News

News

March 5, 2026

WH Mulling Ideas to Lower Gas Prices Amid Iran Conflict

President Donald Trump’s top advisers are searching for ways to bring down gasoline prices after military action against Iran triggered volatility in global energy markets.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, has directed administration officials to present ideas to the Oval Office aimed at easing energy costs for Americans, according to energy industry executives familiar with the discussions, Politico reported.

The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices.

The push comes after U.S. strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation against energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf drove crude oil prices higher.

Oil jumped more than $10 a barrel in the days following the attacks, sending gasoline prices to their highest levels since Trump took office last year.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other officials involved in energy policy are under pressure to identify solutions that could calm markets and reassure consumers, according to people familiar with the internal discussions.

The administration has already taken steps aimed at stabilizing global energy flows.

Trump announced that the U.S. military would provide protection for commercial ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran threatened tankers in the critical shipping corridor.

The White House also directed the U.S. International Development Finance Corp. to provide insurance coverage for vessels whose policies were canceled as fighting intensified in the region.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration believes the president’s actions against Iran will ultimately help energy markets by preventing Tehran from controlling the Strait of Hormuz and restricting global oil supplies.

DOJ charges 30 more in storming of Minnesota church, 25 already arrested

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment charging roughly 30 more people who took part in storming Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed the action in a post on X, confirming that federal agents had already arrested 25 of the newly charged individuals.

The indictment accuses all 39 people, including the original nine defendants, of violating two civil rights laws. No additional criminal charges were added beyond those already filed, but the scope of the prosecution just expanded dramatically.

Bondi made the stakes plain: “YOU CANNOT ATTACK A HOUSE OF WORSHIP. If you do so, you cannot hide from us — we will find you, arrest you, and prosecute you.”

“At my direction, federal agents have already arrested 25 of them, with more to come throughout the day.”

That language matters. “With more to come” is not a press release pleasantry. It’s a warning to anyone who participated and hasn’t yet heard a knock on their door. The DOJ is treating this as an ongoing investigation, not a closed case with a few symbolic charges tacked on. The original nine defendants were just the beginning. Thirty more names on an indictment suggest investigators spent weeks combing through video footage, social media posts, and witness accounts to identify every person who crossed that threshold. In an era when activists routinely livestream their own crimes, the evidence trail tends to be generous.

The DOJ revealed it was looking into potential violations of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and the so-called “KKK Act.” That combination carries real weight and a certain poetic justice.

“The Biden DOJ used the Klan Act conspiracy charges tacked onto the FACE Act in the case of protests outside abortion clinics to bring much longer sentences.”

For years, the FACE Act served as the Biden administration’s weapon of choice against pro-life demonstrators. Data indicates 97 percent of FACE Act cases since the law’s inception in 1994 have been against pro-life advocates. Grandmothers who prayed outside abortion clinics faced federal prosecution. Peaceful protesters who blocked doorways got the full weight of federal conspiracy charges.

Now the same statute applies to a mob that stormed a house of worship. The left built this legal infrastructure. They sharpened these tools. They established the precedent that interfering with access to a protected facility is a federal crime worthy of aggressive prosecution. They just never imagined those tools would be pointed back at their own side.

There are a number of tools available to us. Who funded this? What other crimes may have occurred? Was there a use of the wires or the mail in preparing for this event?”

Those are not idle rhetorical questions from a cable news guest. That’s the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights telegraphing the direction of a federal investigation. “Who funded this?” is the question that turns a mob action into an organized conspiracy case. Wire fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy charges carry their own sentencing enhancements. If organizers used email, social media, or any electronic communication to plan and coordinate the storming of a church, the legal exposure multiplies.

The anti-ICE protest movement has long operated with a level of coordination that suggests more than spontaneous outrage. Someone rented buses. Someone printed signs. Someone chose that church on that day. Federal investigators now appear interested in finding out who.

Former CNN host Don Lemon recorded a live YouTube video of anti-ICE protesters storming Cities Church. He was arrested in January and charged with federal civil rights crimes. Lemon clarified that he was “not part of the group” and was merely “photographing….That defense will get its day in court. But it’s worth noting that Lemon wasn’t reporting for a news organization. He wasn’t credentialed. He was a former cable host with a YouTube channel who happened to be livestreaming inside a church under siege. Federal prosecutors evidently found the journalist’s defense unpersuasive enough to file charges.

What’s changed is not the law. It’s the willingness to apply it without ideological favoritism. A church is a protected institution. The people inside it have civil rights. A mob that forces its way into disrupting worship and intimidating congregants has committed a federal offense, regardless of whether the mob believes its cause is righteous.

Thirty more indictments. Twenty-five arrests and counting. An investigation into the organizers and the money. For a movement that grew accustomed to consequence-free disruption, the rules just changed.

US Carries Out Strike on Iranian Warship off Sri Lanka Coast

A U.S. submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.

Sri Lankan Foreign minister Vijitha Herath had earlier told parliament 180 people were on board the Iranian vessel, which he identified as the IRIS Dena.

A ship named IRINS Dena was listed as taking part in a naval drill held in the Bay of Bengal from Feb. 18-25, according to the exercise’s website.

Sri Lankan navy spokesman Commander Buddhika Sampath said bodies had been recovered from the sea in the area of the incident. Thirty-two people were rescued by the Sri Lankan navy and were being treated in hospital in the southern port city of Galle.

The navy received a distress call from an Iranian ship and informed the Sri Lankan air force and both launched a search and rescue operation, he said.

Rescue boats that reached the site did not see the ship and observed only an oil slick, Sampath said, adding that the incident took place outside Sri Lankan waters but Colombo was still committed to providing support.

Sri Lankan forces were focused on saving lives on the Iranian ship and will investigate the cause of the incident later, he said.

Sri Lankan forces had also not observed any other ship or aircraft in the area of the incident.

 

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