Iran War Week 5, Trump's Mixed Messages, TSA Back Pay
Up First from NPR
NPR
4.6 • 59K Ratings
🗓️ 31 March 2026
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
President Trump is sending mixed messages on the war, claiming Iran agreed to most of his demands while threatening to obliterate its energy infrastructure if a deal isn't reached soon.
And TSA workers are finally getting paychecks after more than 40 days without pay, but Congress still hasn't reached a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
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Today’s episode of Up First was edited by Gerry Holmes, Rebekah Metzler, Russell Lewis, Mohamad ElBardicy, and Adriana Gallardo.
It was produced by Ziad Buchh and Ava Pukatch.
Our director is Christopher Thomas.
We get engineering support from Stacey Abbott. Our technical director is Carleigh Strange.
And our Supervising Senior Producer is Vince Pearson.
(0:00) Introduction
(01:51) Iran War Week 5
(05:23) Trump's Mixed Messages
(09:15) TSA Back Pay
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pakistan says it is ready to host talks between the U.S. and Iran. |
| 0:06.0 | But are there signs a meeting will take place as the U.S. |
| 0:09.0 | deploys Marines to the region and Iran attacks U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia? |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Michelle Martin. |
| 0:13.0 | That's Laila Fadol, and this is up first from NPR News. |
| 0:19.0 | President Trump says Iran agreed to most of his 15-point plan to end the war, but he also threatened to obliterate Iran's energy infrastructure if a deal isn't reached soon. So what's behind the mixed messaging? |
| 0:31.0 | And some TSA workers are finally getting paychecks after more than a month without them. But Congress still hasn't reached a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security. |
| 0:40.3 | So when will their next paycheck come? |
| 0:42.7 | Stay with us. |
| 0:43.4 | We'll give you the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:51.3 | Iran is allowing some ships to pass through the state of Hormuz, but the vast majority of oil and gas tankers remain trapped. |
| 0:58.5 | And despite thousands of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, it's still launching dozens of missiles and drones daily at Gulf countries. |
| 1:07.0 | Joining us to talk about the latest from the Gulf is NPR international correspondent |
| 1:10.9 | Aya Bertrawe in Dubai. Aya, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Good morning, Michelle. |
| 1:15.4 | So what's it like there today, more than a month into the war? Well, to begin with, this is supposed |
| 1:20.9 | to be the peak tourism season here, but the hotels are pretty empty. You know, the government did |
| 1:25.3 | approve a financial package to help businesses here |
| 1:27.7 | that are suffering just yesterday. And the central bank is also allowing local banks here to draw from |
| 1:32.9 | cash reserves to help with liquidity as people move their money out or defer on payments or maybe |
| 1:38.1 | even require more loans. And then there's what we call the new normal here. You know, this is a safe haven. |
| 1:43.0 | People are not accustomed to coming under attack, and this city does not have shelters |
| 1:46.9 | because Dubai was never attacked by missiles before this war. |
... |
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