offers

Ticket prices are just the start of the soaring expenses many fans will face while trying to watch World Cup games this summer.

NJ Transit is charging $150 for round-trip tickets from Manhattan to the Meadowlands (the regular price is $12.60) for the World Cup final, while host committee shuttle buses will cost $80.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is demanding $80 to ride one of the 14 express trains on the 30-mile trip from downtown Boston to Foxborough for games at Gillette Stadium. That’s more than three times the normal price.

Parking in Kansas City, meanwhile, will set you back by as much as $900, depending on the game and lot.

In Southern California, however, it will cost $1.75 to get to SoFi Stadium on a combination of buses or trains from as far away as Claremont and Simi Valley. That’s also what it costs to get to the Inglewood venue on any other day of the year; only two of the 11 World Cup cities in the U.S. are offering less expensive public transportation.

“We’re trying to make things convenient,” said Conan Cheung, the chief operations officer for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or LA Metro, the second-largest transit agency in the country, servicing more than 305 million riders in 2025.

That’s a marked departure from the experience fans have reported ahead of this summer’s World Cup, which was marked by complaints over difficulty getting access to buy tickets, high ticket prices, shifts in seat locations after they were purchased, high fees and expensive game-day transportation.

“There’s no standardized fare set across the board,” Cheung said of World Cup transportation. “We’ve made a commitment to keep our system accessible. The way we’re planning the entire program is to ensure that we support people from the minute they decide to come to L.A. for the World Cup.

Workers are getting SoFi Stadium ready to host World Cup matches this summer.

(Eduard Cauich / Los Angeles Times )

“We also want to make sure that your excitement and your experience for the World Cup starts and ends on Metro.”

LA Metro has been able to hold costs down in part because it received $9.6 million in funding from the $100 million Congress gave the Federal Transit Administration to support transportation to and from World Cup stadiums. LA Metro is adding about 300 buses to its regular fleet to handle the additional demand, with shuttles servicing nine direct routes to SoFi and various fan zones.

Roughly 200 of those buses will lent to LA Metro from 11 regional transit agencies. Additional security officers also will be added.

“I feel prepared,” Cheung said, “but you never know what’s going to happen. We’ve done enough major special events to know that you can do all the planning in the world, but you need to make sure that you have contingencies in place and you’re prepared to pivot at a moment’s notice.”

A case in point: when Game 3 of last fall’s World Series went into extra innings, LA Metro immediately extended the operating hours for Metro buses and trains, ensuring people had rides home when the game ended just shy of midnight.

“Part of our preparedness is going through tabletop exercises,” he said. “The point is to ensure that the flow from the parking, from the transit connection and walking up made sense and was intuitive and easy to follow.”

Since Metro trains don’t run directly to SoFi, Cheung has added shuttle buses to take fans from the stations to the stadium. Portable restrooms and hydration stations will be available. And nine park-and-ride sites will be set up around L.A. and Orange counties. Reserve and pay for a parking space and everyone in your car can ride to the stadium for free. (Be sure to bring a lot of friends since the parking fees range from $59 to $102 for the June 12 opening match.)

A pair of visitors from Japan rush to catch a Metro bus in March.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Cheung said LA Metro has been preparing for the World Cup almost as long as some of the players. When Taylor Swift brought her Eras tour to SoFi in the summer of 2023, LA Metro used that as something of a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, expanding late service and adding free shuttles from nearby train stations.

That increased ridership by 25%, which meant less traffic on the roads and freeways leading to the stadium. A repeat of that could be crucial during the World Cup since five of the eight games played at SoFi are scheduled to start at noon local time.

And just as the Taylor Swift concerts prepared LA Metro for the World Cup, now the World Cup will help inform preparations for the 2028 Olympics.

“A lot of the strategies that we’re doing now — the process for working with not only local jurisdictions, state and federal agencies, as well as the other transit agencies in the regions — we’re setting up ways that are going to help not only for the Olympics and Paralympics, but anytime we need to pull together to support our communities for special events [or] natural disasters.”

For more information on LA Metro services in and around the World Cup, go to www.metro.net/riding/world-cup

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Meta will lay off 8,000 workers while Microsoft is offering buyouts to 8,750 people, a first for the Windows maker.

Meta is laying off about 8,000 workers, or about 10 percent of its workforce, the company has said as it continues to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure and highly paid AI-expert hires.

On Thursday, the company said it was making the cuts for the sake of efficiency and to allow new investments in parts of its business, as first reported by Bloomberg, which also said the company will leave about 6,000 jobs unfilled.

Also on Thursday, Microsoft said it was offering voluntary buyouts to thousands of its US employees.

The software giant plans to make the offers in early May to about 8,750 people, or 7 percent of its US workforce, according to two people familiar with the plan who were not authorised to speak about it publicly.

While an alternative to the sudden layoffs removing tech workers from peers like Meta and Oracle, the savings are likely tied to a similar industry upheaval that is requiring huge spending on the costs of artificial intelligence.

Meta has already warned investors that its 2026 expenses will grow significantly — to the range of $162bn to $169bn — driven by infrastructure costs and employee compensation, particularly for the AI experts it has been hiring at eye-popping pay levels.

This week, Meta also said it was breaking ground on an AI-optimised data centre in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a $1bn investment and its 28th data centre in the US.

Wedbush analyst Dan Ives welcomed Meta’s cuts in a note to investors on Thursday.

He said he sees it as part of a strategy of using AI tools to “automate tasks that once required large teams, allowing the company to streamline operations and reduce costs while maintaining productivity, driving an increased need for a leaner operating structure”.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington state, has spent billions of dollars on operating an ever-expanding global network of data centres that power cloud computing services, AI systems and its own suite of productivity tools, including the AI assistant Copilot.

CNBC reported earlier on Thursday on a memo from Microsoft’s chief people officer, Amy Coleman, announcing the voluntary retirement plan.

“Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote, according to CNBC.

Meta stock fell 2.3 percent on Thursday, while Microsoft stock ended the day down 3.97 percent.

England’s new head coach Brian McDermott has offered Man of Steel Jake Connor a path back into the national squad for this autumn’s Rugby League World Cup.

McDermott, confirmed in the role on Thursday, has described the Leeds Rhinos half-back as a “game-breaker”.

Connor, 31, was controversially left out of Shaun Wane’s squad for last autumn’s Ashes home series against Australia, which England lost 3-0.

At the time, Wane said the decision to omit Connor was “not really difficult” and that he had made it based on the player’s form, adding that: “When picking a squad, the thing you will never hear from me is: ‘He’s won the Man of Steel.’ I don’t pay attention to stuff like that.”

Wane stepped down in January, with former Leeds head coach McDermott taking over until the end of the World Cup, to be staged in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea this October and November.

McDermott played down questions over Connor’s temperament and said the half-back is part of England’s World Cup plans, saying: “Yeah, he is for sure. Absolutely.

“I think the rhetoric and the narrative around Jake was tremendously unfair.

“I understand where Jake Connor comes from in that he’s liked by some and disliked by others. OK, that comes in the nature of the game.

“We could sit around a table and debate whether he’s a nice person or not.

“I just don’t think that’s a fair narrative to be made public and that was the rhetoric around him.

“What nobody can argue is that he’s a tremendous player. He’s a fantastic player. He’s a game-breaker.”

McDermott won four Super League Grand Finals, two Challenge Cups, the World Club Challenge and the League Leaders’ Shield in eight years as Leeds head coach.

The 56-year-old, currently working as an assistant coach at NRL club Gold Coast Titans, has taken the England role on a part-time basis, in contrast to his full-time predecessor Wane.

“I would be interested in taking the job beyond the World Cup,” McDermott said.

The Yorkshireman was selected by the Rugby Football League from a five-man shortlist, which also included current Leeds head coach Brad Arthur, Warrington’s Sam Burgess, St Helens’ Paul Rowley and former England head coach Steve McNamara.

England’s World Cup campaign in Australia begins against Tonga in Perth on 17 October, with games against France and Papua New Guinea to follow.

The new academic semester kicked off in Gaza in late March. But the mornings no longer carry the familiar vibrance of students waiting for buses, crossing cities towards universities and colleges.

That feeling has instead been replaced by the hardship of displacement.

Israel’s destructive campaign has reduced Gaza’s academic institutions to rubble, many now repurposed as crowded shelters for displaced families. With campuses gone, in-person education has largely disappeared, forcing universities to shift to online learning. But for students living in tents, struggling to secure food, water, electricity, and internet, attending a lecture, even online, has become a privilege.

Amid this chaos, a glimmer of hope has materialised.

In the densely crowded area of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, a new academic initiative is taking shape. Scholars Without Borders, a US nongovernmental organisation, has established what it calls “University City”, a makeshift academic space designed to bring students back into lecture halls.

Built from wood, metal sheets, and whatever materials could be sourced locally, the site stands as a modest reconstruction of what Gaza’s academic life once looked like.

“Despite the hardships, our mission is to bring education closer to students in a better environment,” said Hamza Abu Daqqa, the organisation’s representative in Gaza.

“We designed this space to serve multiple academic institutions and as many students as possible,” he added. “There are six halls here, accommodating up to 600 students a day. It may look simple, but it creates a sense of normal academic life, something students have been deprived of.”

The space includes internet access powered by solar panels, improvised green areas, and even a small business incubator aimed at helping students engage on their own prospects.

According to the organisation, University City operates on a rotating weekly schedule, with each day allocated to a different academic institution. This system allows multiple institutions to share the limited space, ensuring the widest possible access for students.

Given the constraints, universities prioritise courses that require in-person instruction the most, such as practical and discussion-based classes.

Gaza’s prominent universities, such as the Islamic University and Al-Azhar University, have begun using the site, alongside other colleges like the Palestine College of Nursing.

But behind this modest structure lies a far heavier reality.

A glimpse of what was lost

Across Gaza, universities have been systematically damaged or destroyed since Israel began its genocidal war in October 2023. In the south, all institutions have been rendered inoperable. A limited number of campuses in northern Gaza have been partially restored, but their capacity remains extremely restricted.

The Palestine College of Nursing, for example, has been surrounded by ruins after falling within the “yellow line” where the Israeli military continues to be based since the October ceasefire, cutting off students from their classrooms entirely.

For a generation of students, university life has simply not existed, as they instead battled to survive.

Each academic year is usually marked by new beginnings, especially for freshmen stepping into a new phase of independence and discovery. But for two consecutive years, thousands of Gaza’s students have been denied that experience.

Now, inside University City, they are encountering it for the first time.

‘It feels like a real university’

Mariam Nasr, 20, a first-year nursing student displaced from Rafah, sat in one of the makeshift halls, reflecting on what the space meant to her.

“Before the genocide, everything we needed to study was available; our homes, electricity, materials, and most importantly, safety,” she said. “But for more than two years, our lives have been completely disrupted.”

Mariam began her final year of high school just as the war started. It took more than a year to complete her exams under difficult conditions before she could finally enrol in the university.

“I always dreamed of studying medicine,” she said. “But the circumstances affected my results. My late grandfather told me that healing people isn’t limited to one path, so I chose nursing.”

Still, her degree requires in-person courses, something she had never experienced until now.

“When I saw this place, I was amazed,” she said. “It was the first time I attended classes in a space that actually feels like a university. We are all excited. It feels different; it feels real.”

For students like Mariam, their first year was spent behind screens, if they were lucky to have one in their tents, disconnected from the academic environment they had hoped for.

Amr Muhammad, 20, another first-year nursing student from al-Magahzi Camp in central Gaza, shared a similar reaction.

“I expected something much simpler, just tents and basic setups,” he said. “But this was different. Being here with other students, discussing and engaging in class makes a huge difference.”

Academia under fire and siege

The experience faced by students in this small space reflects a much larger tragedy.

Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s academic sector has been described by UN experts as scholasticide; the systematic dismantling of education through the targeting of institutions, students, and academic life itself. Universities have been destroyed, professors and students killed, and reconstruction efforts obstructed.

More than 7,000 university students and academics have been killed or injured by Israeli attacks, while more than 60 university buildings were completely demolished by Israeli aerial attacks or ground detonations, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor and information shared by Palestinian officials.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of students have been cut off from formal education, forced into alternatives that are not able to match their former experiences.

And those alternatives, such as University City, face enormous difficulties in just getting their work started.

“All the materials you see here were sourced from inside the Gaza Strip,” Abu Daqqa said, gesturing around the site. “We had to work within what was available, with rising costs and scarcity of resources. But we were determined to create something that gives students a sense of normalcy.”

Under the October ceasefire, Israel is obliged to allow reconstruction materials to help restore shelter, essential services for Palestinians. But Israel has not adhered to that stipulation and has continued to impose restrictions, while carrying out deadly attacks across Gaza.

And for many students, reaching the University City is itself a challenge.

“I am displaced in al-Mawasi, so I’m supposed to be relatively close, but even getting here is difficult,” Mariam said. “My classes start at 9am, and I wake up at 5 just to find transportation.”

With roads damaged and fuel scarce, options for students are limited to worn-out vehicles and donkey or horse carts.

“Getting cash is frustrating. Taxis and carts only accept coins. My father barely got me eight shekels [$2.64] today, but I couldn’t find a ride,” she said. “So I walked nearly four kilometres[2.5 miles] with my friends.”

For Amr, the journey is even longer.

“I left at 6am and waited for two hours before finding a crowded vehicle,” he said. “It was the only way to get here.”

And once the day ends, the challenges resume.

“This space is only for a few hours,” he added. “The rest of the week, we go back to struggling with electricity, internet, and basic needs. We can’t even print materials or access online lectures properly.”

Students rely on shared or damaged devices, unstable connections, and limited resources, making consistent learning difficult.

“Back in the tent, I rely on my father’s old phone just to follow lectures when I can,” Mariam said. “Most days, there’s no stable internet or power. I try to hold on and keep going, but I often wish for something as simple as a steady power source and a better device like an iPad to study properly and not fall behind.”

Holding on to education

Despite everything, a scene of resilience unfolds as students continue.

Inside the halls, discussions resume, notes are taken, and a sense of academic life slowly returns, even if temporarily.

“For medical education, in-person learning is essential,” said Dr Essam Mughari, a professor at the Palestine College of Nursing. “It’s quite hard for online education to replace practical engagement.”

He described the emotional significance of meeting students again.

“After everything they’ve been through, being able to gather, interact, and learn together, it restores something vital,” he said. “We have a responsibility to support them, despite the circumstances, because tomorrow they will be in our place”

For Mariam, that determination is deeply personal.

“Some people might think it’s impossible to study in these conditions,” she said. “But I want to continue. My cousin was a nurse. An Israeli air strike levelled her family’s three-storey house in Gaza City, killing her and several others. I remember her to remind myself why I hold onto this path to heal others and serve my people.”

The University City now serves hundreds of students each day. But thousands more remain without access to similar spaces.

Scholars Without Borders says the initiative is only the beginning of a mission that is still crippled by the Israeli siege.

“Our work is ongoing,” Abu Daqqa said. “We have established dozens of makeshift schools and established this university city, but the need is far greater. This is what we were able to build under blockade,” he said. “Imagine what could be done if the truly needed resources are allowed.”

SEOUL, April 10 (UPI) — The Korea Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives said Friday it launched a savings product that offers an annual interest rate of up to 12% in an attempt to boost childbirth.

The one-year installment savings product provides a base rate of 4%, which increases by steps to 12% depending on the number of the customer’s children. It is subject to a deposit limit, though.

For savers with a newborn in areas experiencing population decline, the country’s top apex organization said that the maximum 12% interest would be guaranteed regardless of the number of children.

“We have introduced dedicated financial products every year since 2023 in an effort to help address the low birth rate,” cooperative Director Cho Bong-eop said in a statement.

“As a community-based financial institution, we will keep fulfilling our social responsibilities by supporting vulnerable groups and revitalizing local economies, in addition to tackling the low birth rate,” he added.

South Korea has one of the world’s lowest fertility rates, which fell to 0.72 in 2023, according to Statistics Korea. The figure rebounded slightly to 0.75 in 2024 and 0.8 last year, still far below the replacement level of 2.1.

This means that for every 100 South Korean women, only 80 babies are expected to be born over their lifetimes, leading to a gradual population decline. The country’s population stands at 51.6 million.

To address the challenge, the Seoul government has funneled a huge amount of money over the past decades to little avail. In recent years, even private companies stepped in, providing bonuses and various benefits to employees who have a baby.

Last month, Statistics Korea reported nearly 27,000 births in January, the highest monthly figure in nearly seven years. However, the fertility rate still remained below 1.

Pakistan has proposed a two-stage plan to end the US-Israel war on Iran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides now mulling the framework, a source has told the Reuters news agency.

Esmaeil Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Monday acknowledged diplomatic efforts by Pakistan, which has shared a plan with Iran and the United States to end hostilities, according to Reuters.

Baghaei added that Iran is focused on its security amid the latest attacks from the US and Israel.

A top university in Tehran and the South Pars Petrochemical Plant in Asaluyeh were bombed on Monday, killing at least 34 people in Iran.

Axios first reported on Sunday that the US, Iran and regional mediators were discussing a potential 45-day ceasefire as part of a “two-phased deal” that could lead to a permanent end to the war, citing US, Israeli and regional sources.

The source told Reuters that Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, has been in contact “all night long” with US Vice President JD Vance, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

“All elements need to be agreed today,” the source said, adding the initial understanding would be structured as a memorandum of understanding finalised electronically through Pakistan, the sole communication channel in the talks.

Under the proposal, a ceasefire would take effect immediately, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with 15 to 20 days given to finalise a broader settlement.

The deal, tentatively dubbed the “Islamabad Accord”, would include a regional framework for the strait, with final in-person talks in the capital of Pakistan.

The final agreement is expected to include Iranian commitments not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets, the source said.

‘No reopening of Hormuz’

Tehran has responded by stating that it will not reopen the strait as part of a temporary ceasefire, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, adding that it will not accept deadlines as it reviews the proposal. Washington also lacks the readiness for a permanent ceasefire, the official said.

The US has not yet responded to Pakistan’s plan.

“Pakistan officials tell me that Islamabad is involved in ‘frantic diplomacy’, as they put it,” said Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid.

“The problem they’re facing, as one official put it, is essentially that it’s a schoolboy brawl that they are dealing with. It is egos that they have to manage, and it is also a sea of distrust over which they have to build bridges.”

One source told Javaid that Pakistan is speaking to Iran’s clergy, diplomats, and military commanders, but the level of distrust is still high.

“You heard the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman mention that they have come under attack multiple times by the US and Israel. And then, if there is some sort of rapprochement, if there is some sort of agreement, what are the guarantees that their leaders are not going to be targeted?” said Javaid.

US’s 15-point plan ‘illogical’, says Tehran

Baghaei, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said on Monday that Tehran would never accept a 15-point plan put forward by the US last month. He stated that Tehran had finalised its demands amid recent proposals to end the war, but would reveal them only when appropriate.

He stressed that Iran would not bow to pressure, the IRNA news agency reported.

“A few days ago, they put forward proposals through intermediaries, and the 15-point US plan was reflected through Pakistan and some other friendly countries,” Baghaei said. “Such proposals are both extremely ambitious, unusual, and illogical.”

Baghaei underlined that Iran has its own framework.

“Based on our own interests, based on our own considerations, we codified the set of demands that we had and have,” he said.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman also rejected the idea that engaging with mediators signals weakness.

The latest diplomatic push by Pakistan comes amid escalating hostilities that have raised concerns over disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global fuel supplies. More than 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas passes through the waterway, which remains under a de facto Iranian blockade.

Trump, in an expletive-laden post on Sunday, threatened to rain “hell” on Tehran if it did not make a deal by the end of Tuesday that would reopen the strait.

More than 2,000 people have been killed in Iran since the war began on February 28, according to Iranian authorities.

Israel has also invaded southern Lebanon and struck Beirut, where Lebanese authorities say 1,461 people, including at least 124 children, have been killed. More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced.

Economist James Meadway says US President Donald Trump offers threats but no clear plan to end the crisis, leaving markets unsettled as disruption from the Strait of Hormuz closure spreads beyond Asia and into Europe.

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.”

Trump earlier this week said he expects to pull American forces from Iran within three weeks, and emphasized that the United States does not have to be in the Middle East but that it is only there to “help our allies.”

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.

ROYAL Caribbean has reportedly canceled a number of scheduled cruises out of Miami this summer.

The cruise ship operator is said to have told guests with already booked trips they are eligible for full refunds if offered alternatives do not work.

In an email seen by Royal Caribbean Blog, the company tells customers: “As part of our ongoing itinerary planning process – which sometimes requires flexibility due to scheduling, port agreements, or operational needs, Freedom of the Seas will be redeployed for our Summer 2027 season.

“We know how much effort goes into planning your vacation and apologize for the inconvenience.”

It is understood the liners will be redeployed to Southampton in the United Kingdom.

A spokesperson for Royal Caribbean told The New York Post: “Freedom of the Seas will sail from Southampton for the 2027 summer season, reflecting the continued strength of the UK & Ireland market.

“The move represents an upsizing of capacity and brings a Freedom Class ship — long regarded as a favorite among British and Irish guests — back to the region.”

Upwards of 20 voyages on Freedom of the Seas between May and September are thought to have been moved.

The trips were scheduled to depart from Miami to the Bahamas, Aruba and Curaçao.

The decision comes just weeks after Carnival Cruise Line pulled the plug on 11 routes.

The scrapped trips were aboard Carnival Firenze, the line’s Italian-themed ship that sails from Long Beach, California in short runs. 

Carnival said the affected departures were scheduled between October 12, and November 16. 

The change in Caribbean’s schedule means customers have been invited to rebook on alternative sailings or claim full refunds.

The email to customers adds: “Regardless of the sailing length of the cruise you move to, if your booking was already paid in full and your cruise fare decreases, we’ll provide you with a refund for the difference.”

March 21 (UPI) — President Donald Trump threatened to send U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents to airports to cover for the Transportation Security Administration unless Democrats agree to Republican funding plans for the Department of Homeland Security.

On Truth Social, the president posted: “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before! The Fascist Democrats will never protect America, but the Republicans will.”

In an earlier post, he said ICE agents at airports “will do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia, who have totally destroyed, with the approval of a corrupt Governor, Attorney General, and Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar, the once Great State of Minnesota.”

Former acting ICE Director John Sandweg told The Washington Post that the threat is being used as a punishment.

“This is again an example, it seems to me, of the president seeking to utilize ICE in a way that achieves political goals, almost as a punishment,” Sandweg said. “The operations, to me, don’t seem to be designed to focus on public safety.”

The DHS, which includes TSA, shut down on Feb. 14 because Congress couldn’t agree on a funding bill for the department. Democrats don’t want to fund it until guardrails are put on the agency, and Republicans haven’t agreed to Democrats’ demands.

Because of this, TSA workers have been working without pay for more than a month. Some are quitting or taking days off work, creating long lines at airports.

Earlier on Saturday, billionaire Elon Musk offered to pay the TSA salaries during the shutdown.

“I would like to offer to pay the salaries of TSA personnel during this funding impasse that is negatively affecting the lives of so many Americans at airports throughout the country,” Musk said on X. Axios reported that based on TSA’s headcount, it would cost him more than $40 million per week. The White House didn’t respond to Musk’s offer.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Saturday told Republicans to support a Democratic bill to fund TSA. He said airport delays have reached a “boiling point.”

“If you want TSA workers to get paid, then vote yes,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement that Trump should focus on his own party.

“Surely, the next thing people want after waiting hours in long TSA lines is to get wrongfully detained by ICE,” she said. “Here’s an idea: instead of sidelining TSA agents and sending ICE to harass travelers, the president should tell Republicans to stop blocking our bill to pay TSA.”