
TSA Will End ‘Quiet Skies' Program That Identifies Travelers for Extra Screening: Noem
WASHINGTON—Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on June 5 that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would abolish a program that targets some travelers for additional screening when boarding certain flights that depart from the United States.
The 'Quiet Skies' program was established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as a way of ensuring higher-risk passengers, who may pose security risks, are more thoroughly searched before they board commercial aircraft.

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Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Oil Extends Jump as US Pulls Some Embassy Staff From Middle East
Oil extended its biggest daily gain since October after the US ordered some staff to depart its embassy in Baghdad and allowed military service members' families to leave the Middle East amid rising security risks. West Texas Intermediate rose as much as 1.7% to $69.29 after jumping 4.9% on Wednesday, while Brent settled just shy of $70. The Trump administration's move came in response to ongoing security concerns, after Iran threatened to attack US bases if talks over its nuclear program fall through. The UK Navy also issued a rare warning to mariners that higher tensions in the Middle East could affect shipping.

Associated Press
4 hours ago
- Associated Press
Trump's plan to begin 'phasing out' FEMA after hurricane season burdens states, experts warn
SAN DIEGO (AP) — President Donald Trump's plan to begin 'phasing out' the federal agency that responds to disasters after the 2025 hurricane season is likely to put more responsibilities on states to provide services following increasingly frequent and expensive climate disasters, experts said. 'We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,' Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office appearance with administration officials about preparations for summer wildfires. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly signaled their desire to overhaul, if not completely eliminate, the 46-year-old Federal Emergency Management Agency. While there has been bipartisan support for reforming the agency, experts say dismantling it completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding. 'It just causes more concern on how states should be planning for the future if the federal government's not going to be there for them,' said Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. Disaster response is already locally led and state-managed, but FEMA supports by coordinating resources from federal agencies, providing direct assistance programs for households and moving money to states for repairing public infrastructure. Trump said Tuesday he wants to 'give out less money,' and to 'give it out directly,' sidestepping FEMA programs. He said he did not know who would distribute the funds, saying they could come 'from the president's office' or DHS. 'I was left with the impression that he doesn't really understand the scale of what FEMA manages on a yearly basis with a budget of over $30 billion,' said Coen. Dismantling FEMA, or even changing how much of the costs it shares with states in the event of a major disaster declaration, would require action from Congress, including amending the 1988 Stafford Act, which outlines FEMA's roles and responsibilities and the cost share between the feds and the states. Declaring fewer major disasters or giving less federal support could put an untenable financial burden on states, said Sara McTarnaghan, principal research associate at the Urban Institute. 'Very few of them would have had enough funds set aside to anticipate the federal government stepping back from its historic role in disaster recovery for major events,' McTarnaghan said. A recent Urban Institute analysis found that between 2008-2024, quadrupling the economic threshold of when major disasters are declared would have shifted $41 billion in public assistance costs alone to state and local governments. 'I think the trade off for states and communities is going to be, do we accept a less full recovery or do states draw on other resources to meet these goals and needs, perhaps at the cost of investments in other kinds of social programs or functions of the state,' said McTarnaghan. Not all states will be able to generate much more revenue, she added. 'The confluence of states that have really high disaster exposure and states that have relatively limited fiscal capacity are overlapping in many ways,' she said. 'That's the case for a lot of states along the Gulf Coast that we're concerned about going into hurricane season but also the case for some Midwestern states that face issues with severe convective storms.' Trump dismissed the idea that states can't handle the bulk of disasters on their own. 'The governor should be able to handle it and frankly if they can't handle the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' he said. He suggested that some of the gaps could be filled by more collaboration among states. Noem said FEMA is building communication and mutual aid agreements among states 'to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet.' A national mutual-aid structure called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact already exists, but its operations are typically reimbursed by the federal government, said Coen. 'There's already robust communication between states. The confusion is what they can expect from the federal government.' Regarding the current hurricane season, which began June 1, Noem said FEMA 'stands prepared.' But there have already been changes to how the agency operates. It suspended its door-to-door canvassing program that helped enroll survivors for assistance. More than 2,000 FEMA staff, around one-third of the full-time workforce, have left or been fired since January. After severe weather this spring, some states waited as long as eight weeks for their disaster declaration requests, and several requests are still pending. Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation assistance since February, a typical add-on to individual and public assistance that helps states build back in more resilient ways. A FEMA review council established by Trump and co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will submit suggestions for reforms in the next few months, according to Noem. In its first meeting in May, Noem told the group of governors, emergency managers, and other officials primarily from Republican states that Trump is seeking drastic change. 'I don't want you to go into this thinking we're going to make a little tweak here,' she said. 'No, FEMA should no longer exist as it is.' ___


CNN
5 hours ago
- CNN
US moves to relocate non-essential personnel from the Middle East amid heightened security concerns
The US State and Defense departments on Wednesday made efforts to arrange the departure of non-essential personnel from locations around the Middle East, according to US officials and sources familiar with the efforts. It's not clear what is causing the sudden change in posture, but a defense official said US Central Command is monitoring 'developing tension in the Middle East.' President Donald Trump is aware of the recent personnel movements, a White House official said. While the reasons for the heightened security concerns in the region are not clear, the planned departures come as tensions involving Iran and Israel have recently escalated as the Trump administration continues to pursue a new nuclear deal with Iran. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has authorized the voluntary departure of military dependents from locations across the Middle East, according to the official. 'The safety and security of our service members and their families remains our highest priority and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East,' the official said. The State Department is also preparing to order the departure of non-essential personnel from the US embassies in Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait due to increased security risks in the region, according to a separate US official and another source familiar with the matter. A departure of non-essential personnel will also be ordered for the US consulate in Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan, the sources said. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has said he's grown less confident in being able to strike a deal with Iran curbing the country's nuclear ambitions, saying in a new interview that Tehran could be 'delaying' striking an agreement. 'I'm getting more and more less confident about it. They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame, but I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago,' Trump said in an interview with a New York Post podcast that was released earlier on Wednesday. 'Something happened to them, but I am much less confident of a deal being made,' he went on, saying it was his 'instincts' telling him a deal was moving further from reach. CNN also reported Wednesday that Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop talk of an attack on Iran, according to a source familiar with the conversation. The two leaders spoke on the phone on Monday. Trump later said the call went 'very well, very smooth.' Iran's defense minister warned Wednesday that if the nuclear talks with the US fail and conflict breaks out, the US would be 'forced to leave the region.' Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh said that in such a scenario 'the adversary will certainly suffer heavier casualties,' though he did not specify whether the 'adversary' was the US, Israel or both. In his comments published by Iran's state-run IRNA news agency, the defense minister said some officials from the opposing side had 'made threatening remarks, warning of potential conflict in case no agreement is reached' in the US-Iran talks. 'In that case, the US will have no choice but to leave the region, as all of its bases are within the reach of Iranian military and they will not hesitate to target all of them in their host countries,' Nasirzadeh said.