82nd Airborne Deployment, Israel Threatens Lebanon Invasion, DHS Funding Negotiations

Up First from NPR · Mar 25, 2026 · 13m

NPR has confirmed the U.S. is sending thousands of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne to the Middle East, raising questions about whether this is an escalation in the war or a pressure tactic to force Iran to the negotiating table.

Lebanon expelled Iran's ambassador as Israel threatens to move the country's border northward and use the "Gaza model" in the south of Lebanon, with more than a million people already displaced.

And Congress is inching toward a deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security, but President Trump says he's probably not going to be happy with it, leaving TSA…