Airport Wait Times Improve as Trump Threatens Iran Escalation

Airport wait times in the United States have begun to ease, as Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees begin receiving their missed paychecks after working without pay for more than a month.

Two TSA workers in Atlanta told CNN they have received two full paychecks. However, it’s unclear how many TSA employees have received their backpay. A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told The Hill that TSA officers will begin seeing their paychecks as soon as today.

In Baltimore, wait times have improved after a chaotic weekend. In Atlanta, travelers experienced shorter wait times on Sunday, per Fox 5 Atlanta, though the airport is still warning passengers to arrive at least four hours before departure. At Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport, airport workers were seen taking down makeshift lanes that had been made outside the terminal.

The situation in the Middle East has become even more tense over the past few days, as reports emerged that the U.S. may escalate with ground troops. Dan Lamothe of The Washington Post reports that the Pentagon is preparing for U.S. ground operations in Iran — and thousands of American soldiers have arrived in the Middle East, waiting for Trump to approve the plans.

Iran responded to this threat with fury. Iran says that any U.S. ground troops who enter Iran would be “set on fire,” according to The Associated Press. Iranian state media reported the Parliament speaker said Tehran also wants to “punish” the U.S.’s regional partners “forever.”

Trump threatened to “completely” obliterate the country’s energy infrastructure, which led to a surge in oil prices. The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump is debating extracting roughly 1,000 pounds of uranium from Iran as part of a plan that would also require a U.S. presence on the ground.

Trump threatened to “completely” obliterate Iran’s energy infrastructure if a deal isn’t reached soon and the Strait of Hormuz isn’t immediately opened for business. This threat led to a surge in oil prices this morning.

Trump stated: “Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’”

Republicans are increasingly debating whether to overturn a Supreme Court decision that allows the children of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally to attend public schools in the U.S., reports Lexi Lonas Cochran of The Hill.

The talks have stretched from Republican states such as Tennessee to the White House, accelerating an immigration crackdown in education under President Trump that began at U.S. universities with foreign students who struggled to get visas or were arrested for their political activism. A 2023 analysis estimated that in 2021, 3.2 million children in public schools were from households headed by an immigrant in the country without legal permission, but there is no reliable data calculating the total number of students from these households in public school classrooms.

In addition, Trump revealed that the U.S. military is “building a massive complex” under his controversial new White House ballroom.

Golf star Tiger Woods was involved in a rollover crash in Jupiter Island, Fla., on Friday — and was arrested and charged with DUI. Luckily, no one was hurt in the crash. Woods has a history of car crashes.

Other topics include protests at a federal detention center in Los Angeles and scheduled events at the White House and NASA.