18MAR26: IRAN WAR UPDATE: Israel killed Iran’s intelligence minister, and also struck the South Pars gas field shared with Qatar, which is dangerous because it drags Gulf energy infrastructure directly into the war. Iran then reportedly threatened oil facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, and that is how you turn a regional war into a global energy and inflation crisis fast. The Wall Street Journal says oil could hit $110 a barrel, especially if Iran retaliates by disrupting Qatar’s LNG exports, which would keep global energy prices elevated. Gas prices in the US are already jumping, with regular gasoline now averaging about $3.58 a gallon, up sharply in just the last month. The US says it hit Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz with deep-penetration bombs, targeting weapons that threatened shipping through one of the most important energy chokepoints on earth. Trump is now floating the idea of just leaving the Strait of Hormuz closed, which is insane, because that would send oil, gas, fertilizer, plastics, airfare, and basically prices across the whole economy soaring. America’s image abroad is collapsing, with favorable views of the US reportedly down 79 percent in 24 countries compared to last year. Even Germany’s far-right AfD is warning Trump has no strategy on Iran, which is saying something, because when even they think your war planning is reckless, you have a problem. The Wall Street Journal reports Russia is expanding intelligence-sharing and military cooperation with Iran, because Moscow benefits when the US gets dragged deeper into a long, expensive regional war. At the same time, the New York Times reports Jared Kushner is still trying to raise billions from Middle Eastern governments, even while he’s informally helping Trump on the region, which raises obvious conflict-of-interest questions. The Wall Street Journal editorial board is warning that the Republican SAVE Act could actually hurt Republicans, because the voters least likely to have passports or birth certificates sitting around may be lower-income voters in Trump’s own coalition. And finally, after more than 40 years and roughly 3 to 5 billion votes cast, even Heritage’s own voter fraud database shows only 10 cases of undocumented immigrants voting, which tells you the panic on this issue is wildly out of proportion to reality