UPDATE - Trump orders TSA agents paid after House rejects deal

Hi, I'm Kim Vannell in Wangenewy, New Zealand.

And I'm Sharon Rajgarson in New Jersey, today.

Trump orders the TSA to pay workers as the House rejects a deal to restore airport security

funding.

Trump extends a pause on Iran energy attacks into April, while also threatening more violence.

And Trump gets a win in its fight with the Pentagon over its AI in the military.

And the Olympics bars transgender athletes from female events.

This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the frontlines

in 10 minutes, 7 days a week.

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U.S. President Donald Trump has declared an emergency and directed the Transportation

Security Administration to begin paying its officers.

The move comes after House Republicans rejected a bipartisan deal from the Senate that would

have restored funding for airport security.

Reporter David Sheppardson says TSA workers are about to see some much needed relief.

So the good news is the chaos of the airports should be ending relatively soon.

And those payments should start hitting their bank accounts as early as Monday.

So the fact that there's a concrete definitive decision that they're getting paid should

go a long way toward addressing big concerns, the part of airlines and others that we really

hit the breaking point.

Today is the second full paycheck that TSA officers have missed on top of one that they

missed most of.

Really three paychecks they have mostly not gotten.

We've really heard harrowing stories of TSA workers who had to sell blood plasma or

sleeping in cars or been evicted or facing really difficult financial challenges.

Now that TSA is getting funded, David says there's an open question as to whether Congress

will come to an agreement on the rest of the spending bill.

If you're getting whiplash with the developments coming out of Iran, well, there's more.

President Trump has again extended the deadline for Iran to reopen the straight of Hormuz

or face the destruction of its energy plans until April the 6th.

In a truth social post, Trump said talks with Iran were ongoing and going very well.

Iran, however, has said it is not engaged in talks with Washington.

Iran's decision to extend the pause came just hours after he issued this threat.

If Iran doesn't abandon its nuclear program, inside Iran, debate is growing over whether

the country should go further and pursue a nuclear bomb.

To Iran insists it has the right to a civilian nuclear program, but sources say hardliners

emboldened since the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hamani and now more openly

questioning Iran's long-standing rejection of nuclear weapons.

So with all the two and throw on Iran and the price of oil hitting consumers, what

off-ramps does the US President have to end the war?

The 15-point peace plan he gave Tehran via mediators has been dismissed as one-sided

and unfair, according to one Iranian official.

And White House reporter Trevor Honeykett says it doesn't look like Trump has many good

options on the table.

We're kind of up against the clock, and the President is trying to force an end-game

that gets him to his goals, but the situation on the ground might not totally line up with

his political reality, which is that the American people do not like this war.

Basically, the President can seek a diplomatic end-game, right?

So he's laid out this 15-point plan.

So if they can get Iran to a yes on that deal, then they can walk away and say problem

solved for now.

The problem there is the Iranians are not suggesting that they're anywhere close to accepting

that or even talking about it seriously.

We also have the possibility of a military escalation, so starting to attack more infrastructure

in Iran, sending ground troops in to physically deal with the nuclear program, attacking

Carve Island, all these sorts of operations that would be a massive escalation from where

we are now.

France says it started consultations with dozens of countries on what could be done to reopen

the strait of Hormuz once fighting in the Middle East ends.

The talks are being framed as strictly defensive, focused on restoring shipping through the

vital waterway that carries about a fifth of the world's oil.

Early ideas are centered on mine hunting and protecting tankers crossing the area, highlighting

their concerns that threats to Hormuz could persist even after the war ends.

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In Asia, the fuel crunch created by tankers still unable to get through the strait of Hormuz

is reviving COVID era policies.

In Myanmar, a new even odd license plate system means cars are only allowed on the road

on alternating days with gas stations running dry.

India has slashed fuel taxes on petrol and diesel, while factories and restaurants are turning

to firewood as gas supplies dry up.

In the Philippines, protesters gather angry over fuel costs, while Bangladesh has closed

universities to conserve electricity.

Nepal and Sri Lanka have begun rationing fuel and cooking gas.

And in Thailand, TV anchors ditched their suits on air, backing government calls to raise

air conditioning temperatures to cut electricity use.

A US judge has handed anthropic a win in its legal fight with Pentagon, temporarily blocking

an attempt to cut the AI company out of the US military.

The ruling pauses the blacklisting for now, but the case and potential appeals are far

from over.

Here's Reuters correspondent Jack Queen on what the judge decided and what comes next.

Basically, she said that this appeared to be classic first amendment retaliation, that

this order based on the timing, the things that the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and

President Trump were saying about anthropic being woke AI and all these things were indications

that this determination wasn't really based on a sober and objective analysis of supply

chain risks and national security risks, and that it really appeared to be about anthropic

publicly refusing to accept the contractual terms that the Pentagon was insisting on and

sticking to its position that even the best AI models aren't reliable enough for autonomous

weapons and that they are opposed to domestic surveillance as a matter of principle.

This is, however, just a preliminary injunction and there's another case in DC in the works.

It gets very complex legally, but suffice it to say anthropic needed to file two separate

lawsuits.

And there's actually a lot of uncertainty here because these obscure government procurement

statutes have never been tested in court.

And so we're very much in uncharted territory.

Pakistan says its military has resumed operations against Afghanistan after a brief pause for

the Eid festival, dimming hopes of a lasting ceasefire.

The move follows the worst fighting between the neighbors in the years, with Islamabad

accusing the Afghan Taliban of harboring militants behind attacks inside Pakistan,

a charged Kabul denies.

Pakistan says operations will continue until what it calls terrorist infrastructure is

addressed.

The International Olympic Committee has effectively banned transgender athletes from competing

in women's events at the Olympic Games.

Under a new policy, all athletes wanting to compete in female categories will have to

take a gene test.

Previously, trans athletes could compete if cleared by their sports governing body.

The rule takes effect from the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

Here's Roti's correspondent Carlos Gromman with more.

It won't affect any prominent athlete because the number of transgender athletes who have

competed in female categories are very, very few.

The IOC says it came to this decision completely impartially.

IOC president Kirstie Coventry said that the process of this had started long before

any election of President Trump to the White House.

It's been an issue that's been under investigation for the last year and a half.

So she rejected that there was any kind of pressure related to anything that is happening

in the United States at the moment.

And finally today, US dollar bills are getting a new signature, that of President Donald

Trump.

His name will start making an appearance on notes printed this summer, and is the first

time in history a sitting president has had his signature on money.

The redesign is to mark the 250th anniversary of US independence, with $100 bills rolling

out first.

For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app.

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