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Iran attacked commercial ships on Wednesday across the Persian Gulf and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of squeezing the oil-rich region as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.Two Iranian drones hit near Dubai International Airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world’s busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.Iran’s joint military command announced it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East. That would put at risk particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.Earlier, a projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.Meanwhile, an assessment from Israeli intelligence said it believed Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded at start of the war.An Israeli intelligence official and a reservist with knowledge of the situation spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. They gave no details on the nature of the injuries.The 56-year-old Khamenei the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not been seen since succeeding his father on Monday. His father and wife both were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the conflict.Separately, Kuwait said its defenses downed eight Iranian drones and Saudi Arabia said it intercepted five heading toward the kingdom’s Shaybah oil field.Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic in the narrow strait through which about a fifth of all oil is shipped. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.The U.N. Security Council was to vote later Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the Gulf Cooperation Council demanding Iran stop attacking its Arab neighbors.Witnesses reported continuous airstrikes hitting Tehran after Israel said it had renewed its attacks. Explosions were also heard in Beirut and in southern Lebanon after Israel said it was hitting targets connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants. Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon The attacks set a building ablaze in central Beirut’s densely populated Aicha Bakkar area, engulfing the top two floors. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were wounded.Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since that latest fighting began. Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel after the United States and Israel began the wider war with their surprise bombardment of Iran. Iran launches multiple salvos at Israel and Gulf Arab nations Israel warned of Iranian attacks and sirens rang out in Tel Aviv and elsewhere, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.Saudi Arabia said it had destroyed six ballistic missiles launched toward Prince Sultan Air Base, a major U.S.- and Saudi-operated facility, and intercepted two drones over the eastern city of Hafar al-Batin.The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center, run by the British military, reported an attack on a container ship off the United Arab Emirates, saying the “extent of the damage is currently unknown but under investigation by the crew.” Another ship was hit by a projectile in the Persian Gulf, it said. The crew was reported safe.The ship attacks follow intense American airstrikes targeting Iranian navy assets and the port city of Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.The Iranian threat against financial institutions did not identify any specifically. It came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, the state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the U.S. over funding its armed forces, came under attack early Wednesday, killing staffers there, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.At the United Nations, the Security Council was to vote Wednesday afternoon on the Gulf Cooperation Council resolution, according to three diplomats speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement.The draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, condemns Iran’s attacks on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan. The measure calls for an immediate end to all strikes and threats against neighboring states, including through proxies.It would be the first Security Council resolution considered since the start of the war on Feb. 28. Oil prices stay high on fears of prolonged shipping disruption Oil prices remained well below Monday’s peaks but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began, and consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.Germany and Austria said they are releasing parts of their oil reserves following an International Energy Agency request for its members to release 400 million barrels to help temper energy price spikes.The largest-ever previous collective release of emergency stocks by IEA member countries was 182.7 million barrels, in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Japan also said it will release some of its reserves starting Monday.The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the Strait of Hormuz, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage.If the strait is mined, it could take at least weeks to clean it up once the conflict is over.Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait making so-called “dark” transits — meaning they aren’t turning on their Automatic Identification System trackers, which show where vessels are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their AIS trackers.The security firm Neptune P2P Group said Wednesday there had been seven ships pass through the strait since March 8. Of them, five were linked to Iranian-associated shipping, it said. In ordinary times the strait typically sees 100 ships or more transit daily from the Persian Gulf into the Gulf of Oman.Meanwhile, the commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, it said.In addition to the 570 killed in Lebanon, Iran has said that more than 1,300 people have ben killed there and Israel has reported 12 people dead.The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries. This story has been corrected to fix an earlier misspelling of Mojtaba Khamenei’s first name. Associated Press writers Sally Abou AIJoud, Giovanna Dell’Orto, Jamey Keaten, Jintamas Saksornchai, Kirsten Grieshaber and Edith M. Lederer contributed to this story. Jon Gambrell and David Rising, Associated Press
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Long security lines snaked into baggage claim areas and parking garages at some U.S. airports this weekend, a possible indicator of more widespread travel problems as the latest government shutdown drags on.That kind of disruption, while not yet widespread, is not a concern that typically surfaces at San Francisco International Airport, the largest of nearly two dozen U.S. airports where screening checkpoints are staffed by private contractors under a little-used federal program that allows airports to outsource security screenings while maintaining TSA oversight.Because contractors’ pay comes from a federal contract, it often continues even when the government shuts down.“The money’s already been allocated, the payments have already been made, and that continues without interruption,” SFO spokesperson Doug Yakel told The Associated Press. “That is a very nice place to be.”The contrast draws attention to a long-running debate in the aviation industry: Can private contractors operating under TSA oversight provide a stopgap and shield airport security operations from the political impasses that can disrupt U.S. air travel?Some aviation experts see the TSA screening program as a potential model for keeping security lines moving with fewer disruptions during shutdowns. At SFO, that system helped maintain screening operations during last year’s record 43-day shutdown, Yakel said.But critics caution that privatization is not a silver bullet and could introduce new risks. The union representing federal screeners argues that moving operations to private companies could erode job protections and reduce pay and benefits for workers already facing high turnover amid demanding conditions. How the program works TSA’s screening partnership program allows airports to use private security companies chosen by the federal government to run checkpoints while TSA retains authority over procedures and oversight. The agency says private security screeners receive the same security background check and must meet the same medical requirements as prospective federal security screeners.In addition to SFO, other participating airports include Kansas City International Airport, Atlantic City International Airport and Orlando Sanford International Airport.The vast majority of the nation’s roughly 400 commercial airports, meanwhile, rely on federal screening officers employed directly by TSA. During shutdowns, those workers must continue reporting for duty even though they stop getting paid a dynamic that has historically led to higher absenteeism and slower-moving checkpoints the longer a shutdown lasts.The current partial shutdown affects only the Department of Homeland Security, which includes TSA. Democrats in Congress refused to fund the department over objections to its immigration enforcement tactics. The lapse marks the third shutdown in less than a year to leave TSA workers temporarily without pay and once the government reopens, to have to wait for backpay.Those disruptions can ripple through the travel system, cascading problems across already crowded flight schedules. The strain is especially acute this time of year as airlines and airports brace for what they expect will be one of the busiest spring break travel seasons on record. San Francisco’s airport is a ‘litmus test’ Aviation security expert Sheldon Jacobson, whose research contributed to the design of TSA PreCheck, said the program’s success at SFO, a large international airport, shows that privatization “is something that needs to be explored.”SFO is among the top 15 busiest airports in the U.S. when measured by passenger traffic. A major hub for international travel, it is the second-busiest airport in California behind Los Angeles International Airport.“It’s operated just as well as any other airport,” Jacobson said, adding that SFO’s multiple concourses and status as a hub for United Airlines demonstrate that even large-scale operations can be managed effectively under this model. “If SFO is the litmus test for delivering this privatized product, then many other airports can do it, too.”Jacobson noted that most airports currently using the program are smaller, but “the scale issue should not be a limiting factor,” and he called for a broader conversation on how such options could deliver government services efficiently and benefit travelers.“Of course TSA would have oversight. It’s not like they’re freewheeling on their own,” he said of privately contracted screeners. “We might as well use a government shutdown that affects air travel as an opportunity to begin that discussion.” Why TSA’s union opposes the private model The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents TSA officers, has long opposed privatization.“We will never advocate for any privatization of any federal employees. We don’t believe that’ll work,” Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the TSA union’s bargaining unit, said in a brief phone call this week.In a blog post on its website, the union argues it could weaken accountability for aviation security one of the reasons Congress chose to federalize airport screening after the Sept. 11 attacks.The union also warned that private companies could face pressure to cut costs in ways that affect training, staffing levels and employee benefits. Relying on contractors, the union says, could create inconsistencies between airports if different companies operate checkpoints across the country, potentially complicating oversight of a system designed to maintain uniform national security standards.“We have to remember the TSA was created in the wake of 9/11 when there were no security standards or very minimal security standards,” said airline industry analyst Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group. “The TSA came around, they established very stringent airport screening security requirements, which exist to this day.”Others say there are simpler ways to address the shutdown problem.Industry groups including the U.S. Travel Association, Airlines for America and the American Association of Airport Executives are urging Congress to pass legislation that would ensure aviation workers are paid regardless of the government’s funding status.“Every time Washington fails to fund the government, these essential workers pay the price. So do travelers. So does the economy,” Geoff Freeman, U.S. Travel Association’s president, said in a statement. “That is why America’s travel industry has come together, because this workforce is too important, and the stakes are too high, for this to keep happening.” An unintended benefit of outsourcing screeners Republican lawmakers have pushed in recent years to dismantle the agency entirely and replace its screening functions with private contractors overseen by the federal government.Last year, two GOP seators introduced the “Abolish TSA Act,” which would phase out the agency and transfer oversight to a new office charged with aviation security. Supporters of the long-shot legislation say privatized screening could be more efficient and less vulnerable to shutdowns.TSA leadership has signaled an openness to discussion. Speaking at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing last year, Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior official performing the duties of TSA administrator, said “nothing is off the table” regarding potential privatization.“If a new privatization scheme makes sense, then we’re happy to have that discussion to see what we can come up with,” McNeill said. “It’s not an all-or-nothing game.”At SFO, officials say its screening model was adopted more than 20 years ago for reasons unrelated to government shutdowns. But with shutdowns in recent years growing longer and more disruptive, the airport says its arrangement has revealed an unintended benefit: fewer staffing disruptions at checkpoints.“The benefits, I think, are compelling,” Harteveldt said. “The real issue is making sure that any vendor, any partner to the TSA, upholds the strict standards that TSA has established and works with TSA to ensure that screening remains efficient and finds ways to make it even better.” Associated Press video journalist Haven Daley contributed. Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Writer
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The hits keep coming for fans of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. According to a new court filing from a major franchisee, three additional Popeyes restaurants have permanently shut their doors, bringing the total number of store closures associated with the franchisee’s ongoing bankruptcy proceedings to at least 20. The franchisee, Sailormen Inc. of Miami, Florida, sought Chapter 11 protection earlier this year, citing diminished foot traffic and high inflation. In January, it closed 17 Popeyes restaurants in Florida and Georgia as part of the bankruptcy process, Fast Company previously reported. The additional three restaurants disclosed this week are all based in Georgia. According to a March 10 filing from Sailormen, all three were closed before its January bankruptcy petition. The company is now seeking to reject the leases on the three properties. Before its bankruptcy, Sailormen operated over 130 Popeyes restaurants. It was not immediately clear how many jobs have been lost as a result of the 20 store closures. At the time of its petition, Sailormen said it employed just over 3,300 employees, the vast majority of whom were hourly workers. It’s also unclear if additional restaurants will close. Sailormen did not respond to requests for comment. Which Popeyes restaurants have closed? According to a March 10 court filing, the following three Popeyes stores have closed: 1817 Glynn Ave, Brunswick, GA 31520 628 W Parker St, Baxley, GA 31513 419 S Church St, Homerville, GA 31634 The closures are in addition to 17 restaurants in Florida and Georgia that Sailormen said it closed in January. Why is Popeyes struggling? Restaurant Brands International (RBI), parent company of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, has downplayed Sailormen’s bankruptcy, stating that its underperforming locations are not indicative of the fried chicken chain’s appeal or its performance within the broader fast food market. However, Popeyes has arguably failed to keep pace with fast-growing chicken chains like Wingstop and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, both of which are popular with Gen Z. Last month, RBI reported that Popeyes sales were down almost 5%, its fourth consecutive quarterly decline. In an earnings call, CEO Josh Kobza outlined plans to revive the brand with improved marketing and in-store coaching at low-performing locations. Popeyes had just under 3,200 locations in the United States and more than 5,400 globally as of December 2025.
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