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- [00:05]
A
Good morning. Trump shifts his messaging about the timeline to open the Strait of Hormuz.
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The President is not going to stand for this regime as it's threatened and tried for five decades to hold the world's energy supplies hostage under its genocidal intent.
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But so far, Iran is showing no signs of budging.
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Why? ICE agents are turning up at airports today and what happened when the US Government accidentally turned off tax deadlines.
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This is a reminder that Congress sometimes writes laws in ways that have unintended consequences. And the words on the page matter.
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It's Monday, March 23rd. I'm Cecilia Lay.
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And I'm Gideon Resnik. This is Apple News Today. Is the war winding down as President Trump suggested on Friday, or is it about to escalate in a dramatic way that might become a little clearer by the end of today? Over the weekend, in a truth social post, Trump said that if Iran doesn't start letting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz by tonight, then US Forces will obliterate the country's power plants. Then this morning, the President said that after good conversations with Iran, he had told the Pentagon to hold off on any strikes for five days. The messaging from the weekend from administration officials had been to not rule anything out, including these comments from Mike Waltz, Trump's ambassador to the UN who spoke to CBS yesterday.
- [01:28]
B
I would never take anything off the table for the President, certainly not on national television. However, there are larger plants. There's one outside of Tehran. There are others outside of other cities that are gas fired, thermal powered. I think the important point here is to understand. The irgc, a declared terrorist organization, controls a huge swath of Iran's critical infrastructure, their economy, and certainly many of their governing institutions. And so to the extent we're degrading their military capability and their defense industrial base, all options should be on the table. And the President's made that very clear.
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A
Iran initially indicated it wouldn't back down even with this latest threat. They warned that those kinds of attacks would lead to retaliatory strikes on energy and water plants in neighboring countries. Even though American allies are feeling the economic squeeze, the longer this drags on, they've continued to resist being drawn into any military operation in the region. Much to the President's frustration, European leaders are wary of being dragged into a conflict they didn't start. Those concerns have only heightened over the weekend. On Friday, Iran sent missiles towards a UK US base in the Indian Ocean, 2,500 miles from its borders. The attack failed, but it was the first time Iran has demonstrated the capacity to strike targets as far as Europe. That same day, leaders from 22 mostly NATO countries signed a letter expressing a readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage on the Strait of Hormuz. But there weren't many details as to what that might mean in the coming days. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was on CBS to urge some patience from the White House.
- [03:02]
E
I understand the president's frustration that it takes some time, but again, I also ask for some understanding because nations had to prepare for this not knowing and for good reasons about the initial attack on Iran. But now coming together to make sure that we can be able to to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
- [03:19]
A
From an operational standpoint, the administration does not appear to be winding down the conflict. Reuters reports that Trump is deploying thousands of troops to reinforce operations in the Middle east. And the president has requested an additional $200 billion for the Pentagon. If approved, it would equal almost a quarter of the entire annual defense budget. NBC's Kristen Welker pushed Treasury Secretary Scott Besant on which way the conflict was
- [03:42]
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going to every day we are taking out their missiles, their missile systems and the factories that build those missiles. And now General Kaine, Secretary Hegseth are leading a campaign to destroy all the fortifications along the Straits of Hormuz. Just to put a fine point on
- [03:59]
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this though, is the president in the
- [04:01]
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process of winding down this war or escalating conflict? Again, they're not mutually exclusive. Sometimes you have to escalate to de escalate.
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A
Later, Democratic Senator Chris Murphy gave his reaction to that remark on the same show.
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It's like they've never read a history book. That's exactly what our war leaders said in the middle of Vietnam and the 20 years of mismanagement in Afghanistan. We need to end this war.
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A
As threats over energy infrastructure worry leaders and markets, the war continues to devastate communities living under bombings. An Israeli strike hit the Kashmir Bridge that links southern Lebanon with the rest of the country on Sunday, as fighting between Israel and the Iran backed Hezbollah intensified. The Lebanese government says Israel's operation has displaced a million people and resulted in over a thousand deaths so far. Israel was shaken on Saturday, too.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa.
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Their health ministry reported nearly 200 injuries after Iranian missiles hit two southern towns close to a nuclear facility. The IDF failed to intercept the attack, though there was no sign of damage to nuclear infrastructure. The IDF chief described its operation against Lebanon as a prolonged campaign, suggesting more violence in the days and weeks ahead. If you're catching a flight this week Your TSA check in process might look pretty different. Instead of being helped by regular staff, ICE agents might be in their place. That's because beginning today, the Department of Homeland Security is deploying immigration enforcement officers to address growing lines and delays at some of the country's biggest airports. Last month's partial shutdown of DHS has led to severe TSA staff shortages in recent weeks. More agents are calling in sick or have started looking for other work altogether as the wait for a paycheck continues. NBC News reports that more than 400 TSA workers have quit since the shutdown began. On February 14, President Trump's border czar Tom Homan told CNN that plans were still being worked out, but that ICE agents would not be doing any of the more technical roles.
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We're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't need their specialized expertise, such as, you know, screening through the X ray machine, not training that we won't do that. But there are roles we can play to release TSA officers from the non significant roles such as guarding and exit so they can get back to the scanning machines and move people quicker.
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But on the same day Homan spoke, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seemed to have different ideas. He told ABC that ICE agents could help with some of these specialized tasks.
- [06:43]
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TSA agents are law enforcement. They know how to pat people down. They know how to run the X ray machines because they are again under homeland security with tsa. So if we can bring in other assets and tools to assist TSA to get rid of these lines, yeah, I think that makes a lot of sense. And the President's looking around every corner to make sure the American people don't suffer during the shutdown.
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A
The union representing TSA officers isn't impressed. They said the plan would create gaps, not fill them, and emphasized the need for officers who were properly trained in certain areas, like knowing how to detect explosives and weapons. The management of ICE agents is at the core of the DHS shutdown. Democrats want a deal to reform ICE tactics before they fund the agency further. The decision to move immigration enforcement into new spaces drew criticism from Democratic leadership. Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
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The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or in some instances, kill them. We've already seen how ICE conducts itself. These are untrained individuals when it comes to doing the current job that they have for the most part, let alone deploying them in close exposure in highly sensitive situations at airports across the country.
- [07:59]
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Delays are expected to continue until a deal is ultimately reached, especially during the spring break period. The Wall Street Journal's Alison Poley covers travel and tourism, and she told PBS she wasn't optimistic of a breakthrough.
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Democrats have introduced legislation that would fund the Homeland Security Department except for ICE and except for Customs and Border Protection, or it would fund just tsa. But Republicans have voted those down. They have introduced bills to fund the entire Homeland Security Department, and Democrats have voted for those. So it's a tough road going forward. And so what I'm hearing from TSA workers is that March 27th is the day that Congress is scheduled to go on its two week recess. That is a make or break day for them. If Congress ends up leaving for the recess without reaching a deal, TSA workers say they're not sure they're going to be able to make it into work after that.
- [08:51]
A
In an unrelated incident, a regional Air Canada jet collided with a Port authority vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in New York late on Sunday. The crash killed two pilots, injured dozens of passengers, and prompted the airport to shut down, leading to additional delays. You can find more of the latest information on that developing story in the Apple News app, and Cecilia has more news next.
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C
A reminder in case you've forgotten, the federal tax return deadline is less than a month away. Whether you're knee deep in paperwork or waiting until the last minute to get it done, here's something worth There's a strange quirk in tax deadline rules dating back to 2019 that may mean some people could be owed some money back from the COVID 19 pandemic era. It's a small, overlooked change to tax deadline rules that set off a ripple effect that nobody fully anticipated. A tweak may have effectively paused tax filing and payment deadlines not for a few weeks or even a few months, but for more than three years. Richard Rubin is a tax policy reporter for the Wall Street Journal who dug into this peculiar story in 2019. The idea from Congress was that they should make it easier for taxpayers in the event of disasters.
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D
Congress was thinking it's sort of annoying that we have to either approve special disaster tax deadlines when there's like a hurricane or an earthquake or something. Let's set a general national rule like if there's a major disaster, then for 60 days after that disaster ends, there's going to be no tax deadlines.
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And we know what happened Shortly after President Trump signed this change into law, a global pandemic President Trump, in his
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first term, approves a major disaster declaration for the whole country and says it started on January 20, 2020, and it's continuing. And so immediately the author of this legislation, Tom Rice, said, wait a minute, that's seems like now no one has to pay taxes until 60 days after this is over.
- [10:57]
C
At the time, the IRS said that's not how this is going to work and implemented regulations to prevent that from happening. In 2023, President Biden declared the pandemic disaster over. And this is where it gets interesting. Last year, a federal court ruled in favor of a plaintiff who argued that those delayed tax deadlines for disaster victims covered this entire period from when Trump declared a disaster at the start of the pandemic to Biden declared its end. In other words, individual taxpayers could have waited until 2023 to file their tax returns for the years between 2019 and 2022.
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D
So that's that three and a half year period. But then the lawsuits start coming and what happens is you have people who've missed deadlines during that period suing the IRS and saying, look, you can't say that I didn't meet this deadline because that deadline wasn't real.
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C
The IRS can still appeal. And a spokesperson declined to comment for the story. Now, for most people, Rubin said that it's too late to take any action here. That's because there's a limited window to fix any past problems three years after filing or two years after making a payment. But some larger companies are looking for a lot of money from the federal government.
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Western Digital, the hard drive company, is suing the IRS for about $21 million in interest from that period. Meta in its big tax court case against the IRS is raising a claim on. There's an attempt to generate a class action lawsuit for some taxpayers that's based out of New York. And I think this is really just the beginning.
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Rubin says in the end, things might have worked out for those who took the biggest risk.
- [12:36]
D
In some crazy sense, it really says if you had taken the gamble that Tom Rice floated back in March of 2020 and just said, nah, I'm not doing any taxes between, you know, until 60 days after this is over, you might have come out ahead. It was a very risky thing to do. Obviously, when the IRS is saying, no, we're going to come after you, and I don't think tax professionals were really advising that. But that's turns out in a very, very clear and literal reading of the law, that's what happened in the future.
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C
This same mess and legal wrangling won't occur again. In 2021, Congress changed a law to remove that open ended clock for future disaster decl. And finally a few other stories we're following. Hawaii is experiencing its worst flooding in two decades. Between last Thursday and Saturday, as much as 22 inches of rain fell on parts of Oahu, causing floods that closed highways, swept away homes, and triggered mass evacuation orders for thousands of people. Oahu's North Shore was particularly devastated. Residents shared videos of their neighborhoods on social media.
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Oh, hey guys, I'm starting to get a little bit afraid now.
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A
Oh man, oh man, oh man, oh man.
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This is absolutely bad.
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The heavy rains came after an earlier storm a week ago, and state authorities warned that a 120-year-old dam could fail. Throughout the weekend, six of the eight main Hawaiian Islands were under a flash flood watch. Maui is expecting up to 12 inches of rain over the next couple of days. On Sunday, Governor Josh Green shared that more than 230 people had to be rescued and that the storms have caused roughly a billion dollars in damages. Greene said the White House was in contact with his office and described officials in Washington as being very supportive. For nearly 100 years, the pioneering CBS News Radio has covered major events worldwide. Its signature show, World News Roundup, delivering its distinctive chimes millions of households.
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Chicago has elected the first black mayor in the city's history, and the House votes today on that nuclear freeze resolution.
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But now it will go dark at the end of May. In a staff memo delivered last Friday, senior leadership at CBS News announced that 6% of the organization's staff will be laid off along with the termination of the storied radio service. Its new editor, Bari Weiss, said that because of challenging economic realities, the company concluded that it was impossible to continue the service. You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Rolling Stone tells the story of Jennifer Gomez, a cat burglar who parlayed her upper middle class background into a life of crime where she burgled hundreds of homes for items that added up to millions of dollars. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News narrated to find that story. And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.