb Iran’s power plants after 48 hours unless Iran agreed to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic oil shipping route that Iran has effectively blocked.
As of today, however, Trump says he has instructed the Pentagon to postpone all airstrikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, which he said reflected the progress made on a possible deal.
BREAKING: Trump:
I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS. pic.twitter.com/HmCFLFYSa1
LONDON, March 23 – Oil prices fell by over 13% on Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would order the military to postpone any strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump added that his latest instruction to the Pentagon is subject to the “success” of ongoing “meetings and discussions.”
“We’re doing a five-day period, and we’ll see how that goes. If it goes well, we’re going to end up with settling this,” Trump told reporters, referring to earlier comments about the bombing pause. “Otherwise, we’ll just keep bombing our little hearts out.”
A U.S. Air Force B-1B bomber takes off on a sortie from RAF Fairford, England, on March 14, 2026. Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Christopher Furlong
Trump has said that the latest talks took place on Sunday and involved his Middle East envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. Trump claims they were talking to a “respected” Iranian leader, but that it was not the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
The status of Mojtaba Khamenei remains unclear, after U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth last week said that the new supreme leader was wounded and “likely disfigured,” presumably as the result of an airstrike.
Trump says he has not heard from Iran’s Supreme Leader, but does not want him killed.
For its part, Tehran has denied that it has conducted talks with Washington and instead has said that the U.S. president’s comments show that he has “backed down.”
Iran’s Fars News Agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), quoted a source as saying there has been “no direct or indirect” contact between Iran and Trump.
March 23 (Reuters) – Iran’s Fars news agency, citing a source, said there are no direct or indirect communications with the United States, despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent statement about “productive” talks with Tehran.
Iran continues to warn that it will “irreversibly destroy” essential infrastructure across the Middle East, a message that it began to push in response to U.S. threats to hit Iranian power plants. Iran said it would hit power plants in all areas that supply electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial, and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares.”
An IRGC-affiliated news outlet recently listed 29 ‘tech targets’ Iran plans to strike across the Middle East. How should the U.S. help these countries & protect their own data assets?
More from CSIS’s Intelligence, National Security, & Technology Program: https://t.co/lt1dMG1CVu
The U.S. president also said that “we’re gonna get” the “nuclear dust,” referring to the enriched uranium in Iran. Asked how, he said, “We’re going down, and we’re going to take it ourselves.”
Trump has said that ending Iran’s nuclear program is critical for any deal and has now claimed that Iran has agreed to that.
“We are very willing to make a deal. It’s got to be a good deal, and it’s got to be no more wars, no more nuclear weapons. They’re not going to have nuclear weapons anymore. They’re agreeing to that. Any of that stuff, there is no deal,” Trump said when asked about the Iranian nuclear program.
It should be recalled that Iran has always insisted it was not going to pursue the development of nuclear weapons, and that its uranium-enrichment efforts were entirely peaceful.
Iran’s foreign ministry hit back at Trump’s statements, saying they were “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans,” which could still involve a possible occupation or blockading of Iran’s strategically crucial Kharg Island — a prospect that we have discussed in detail in the past.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry says that they are not talking with the US.
“[Trump’s] statements are part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans.”
“Yes, there are initiatives from regional countries to reduce tensions, and our response to all of them is clear: We are not the party that started this war, and all these requests should be referred to Washington,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying.
UPDATES:
We have ended today’s rolling coverage.
3:50PM EST—
Iranian officials have repeatedly threatened the United States and Israel with secretive new super-weapons, the details of which are notably thin.
The latest such threat comes from Major General Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi, who heads up the unified combatant command headquarters of the Iranian Armed Forces. “The use of a new, secret weapon will begin soon, and it will bring an end to the enemy’s operations,” he claimed.
Iranian Major General Abdollahi:
“The use of a new, secret weapon will begin soon and it will bring an end to the enemy’s operations.” pic.twitter.com/GCX8PK0r7p
The U.K. Royal Navy’s Type 45 destroyer HMS Dragon has arrived on station in the eastern Mediterranean. The U.K. government faced criticism for the slow pace of response, three weeks after an Iranian-made drone hit the British base of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey said that the destroyer will begin “operational integration into Cyprus’s defense” starting on Monday night.
3:45PM EST—
Abigail Hauslohner, Washington-based correspondent for the U.K. Financial Times, reports that Trump today claimed the idea of launching a war against Iran came from the U.S. War Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said: ‘Let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon’,” Trump is quoted as saying.
Trump suggests it was actually @secwar Pete Hegseth’s idea to launch the war against Iran. “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said: ‘Let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon'” – Trump just now in TN
There are signs, too, that Hegseth may be lined up as a negotiating partner with Iran. Abas Aslani, a journalist and senior research fellow at the Center for Middle East Strategic Studies (CMESS), reports that Washington has suggested that Vance take part in talks with Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf. Iran has not yet responded to the idea, which apparently derives from Iranian distrust of Steve Witkoff.
3:35PM EST—
Barak Ravid, global affairs reporter with Axios, writes that U.S. Vice President JD Vance spoke today with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, updating him on plans for negotiations between the United States and Iran. Ravid cites an unnamed source who says that Vance and Netanyahu discussed the components of a possible agreement to end the war with Iran. Such a development would seem to suggest that Trump’s talk of an imminent deal with Iran may be premature.
🚨סגן נשיא ארה״ב ג׳יי-די ואנס שוחח בטלפון היום עם ראש הממשלה נתניהו ודן עמו בנסיון לפתוח במו״מ בין ארה״ב לבין איראן, כך לפי מקור שמעורה בפרטים. המקור ציין כי ואנס ונתניהו דנו על המרכיבים של הסכם אפשרי לסיום המלחמה עם איראן https://t.co/ObparWASYR
A video circulating on social media this evening shows apparent Israeli airstrikes targeting what is reported to be an Iranian missile complex in Isfahan. Iran’s largest missile production and assembly facility is in Isfahan, and the plant has manufactured solid and liquid rocket fuels as well as various missile components. Also located close to Isfahan city is the Isfahan Nuclear Research Center, formerly known as the Uranium Conversion Facility.
Open-source intelligence sources have collated more information pointing to the ongoing deployment of U.S. forces from the Continental United States. Based on this, at least 35 C-17 transport flights to the Middle East have been identified since March 12, with 11 more flights on the way. Among the origins of these flights are key CONUS military installations, including Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Fort Bragg is notably the home of the 82nd Airborne Division. Reported destinations of these flights include airbases in Israel and Jordan.
A significant movement is underway from US Army, Navy and Air Force bases in CONUS to the Middle East comprised of at least 35 C-17 flights since March 12th, with 11 more flights on the way.
Origins: 12-Hunter Army Air Field/Fort Stewart, GA 8-Unknown 7-JB Lewis-McChord, WA… pic.twitter.com/iqU9Wq3K3G
Additional details about the talks with Iran, as reported by Barak Ravid, global affairs reporter with Axios:
Turkey, Egypt, and Pakistan are the countries that conveyed messages between the US and Iran in the last two days
Senior officials from the three countries held separate talks with White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi
“The mediation continues and is progressing. The discussion is about ending the war and resolving all remaining open issues. We hope to receive answers soon,” the source said
🚨טורקיה, מצרים ופקיסטן הן המדינות שהעבירו מסרים בין ארה״ב לאיראן ביומיים האחרונים 🚨בכירים משלוש המדינות קיימו שיחות נפרדות עם שליח הבית הלבן סטיב וויטקוף ועם שר החוץ האיראני עבאס עראקג׳י 🚨“התיווך נמשך ומתקדם. הדיון הוא על סיום המלחמה ופתרון כל הסוגיות שנותרו פתוחות. אנחנו… https://t.co/8HytxRWHYx
This is in line with other reporting, including from the British Financial Times, that suggests that Pakistan is taking an increasingly important role in brokering talks between Tehran and Washington.
Iranian police say they have arrested 68 people for filming areas hit by airstrikes. It also says 67 were basically anti-regime individuals. Regardless, arrests for doing similar activities are also happening in allied Arab countries.
Iranian police said 68 people were arrested for allegedly filming locations hit by Israeli and US missiles and sending the images to what authorities called hostile media.
Police said 67 of those detained were “operational elements” linked to monarchists and one was accused of… pic.twitter.com/XeHPPegzMI
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) March 23, 2026
If the war explodes into a focus on targeting basic infrastructure, desalination plants would be among the most troubling targets, as they provide clean water to populations and industry.
MAP: Desalination plants are the lifeline of the Gulf. From Saudi Arabia’s massive Ras Al Khair (~1M m³/day) to the UAE’s Taweelah RO, this map shows the critical infrastructure securing water for the region’s cities and industries. pic.twitter.com/FskrFhn9en
Prime Minister of the U.K. Keir Starmer says it is totally unclear if Diego Garcia was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles, which has been the prevailing narrative of the strange long-range missile attack by Iran.
UK’s Keir Starmer:
There were no missiles that hit the Chagos Islands (Diego Garcia).
B-52s are now launching from the United Kingdom with full loads of GBU-31 JDAMs equipped with BLU-109 bunker buster warheads. This indicates that the bombers are now making direct attacks on targets in Iran, although these would still be in the lowest threat areas, and especially not deep into the eastern part of the country. Up until now, B-52s, which are the most vulnerable type within the U.S. bomber force, have been burning through stealthy AGM-158 JASSM cruise missiles for standoff strikes in Iran, as air supremacy has not been in place across the country, which you can read all about in our past report here.
בי 52 ממריא מפיירפורד אתמול רק חימושי סטנד אין האמריקנים מרביצים לאיראנים עם הצד המעליב של היד pic.twitter.com/j1VLJgNS6n
Some tankers are trickling through the Strait of Hormuz:
An oil supertanker hauling two-million barrels of Iraq’s crude got through the Strait of Hormuz, the first vessel observed moving Baghdad’s barrels through the the vital waterway https://t.co/ZoSlo8X96c
Iran’s missile technology continues to be quite impressive, with more advanced types still being fired at Israel and eluding air defenses. We have seen multiple occasions where Iranian maneuverable reentry vehicles (MaRVs) have been able to pierce interceptor barrages during the terminal stage.
“The attacks on QatarEnergy’s Ras Laffan complex involved sophisticated missiles that were manoeuvrable and able to evade US-made Patriot air-defence systems, according to an official briefed on the attack.”
The U.S. and Israel continue to strike at Iran’s ability to quickly restart production of standoff weaponry.
The damage done to energy production infrastructure in the Middle East is becoming more clear. AFP states at least 40 energy assets have been destroyed or badly damaged in nine countries. The long-term economic fallout from Iran’s strikes on these targets remains unclear, but economists are warning that the damage done, as well as the Strait remaining closed for a prolonged period, could spark a global recession.
BREAKING The head of the International Energy Agency says at least 40 energy assets have been “severely or very severely damaged across nine countries” in the Middle East due to the war in the region pic.twitter.com/VbUpTUE5Xm
BREAKING The war in the Middle East could see the world face its worst energy crisis in decades, International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol warns, describing the situation as “very severe” pic.twitter.com/CxLA1PmF5W
Iran has released a new video showing its underground ‘missile cities,’ this time showcasing air defense weapons still stored there. Clearly, this is intended to convey that air supremacy is not achieved and won’t be achieved, although many of these facilities have had their entrances collapsed by strikes, trapping everything inside from being used.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has released new footage showing an underground facility housing intact meduim-to-long range air‑defense systems, including the Iranian‑built Khordad‑15 surface‑to‑air missile (SAM) system alongside stockpiles of interceptor canisters. pic.twitter.com/uhjwzPtsU6
South Korea’s military is active in the UAE and has supplied air defense assets to help counter the Iranian barrages, according to The Diplomat.
South Korea maintains special forces on UAE soil, has supplied air defense systems that are actively engaged in combat, and has conducted emergency resupply operations under fire. Seoul has thus accumulated a stake in the Iran War – whether it wanted to or not.… pic.twitter.com/xsNj5v2ueZ
NATO Secretary Rutte says 22 nations are working together to reopen the Strait. Currently, this appears to be a diplomatic endeavor not a military one.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that 22 countries, including NATO members along with allies such as South Korea and Japan, are coordinating efforts to reopen navigation through the Strait of Hormuz pic.twitter.com/eRi0IBjMxg
Data centers continue to be new high-profile targets in the age of AI and cloud computing.
An IRGC-affiliated news outlet recently listed 29 ‘tech targets’ Iran plans to strike across the Middle East. How should the U.S. help these countries & protect their own data assets?
More from CSIS’s Intelligence, National Security, & Technology Program: https://t.co/lt1dMG1CVu
In a further effort to put pressure on the United States, Iran’s defense council today threatened to lay sea mines to block the entire Gulf if Iran’s coasts or islands are attacked.
The fact that two U.S. Navy Independence class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) configured for minesweeping duties — representing a substantial portion of the Navy’s mine countermeasures capacity for the Middle East region — were last reported thousands of miles away in a completely different part of the world is something TWZ has already reported on.
Oman, which has emerged as a key player in terms of its efforts to mediate between Tehran and Washington, is also seeking a way to reopen the strait.
The Omanis are “working intensively” to “put in place safe passage arrangements” for the strait, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi wrote on X.
“Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making. This is already causing widespread economic problems, and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues,” Albusaidi added.
Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making. This is already causing widespread economic problems and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues. Oman is working intensively to put in place safe passage arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz.
— Badr Albusaidi – بدر البوسعيدي (@badralbusaidi) March 23, 2026
The U.S. military’s recent use of the new Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missiles against Iran was the longest field artillery strike launched by the U.S. Army in its history. This is the claim of Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), in his latest update on Operation Epic Fury.
The PrSM strike, on March 19, “took out Iranian military infrastructure, demonstrating the U.S. military’s unmatched reach and lethality,” Cooper said. The CENTCOM chief said that Iran “has lost significant combat capability,” with U.S. forces having destroyed “thousands” of Iranian missiles, advanced attack drones, and “all of Iran’s Navy.”
Cooper also said that the U.S. military has struck a total of 130 Iranian vessels, which constitutes “the largest elimination of a navy over a three-week period since World War II,” Cooper said.
“Their navy is not sailing, their tactical fighters are not flying, and they’ve lost the ability to launch missiles and drones at the high rates seen at the beginning of the conflict,” Cooper added. He also claimed that the U.S. military has been able to “maintain air superiority over Iran’s skies” in the course of over 8,000 combat flights. The reality of the air picture over Iran is somewhat different, as we have discussed in the past, and the continued risk to U.S. and Israeli aircraft appears to have been underscored by the emergency landing of a U.S. Air Force F-35A fighter after a mission over Iran last week.
The F-35 in question was apparently hit by ground fire, and, while the incident is still under investigation, the U.S. military has confirmed that the pilot suffered shrapnel wounds.
Iran’s IRGC posted a video on March 19 purporting to show an F-35 being targeted and struck by an Iranian air defense system. The authenticity of the video has not been confirmed.
Still yet to hear any official denial that this F-35 video is exactly what it purports to be, and the disclosure that the pilot suffered shrapnel wounds only seems to back this up. That the pilot was wounded shows the blast was closer than many have said, and again speaks volumes… https://t.co/8T7tC93zFq
There are signs that the storied 82nd Airborne Division of the U.S. Army could be headed to the Middle East. Based on the movement of cargo flights between Fort Bragg in North Carolina and the Middle East, the Pentagon could be moving elements of the elite paratrooper unit into the region.
There had been earlier signs that the 82nd Airborne was at least being prepared for a possible deployment, with the cancellation of a major training exercise in which its headquarters unit would have been involved.
The division includes a brigade combat team of between 4,000 and 5,000 soldiers that are on constant alert for rapid deployment anywhere in the world within hours. They can be assigned various high-priority missions, including seizing critical objectives, reinforcing U.S. embassies, and enabling emergency evacuations.
It is also quite possible that at least part of the deployment was scheduled in advance of the war.
There are indications, based on plane spotters, that elements of the 82nd Airborne Division—likely the alert brigade—have arrived in the Middle East via cargo flights from Fort Bragg and likely Fort Campbell.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) today said they have launched another wave of strikes in Tehran. Among the claimed targets were a Quds Force base used as a command post, an IRGC aerial defense headquarters, a Ground Forces headquarters, a Quds Force intelligence headquarters, and a naval cruise missile manufacturing site.
🎯STRUCK: Several Iranian terror regime headquarters in Tehran
Dozens of IAF fighter jets used 100+ munitions in the strikes that targeted:
• A Quds Force base used as a command post for coordinating and overseeing intelligence & operational activity • An IRGC aerial defense… pic.twitter.com/tTur69j2EO
While unconfirmed, it appears that the IDF is on board with the U.S.-announced five-day pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure.
A source told Reuters that Israel was kept informed of U.S.–Iran talks and would likely follow Washington in halting attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure. https://t.co/Lj3g2qu57w
Yesterday, the IDF issued details of its overnight airstrikes, claiming to have struck several Iranian weapon production sites and various headquarters of the regime. The IDF said that Israeli Air Force fighters had hit targets including an Iranian Army training base that included a storage site for anti-aircraft missiles; a weapons production and storage site of the Iranian defense ministry; a weapons production site of the IRGC Air Force; a headquarters of the Iranian intelligence ministry; and a headquarters of Khatam-al Anbiya, the Iranian military emergency command.
During a wave of overnight airstrikes in Tehran, the IDF says it struck several Iranian weapon production sites and various headquarters of the regime.
According to the military, the targets hit by Israeli Air Force fighter jets included: an Iranian army training base that… pic.twitter.com/B1kLaV0NgT
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 22, 2026
Meanwhile, Israel continues to fight on a second front in Lebanon. Among the targets that have been struck repeatedly are bridges across from the Litani River in southern Lebanon. The video below purportedly shows an Israeli Air Force strike on the Qasmiya Bridge yesterday. The IDF says strikes like these are meant to prevent Hezbollah from moving operatives and weapons into southern Lebanon.
The Israeli Air Force struck the Qasmiya Bridge on the Litani River in southern Lebanon a short while ago, hours after warning it would bomb the crossing.
Footage shows the moment the bridge, located on the coastal highway, was struck.
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 22, 2026
The U.S. State Department has issued a “worldwide caution” to all Americans. “The Department of State advises Americans worldwide, and especially in the Middle East, to exercise increased caution. Americans abroad should follow the guidance in security alerts issued by the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate,” the State Department said in a statement.
The U.S. State Department has issued a “worldwide caution” to all Americans.
“Groups supportive of Iran may target other U.S. interests overseas or locations associated with the United States and/or Americans throughout the world.” pic.twitter.com/iiZaBXUkrj
Over the weekend, remarkable footage emerged showing the apparent interception of an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile. The video was reportedly captured in the Deir ez-Zor governorate of eastern Syria. While its authenticity cannot be confirmed, it bears the hallmarks of an exoatmospheric interception, of the kind that could be carried out by a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) fired by a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke class destroyer. It is important to remember that Israel’s own Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile interceptors are also capable of engaging threats outside of the Earth’s atmosphere and use kinetic kill vehicles to destroy their targets.
Exoatmospheric interception of an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile seen earlier tonight over Al-Asharah in the Deir ez-Zor Governorate of Eastern Syria, likely carried out by an SM-3 fired by a U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer positioned in the Eastern… pic.twitter.com/CwkMO7W5pi
Iranian missiles continue to threaten the air defense umbrella over Israel, as the video below confirms. In this case, an apparent cluster munition delivered by an Iranian missile, or otherwise debris from an intercepted missile, struck a car in the city of Tel Aviv.
Footage shows the moment a cluster munition struck a car in Tel Aviv during Iran’s ballistic missile attack this morning. pic.twitter.com/1FcN2LowwO
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) March 22, 2026
Footage has emerged showing the immediate results of apparent airstrikes on Yazd, in central Iran. The site has been struck by the United States and Israel on multiple occasions this month and is considered one of the most significant underground missile-launch facilities in the country. The fact that the base has been targeted repeatedly suggests that it is proving tricky to render inoperational.
Iran’s Yazd missile base was seen suffering a series of major secondary explosions after a series of U.S.-Israeli strikes tonight. pic.twitter.com/t8gAeRieP7
According to a recent CNN investigation, satellite images from 27 Iranian underground bases indicate that the U.S.-Israeli campaign has struck 77 percent of the tunnel entrances that could be imaged. However, construction equipment was seen appearing at bombed sites typically within 48 hours. This would be used for digging out blocked entrances and restoring access to the tunnel systems below, likely making the sites operational again.
More analysis of that abortive attack is now emerging. This airbase has hosted a significant build-up of U.S. military aircraft, although not, so far, long-range bombers. This would be an option, however, since the United Kingdom gave the go-ahead for the United States to use the island for strikes on Iran. The threat posed to Diego Garcia by Iranian long-range attack drones and missiles is something we have discussed in the past.
In his analysis of the attempted attack, missile and drone expert Fabian Hinz outlines the various weapons that Iran could have called upon, as well as their various advantages and disadvantages.
While we have seen similar footage before, it is interesting to note that U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornets continue to use their onboard 20mm cannons to strafe targets along the Iranian coast.
A photo from the perimeter fence at RAF Fairford in England confirms that U.S. Air Force bombers — and planespotters — have been busy in recent days.
WASHINGTON — For several hours Friday, in the stillness before dawn, the Senate appeared to have finally figured out how to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security before it faced the longest partial shutdown in U.S. history.
Senators handed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) their deal and headed for the airports, seemingly confident of success.
Then it collapsed. Spectacularly.
An incensed Johnson marched out of his office Friday afternoon. He angrily denounced the plan that the Senate had unanimously agreed to as a “joke.”
“I have to protect the House, and I have to protect the American people,” Johnson told reporters.
It was a dramatic denunciation of a deal that his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), had negotiated after weeks of effort, and was the latest abrupt turn in a funding saga that has bedeviled top Republicans for much of the year.
The collapse of the deal leaves Congress, now on a two-week spring break, with no easy way out of the impasse that has put the Homeland Security Department into a shutdown since mid-February. It also has exposed a rare rupture between the two Republican leaders in Congress, testing their alliances as they labor to move another set of President Trump’s priorities into law before the November elections.
Nothing ahead is likely to be easy.
How the deal collapsed
Thune had a deal with Democratic senators after negotiating for weeks on their demands for new restrictions on the department’s immigration enforcement work. Offers were traded several times. The talks moved along at a stop-start pace. Votes failed again and again.
Out of time and patience, senators essentially settled on a draw for the bill: They would not include funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for U.S. Border Patrol, as Democrats had proposed repeatedly in the last week, but while setting aside all the Democratic demands for new limits on the agencies.
Thune pointed out that Congress had allotted money for immigration enforcement and he told reporters that “we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there.”
Asked if he had cleared the compromise with Johnson, Thune said the two had texted.
“I don’t know what the House will do,” the senator said early Friday as the deal came together.
But as House Republicans woke up to the news, their outrage was swift.
Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) said that on a GOP conference call that morning to discuss their path forward, a few dozen members ranging from moderates to hard-line conservatives spoke in opposition to what the Senate had done.
“The Senate chickened out,” he said. “The cowards there, only a few of them in the middle of the night with I think only three to five senators present on the floor, chickened out because they wanted to go home for two weeks. We need to raise the bar.”
What’s next for Republicans?
The bitter split threatens to make the job for Republican leaders more difficult as they try to advance their priorities while they still have guaranteed control of both chambers. Trump has said that legislation to impose strict new proof of citizenship requirements on voting is his top priority, but there is no real path for that plan in the Senate with its 60-vote threshold for advancing legislation.
Some Republicans have pushed instead for a budget package that could potentially put some parts of the voting law in place. Republicans are also contemplating how to pass an expected request from the White House to fund the war with Iran that could total more than $200 billion, among other priorities.
Meanwhile, the flop of the funding deal has given Democrats another chance to pin the partial shutdown on House Republicans.
“They know this is a continuation of the shutdown because the Senate is gone,” said Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, the No. 2 Democratic leader. “So they know fully well what they’re doing.”
It is not clear what the Senate will do next. A quick resumption of talks is unlikely. Negotiations ended acrimoniously on both sides, with each blaming the other as moving the goalposts along the way.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he was proud of his caucus for “holding the line.” But Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Democrats were “intransigent and unreasonable.”
Thune said he believed that Democrats never wanted a deal and would not vote for ICE funding under any circumstances.
“I felt like from the beginning, they just didn’t want to get to ‘yes,’” Thune said after the vote.
The dynamic left senators convinced that the deal was the only way to move past their disagreements and reopen the Homeland Security Department.
But House Republicans on Friday night seemed to revel in the fact they had defied the wishes of the Senate. GOP members said that they work from a perspective that is closer to the will of their constituents.
To Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), the Senate’s proposal was “nothing more than unconditional surrender masquerading as a solution.” She said the House ”will not bend itself into submission by acquiescing.”
Those searching for a way out of the shutdown seemed discouraged.
“This takes two chambers to get the job done,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a moderate Republican. “Apparently, there’s not enough communication between those chambers.”
Groves, Jalonick and Cappelletti write for the Associated Press. AP writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
US President Donald Trump said Iran is ‘being decimated’ and signaled that talks are underway, claiming Tehran is seeking a deal while praising the strength of the the US military.
The Connecticut Sun have reached an agreement to sell the team to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for $300 million and will move to Houston in 2027, according to a person familiar with the deal.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press on Friday because the deal hasn’t been announced publicly.
The WNBA Board of Governors still needs to approve the sale and the move. The team will play in Connecticut for the upcoming season before moving to Houston and becoming the Comets again.
This will end a 23-year run by the team in New England after the team moved to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003.
Houston was one of the groups that expressed interest in buying the team last year, eventually raising its bid to $250 million — the amount that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia paid for expansion fees. Now with the $300 million sale price that’s the highest a team has been sold for in WNBA history.
The Sun had an offer for $325 million from a group led by Celtics minority owner Steve Pagliuca that would have moved the franchise to Boston. The WNBA basically blocked that deal from happening by saying that “relocation decisions are made by the WNBA Board of Governors and not by individual teams.”
The league also went on to say that other teams had gone through the expansion process and had priority over Boston.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said during a news conference to announce the three new expansion teams that Houston was up next.
Ever since Mark Davis bought the Las Vegas Aces in 2021, the league has added new owners that have some sort of NBA tie. Golden State, which came into the league last season, is owned by the Warriors. Portland and Toronto are coming into the WNBA this season and the ownership groups are connected to NBA teams.
The next three expansion teams — Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — are all owned by NBA groups in those cities.
The WNBA just agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement last week where teams need to have top notch facilities similar to those of NBA franchises.
With the news of the deal on Friday, it allows the franchise to have clarity for potential free agents who could sign with the Sun next month.
The Houston Comets were one of the original franchises in the league that won the first four WNBA championships from 1997-2000. The franchise disbanded after the 2008 season.
The last WNBA team to move cities was the Las Vegas Aces, who relocated from San Antonio in 2017.
WASHINGTON — The Senate early Friday morning approved Homeland Security funds to pay Transportation Security Administration agents and most other agencies, but not the immigration enforcement operations at the heart of the budget impasse that has jammed airports, disrupted travel and imposed financial hardship on workers.
The deal, which the Senate approved unanimously without a roll call, next goes to the House, which is expected to consider it Friday.
“We can get at least a lot of the government opened up again and then we’ll go from there,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “Obviously, we’ll still have some work ahead of us.”
With pressure mounting to resolve the 42-day stalemate over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the endgame emerged in the final hours before TSA workers miss another paycheck Friday. President Donald Trump said he would sign an order to immediately pay the TSA agents, saying he wanted to quickly stop the “Chaos at the Airports.” The deal did not include any of the restraints Democrats have demanded as they sought to rein in Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said the outcome could have been reached weeks ago, and vowed that his party would continue fighting to ensure Trump’s “rogue” immigration operation “does not get more funding without serious reform.”
What’s in and out of the funding package
Senators worked through the night on the deal that would fund much of the rest of the department, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and TSA, but without funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Customs was funded, but Border Protection was not.
The package puts no new limits on immigration enforcement, which has remained largely uninterrupted by the shutdown. The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions in extra funds to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the immigration officers are still being paid despite the lapse.
Next steps in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., holds a slim majority, are uncertain. Passage will almost certainly require bipartisan support, as lawmakers on the left and right flanks revolt.
Conservative Republicans have panned their own party’s proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations. Many have vowed to ensure ICE has the resources it needs in the next budget package to carry out Trump’s agenda.
“We will fully fund ICE. That is what this fight is about,” Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., said as he tried to offer legislation to fund the agency. “The border is closing. The next task is deportation.”
On-again, off-again talks collapsed
Earlier Thursday, Thune announced he had given a “last and final” offer to the Democrats. But as the day dragged on, action stalled out.
Democrats argued the GOP proposals have not gone far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and other federal agencies who are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people’s homes or private spaces — something new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said he is open to considering.
Trump had largely left the issue to Congress, but warned he was ready to take action, threatening to send the National Guard to airports in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers’ IDs.
The White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay the TSA agents, a politically and legally fraught approach. Instead, Trump’s order would pay TSA agents using money from his 2025 tax bill, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.
If the Senate package is approved by the House and signed it into law, the action Trump announced to pay TSA agents may be temporary or unneeded.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
The funding shutdown has resulted in travel delays and even warnings of airport closures as TSA workers missing paychecks stop coming to work.
Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and nearly 500 of the agency’s nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,120 callouts.
Everett Kelley, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said the union is grateful the TSA workers will be paid, but said Congress must stay in session to pass a deal “that funds DHS, pays all DHS workers, and keeps these vital agencies running.”
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2½ hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.
“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”
Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking, Rebecca Santana, Collin Binkley and Ben Finley in Washington, Lekan Oyekanmi in Houston, Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
Mascaro and Jalonick write for the Associated Press.
On Thursday, in a video message to the Joint Expeditionary Force, a security alliance which held a summit meeting in Helsinki, Zelensky said: “The key is not only producing new weapons – especially drones – not just technology, but also real experience in using it, and integrating it with radars, aviation, and other air defence systems. We have this experience,” he added.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he would sign an order instructing the Homeland Security secretary to immediately pay Transportation Security Administration agents as Congress struggled to reach a deal to end a budget impasse that has jammed airports and left workers without paychecks.
Trump announced his decision in a social media post saying he wanted to quickly stop the “Chaos at the Airports.”
“It is not an easy thing to do, but I am going to do it!” the president posted.
With pressure mounting, the White House had floated the extraordinary move of invoking a national emergency to pay TSA agents, while senators were reviewing a “last and final” offer from Republicans to Democrats to end the funding impasse at the Department of Homeland Security.
Details of the president’s plan were not immediately available, but a national emergency declaration would be politically fraught and almost certain to face legal challenges. Instead, the president may simply be shifting money from other sources.
Democrats have been refusing to fund Homeland Security as they seek changes to rein in Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. The Senate came to a standstill and senators, ready to leave town for their own spring break, had prepared to stay all night to reach a deal.
“The president is doing absolutely the right thing,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the GOP whip. “The TSA agents are going to be paid.”
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chair of the Appropriations Committee, has said there is funding elsewhere that can be legally used to pay the TSA as well as the Coast Guard without declaring a national emergency.
The funding shutdown, now in its 41st day, has resulted in travel delays, missed paychecks and even warnings of airport closures. TSA workers are coming up on their second missed payday Friday, with thousands refusing to show up for work.
Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and nearly 500 of its nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown. Nationwide on Wednesday, more than 11% of the TSA employees on the schedule missed work, according to DHS. That is more than 3,120 callouts.
Trump, who has largely left the issue to Congress to resolve, had warned he was ready to take action, even threatening to send the National Guard to airports, in addition to his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers’ IDs — a development drawing concerns. The White House has been considering a menu of options.
“They need to end this shutdown immediately or we’ll have to take drastic measures,” Trump said during a morning Cabinet meeting at the White House.
At George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Melissa Gates said she would not make her flight to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, after waiting more than 2½ hours and still not reaching the security checkpoint. She said no other flights were available until Friday.
“I should have just driven, right?” Gates said. “Five hours would have been hilarious next to this.”
Thune did not disclose details of the new framework, but he said that it picked up on what had been the Republican offer over the weekend, before talks with the White House and Democrats had broken off.
“Enough is enough,” he said.
But as senators retreated to privately discuss the new plan, the action stalled out.
Democrats argue the GOP proposals have not gone far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies that are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
They want federal agents to wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places. Democrats have also pushed for an end of administrative warrants, insisting that judges sign off before agents search people’s homes or private spaces.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
Any deal will almost certainly need to involve a compromise as lawmakers on the left and right flanks revolt. Conservative Republicans have panned their own GOP proposals, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Republicans said after a private lunch meeting that there were other options to shift money than invoking the national emergency.
The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the money is flowing for his immigration and deportation agenda even with the funding shutdown. ICE and other immigration officers are still being paid.
Republicans say the Trump administration has already made strides to meet Democrats’ demands, particularly after swearing in former Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the new homeland security secretary to replace Kristi Noem. He has given a nod to the need for the judicial warrants for searches.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, testified at a House hearing Wednesday.
She described the multiple hardships facing unpaid TSA workers — piling-up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned of potential airport closures if more employees refuse to come to work.
“At this point, we have to look at all options on the table,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports had experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
President Trump on Thursday continued projecting confidence in the U.S. war effort in Iran, suggesting online and during a high-level Cabinet meeting that Iran has been “obliterated,” that its leaders were “begging” for a deal, and that the U.S. is “roaming free” over Iran and “NEEDS NOTHING” from its European allies.
His description of the war as all but finished — he actually said “we’ve won” — stood in contrast to the facts on the ground, where Iran continued to launch attacks and threaten oil tanker traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. continued sending troops and warships to what is already the largest U.S. military buildup in the Middle East in decades.
Trump’s framing of the conflict also contrasted with that of Iranian officials, who have remained publicly defiant, downplayed negotiations and outwardly rejected several of Trump’s conditions for ending the war — as Trump himself acknowledged, accusing them of saying one thing in private and another in public.
“They better get serious soon, before it is too late,” the president wrote on social media, “because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty.”
“They are begging to make a deal, not me,” Trump reiterated later Thursday, while hosting his first Cabinet meeting since the war began. “Anybody that sees what is happening understands why they are begging to make a deal.”
Trump asserted that Iran’s military capabilities have been destroyed, and that the American mission is “ahead of schedule.” He said American forces were operating without opposition over Iran, and “there’s not a damn thing they can do about it” because they’ve been “beat to s—.”
Trump’s outward confidence, a defining feature of the war campaign that has been consistently echoed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other administration loyalists, continued despite growing concerns this week in Congress — and not only from Democrats.
Several Republicans emerged from a classified war briefing Wednesday clearly frustrated with the administration for not providing a clearer picture of the path out of the now monthlong war, or clear answers on whether it planned to deploy ground troops.
“We want to know more about what’s going on,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “We’re just not getting enough answers.”
“I can see why he might have said that,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Democrats have hammered the president — contrasting the war and its massive budget with rising fuel costs for average Americans and lamenting the deaths of U.S. service members.
“Thirteen American lives lost and tens of billions of taxpayer dollars spent in just three weeks since Donald Trump plunged us into war without congressional authorization. There is still no plan, no clear justification, and no end in sight,” Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) said. “Americans called for lower prices, not endless wars.”
For weeks, Trump, Hegseth and other war leaders such as Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have focused on U.S. wins in the conflict — tallying up Iran’s sunken ships and grounded planes, assassinated leaders and undermined missile capabilities.
In recent days, Trump has suggested that, because of those wins, Iran is buckling and its leaders reaching out for a deal. He has said the U.S. is pushing a 15-point plan that will forever block Iran from developing a nuclear weapon or threatening the U.S. or its allies. And he and others in his administration have accused the media of ignoring tremendous battlefield wins to harp on losses instead.
Israel, America’s major partner in the conflict, has projected similar confidence while showing no signs of slowing its attacks on Iran. On Thursday it announced it had killed several senior Iranian naval commanders, including Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Revolutionary Guard’s navy.
Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said the deaths should send a “clear message” that Israel will continue to hunt down top Iranian military officials. Iran did not immediately acknowledge Tangsiri’s death.
The head of U.S. Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper, praised Tangsiri’s killing, said U.S. strikes would continue, and called on Iranian fighters to “immediately abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.”
Meanwhile, death, destruction and environmental and economic damage from the war spread far beyond Iran, where officials recently increased their estimated death toll to nearly 2,000.
Israel was fighting off a barrage of incoming missiles Thursday, with booms heard in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and an impact reported in the central town of Kafr Qassem. Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Tahsin al Khafaj on Thursday said 23 people had been wounded in a Wednesday strike on a military clinic in western Iraq’s Anbar province.
Israeli soldiers grieve during the funeral of Staff Sgt. Ori Greenberg, 21, at the Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem on Thursday.
(Odd Andersen / AFP via Getty Images)
Thousands of additional U.S. troops are on their way to the region, while many of the tens of thousands already stationed there have been displaced into hotels and other temporary housing — diminishing their war-fighting capabilities — by Iranian attacks that have left the 13 regional military bases they normally live on “all but uninhabitable,” the New York Times reported.
Iran announced Thursday that it had launched drone and missile attacks on a U.S. military base in Kuwait and a separate air base used by American forces in Saudi Arabia.
Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, the secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council, accused Iran of charging fees for ships to safely transit the Strait of Hormuz, continuing the economic toll on global oil supplies. Environmental experts warned of massive pollution from burning oil and gas fields.
Russia, emboldened by the Iran war, which has drawn resources away from Ukraine and led the U.S. to ease sanctions on Russian oil, has launched a renewed spring offensive against Ukraine.
The distance between U.S. and Iranian messaging about the war and their negotiations to end it — which foreign officials have said are occurring through intermediaries — has contributed to the tensions and the reluctance of allies to get involved, with some citing similar frustrations as Republicans in Congress this week.
Many allies have largely stayed out of the conflict despite Trump vacillating between demanding their help and insisting it isn’t necessary.
In one of his posts to social media Thursday morning, Trump blasted allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, for having “DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP” in the conflict, and said the U.S. would “never forget.”
During his Cabinet meeting, Trump said that when the “right deal” is made with Iran, the Strait of Hormuz will reopen — while insisting that Iran no longer has any “mine droppers” that would threaten merchant vessels passing through the key oil route.
Steve Witkoff, one of Trump’s top advisors leading the negotiations in the Middle East, said the Iranians were looking for an “offramp,” that Pakistan is serving as a mediator between Washington and Tehran, and that the U.S. has presented a 15-point plan that “forms the framework for a peace deal.”
“These are sensitive, diplomatic discussions and you have directed us to maintain confidentiality on the specific terms and not negotiate through the news media, as others do,” Witkoff said. “We will see where things lead and if we can convince Iran that this is the inflection point, with no good alternatives for them other than more death and destruction.”
Trump has also declined to say whom Washington is negotiating with in Iran, but described them as “very smart,” “not fools,” and “very lousy fighters, but great negotiators.”
He also said he knows they are “the right people” for the U.S. to be dealing with because they had given him a “present” — and proved they are in control — by allowing “eight big boats of oil” travel through the strait this week.
Asked if he intended to send U.S. troops into Iran to take its enriched uranium, he called it a “ridiculous question” that he wouldn’t answer.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he is confident that more merchant vessels will soon be able to safely pass through the Strait of Hormuz. He also told the president that he believed the oil market is currently “well supplied” and that once the war ends, energy prices will drop.
Hegseth repeatedly slammed the media for falsely framing the war effort as floundering or unfocused, saying Iran’s “air defenses are gone,” its leaders hiding in “underground bunkers,” and its fighters losing morale.
He said Iranian officials in private are admitting “very heavy losses,” and that the U.S. and the world are benefiting from having Trump, whom he called the “ultimate deal maker,” working toward a peace deal.
In the meantime, he said, the U.S. military will “continue negotiating with bombs.”
WASHINGTON — Pressure is mounting on Congress to end the funding shutdown that has resulted in travel disruptions, missed paychecks and even warnings of airport closures, but lawmakers have yet to resolve the underlying issue of reining in President Trump’s immigration enforcement operations.
Senators intend to vote Thursday on a Republican proposal that would fund the Transportation Security Administration and much of the Department of Homeland Security, except the enforcement and removal operations conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That plan is expected to fail.
Democrats argue it does not go far enough at putting guardrails on officers from ICE, Customs and Border Protection and other federal agencies who are engaged in the immigration sweeps, particularly after the deaths of two Americans protesting the actions in Minneapolis.
Trump, who has largely left the issue to Congress to resolve, threatened to send the National Guard to airports, in addition his deployment of ICE agents who are now checking travelers IDs — a development drawing concerns.
“They need to end this shutdown immediately or we’ll have to take drastic measures,” Trump said Thursday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
With Congress set to leave town by week’s end for its own spring break recess, calls are intensifying for an end to the 41-day stalemate that’s put the livelihoods of TSA officers at risk as they provide airport security without pay.
Multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates of TSA workers and more than 480 of its nearly 50,000 transportation security officers have now quit during the shutdown. Nationwide, nearly 11% of TSA workers — more than 3,200 on a single day — missed work.
Trump stays out of the fray
The Republican president initially signed off on the plan the GOP senators brought to him late Monday. By Tuesday, he said he would not be happy with any deal.
Trump did not directly address the status of negotiations late Wednesday evening during an annual fundraising dinner for the House Republicans’ campaign committee as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., works to keep majority control of the chamber in the November elections.
But Trump criticized Democrats for refusing to settle their demands on immigration changes. On Thursday, he revived his campaign for senators to end the filibuster as a way to overpower opposition to GOP policies, something most Republican senators do not want to do.
The GOP’s big tax cuts bill that Trump signed into law last year funneled billions to DHS, including $75 billion for ICE operations, ensuring the money is flowing for his immigration and deportation agenda even with the funding shutdown. ICE and other immigration officers are still being paid.
The situation is partly of Trump’s making, a strategy the president put in place last fall when he cut a deal with Democrats to end a previous federal shutdown. At that time, Trump agreed to fund the federal government, except for DHS, which was then put on temporary funding that has expired.
A stopgap measure
The Republican offer added one new restraint on immigration officers, funding the use of body cameras that had previously been agreed to. It excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded, such as that federal agents wear identification, remove their face masks and refrain from conducting raids around schools, churches or other sensitive places.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. “We’ve been talking about ICE reforms from day one,” he said.
Democrats had been in several days of talks with the White House, including with border czar Tom Homan, that appeared to be making progress toward a deal. The White House presented its own offer with several items Democrats had been demanding, including officer IDs and training.
But those negotiations broke down over the weekend.
Republicans say Democrats are putting the country at risk. They say the Trump administration has already made strides to meet Democrats’ demands and has shown a new approach to its immigration operations, swearing in Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin as the new homeland security secretary to replace Kristi Noem.
But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said late Wednesday that if Democrats put a “more realistic offer on the table, we’ll be back in business.”
Asked if Congress would consider a stopgap measure to temporarily fund the department, Thune said: “We’ll see.”
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
Passengers are facing more four-hour waits to clear security at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
The airport’s website said Thursday morning that travelers should expect to wait two hours, 30 minutes in the security line at one of its open terminals and four hours at the other.
Lines and wait times are expected to grow Thursday and Friday because of “significantly higher passenger traffic,” according to an update on the airport’s website.
“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, testified at a House hearing Wednesday.
She described the multiple hardships facing unpaid TSA workers — piling up bills and eviction notices, even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned of potential airport closures if more employees refuse to come to work.
“At this point, we have to look at all options on the table,” she said. “And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
She cited the growing financial strain on the TSA workforce.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
“This is unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated,” McNeill said.
Mascaro and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writers Rebecca Santana and Ben Finley in Washington; Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York; Rio Yamat in Las Vegas; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
BRUSSELS — The European Parliament voted Thursday to approve a trade deal between Washington and Brussels but with amendments added to protect European interests should the United States fail to hold up its end of the bargain.
The deal was negotiated last July in Turnberry, Scotland, by President Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. It set a 15% tariff on most goods in an effort to stave off far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.
New language now says that the deal can be suspended if Washington “undermined the objectives of the deal, discriminated against EU economic operators, threatened member states’ territorial integrity, foreign and defence policies, or engaged in economic coercion.”
That clause was forged because of the tensions over Greenland, said Bernd Lange, a German lawmaker and head of the EU’s parliamentary trade committee.
Trump drew widespread condemnation across the 27-nation bloc by threatening to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of Denmark. He has backed away from the threat, at least for now.
“If this would happen again, then immediately the tariffs would be installed,” he said at a news conference after lawmakers voted. He said the protective modifications were “weatherproofing” the Turnberry deal.
The deal will now be further negotiated by EU trade representatives Maroš Šefčovič and his U.S. counterpart Jamieson Greer, who are meeting Friday on the sidelines of the World Trade Organization meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon.
“We need the EU-U.S. deal in force on both sides — delivering real certainty for EU businesses and showing that genuine partnership gets results,” Šefčovič said after the vote in Brussels.
There were formally two votes to introduce clauses to the deal. One passed 417-154 and the other 437-144 with dozens of abstentions each.
The U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Pudzer said the vote would provide “stability and predictability” for U.S. and EU businesses and drive economic growth. “We encourage all parties to think to the future and the importance of unleashing opportunities for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
Malte Lohan, CEO of American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union, said the vote is “the right signal for businesses that have been stuck in limbo over the past year” and “a necessary step towards a more predictable transatlantic marketplace.”
Croatian lawmaker Željana Zovko said that despite the trade spat between Brussels and Washington, trade across the Atlantic had grown over the past year. “This resilience proves the trans-Atlantic trade works, and if it works, we should strengthen it, not hold it back.”
EU lawmakers on Thursday approved the EU-US trade deal struck in Turnberry, Scotland, in 2025, while attaching a set of conditions to the agreement.
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A broad majority of political groups backed the deal, which cuts EU tariffs on most US industrial goods to zero, with 417 votes in favour, 154 against, and 71 abstentions.
The European Commission and Washington had pushed for the deal’s implementation, but MEPs delayed backing it until last week amid tensions over Greenland and fresh US trade investigations that raised fears Washington could undermine the deal with new tariffs.
Initially criticized by MEPs as unbalanced and defended by the Commission as the best possible outcome, the deal sets US tariffs on EU goods at 15%, while the EU eliminates duties on most US industrial products.
MEPs introduced safeguards to rebalance the pact in the event of future threats from US President Donald Trump or violations by the United States.
“Of course, that’s imbalanced, but if we could improve it, maybe we can live with it,” Socialist German MEP Bernd Lange said ahead of the vote.
The European Parliament will now work with EU member states to find a common position and enable the tariff cuts, with the attached safeguards expected to be the main point of contention.
These include a “sunset clause” under which the deal expires in March 2028 unless both sides agree to extend it. It also includes a “sunrise clause” which would make tariff preferences conditional to the US respecting its Turnberry commitments.
Lawmakers moved to shield the deal from fresh US tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down 2025 US tariffs in February, prompting the White House to impose new duties on EU goods and launch an investigation into alleged unfair trade practices that could lead to further tariffs.
MEPs also linked the tariff cuts on steel and aluminium to equivalent actions by the US.
The Dodgers are working ahead on adding bullpen depth for later in the season.
Right-hander Jake Cousins, who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery, was signed to a one-year deal, as revealed on the team’s transactions page on Tuesday.
The one-year contract is worth $950,000, with incentives that could bring the total to $1 million if he makes at least five appearances and finishes the season on the active roster, a source familiar with the deal but not authorized to speak publicly confirmed. The Athletic first reported the terms of the deal on Wednesday.
Cousins, 31, underwent Tommy John surgery last June. At that point, he’d already spent the whole season on the 60-day IL. In 2024, however, Cousins posted a 2.37 ERA in 37 relief appearances for the Yankees. He pitched in all three rounds of the postseason that year, including three appearances in the World Series against the Dodgers. Cousins was the pitcher of record in Game 1, which culminated with Freddie Freeman’s dramatic walk-off grand slam off Nestor Cortes.
Though Cousins has a substantial injury history, he’s performed when healthy. He spent the first three seasons of his major-league career with the Brewers, amassing a 3.08 ERA in 51 games.
Cousins is expected to return sometime during the season.
The Dodgers also made a flurry of injured list moves, all retroactive to Sunday.
They put right-hander Bobby Miller (shoulder soreness) on the 60-day IL; left-hander Blake Snell (left shoulder fatigue) and right-handers Brusdar Graterol (right shoulder surgery recovery), Brock Stewart (right shoulder surgery recovery), Gavin Stone (right shoulder inflammation) and Landon Knack (right intercostal strain) on the 15-day IL; and utility player Tommy Edman (right ankle surgery recovery) on the 10-day IL.
Donald Trump said Iran is negotiating with the US but is “afraid to say it”. Speaking at a Republican fundraising dinner, Trump said that Iran’s leaders fear they could be “killed by their own people” or by the US.
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration may have to shut down operations at some airports as travelers are experiencing record wait times, the agency’s acting head said Wednesday, as the latest offer to end a funding impasse and put restraints on President Trump’s mass deportation agenda met fierce resistance in Congress.
The TSA’s Ha Nguyen McNeill described the mounting hardships facing unpaid airport workers — bills and eviction notices piling up and even plasma donations to make ends meet — and warned that lawmakers must ensure “this never happens again.”
“This is a dire situation,” she testified at a House hearing, warning of potential airport closures. “At this point, we have to look at all options on the table. And that does require us to, at some point, make very difficult choices as to which airports we might try to keep open and which ones we might have to shut down as our callout rates increase.”
Yet on the 40th day of the standoff involving the Department of Homeland Security, there was no easy way out in sight. Neither Republican senators, who made the latest offer, nor Democrats, who are demanding more changes in immigration enforcement, appeared closer to a compromise.
Trump, who initially appeared to have given his nod to the deal, has declined to lend it his full support or put his political weight behind making sure it is approved.
Top officials at agencies under the Homeland Security umbrella spoke for more than three hours before the House Homeland Security Committee about the potential risks of security lapses unless the partial government shutdown comes to an end.
A deal teeters on collapse
Homeland Security has gone without routine funding since mid-February. Democrats are insisting on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and mass deportation operations after the killings of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis by federal officers during protests.
The latest proposal would fund most of Homeland Security except for the enforcement and removal operations of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that have been central to the debate. The plan would cover other aspects of ICE as well as Customs and Border Protection.
Although the offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, it excluded other policies that Democrats have demanded.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said they needed to see real changes. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York pressed for “bold” changes at ICE.
Republican leaders said Democrats are putting the country at risk.
“They know this is crazy,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
But conservative Republicans also panned the proposal, demanding full funding for immigration operations and skeptical of the promise from GOP leaders that they would address Trump’s proof-of-citizenship voting bill in a subsequent legislative package.
Airport lines grow as TSA workers endure hardships
McNeill, the acting TSA administrator, told lawmakers that multiple airports are experiencing greater than 40% callout rates and more than 480 transportation security officers have quit during the shutdown.
She cited the growing financial strain on the TSA workforce.
“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma, and taking on second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at the highest level when in uniform to protect the traveling public,” she said.
McNeil also said TSA officers working at the nation’s airports have experienced a more than 500% increase in the frequency of assaults since the shutdown began.
“This is unacceptable and it will not be tolerated,” she said.
The top executive overseeing Houston’s airport said security lines that left travelers waiting four hours or more could get longer if the political impasse was not soon settled.
Lines that twist and turn across multiple floors at George Bush Intercontinental Airport have been the result of TSA being able to staff only one-third to half the usual number of checkpoint lines, said Jim Szczesniak, aviation director for Houston’s airport system.
Trump’s decision to send ICE agents to the airports risks inflaming the situation, lawmakers have said. Video of federal officers detaining a crying woman at San Francisco International Airport drew outrage Monday from local officials, although it was unrelated to Trump’s order to deploy immigration officers.
FEMA also at risk
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Disaster Relief Fund is “rapidly depleting,” Victoria Barton, a FEMA external affairs official, told lawmakers.
FEMA is able to continue its disaster response and recovery work as long as that fund has money, and about 10,000 of its disaster workers continue to be paid through it.
Mascaro and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writers Wyatte Grantham-Philips in New York, Rio Yamat in Las Vegas, Russ Bynum in Houston and Gabriela Aoun Angueira in San Diego contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday that Iran wants to “make a deal” with the United States to end the war in the Middle East, saying that negotiations are ongoing with the conflict in its fourth week.
Iran has publicly denied that talks are happening. But Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event that negotiations are underway and being led by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“I’d like to think we are in a good bargaining position,” Trump said.
Trump said he remains skeptical of Tehran’s intentions, saying he doesn’t necessarily “trust them,” but indicated that he is encouraged to continue talks after receiving what he described as a “very big present worth a tremendous amount of money” from Iran.
“I am not going to tell you what the present is,” Trump told reporters. But he said it was a “significant prize” related to “oil and gas” that signaled to him that he was “dealing with the right people.”
Conflicting messages over the diplomatic efforts between Washington and Tehran come as Pakistan has offered to host peace talks in Islamabad aimed at ending the hostilities, which have killed more than 2,400 people, further destabilized the Middle East and disrupted global oil markets.
“Pakistan welcomes and fully supports ongoing efforts to pursue dialogue to end the WAR in Middle East, in the interest of peace and stability in region and beyond,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X.
Any potential talks between the United States and Iran would face significant challenges. Key U.S. demands — particularly related to Iran’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs — remain difficult to resolve, even though Trump claims Iran has already agreed to concessions related to its ability to have nuclear weapons.
It is also unclear who within Iran’s leadership would be willing to negotiate, especially as Israel has vowed to keep targeting Iranian leaders after killing several already.
Trump has not publicly responded to Pakistan’s offer to act as an in-between for the United States and Iran. He also sidestepped a question about a New York Times report that said the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing him to continue the war against Iran.
The president instead expressed confidence in his senior advisors handling the negotiations with Iran. He did not specify who U.S. officials are engaging with, but insisted they are “talking to the right people.”
When asked by a reporter why he had agreed to a cease-fire with the Iranians, Trump said: “They are talking to us, and they’re making sense.”
As the talks continue, Trump said that the United States is “way ahead of schedule” in its war with Iran, a nation that he said was so battered that it had no choice but to come to the negotiating table. Iran, however, showed on Tuesday that it still has firepower as it fired a new wave of missiles at Israel, Iraq and other gulf nations.
Iran fired at least 10 waves of missiles at Israel. In Tel Aviv, a missile with a 220-pound warhead slammed into a street in the city center, blowing out windows of an apartment building and sending smoke billowing. Four people suffered minor wounds, rescue worker Yoel Moshe said.
In Kuwait, power lines were hit by air defense shrapnel, causing partial electricity outages for several hours. Bahrain said it was attacked with missiles and drones, and that an Emirati soldier serving with its forces had been killed. The United Arab Emirates said air defense systems responded to similar attacks, and Saudi Arabia said it destroyed Iranian drones targeting its oil-rich Eastern Province.
Israel pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs, saying that it was targeting infrastructure used by the Iran-linked Hezbollah militant group, and carried out an extensive series of strikes on Iranian “production sites,” without providing more information.
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel intended to seize Lebanon’s south Lebanon to a create a “security zone.”
Speaking at an assessment meeting with the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Katz said the military would control up to the Litani River, a waterway that runs through south Lebanon, meeting the Mediterranean some 20 miles north of the border with Israel.
“Hundreds of thousands of residents of southern Lebanon who evacuated northward will not return south of the Litani River until security for the residents of the north [of Israel] is ensured,” he said.
His words were the clearest articulation yet of Israel’s plans in Lebanon, going far beyond the “limited and targeted ground operations” announced by the Israeli military earlier this month.
Lebanon, meanwhile, took steps to undercut Tehran’s influence in the country and its support for Hezbollah. In a statement released on X on Tuesday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi said the government was expelling Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani and declared him persona non grata. He gave Shibani until Sunday to leave the country.
Hezbollah condemned the move and called it a “grave national and strategic mistake.” Political figures aligned with the group also issued public statements urging the Iranian ambassador to ignore the decision.
In Washington, Trump said he would like to find a resolution that would avoid further casualties and damage to critical infrastructure in the region.
“If we can end this without more lives being down, without knocking out $10-billion electric plants that are brand new and the apple of their eye, I’d like to be able to do that,” he said. “But they can’t have certain things.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, told reporters that he would rather “negotiate with bombs.”
“The president has made it clear that you will not have a nuclear weapon. The War Department agrees,” Hegseth said. “Our job is to ensure that, and so we’re keeping our hand on that throttle, as long and as hard as is necessary to ensure the interests of the United States of America are achieved on that battlefield.”
His comments came as thousands of U.S. Marines were on their way to the region, raising speculation that the U.S. may try to seize Kharg Island, which is vital to Iran’s oil network. The U.S. bombed the Persian Gulf island more than a week ago, hitting its defenses but saying it had left oil infrastructure intact.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the deployment.
Ceballos and Quinton reported from Washington. Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.
