DHS funding, paratroopers to Iran, Meta fine and Epic cuts

0:00Hi, I'm Kim Vannell in Wongenui, New Zealand. It's Wednesday, March 25th, today. Small signs of progress as TSA agents wait for pay, with ice on the ground at U.S. airports. Thousands more U.S. paratroopers are expected to be sent to the Middle East. Meta is ordered to pay millions in a case over child safety. And epic games is cutting jobs as fortnight, wanes and popularity. This is Royce's World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes, 7 days a week. America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first, nearly three years faster. Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home, and not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us.

1:01Will we let them or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads, America cures. Let's start Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at AmericaCures.com, paid for by Pharma. We begin in Phoenix, Arizona, where ice agents sent to help TSA agents at the International Airport have left some travelers like Mike and Diane from Oregon uneasy. It was very intimidating and it's scary. I'm scared. Listen, they don't have masks on. They didn't have masks on. Ice agents were deployed to more than a dozen airports to help with a TSA in crisis. Because while ice is still getting paid thanks to President Donald Trump's spending bill past last year, TSA officers haven't been paid for weeks with lawmakers in DC so far unable to agree on terms to turn their funding back on. Here's TSA employee and union member Pasquel Contreras back in Phoenix.

2:06What I'm getting from some of the officers is that they're just in the way on a personal level. I don't think we need them here. We need to be paid. On Monday, more than 10% of all TSA officers across the country missed work. But in DC, there are some small signs of progress. General reporter Richard Cowan explains the changes to ice tactics that Democrats want before they agree to back a spending bill. Maybe the most difficult, most contentious thing is Democrats want to put a new control on these agents to stop them from entering people's houses or cars or private property without a warrant issued by a court and a judge. Instead, DHS has been doing what's called administrative warrants. That is DHS saying yes, DHS can do this. They want that to stop. And Democrats think that Republicans have only made it worse by sending ice agents to airports,

3:08ice agents who are getting paid to sort of help out with TSA agents who are working and not getting paid. Richard says the clock is ticking to get a deal of the line. Republicans say that they now have a proposal and the Senate Majority Leader John Thun says he's going to put it to a vote and we'll see where Democrats land on that. Democrats are saying it's far short of what they need. But they do say that we're talking to each other and that's a good sign, especially given that by the end of the week, Congress is supposed to go on a two week recess. The Pentagon is expected to send thousands of paratroopers to the Middle East, according to sources, even as US President Donald Trump talks about a possible deal to end the war. Washington has sent Iran a 15 point plan aimed at ending the conflict. And President Trump says negotiations with Iran are underway. Iran and its unified command of the Iranian armed forces has again rejected claims of

4:13talks saying that the US is negotiating with itself. US Foreign Policy reporter Idris Ali says while we don't know when or where these latest soldiers will be going in the Middle East, we do know they come from the 82nd Airborne Division, which specializes in parachute assaults. Since the Second World War, it's sort of the preeminent unit that you go to when you want to parachute behind enemy lines, really going to hostile environments and take territory doesn't mean that that is what the United States is going to use these troops for. But it's definitely something that they are best suited for. So the one thing this signals right off the bat is that even as they are seeking some sort of negotiations with the Iranians, they are not putting a pause on the military build up in the region, which already includes 50,000 troops. They are sending 5,000 Marines separately. And so they are sort of full steam ahead with the military component of this. And that military build up may welcome and useful as President Trump weighs further

5:17military options. The administration is looking at next steps and some of those options include putting boots on the ground in places like Carg Island, key territory for Iran and oil production and oil facility. There have also been conversations about potentially putting US troops in the street of Hormuz to open it up. The global economy remains tethered to the headlines out of Washington and Tufran. For more on how markets are being impacted by the military ramp up and conflicting stories about where the talks for a ceasefire are happening at all, here's Mike Dolan from our sister podcast Morningbit. Good morning. Yes, some glimmers of optimism in the energy markets at least this morning. Oil prices, global oil prices falling just below $100 barrel, the key psychological level. Two stories are actually being circulated. One Iran is suggesting that some ships of non combatant nations it says can pasture the streets of Hormuz in a statement to the UN and also this 15 point US potential negotiating

6:21plan that is a report of this circulating that would include a one month ceasefire. Thanks, Mike. Morningbit is available wherever you get your podcasts. Now with the Home Depot, receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with life proof, life proof with pet proof technology, home decorators collection, and traffic master carpets. Bring a new look to your floors or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th or March 29th, 2026, exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses see Home Depot.com slash lessons numbers. President Trump's approval rating has dropped to 36 percent. The lowest since he returned to the White House, according to a new Reuters Ipsos poll. Contributing to that record low is Trump's handling of the economy and cost of living concerns

7:23as gas prices have surged a dollar a gallon since the US and Israel began hitting Iran in late February. Only 29 percent of Americans polled say they approve of Trump's economic stewardship. That's lower than at any point in Biden's term. 61 percent of respondents say they disapprove of the Iran war. And nearly half say it will make America less safe. Melan voting means melon cheating. I call it melon cheating. When a state is for melon voting, that means they want dishonest elections. No melon balance. We have no melon. Despite repeatedly blasting the practice, President Donald Trump voted by mail in yesterday's special election in Florida. In their race, Democrats managed to flip a Florida state house seat. And it's a symbolic blow for the Republicans because the district that's turned from red to blue is harmed to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. The White House says Trump is a resident of Palm Beach and participates in Florida elections

8:24but lives primarily at the White House. A U.S. judge says the Pentagon's blacklisting of anthropic looks like an effort to punish the AI lab for going public with concerns about AI safety in the military. During a court hearing, Judge Rita Lynn said the designation appeared aimed at crippling the company after it refused to allow its technology to be used for surveillance or autonomous weapons. Anthropic is asking the court to temporarily block the move while its lawsuit proceeds. And a ruling is expected in the next few days. A New Mexico jury has found meta-violated state consumer protection laws ordering the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties. The jury agreed with the state attorney general that meta-missled users about the safety of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp and enabled child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

9:25Rita says it disagrees with the verdict and will appeal, a second phase of the trial as set for May when a judge could order changes to meta's platforms. Epic Games is cutting more than a thousand jobs, citing a drop in engagement for its flagship game Fortnite. It's the latest in a series of cuts in the video game industry where growth has stalled as economic uncertainty hits spending. The job cuts alongside $500 million in spending cuts are an effort to put the company in a more stable place, according to a note from Epic's CEO to employees. And as our tech editor, Aditya Sonny explains, Fortnite's business model puts it in a uniquely challenging position. Fortnite is not like most of the other titles, it's a free-to-play game so you don't really have to spend money to buy and pay it. So reason that people have to spend there is to buy costumes, to buy skins and developing those new skins, developing those experiences that cost a lot of money.

10:27Now Epic just last week raised the cost of their in-game currency because they're realizing this is getting too much, they're in this conundrum where they really need to drive up revenue and they can't really do that because engagement is falling. It's not unique to Epic because quite a few gaming companies have laid off employees in the past few months. We had EA laying off several hundred workers, we had Amazon layoffs which gutted their gaming division. So this has been happening across the industry. Fortnite is still the most popular and most engaged game. We had some data from this third party called Serkana which showed that last month, Fortnite top charts both on PlayStation and Xbox. But despite that, the average playtime that's down by several laws, that's been hurting them quite a bit because the cost of developing these games, of developing these new features for Fortnite, it's so expensive that it's quite hard to continue when the engagement is falling. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app. Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player.

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