Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Janine Herbst.
President Trump is sending federal immigration agents to U.S. airports starting tomorrow
“as the transportation security administration faces staffing issues from the partial”
government shutdown that's now in its fifth week. And here's Luke Garrett has more. Trump's borders are, Tom Homan, is in charge of the ICE deployments to U.S. airports. On Sunday morning, Homan told CNN he doesn't have a finalized plan yet. Some work in progress, but we will be at airports tomorrow, helping TSA move those lines along.
Homan said he expects ICE agents to guard entries and exits at the nation's busiest airports. I don't see an ICE agent looking at an X-ray machine because you're not trained in that. While their goal is to help TSA move passengers through security lines, Homan said ICE will still enforce immigration laws at U.S. airports. TSA security wait times have increased as more agents call out sick or quit. Most TSA officers have worked without pay during the Department of Homeland Security shutdown.
Luke Garrett and PR News, Washington. Iran is threatening to escalate strikes and U.S. and Israeli infrastructure in the region,
“along with crucial water decalination facilities.”
If President Trump goes through on his threat last night to, quote, "obliterate Iran's power plants," if the country doesn't open the straight-up or moves. Iran's effectively blocked the straight since the U.S. and Israel war started. Meanwhile, in Israel officials are assessing the damage after Iranian air strikes last night on two cities in the south near Israel's nuclear research center. More than 100 people were wounded, residential buildings were damaged.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the attack shows Iran in dangers the entire world. Luckily no one was killed, but that's due to luck. Not their intention. Their intention is to murder civilians.
Second, they are using, they fired on Jerusalem right next to the holy sites of the three monotheistic phase.
The Western Wall, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and the Alaxom Laws. The UN's nuclear agency says there are no reports of damage to Israeli nuclear facilities. Retailers are predicting strong sales growth fueled in part by tax refunds and the forecast of a cool down in inflation.
“The nation's top retail trade group is forecasting that spending at stores and restaurants will go.”
4.4% this year and here's Alina Seliyuk reports. The National Retail Federation says this growth will be greater than the recent years or the years before the pandemic. The forecast counts on a slight boost from tax cuts at the start of the year. It also predicts that inflation might ease in the second half of the year. The group acknowledged that it's not considering any potential fallout of the war in Iran,
including the impact on shipping or gas prices. Chief Economist Mark Matthews says the retail group is still optimistic that the resilient American consumer, and, quote, "the underlying fundamentals of the U.S. economy will support continued stability in the year ahead, adding the silhouken and beer news Washington." You're listening to NPR News.
The Supreme Court hears arguments tomorrow on mail in ballots. The case involves Mississippi's allowance of a grace period for accepting ballots that are postmarked on election day, but arrive later. It was brought by President Trump's allies who want to bar mail-in voting, except in certain cases, such as illness or military service.
Trump has claimed without citing evidence that the practice allows fraud in elections. Project Hail Mary, a feel-good film about a space voyage, blasted off at cinemas this weekend, and here's Bob Mondello has more. The story of an alien encounter during a long-shot trip to save the Earth from extinction seems to be morphing into a tool to save Hollywood from extinction.
It is time-go. Thank you, being go-time, pal.
Project Hail Mary will take in more than $80 million in North America this weekend,
easily the best opening of 2026. Oh my God. We're also doing extremely well overseas. It's worldwide total through Sunday night. We'll top 140 million.
Thumbs up? No, that's thumbs down. We do the thumbs up. It's close enough. And they say polls say 85% of those who've seen Project Hail Mary would recommend it to a friend, suggesting it'll continue to soar for a few more weeks at least. Bob Mondello and PR news.
You as futures contracts are trading lower at this hour, Dow futures down about two tenths of a percent, Nasdaq futures are down more than a half percent, and S&P 500 futures also down nearly a half percent. You're listening to NPR News from Washington.
