The Headlines - A New Phase of the War in Iran, and the Latest on the LaGuardia Plane Crash

Episode Date: March 24, 2026

Plus, how dancing the tango can help patients with Parkinson’s disease. Here’s what we’re covering: War’s Attacks on Energy Could Turn Economic Shock Into Long-Term Damage, by Patricia Cohen Trump Says U.S. Is Negotiating End to War, but Iranians Push Back, by Luke Broadwater, Aaron Boxerman, Erika Solomon and Thomas Fuller ‘Don’t Make Any Deal’: Trump Tells Republicans to Hold Firm on Shutdown Talks, by Erica L. Green and Michael Gold Markwayne Mullin Confirmed as Homeland Security Secretary, by Madeleine Ngo Trump Administration to Pay $1 Billion to Energy Giant to Cancel Wind Farms, by Maxine Joselow and Brad Plumer In LaGuardia Crash That Killed 2, Call to ‘Stop!’ Came Too Late, by Christopher Maag Tango Therapy: How the Dance of Passion Is Helping Parkinson’s Patients, by Pam Belluck Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Tuesday, March 24th. Here's what we're covering. In the Middle East. Now, the missile attacks here reportedly caused extensive damage at oil facilities throughout the region. A recent wave of attacks on energy infrastructure. And the missile responsible for that came out of Israel has marked a new phase in the war.

Iran vowing to retaliate. Unleashing fears, the energy crisis is dangerously spirally. 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 Strait of Hormuz, whether oil tankers and other ships can get in or out. The idea is if that's resolved, things will get flowing again. Fuel prices will come back down.

But fixing things like refineries and gas fields could take years. Yesterday, the head of the International Energy Agency said the war is the biggest threat to global energy sources. security in history. At least 40-40 energy assets in the region are severely or very severely damaged. One site that's been damaged, for example, is a vast Qatari complex that produces roughly a fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas. That's used to heat homes, cook food, and power factories throughout Asia and Europe. An official said it could take up to five years to repair. All that disruption could continue to drive up energy prices, and higher 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 over 100, could climb to as high as $200 a barrel by the end of the year. If that happens, an analyst at the firm told the times, quote, I couldn't fathom we would not start seeing economies fall into a recession. Meanwhile, there has 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. An Iranian parliamentary leader called that fake news.

While some Iranian officials told the Times there have been some messages passed to the U.S. in recent days about how to de-escalate the conflict, American officials say those contacts 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 have worked. We could have had TSA paid by the end of the week, but the president said no deal.

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. 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 and you have to be a citizen. Yesterday, Trump made clear he wants to leverage the funding system. standoff as a way to push his voter ID bill. Without a deal on DHS, TSA agents will continue to go unpaid,

which has already caused widespread disruption to air travel in the U.S., as some passengers wait in hours-long security lines. Also in the Senate. The Aiser 54, the nays are 45, the nomination of Mark Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma to be Secretary of Homeland Security is confirmed. Mark Wayne Mullen was confirmed as the next leader of DHS. taking over from Christy Noem, 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 Mullen 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 crackdown on illegal 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 leases 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 LaGuardia on Sunday says that officials are looking into whether an air traffic controller there was distracted moments before the accident. Truck one company was a water tower requesting to cross for a Delta. Truck one company crossed for at Delta. Recordings from the control tower show that just before the crash, one of the two 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.

The controller called for the truck to stop. One passenger on the flight told the times she felt the plane breaking. Then she was thrown forward. 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. Both pilots died in the crash. While the airport partially reopened yesterday, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board say it will still take days for them 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. And finally, in Argentina, the country's national dance, tango, is being put to use as therapy, specifically for patients with Parkinson's. Tango is known for its passion, its heart, and its precision. It's that precision that doctors at one hospital in Buenos Aires have found is extremely helpful for their patients. It has them taking short, careful steps, going backwards, shifting weight from one foot to another. As one researcher who helps start the program put it, quote,

Tango uses the same kind of movements that people with Parkinson's disease tend to lose. The staff at the hospital encourages patients to use the tango moves they've learned in class 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's sense of confidence

that some people who walk in with canes end 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.