Trump Orders Federal Funds for TSA to Try to Solve Pain at Airports

0:00Alex Ossola:OutSystems is an outstanding way to quickly deploy apps and AI agents and deliver results. A top U.S. bank deployed apps for customers to open new accounts, while a global brewer developed an app to automate tasks worldwide. OutSystems, build your agentic future.

0:18Alex Ossola:President Trump takes executive action to pay TSA workers after funding efforts in Congress break down. Plus, countries in the Gulf are bracing for more war. And Wall Street is trading like the worst from the Iran conflict is yet to come. Really what's driving stocks down is fear. So the market is digesting a geopolitical shock, a sudden war in Iran that sent oil prices surging. Everyone is bracing. It's Friday, March 27th. I'm Alex Osola for The Wall Street Journal. This is a PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today.

1:01Alex Ossola:President Trump has taken action to pay TSA workers, bypassing a Congress in gridlock. House Republican leaders today rejected a bill that would fund most of the Department of Homeland Security that had already passed in the Senate. As you heard on this morning's show, senators just after 2 a.m. approved funding for DHS, except for ICE and Border Patrol. House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a press conference today that his party wouldn't be a part of efforts to stop immigration enforcement. The Republicans are not going to be a party to this. They have taken hostage the funding processes of government so that they can impose their radical agenda on the American people when we can't have any part of it.

1:38This gambit that was done last night is a joke.

1:42Alex Ossola:While Congress's standoff over immigration enforcement seems likely to continue, Trump's executive action described the situation at the country's airports as a, quote, unprecedented emergency and called for using federal funds to pay TSA workers. DHS says TSA officers will get their paychecks as soon as Monday. And speaking of the House, Republican Representative Sam Graves of Missouri, the chairman of the Transportation Committee, is retiring from Congress. More than 50 House members have said they're leaving when their terms are up, a record for a midterm election year. About half of them are running for a different office.

2:20Alex Ossola:Today in the Middle East, Iran turned away two Chinese-owned container vessels from crossing the Strait of Hormuz. It was unusual. Iran's blockade has focused on countries it sees as supporters of Israel and the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters today that after the fighting ends, it will be a priority to prevent Iran's control over the strait. One of the immediate challenges we're going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Straits of Hormuz. Not only is this illegal, it's unacceptable. It's dangerous to the world. And it's important that the world have a plan to confront it.

2:52The United States is prepared to be a part of that plan. We don't have to leave that plan, but we're happy to be a part of it.

2:58Alex Ossola:The journals also learned that Rubio has told G7 counterparts that he expects the war will continue for two to four weeks. U.S. Central Command said today that more than 300 U.S. troops have been injured after four weeks of war with Iran. The Pentagon is looking at sending up to 10 ,000 additional ground troops to the Middle East to give President Trump more military options. Meanwhile, Israel attacked Iran's weapons facilities, including two nuclear program sites. Elsewhere in the Gulf, the pace of attacks from Iran hasn't stopped completely, but it's slowed. That's made life a bit easier in the United Arab Emirates, where businesses have tried to adjust to disruptions and residents have gotten used to missile attack warnings.

3:39Alex Ossola:But even so, Gulf states are bracing for even more turbulence to come as they push for a conclusive outcome to the war. Yaroslav Trofimov, the journal's chief foreign affairs correspondent, joins me now from Dubai. Yaroslav, what has life in Dubai been like during the conflict? Well, you know, it's really strange because on one hand, you do get these missile attack warnings and drone attacks. But most of the missiles have been successfully intercepted. And so actually a lot of people in the UAE are not paying attention to these warnings anymore, which is dangerous because just on Thursday, there was a missile that was intercepted over the city of Abu Dhabi.

4:16And debris fell and killed two people there.

4:18Alex Ossola:How does the UAE want this conflict to end? And how does that differ from how the U.S. or Israel wants it to end? Well, it's not clear what the U.S. wants because President Trump keeps moving the goalposts of his policy and hasn't quite clearly articulated what he actually wants. The UAE didn't want this war. But once the U.S. and Israel struck Iran, what happened here is that Iran actually fired more at UAE than anyone else and more than at Israel. And so this country that didn't really want the war was the one that was basically the biggest victim of the Iranian retaliation. And there is a lot of anger with Iran's behavior.

4:55UAE officials are calling the Iranian Revolutionary Guard that is running in the country now the terrorist organization. And I think they are seeking a brand new regime in Iran that would not be a threat to the UAE. So they want a deal that would involve not just the nuclear issue, which was the trigger for this military action by the U.S. and Israel, but also curbs on the Iranian ballistic missile capabilities, a ban on Iran supporting terrorist groups or extremist militias around the Middle East, like in Lebanon or Yemen. And above all, the reopening of the Strait of Bermuz to free navigation.

5:30Alex Ossola:You mentioned that there's a lot of anger in the UAE at Iran, which makes sense. They have been bombing them. But how about at the U.S. and Israel for starting this conflict? Somebody told me on the first day of this conflict, people in the Gulf woke up angry with the U.S. and Israel in the morning and went to bed angry with Iran. What everybody cares about is how it ends. And as far as the U.S. is concerned, they want the war to end in some kind of clean way that doesn't involve protracted instability. An economy like Dubai that is based on tourism, on services, on the airline industry, can't really afford to be in headlines because of missiles and drones every few months.

6:11Alex Ossola:The way things are headed right now, how likely is it that the UAE will get that wish? President Trump is sending ground troops to the region. He's contemplating operations to seize some islands, perhaps in the Persian Gulf, maybe other bits of Iranian territory to compel the Iranian regime to a deal. The bombing goes on in Iran. And so a lot of people in the Gulf are thinking that things will get worse before they get better and they will see another round of escalation. And there is very little optimism that this will end anytime soon. That was WSJ Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Yaroslav Trofimov.

6:48Alex Ossola:Thanks, Yaroslav. Thank you. Coming up, the war's effect on markets this month. And have you heard of Tech Neck? That's after the break.

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7:36U.S.

7:37Alex Ossola:stocks fell sharply again today after yesterday's sell-off. The Nasdaq led the losses, falling more than 2 percent for the second day in a row. The Dow dropped 793 points, joining the Nasdaq in correction territory. That means the indexes are more than 10 percent off their recent highs. The S &P, meanwhile, fell 1.7 percent. It's dropped for five straight weeks. Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, climbed above$112 a barrel, its highest close since July 2022. Even though President Trump this week paused on energy strikes to allow time for negotiations, WSJ's What's News and Markets host Imani Moiz says investors are worried that there's more pain to come from the war.

8:19We're seeing that consumer sentiment has decreased. You're also seeing that amongst investors. And people are also piling into options that bet against the S &P 500. So all of the major indexes are on track to end this month in the red. The Nasdaq entered correction territory this week, and the S &P 500 is on track for its worst monthly performance since 2022. Really what's driving stocks down is fear. So the market is digesting a geopolitical shock, a sudden war in Iran that sent oil prices surging. Everyone is bracing. A U.S.

8:54Alex Ossola:federal appeals court today ruled that Argentina doesn't have to pay shareholders$16 billion for its takeover of the country's biggest oil company, YPF. The ruling is a victory for Argentinian President Javier Millet, an ally of President Trump, and allows Millet's government to continue its free market overhaul. And Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of The Today Show, will return to the program on April 6th, more than two months since the disappearance of her 84-year-old mother. In an interview with NBC veteran Hoda Kotb that aired today, Guthrie said The Today Show was also her family. I can't come back and try to be something that I'm not.

9:34But I can't not come back because it's my family.

9:40Alex Ossola:I think it's part of my purpose right now. The announcement puts to bed rumors of a potential exit that had swirled since Guthrie's mother's disappearance. No arrests have been made in the Nancy Guthrie case.

9:56Alex Ossola:And finally, turns out that staring at your phone for hours each day, which most Americans do, by the way, isn't just bad for your eyes and also maybe your sleep. It's apparently also causing neck wrinkles that some are calling tech neck. And the beauty industry is pitching solutions. Solar Wave's neck and chest mask is low effort. It's spa grade at home. You can lay down. You can watch TV or doom scroll. Dermatologists here? And I got you. If you get these horizontal lines on the neck, aka tech neck, and want to do something to make them less apparent, here's one thing that helps better than all of the products actually designed to help with this.

10:31DRock Germ Correction Firming Serum Stick.

10:34Alex Ossola:Also worth considering, looking at your phone a little less to begin with. And that's What's News for this week. Tomorrow, you can look out for our weekly markets wrap-up, What's News in Markets. Then on Sunday, we'll be discussing the rise of AI agents like OpenClaw and the opportunities and risks they bring with them. That's in What's New Sunday. And we'll be back with our regular show on Monday morning. Today's show is produced by Pierre Bien-Aimé with supervising producer Tali Arbel. Michael LaValle wrote our theme music. Aisha Al-Muslim is our development producer. Chris Zinsley is our deputy editor.

11:06Alex Ossola:And I'm Alex Osula. Thanks for listening.

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