• The partial government shutdown is now affecting TSA PreCheck.
• The Department of Homeland Security said it was suspending TSA PreCheck and Global Entry.
• The TSA says it is evaluating on a “case-by-case basis” depending on staffing levels.

Federal officials said they suspended TSA PreCheck and Global Entry Sunday morning at 6 a.m. ET, but in many US airports, the lanes remained open past the deadline.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Saturday night that it would shut down the expedited airport security and immigration lanes due to the partial government shutdown, which left the department without funding.

The Transportation Security Administration, which operates PreCheck and is an agency of DHS, said it was evaluating the situation on “a case-by-case basis.”

“At this time, TSA PreCheck remains operational with no change for the traveling public,” a TSA spokesperson said Saturday morning. “As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and adjust operations accordingly.”

Los Angeles International Airport said Saturday on social media that it was diverting all TSA PreCheck customers to general screening lanes. It later removed the post. San Francisco International Airport said on X that all TSA PreCheck and Global Entry “remain operational.”

Travel chaos at airports is often an impetus to end government shutdowns. TSA and customs agents are considered essential employees and are working without pay during the partial shutdown, as they did for 43 days during the full shutdown in October.

Last year’s shutdown ended after air traffic controllers began to call out after several $0 paychecks. The 2019 shutdown ended soon after mass callouts temporarily halted travel in New York.

Social media posts showed that PreCheck lanes were still operating at major airports on Sunday, including Minneapolis, Washington, DC, and Orlando, hours after the 6 a.m. cutoff.

The injection of confusion comes on an already stressful travel weekend, with many flights canceled as the country prepares for a blizzard in parts of the Northeast. Airlines like JetBlue and Delta have preemptively said some flights in the region will be canceled and have offered travel waivers to affected flyers.

TSA PreCheck allows approved travelers to keep shoes and jackets on and leave laptops and liquids in bags, while Global Entry provides expedited passport control when returning to the US from abroad.

Both programs are widely used by frequent flyers and business travelers and are designed to help agents handle more travelers more efficiently through facial recognition and automation. If the lanes close, wait times at airports could increase significantly.

TSA PreCheck costs $76.75 per traveler for a five-year pass (renewals start at about $58); Global Entry, which includes PreCheck, costs $120. DHS said passengers with active memberships will be able to fly using standard security or immigration lines.

CLEAR, a separate, privately run expedited checkpoint, appears to be operating.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency is “making tough but necessary workforce and resource decisions” and prioritizing the “general traveling population” at airports.

“Without appropriations, TSA simply cannot afford to risk overstretching our staff and weakening our security posture,” she added.

The lanes would reopen once the agency secures funding, DHS said.

• President Donald Trump has demanded that Netflix drop Susan Rice from its board.
• Trump was reacting to critical comments about his administration that Rice made during a podcast.
• Here’s exactly what she said in conversation with Preet Bharara.

President Donald Trump has warned Netflix to remove former US ambassador and national security advisor Susan Rice from its board “or pay the consequences.”

The stakes are high for Netflix: It’s in the middle of trying to execute a mega-deal to buy Warner Bros.

Rice, who served in senior roles in the Obama and Biden administrations, was critical of Trump’s second term in office when she appeared on the “Stay Tuned with Preet Bharara” podcast in an episode published on Thursday. Rice made comments about corporations that “take a knee to Trump,” saying they could face retribution under a subsequent Democratic administration.

After right-wing activist Laura Loomer posted about Rice’s comments, Trump responded: “Netflix should fire racist, Trump Deranged Susan Rice, IMMEDIATELY, or pay the consequences. She’s got no talent or skills – Purely a political hack! HER POWER IS GONE, AND WILL NEVER BE BACK. How much is she being paid, and for what??? Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DJT.”

Loomer’s post highlighted comments Rice made about corporations.

Here’s exactly what Rice said on that topic:

“When it comes to the elites, you know, the corporate interests, the law firms, the universities, the media, I agree with you, Preet, it is not, it’s not going to end well for them. For those that decided that it was, you know, that they would act in their perceived very narrow self-interest, which I would underscore is very short-term self-interest, and, you know, take a knee to Trump, I think they’re now starting to realize, ‘Wait a minute, you know, this is not popular.’

“Trump is not popular. What he is doing, whether on the economy and affordability or on immigration, now, is not popular, and that there is likely to be a swing in the other direction, and they are going to be caught with more than their pants down, they’re going to be held accountable by those who come in opposition to Trump and win at the ballot box.

“And I can tell you Preet, you know, as I talk to leaders in Washington, leaders in our party, leaders in the states, if these corporations think that the Democrats, when they come back in power, are going to, you know, play by the old rules and say, ‘Oh, never mind, we’ll forgive you for all the people you fired, all the policies and principles you’ve violated, all, you know, the laws you’ve skirted,’ I think they’ve got another thing coming.”

Netflix’s pursuit of Warner Bros. would require approval from the Department of Justice’s antitrust division.

Trump in December said that Netflix had a “very big market share,” and that its potential acquisition of Warner Bros. “could be a problem.”

However, this month, he said he “shouldn’t be involved” in the deal and would defer to the Department of Justice to investigate the proposed merger.

Paramount, backed by Trump ally Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle cofounder, is also trying to buy Warner Bros.

A White House official told Business Insider last week that Trump “has great relationships with all parties in this potential transaction and remains neutral in this process with no preference for either bidder.”

Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos said on a podcast appearance last week that Trump had not asked for any political concessions related to the deal.

‘I expected it to be very bad’

In the podcast interview, Rice was critical of Trump on many fronts.

When asked what worried her most about the current political situation, Rice said:

“The thing that worries me, perhaps the very most, is the abrogation of the rule of law in this country, and the fact that, you know, we are now living in a lawless society when the authorities of what is an increasingly authoritarian state exercises, you know, personal police forces, to go and execute the will of the President and do so in blatant violation of American citizens constitutional rights, their First Amendment rights, their Second Amendment rights, their Fourth Amendment rights.”

“And when you have, you know, masked armed men busting into the houses of American citizens and ripping people out of their homes in their underwear and beating them and throwing them to the ground and putting them in cars and disappearing them and denying them access to counsel or their families, when you have the same people shooting American citizens in the street for exercising their First Amendment rights, we are in a very different place, and that worries me enormously.

“And what also worries me, Preet is, you won’t be surprised to hear, is that we’re only at the beginning of what I think they may intend to try and that our very elections and our the fundamental elements of our democracy are profoundly at risk.”

When asked for her assessment of the Trump administration’s past 12 months in office, Rice said:

“Well, I expected it to be very bad, and I guess I would confess that it’s probably worse than I anticipated, but not because they’re doing things that surprised me. They told us exactly what they were going to do.”

“You know, recall Trump saying multiple times on the campaign trail, ‘If you vote for me, this one time, you’ll never have to vote again.’ Or his, you know, pledge to use the American military against the quote, ‘enemy within.’

“You know, you had Stephen Miller, foreshadowing not only the use of the Insurrection Act, but potentially the suspension of habeas corpus and the imposition of martial law. All of these are, you know, they tell you, interestingly, where they intend to head.

“But what surprised me is the speed and the efficacy of their efforts to do what they set out to do, and the fact that they have faced very little resistance from members of their own party, from the private sector, from civil society leaders and university heads and law firms and all of the, you know, the pillars of society, media — that have rolled over and played dead or hidden under rocks.

“So I think the speed and the ease with which they’ve made progress on their agenda, which they laid out very clearly in Project 2025, and elsewhere, is what surprised me more than what they’ve tried to do.”

Disclosure: Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider’s parent company, is a Netflix board member.

New York City’s infamous jail, Rikers Island, currently houses nearly 7,000 detainees. Chefs, not inmates, do the cooking. But while they’re on their shift, the chefs are locked in, too. There are cameras everywhere, monitored from the guard’s office. Knives are chained to heavy machinery. Can lids slide into a locked cage. Spoons are locked up in the office. Inside Rikers’ kitchens, there’s a delicate balance between the chefs, guards, and the detainees who wash the dishes.

• My son became quieter as he entered his tween years.
• Car rides turned into our most meaningful time together.
• Showing up consistently matters more than forcing conversations.

When my son was still under 5, I worked at the local library. In my free time, my son was basically my best buddy. My supervisor at the time had teenagers, so she was in a different parenting stage than I was.

I remember her saying that the secret to keeping her kids close was to drive them around as much as possible. This kept her kids talking to her and enabled her to maintain close relationships with them.

She was so right with her advice.

My son is now a tween

My son just turned 12, and the shift from boy to teenager seems to have happened overnight. He is becoming more independent and less talkative — with me, but not his social circle.

I know it’s the natural order of things for him to spread his wings and to push back a bit against me. But sometimes I just really miss my best buddy and all the fun we had spending time together when he was little. Now, when he’s home from school, he’s often in his room talking on the phone with his friends or playing games online with them.

I think my former boss’s wisdom stuck with me, because the idea of my son growing up and not wanting to talk to me scared me. I’ve come to realize that driving my son around whenever I get the chance is basically priceless. Right now, drives with him are primarily to and from school, but during football or basketball seasons, all of the practices and games really add up. This year, sixth grade has really felt like a turning point, because I’ve noticed an increase in invites to parties, hangouts, and sleepovers.

I realize that as he gets older, these social outings will only increase. And then one day, when he’s closer to age 16, he’ll likely have a part-time job to add to his schedule. As long as he doesn’t have a car, I know I’ll be his main source of transportation. Instead of dreading, I know these are actually the hidden opportunities, like diamonds in the rough, to remain connected to him as he grows up.

It’s best to allow our conversations to flow naturally

I never try to force a topic on him, because I have found that it’s not the best timing for discipline-based or serious talks. I’m sure he feels trapped, so he shuts down, and it ruins the safe space I’m trying to develop out of our car rides. Allowing the conversation to flow organically is when he’ll surprise me and ask me something random or open up about something that’s been bothering him.

Even if he doesn’t open up every time, I know I’m giving him the space to do so. Often, after a few minutes of being stuck in the car together, one of us will start talking about something. I think having the music on and sightseeing on our way everywhere gives our brains distractions and talking points. It feels like the car is sometimes the white flag zone, where we stop arguing and start talking again.

While he’s mostly reserved, there are other times when he’s more open and chatty, and I just let him vent and do my best to listen. It’s likely therapeutic to have someone who will just listen to him at his age, but it might also be easier for him to open up to me side-by-side instead of face-to-face. Knowing there’s an endpoint, such as knowing we’ll be at his school in five minutes, likely helps too.

I hope I’m also sending him the message that I won’t stop showing up

Willingly taking him everywhere he needs to go daily, I think, is communicating to him that I’m not going to stop showing up for him. That no matter how tense things may be at times between us, I’m going to continue to be there for all of it.

I think it reassures him that I’m not going to give up on my job as his mom, even when things get tough. I’ll be sitting there in silence if that’s what he needs, but the message I hope to send him is: I’m still here.

• Trump says he will impose a 15% ‘worldwide’ tariff.
• He earlier said he would impose a 10% tariff.
• The Supreme Court struck down many of his tariffs on Friday.

President Donald Trump is not giving up on his tariff strategy.

The president said Saturday in a post on Truth Social that he would now impose a 15% ‘worldwide tariff.’

“I, as President of the United States of America, will be, effective immediately, raising the 10% Worldwide Tariff on Countries, many of which have been ‘ripping’ the U.S. off for decades, without retribution (until I came along!), to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level,” he wrote.

In a 6-3 decision on Friday, the Supreme Court said Trump did not have the authority to impose his tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a national security law that allows the president to regulate economic activity during emergencies.

In a press conference following the decision, Trump said he would use a separate authority to impose a 10% global tariff on top of any existing tariffs.

The separate authority is known as Section 122, which can only be imposed for 150 days. After that, Congress must vote to extend.

A White House official later said that countries being tariffed under the authority the Supreme Court struck down will now be subject to that 10% tariff.

“With IEEPA no longer applicable, those countries will now be tariffed at the global 10% tariff using the Section 122 legal authority,” the official said in a statement to Business Insider. “This is, however, only temporary as the Administration will be pursuing other legal authorities to implement more appropriate or pre-negotiated tariff rates.”

The president’s Truth Social post on Saturday, while short on details, indicated he would raise that tariff to 15%.

The IEEPA-justified tariffs have been among Trump’s most powerful weapons in his efforts to renegotiate trade agreements worldwide. They included Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs, announced in April, which are at least 10% on nearly every country in the world.

“During the next short number of months, the Trump Administration will determine and issue the new and legally permissible Tariffs, which will continue our extraordinarily successful process of Making America Great Again,” the president wrote in his Truth Social post on Saturday.

The IoT platform market is mature enough to have dozens of options and immature enough that many of them aren’t really platforms at all. Choosing the wrong one doesn’t usually blow up at deployment. It surfaces later, when margins shrink, projects stall, and switching costs are already too high.

After years of watching system integrators, OEMs, and enterprise teams navigate this choice (and sometimes deeply regret it), I’ve distilled a 20-point selection checklist. But before you go through all twenty, here are five traps that keep destroying projects and business relationships. These are not edge cases. They are patterns.

Trap 1: You’re Evaluating a Dashboard Builder, Not a Platform

A vendor shows you a slick demo. Nice charts, clean UI, data flowing from an MQTT broker into a time-series database, some alerts on top. Looks like an IoT platform, right? It’s not. A dashboard builder with an MQTT broker bolted on is not an IoT platform. A device management tool with a web interface isn’t one either. And a single-vertical solution repackaged as something “generic” is probably the worst offender: it looks convincing until you try to do something outside that one vertical.

Before you evaluate anything else, make sure the platform covers the absolute minimum: multi-protocol connectivity (not only MQTT/HTTP), bi-directional device control, structured hierarchical data modeling, event-driven processing with correlations and root cause analysis, native visualization, API-based integrations, and a security model that goes beyond TLS and passwords.

If even one of these is missing, it’s not an enterprise IoT platform. It’s a component that will require five more components around it, each with its own integration cost, maintenance burden, and point of failure. Walk away early.

Trap 2: “MQTT and REST” Is Not a Connectivity Strategy

This one is deceptively simple. MQTT and REST work beautifully for modern sensors and clean APIs. The first project flows, everyone is happy. Then comes the second project with industrial PLCs, Modbus, OPC UA, and even legacy serial protocols. The platform can’t connect to half the devices, and the team is stuck.

Even if you’re building just one solution today, think about tomorrow. Your next customer or vertical will almost certainly bring devices that don’t speak MQTT. And if every unsupported device requires an expensive gateway or the vendor’s professional services to integrate, your margins will erode with every new project.

What you actually need is broad industrial protocol support covering both IT and OT, an SDK or driver framework you can use yourself, and the ability to build custom protocol adaptors without calling the vendor every time. Gateway and edge connectivity should be part of the deal, not a separate product with a separate price tag. If the platform locks you into “MQTT/REST only”, you’re selecting a constraint, not a platform.

Trap 3: Weak Data Modeling: the Silent Margin Killer

Data modeling is invisible during demos and tends to surface only when real money is already on the table.

Most platforms offer some form of “device twins” or “digital twins”, essentially a flat structure where each device has properties and maybe some metadata. That works for monitoring dashboards. It does not work for real IoT solutions where you need hierarchy: Enterprise → Factory → Workshop → Production Line → Unit, or Building → Floor → Zone → Room → Sensor. These aren’t cosmetic layers. They define how data flows, how access control works, how alerts propagate, and how operators actually interact with the system.

Ask explicitly: does the platform support a formal, platform-wide data model? Can you visually design custom business object hierarchies, not just flat device lists? Can you define parameters, operations, event types, and dynamic object-to-object bindings? Is this reusable across projects?

Here’s a practical test I always recommend: take the platform’s demo and try to build your actual asset hierarchy. Not the vendor’s example. Yours. If it takes more than a day and still feels awkward, you have your answer.

When data modeling is weak, every project turns into custom development. You hardcode what should be configurable, duplicate what should be inherited, and every new customer multiplies the problem instead of reusing the solution. This is how SIs end up losing money on projects that looked profitable at the proposal stage.

Trap 4: Cloud-Only Deployment is a Time Bomb

Cloud-native is great. Cloud-only is a serious strategic risk, especially in industrial IoT, telco, and government sectors. A significant share of enterprise customers either can’t or won’t put their operational data into a public cloud. Utility companies have data residency requirements. Manufacturers want everything behind their firewall. Telcos need to run the platform in their own data centers. This isn’t a niche concern; it’s the reality for most industrial deployments.

If the platform only runs in the vendor’s cloud or supports just one public cloud provider, you’ve put a ceiling on your customer base. And the vendor’s promise of “we’ll add on-prem support later” should not give you any comfort. Cloud-to-on-prem portability is an architectural decision that either exists from day one or costs a fortune to retrofit.

The checklist is rather obvious: on-premise deployment, private cloud, multiple public clouds (not just AWS or Azure), hybrid architectures, cloud-provider agnostic operation, and edge deployment. Mandatory for any serious industrial, telco, or MSP-oriented business.

Trap 5: The Edge-Cloud Frankenstein

This trap is particularly nasty because it hides behind good-looking slides. An “edge solution” and a “cloud platform” that work together seamlessly. On paper. In reality, these are often two separate codebases — sometimes from two separate acquisitions — duct-taped together via APIs.

The practical consequence is painful: what’s built for the cloud gets rebuilt for the edge. The team maintains two platforms instead of one, needs two sets of skills, and runs two deployment pipelines. Code portability between edge and cloud remains a slide-deck fantasy rather than an engineering reality.

What you need is fundamentally simple (and surprisingly rare): same codebase across edge and central platform, same development tools, no “rewrite for edge” requirement. When a model, a dashboard, or an alert rule designed in the cloud can be deployed to an edge node without modification — that’s real edge-cloud compatibility. Everything else will cost you months per project.

Ask the vendor directly: “Is your edge product the same software as your cloud product?” If the answer involves phrases like “lightweight version” or “seamless integration between our two products”, you know what you’re dealing with.

These Five Are Just the Start

Platform selection has more dimensions than connectivity and deployment. Think vendor maturity, AI readiness (yes, it’s 2026 and MCP servers and development agents are part of the conversation now), security architecture, pricing transparency, and the uncomfortable question of what happens if the vendor disappears.

The key takeaway: platform choice defines your profitability, scalability, and reputation for years to come. Weak platforms have a way of silently destroying margins before anyone notices.

I’ve put together a comprehensive IoT Platform Selection Checklist covering the full picture. It’s designed as a practical yes/no/maybe tool: if too many boxes stay unchecked, walk away.

→ Read the full IoT Platform Selection Checklist (2026 Edition)

The post IoT Platform Selection: Five Traps to Avoid appeared first on IoT Business News.