Due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, the threat of oil crisis is looming all over the world. Meanwhile, a report has claimed that Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman is insisting on US President Donald Trump to continue military operations against Iran. He described this war as an important opportunity in changing the geographical situation of the region.

Saudi in favor of removing Iran’s current regime: report

According to the New York Times report, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has emphasized on maintaining constant pressure on Iran in his recent conversation with Trump. He also said that Iran is a threat to the Gulf countries, which can be solved only by removing the current government. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also sees Iran as a threat. Experts say that Saudi Arabia’s concerns are different. Despite these reports, Saudi Arabia has publicly denied applying pressure to prolong the war.

Saudi government supports peaceful solution

In an official statement, the Saudi government said, ‘We have always supported a peaceful solution to this war even before it started. Our biggest concern today is to protect our people and their homes from the daily attacks on them. Iran has chosen the path of dangerous confrontation instead of diplomatic solutions. This has caused loss to all parties concerned, but Iran has suffered the most loss.

Saudi suggested ground action: report

Saudi Arabia has already suffered economic and security losses due to this war. In response to the US-Israel attacks, Iran attacked Gulf countries with missiles and drones, disrupting the oil market. The impact of the Strait of Hormuz has had an impact on exports from Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. Trump sometimes hints at reducing tension and sometimes hints at increasing it.

According to the New York Times, Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman agreed to take even tougher action, including targeting Iran’s energy infrastructure. The report claimed that Mohammed bin Salman also suggested ground action to weaken the government in Tehran.

A GOP state legislative candidate in Florida is aiming to keep Republicans in control of a long-vacant state house seat in a Palm Beach-anchored district that includes Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s home turf.

Republican Jon Maples is facing off in a special election in Florida’s House District 87 against Democrat Emily Gregory in the race to fill the seat left vacant last August, when GOP state Rep. Mike Caruso resigned to become Palm Beach County clerk and comptroller.

The ballot box battle is one of three special legislative elections being held in GOP-dominated Florida on Tuesday. And while the contests won’t change the balance of power in the state legislature, where for more than a quarter-century Republicans have held majorities in both the House and Senate chambers, bragging rights are up for grabs in the president’s home district.

Maples is backed by Trump, who moved his primary permanent residence in 2019 from Trump Tower in New York City to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. He is also backed by a number of top Sunshine State Republicans.

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President Donald Trump is backing Republican Jon Maples in Tuesday’s special legislative election in Florida’s House District 87, which includes Mar-a-Lago, the president’s permanent residence in Palm Beach, Florida. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images; AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

“There is a very important Special Election tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24th, for Florida State House District 87 in beautiful Palm Beach County — JON MAPLES HAS MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!” the president wrote in a social media post on Monday evening.

The 43-year-old Maples, a financial planner and former Lake Clarke Shores Council member who during his years at Palm Beach Atlantic University was an all-American athlete, has made cutting taxes and government spending, reducing regulations, promoting private sector job creation, and advancing school choice.

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Gregory, a 40-year-old Army spouse, owns and runs a Jupiter-based fitness center for pregnant and postpartum women. The first-time candidate has made affordability, increasing public education, tackling rising property insurance and housing costs, and access to health care key parts of her campaign.

Maples was the favorite heading into the special election, thanks to his fundraising advantage in a district that leads to the right. Trump carried the district by roughly ten points in his 2024 re-election victory.

A victory by Maples would be further evidence of the GOP surge in Palm Beach County, which was once firmly blue.

In central Florida‘s Hillsborough County, Republican Josie Tomkow and Democrat Brian Nathan are facing off Tuesday in the State Senate 14 race to succeed Republican Jay Collins, who resigned from the seat in August to become the state’s lieutenant governor.

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The district includes much of Democrat-leaning Tampa as well as the more GOP-leaning Northwest Hillsborough suburbs.

And Republican Hilary Holley and Democrat Edwin Perez are on the ballot in the special election in House District 51, in the race to replace Tomkow. The district covers parts of Polk County, in the central part of the state.

The Army’s top civilian and enlisted leaders have awarded eight Meritorious Service Medals and two Purple Hearts to Old Dominion University ROTC cadets who stopped the March 12 gunman later identified by the FBI as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former National Guardsman convicted in a case tied to support for the Islamic State.

In a private ceremony this week, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll and Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Weimer honored the cadets for their actions during the attack inside an ROTC classroom, according to U.S. Army Cadet Command on Facebook. The cadets’ names were withheld for privacy.

Federal authorities have said the cadets subdued and killed Jalloh after he opened fire, killing military science professor Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, 42, and wounding two others during an attack during their class at Old Dominion in Norfolk, Virginia.

One cadet was hospitalized in critical condition, while the other was treated and released after the deadly melee.

STRING OF ATTACKS CONNECTED TO NATURALIZED CITIZENS RAISES NATIONAL SECURITY QUESTIONS

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael R. Weimer and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll presented honors to Old Dominion University Army ROTC cadets, acknowledging their bravery and sacrifice during a classroom shooting earlier in the month. (Ian Ives / U.S. Army)

The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are wounded, killed or die from wounds received in combat, while a prisoner of war, or in action against an enemy force.

The Meritorious Service Medal is the noncombatant service equivalent honor to the Bronze Star.

It has not been made clear how many students were in the class at the time of the shooting, which the FBI has described as an act of terrorism, hailing the cadets’ intervention to prevent additional casualties.

“There were students that were in that room that subdued him, and, uh, rendered him no longer, uh, alive,” according to Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk field office, in news conference remarks that raised outpouring of American pride on social media.

SOROS-BACKED DA SPARKS BACKLASH AFTER BLAMING OLD DOMINION SHOOTING ON PRO-GUN LAWMAKERS: ‘F— RIGHT OFF’

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll honored eight cadets from Old Dominion University’s Army ROTC program with Meritorious Service Medals and two were awarded Purple Hearts for their courage, service and bravery for “terminating” an ISIS terrorist attacker. (Ian Ives / U.S. Army)

“I don’t know how else to say it,” Evans said. “They basically were able to terminate the threat.”

They heroically did so without guns.

Jalloh “was not shot,” she added, as reports indicated the cadets killed the ISIS-linked assassin by stabbing him to death.

VIRGINIA MAN CHARGED WITH SELLING WEAPON USED BY OLD DOMINION UNIVERSITY GUNMAN

Jalloh’s ability to carry out an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in the U.S. after President Donald Trump started the military strikes on Iran is a function of former President Joe Biden’s Justice Department releasing a terrorist.

Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll shakes the hands of Old Dominion University Army ROTC cadets after awarding eight Meritorious Service Medals and two Purple Hearts during a private ceremony Sunday. (Ian Ives / U.S. Army)

Jalloh had pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to provide material support to ISIS and had been released from federal custody in December 2024 to mere supervised probation, which failed to prevent the attack.

He was released about 2 1/2 years early after completing a drug treatment program, a person familiar with the matter told the AP. The person was not authorized to speak publicly and did so on condition of anonymity.

It was not clear how Jalloh qualified for the program, which allows inmates to shave up to a year off their sentences. Inmates serving sentences for terrorism-related offenses typically are not eligible for such programs or other sentence-reducing credits.

DEM-BACKED ‘SOCIAL JUSTICE’ LAW PUT VIRGINIA’S ODU CAMPUS AT RISK BEFORE ATTACK, FORMER AG ARGUES

Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said less than 10 minutes passed between when officers were called about a shooting in the university’s business school building and when responders determined the shooter was dead.

“The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote March 12 on X.

Three members of the U.S. Army ROTC program at Old Dominion were wounded, including one who died. Jalloh also had served. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone was a specialist with the Virginia Army National Guard from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged.

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Shah, 42, was the university’s professor of military science and a former ODU ROTC cadet who returned in 2022 to lead the program.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is cobbled together talking to senior Senate Republican sources.

Senate Republicans are developing a plan to fund most aspects of DHS — leaving out controversial programs like certain ICE operations — to end the five-and-a-half week partial government shutdown. This emerged after a meeting at the White House last night. There is a lot to sort out at the GOP Conference luncheon at the Capitol today.

However, Fox is told that the Senate could start to move forward on a plan to end the DHS shutdown “as early as tonight.”

SCHIFF, BOOKER DEFLECT ON SHUTDOWN BLAME AMID TERROR CONCERNS, THOUSANDS OF DHS WORKERS WITHOUT PAY

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Republican leadership following a policy luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The new plan would fund ICE investigations — like cartels, traffickers and child predators. But they will leave unfunded programs for “enforcement and removal.”

Ironically, this idea would mirror what Democrats have tried to do on multiple occasions. Democrats have asked unanimous consent on the floor to pass bills to fund DHS — sans ICE.

So, Republicans have come around to the position that this is the only way out of this cul-de-sac — even if it reflects the Democratic position.

Still, Republicans contend they are “calling the Democrats bluff.”

“We’re going to have to move forward and give them what they want,” said one Senate Republican source, referring to the Democrats.

THUNE REVEALS REASON DEMOCRATS ARE ‘SCARED’ TO REOPEN DHS

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., arrives for a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol after President Donald Trump selected Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., to replace Kristi Noem as the Department of Homeland Security secretary on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

But the question is whether Democrats will balk — especially since this was their idea. Regardless, this approach would still need Democratic buy-in and need 60 votes to clear a filibuster.

Fox is told that this is NOT pre-baked with House Republicans. The House and Senate would have to sync up to end the shutdown. Lawmakers on both sides are increasingly freaked out about the possibility of a terrorist attack — to say nothing of watching lengthy lines at airports.

Now the question is what Republicans can do with the SAVE America Act.

SEN KENNEDY SAYS HE WOULD ACCEPT DEMOCRATS’ OFFER TO ‘OPEN UP EVERYTHING’ BUT ICE

ICE agents arrive at JFK airport in New York City, N.Y., on Monday, March 23, 2026. The agents are being brought in to assist TSA agents amid staffing shortages due to the government shutdown. (David Dee Delgado for Fox News)

Fox is told that Republicans hope to extract a promise from Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to come off the SAVE America Act — and resume that debate after the Easter/Passover recess.

But that bill lacks the votes to pass.

In addition, Republicans are looking at stuffing some provisions from the SAVE America Act into a budget reconciliation package. By nature, a reconciliation package is NOT subject to a filibuster and only needs a simple majority to pass. However, reconciliation requires bills be fiscal in nature and deal with numbers, not policy.

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It is possible Republicans could fund the enforcement and removal programs at ICE under budget reconciliation. But portions of the SAVE America Act are dicey. Fox is told that Republicans could try to focus on the “money” aspects of the SAVE America Act — such as withholding dollars from states which don’t require photo ID, et al. But getting those provisions past the Senate umpire, Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, is challenging. MacDonough could rule out of order policy provisions pertaining to the SAVE America Act in a reconciliation measure.