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From the New York Times, it's The Headlines.
Today's Tuesday, March 24th.
Here's what we're covering.
Now the missile attacks here reportedly caused extensive damage at oil facilities
A recent wave of attacks on energy infrastructure
has marked a new phase in the war.
After Israel struck the South-Post gas field,
Iran vowing to retaliate and economists are raising the alarm
that the damage to the global economy could be long-term.
Until now, much of the attention has been on the straight of Hormuz,
while their oil tankers and other ships can get in and out.
The idea is if that's resolved, things will get flowing again.
Fuel prices will come back down.
But with targets like refineries and gas fields coming under fire,
the effects could be felt for years.
Let me explain you how challenging this situation is.
Yesterday, the head of the International Energy Agency said the war
is the biggest threat to global energy security in history.
At least 40 for zero energy assets in the region are severely or very severely damaged.
One site that's been hit, for example, is a vast
Katari complex that produces roughly a fifth of the world's
liquefied natural gas.
That's used to heat homes, cook food, and power factories across Asia and Europe.
An official said it could take up to five years to repair.
All the disruptions like that could continue to drive up global energy prices,
and high energy prices tend to slow economic growth,
increase unemployment, and speed up inflation.
One energy consulting firm is now warning that oil,
which was about $73 a barrel before the war,
and is now crossed a hundred, could climb to as high as $200 a barrel by the end of the year.
If that happens, one expert told the Times, quote,
I couldn't fathom we would not start seeing economies fall into a recession.
Meanwhile, there's been a slew of conflicting signals on how long the war could last,
and whether any more energy infrastructure could come under fire.
President Trump declared yesterday that the U.S. and Iran had had what he called
productive conversations.
And Iranian parliamentary leader dismissed that as fake news.
The Times has learned that while some messages have been going back and forth,
U.S. officials say the negotiations have not been substantive, despite Trump's claims.
Now, a few more quick updates on the Trump administration,
from the Homeland Security shutdown to an extraordinary transfer of taxpayer dollars.
First, it would work. We could have had a TSA paid by the end of the week,
but the President said no deals on my plan.
There was almost a bipartisan agreement in the Senate over the DHS shutdown,
but President Trump has nixed it.
GOP Senator John Kennedy told Fox News that he and other Republicans were prepared to accept
a deal from Democrats that would have funded all of DHS except ICE for now.
But when the President was looped in, he quashed it.
And I'm suggesting strongly to the Republican Party,
don't make any deal on anything. The most important thing we can have is what's called the
Save America Act. Don't make any deal on anything unless you include voter ID.
Yesterday, Trump made clear he wants to leverage the funding standoff
as a way to push his voter ID bill. Without a deal on DHS, TSA agents will continue to go unpaid,
which is already caused widespread disruption to air travel in the U.S.,
as some passengers wait in hours-long security lines.
On this vote. Also in the Senate.
The eyes are 54. The nays are 45. The nomination of Mark Wayne Mullin of Oklahoma to be
Secretary of Homeland Security is confirmed.
Mark Wayne Mullin was confirmed as the next leader of DHS,
taking over from Christy Nome, who Trump fired after a string of controversies
and national outrage over the killings of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents.
All of that, combined with the ongoing shutdown,
make it a tenuous time for Mullin to step into the role.
In his confirmation hearing, he struck a less combative and more cooperative tone than his
predecessor, but he's made clear he's committed to fulfilling Trump's promise to crack down on
a legal immigration. And last update on the administration. The White House has struck an
unusual deal with a French energy company. The U.S. is going to pay nearly $1 billion to total
energies to abandon its plans to build wind farms off the East Coast.
The company paid for releases under the Biden administration to build off New York and North
Carolina. The U.S. will now reimburse it for that. In exchange, total energies is supposed to
invest that money in oil and gas projects in the U.S. The deal is a remarkable transfer of taxpayer
dollars to a foreign company for the purposes of boosting the production of fossil fuels
while throttling a renewable energy source. Trump has railed against wind power for years,
calling the projects ugly and claiming without evidence that they are, quote,
driving whales crazy.
In New York, a person briefed on the federal investigation into the deadly crash at La Guardeon
Sunday tells the times that officials are looking into whether an air traffic controller there
was distracted moments before the accident.
Recordings from the control tower show that just before the crash, one of the controllers on
duty was directing a fire truck to help with an issue on a separate flight. The controller gave
the fire truck the go ahead to cross the runway just as an air canada flight was landing.
One passenger on the flight told the time she heard a loud grinding sound,
which she thought was the pilot trying to break before the crash. Then she was thrown forward and
people started screaming. The force of the collision ejected one flight attendant who was
tossed from the plane and landed on the runway still strapped to her seat. She was one of dozens of
people who were injured. The two pilots on the plane both died in the crash. All the airport partially
reopened yesterday. Officials with the National Transportation Safety Board say it will still take
time to finish sorting through the wreckage and fully clear it. The head of the NTSB says its
investigation got off to a bit of a slow start yesterday, in part because some of its specialists
who were trying to fly in from around the country were among those caught in long security lines.
In Argentina, the time has been reporting on how the country's national dance, Tango,
is being put to use as therapy, specifically for patients with Parkinson's, the incurable disease
that affects the central nervous system. Tango is known for its passion, its heart, and its
precise movements. It's those specific steps that doctors at one hospital in Buenos Aires
have found are extremely helpful for their patients, dealing with balance and coordination issues.
Tango involves a lot of going backwards, shifting weight from one foot to another,
as one researcher who helps start the hospital's program put it, quote,
Tango uses the same kind of movements that people with Parkinson's disease tend to lose.
The class encourages patients to use the Tango moves they've learned to then help
with everyday activities. For instance, opening the fridge is basically doing a side step.
There's also a lot of torso rotation in Tango, a key movement for something like washing the dishes.
Dance therapy is used to treat other conditions as well in Argentina and beyond, like Alzheimer's
or multiple sclerosis. In Buenos Aires, the program has been so transformative for some patient
sense of confidence that some people who walked in with canes ended up walking out of Tango class
without them. Those are the headlines. Today on the daily, a look at how China made itself
tariff proof. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.
