Republicans can fund ICE for an entire decade without a single Dem vote: Sen Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for Republicans to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enough funding to last a decade. He believes Republicans can do that without the support of a single Democrat. “We can do it with just 50 votes,” Cruz said. Lawmakers in the Senate agreed early on Friday to advance funding for DHS that includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and seven other agencies — even as gridlock over ICE remains firmly in place. SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS Cruz believes that Democrat opposition to funding the agency will only continue, promoting the possibility of future shutdowns. “I think we may very well be in a world where these Senate Democrats will never again vote to fund ICE, that they’re simply saying, ‘shut down,’” Cruz said. Like the rest of DHS, funding for ICE lapsed on Feb. 14 when Democrats made their support for the agency conditional on a set of 10 operational reforms. Among other items, Democrats had called for a ban on masks for ICE agents, stiffer warrant requirements for apprehending suspects in public, a ban on roaming patrols and requirements for clearly visible identification — demands Republicans argued would handcuff Trump’s immigration enforcement goals. Cruz believes Republicans can still advance funding without meeting any of those demands through a process called “reconciliation” that would allow Republicans to get around a filibuster. “You need 60 votes to pass funding for the government. We only have 53 Republicans, and so we need at least seven Democrats. Reconciliation, which is how we passed the [Big Beautiful Bill] last year, we can do with just Republicans,” Cruz said. DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END THUNE, GOP BLAST DEMS IN DHS STANDOFF AS LANKFORD SAYS THEY FEAR ICE OVER IRAN “And so, what I’ve argued to my colleagues is let’s take up reconciliation, and let’s fund ICE for the next decade, because the Democrats are going to vote against ICE funding for the foreseeable future, I think, potentially forever,” Cruz said. While lawmakers can’t use that vehicle to change existing policies or set new ones, Cruz argues Republicans can certainly use it to add to ICE’s existing provisions, putting the agency’s funding beyond the influence of another shutdown. In some ways, it’s a plan Republicans have already done once before. Republicans funded ICE to the tune of $75 billion last year through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Cruz’s plan would take the same principle and extend it. At levels from 2025, base funding ICE and its removal operations for 10 years would cost roughly $100 billion. Cruz believes passing those appropriations is consistent with the mandate Republicans received when they won over a governing trifecta in the 2024 elections. SENATE REPUBLICANS MOVE TO REOPEN DHS WITH NEW PLAN, WAIT FOR DEMOCRATIC BUY-IN “The American people said, enough. President Trump and Republican Congress have an incredible record of success on securing the border. We have seen illegal border crossings drop 99%. We’ve seen the murder rate across the country drop 20%. We’ve seen the drug overdose rate nationally drop 20%. “It is literally the case that there are thousands of Americans alive today because President Trump was re-elected, and because we have a Republican House and Senate.” Instead of passing the Senate’s plan, the House advanced its own package late Friday night, which would extend DHS funding at current levels for two months, buying more time for lawmakers to continue negotiations over ICE.
MAPPED: Where gas prices are rising the fastest from the Iran conflict
Gas prices are surging as the ongoing conflict with Iran drives up crude oil costs, fueling higher prices at the pump nationwide. The national average now stands at $3.98 per gallon, up $1 from a month ago, according to AAA. Prices are climbing across nearly every region, with some states already well above the national average. BEFORE-AND-AFTER SATELLITE IMAGERY OFFERS A RARE LOOK AT DAMAGE INSIDE IRAN On the West Coast, drivers are seeing the highest costs, with prices reaching $5.87 per gallon in California and $5.32 in Washington. Along the East Coast, gas prices are approaching or exceeding $4 in several areas, including $4.16 in Washington, D.C., and $3.93 in New York. In the Midwest, Illinois stands out at $4.21 per gallon, while much of the region remains closer to the mid-$3 range. Southern states are generally lower, though still rising, with Texas at $3.60 and South Carolina at $3.64, while Florida is higher at $3.96. THE UNLIKELY TOOL TRUMP IS EYEING TO TACKLE RISING OIL PRICES AMID THE IRAN CONFLICT Diesel prices are climbing faster than gasoline, reflecting their close ties to freight and industry—meaning increases can ripple through supply chains and raise costs across the economy. Diesel averaged $5.41 a gallon, up $1.65 over the same period, according to AAA, surpassing $5 for the first time since December 2022 as the war in Iran continues to disrupt global energy supplies.
DHS shutdown putting Americans at risk as World Cup security prep ‘significantly behind’: Sen Fetterman
Amid a funding standoff that went into overtime on Friday, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., is stressing the need for lawmakers to end travel delays and support the country’s weakened airport security as he warns that security preparations are “significantly behind” for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. “I could never justify this from the start, but here we are day 39, 40? It’s like, how long are you gonna continue that?” Fetterman told Fox News Digital this past week. Fetterman raised concerns that the shutdown — the second for TSA workers in just three months — has wreaked havoc on the country’s transportation security workforce that won’t be easily undone ahead of high-profile U.S.-based events. “Preparations are significantly behind and now we’re 77 days out and this is still shut down.,” Fetterman said, referring to the World Cup. “And you have millions of people from abroad coming and millions of Americans joining these two.” SCHUMER GAMBIT FAILS AS DHS SHUTDOWN HITS 36 DAYS AND AIRPORT LINES GROW Fetterman’s comments come as the Senate advanced most of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) funding in the early hours of Friday morning. Their bill looked to supply the many agencies that operate under DHS, such as the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), TSA and more, but exclude funding for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Funding for DHS first ran dry on Feb. 14, when Democrats made their support for the agency conditional on a set of reforms to rein in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The Senate’s bill didn’t include any of the Democrats’ reforms, but also didn’t include funding for ICE, either. That proposal ran into fierce resistance in the House of Representatives, where even House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., blasted the attempted resolution. “This gambit that was done last night is a joke. I’m quite convinced — it can’t be that every Senate Republican read the language of this bill. It’s pretty alarming. It says, quote: ‘The contents printed under the headings of this bill: U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and border security operations… an amount specified in the final bill shall be zero,’” Johnson said, reading from the Senate bill’s text. “We’re not doing that,” Johnson added. The agency has, however, already received $75 billion through Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025 — enough to fund the agency’s operations at least through 2026. House Republicans stressed that it’s unclear if those funds can legally be used to fund all of ICE’s operations. Instead of passing the Senate’s plan, the House advanced its own package late Friday night, which would extend DHS funding at current levels for two months, buying more time for lawmakers to continue negotiations over ICE. The House version is likely dead on arrival in the Senate. TSA CALLOUTS HIT HOUSTON, ATLANTA, NEW ORLEANS HARDEST, 450 OFFICERS HAVE QUIT NATIONWIDE As lawmakers continue the back-and-forth over the ICE funding standoff, spokespersons from DHS also echoed Fetterman’s calls to restore travel operations, slamming the compounding effects of the repeated shutdowns. “Now, 366 TSA officers have left the force. Because of this DHS shutdown, Americans are facing HOURS long waits at airports across the country. Democrats must reopen DHS now,” Lauren Bis, a spokesperson for the agency said in a press release. Although Trump signed an executive order on Friday that looks to fund the salaries of TSA workers, the agency also noted that even with the resolution to the shutdown looking hopeful, the country’s travel security would take time to recover. “TSA does not have the luxury of time. The FIFA World Cup is kicking off on June 11 – less than three months away. We are anticipating a significant influx in passenger volume as fans travel through our airports to see the games,” DHS said in a press release. “Even if TSA were to hire new officers upon the conclusion of the DHS shutdown, those officers would not be able to work on the checkpoint until well after the World Cup has concluded.” DHS DEAL IN LIMBO AS DEMOCRATS DEMAND TOUGHER ICE CRACKDOWN DESPITE GOP COMPROMISE Fetterman urged members of his own party to focus on the country’s outstanding travel needs instead of continuing to pursue their demands. “[It’s] just getting harder and harder to justify extending this shutdown,” Fetterman said.
African nation calls for Ilhan Omar to be extradited after Vance’s fraud claim
An African nation is calling for Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., to be extradited after Vice President JD Vance claimed during an interview that the lawmaker committed immigration fraud. The Republic of Somaliland, a partially recognized state in the Horn of Africa, reacted in a post on X to the claim that Vance made in a podcast interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson. “Deportation? Please you’re just sending the princess back to her kingdom. Extradition? Say the word …” the post read. In the interview, Vance said he has spoken with White House immigration advisor Stephen Miller about potential legal action against Omar, saying, “We think Ilhan Omar definitely committed immigration fraud against the United States of America.” TRUMP ACCUSES TIM WALZ AND ILHAN OMAR OF USING ICE PROTESTS TO DISTRACT FROM MASSIVE STATE FRAUD “We’re trying to look at what the remedies are,” Vance said. “That’s the thing that we’re trying to figure out is what are the legal remedies now that we know that she’s committed immigration fraud — how do you go after her, how do you investigate her, how do you actually do the thing, how do you build a case necessary to get some justice for the American people?” Omar has denied accusations from President Donald Trump and the White House that she married her brother to enter the United States. In December, she called the accusations “bigoted lies,” writing on social media that Trump was obsessed with her. “He needs serious help,” Omar wrote on X at the time. “Since he has no economic policies to tout, he’s resorting to regurgitating bigoted lies instead.” Omar’s Chief of Staff, Connor McNutt, told Fox News Digital in an emailed statement that the vice president’s claim is a “ridiculous lie.” “This is rich coming from someone who literally said they were willing to ‘create stories’ to redirect the media,” the statement said. “This is a ridiculous lie and desperate attempt to distract from the pedophile protection party’s unpopular war of choice, increasing gas prices, and rapidly dropping polling numbers.” COMER PROBES SUDDEN WEALTH JUMP TIED TO ILHAN OMAR’S HUSBAND, EYES LINK TO MINNESOTA FRAUD Somaliland’s post about Omar, who is from Somalia, comes amid criticism over her opposition to the recognition of an independent Somaliland and her defense of Somalia’s territorial claims. Somaliland has acted as a self-governing territory since 1991, maintaining internal security and building its own democratic institutions. While most in the international community, including the U.S., do not recognize Somaliland as an independent country, Israel became the first U.N. member state to recognize the self-declared state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last year that Israel had established full diplomatic relations with Somaliland, describing the move as being in the spirit of the United States-brokered Abraham Accords. Fox News Digital’s Emma Bussey contributed to this report.
Supreme Court prepares to review Trump executive order on birthright citizenship
The Supreme Court is poised to answer a fundamental constitutional question largely ignored for more than a century: Who qualifies as an American citizen? The justices on Wednesday will hold oral arguments to review President Donald Trump’s efforts to limit birthright citizenship in the U.S., a landmark case with the potential to upend the lives of millions of Americans and lawful residents. At issue is the executive order the president signed on his first day back in office, which would end automatic citizenship for nearly all persons born in the U.S. to undocumented parents, or parents with lawful temporary status in the country — a seismic legal, political, and social shift that critics note would break with more than 150 years of legal precedent. A ruling is expected within three months, but until then, Trump’s plans remain on hold. HOW TO MAKE PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION PAUSE STICK IN COURT The case is the fourth of a five-part series of appeals the Supreme Court will consider this term on the merits of Trump’s sweeping executive agenda. The nine-member bench has already tossed out his reciprocal tariffs on most other countries, which relied on an economic emergency law. A separate dispute over ending protections for migrants with temporary protected status will be argued later in April. Still pending are rulings on the president’s ability to fire members of independent agencies, including Federal Reserve governors. But the administration has been winning most of the emergency appeals at the Supreme Court since Trump took office again, which dealt only with whether challenged policies could go into effect temporarily, while the issues play out in the lower courts – including immigration, federal spending cuts, workforce reductions and transgender people in the military. Trump’s order now before the high court for final review would reinterpret the 14th Amendment, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside” — a provision the president argues has been misinterpreted. Executive Order 14160, entitled “Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship,” would deny it to those born after Feb. 19, 2025, whose parents are illegal immigrants, or those who were here legally but on temporary non-immigrant visas. And it bans federal agencies from issuing or accepting documents recognizing citizenship for those children. “The privilege of United States citizenship is a priceless and profound gift,” says part of the order. “But the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.” A Supreme Court ruling on the issue could have sweeping national implications for an issue Trump officials argue is a crucial component of his hardline immigration agenda, which has become a defining feature of his second White House term. BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP SUPPORTERS GET THE LAW WRONG BY IGNORING OBVIOUS EVIDENCE In its high court petition, the Trump Justice Department said all lower court decisions handed down last year striking down the executive order had relied on a “mistaken view” with potentially “destructive consequences.” “The lower courts’ decisions invalidated a policy of prime importance to the president and his administration in a manner that undermines our border security,” said John Sauer, U.S. solicitor general, who will make the case in person at oral arguments. “Those decisions confer, without lawful justification, the privilege of American citizenship on hundreds of thousands of unqualified people,” he added. Opponents argue the effort is unconstitutional and “unprecedented,” and would threaten some 150,000 children in the U.S. born annually to parents of noncitizens, and an estimated 4.6 million American-born children under 18 who are living with an undocumented immigrant parent, according to data from the Pew Research Center. Separate coalitions of about two dozen states, along with immigrant rights groups and private individuals — including several pregnant women in Maryland — had filed a class-action lawsuit. The plaintiffs — including those originally from Taiwan and Brazil — seek to preserve access to citizenship-related benefits, including Social Security, SNAP and Medicaid. To date, no court has sided with the Trump administration’s interpretation of the 14th Amendment, and blocked the order from taking force. The ACLU and other immigrant advocacy groups in the U.S., have accused Trump of attempting to “unilaterally rewrite the 14th Amendment.” “The federal courts have unanimously held that President Trump’s executive order is contrary to the Constitution, a Supreme Court decision from 1898, and a law enacted by Congress,” said ACLU legal director Cecillia Wang, who will argue for the plaintiffs in the courtroom session. “We look forward to putting this issue to rest once and for all in the Supreme Court this term.” Much of the public session is expected to focus on a phrase in the Constitution that the government asserts limits the citizenship right. “The Fourteenth Amendment has always excluded from birthright citizenship persons who were born in the United States but not ‘subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’” said Trump’s original order, which the Justice Department essentially interprets as “being subject to U.S. law” — which would give the government discretion to exclude those whose parents are in the country illegally. But lawyers for the plaintiffs say a century-old Supreme Court ruling affirmed the phrase only excluded automatic citizenship to children born to foreign diplomats or hostile forces. Supporters of a broad, traditional interpretation point to the 14th Amendment’s origins — passed after the Civil War to end the practice of excluding individuals of African descent, including slaves and free persons, from ever becoming U.S. citizens. TRUMP ADMIN PUTS KEY BIDEN-ERA IMMIGRATION POLICY ON NOTICE: ‘UNSUSTAINABLE CYCLE’ Thirty-one years after its enactment, the Supreme Court for the first time decided the status of children born in the U.S. to alien parents, creating the precedent of how the citizenship clause would be applied in future cases. Plaintiff Wong Kim Ark was born in San Francisco and became a cook, but was subject to the Chinese Exclusion Act and denied reentry to the
Delhi: 4 injured after jumping from first floor during Bhajanpura fire, investigation underway
Delhi faced multiple fire incidents on Sunday, including a house fire in Bhajanpura injuring four people, a factory blaze in Bawana Industrial Area, and a chimney fire at Hard Rock Cafe in Connaught Place.
Cruz refuses to take sides between Cornyn, Paxton in high-stakes GOP Senate clash
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is staying neutral in the combustible GOP Senate nomination showdown in Texas between longtime Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton. “I like John. I like Ken. They’re both friends of mine. I have supported both of them in the past. I’ve worked closely with both of them. I’ve endorsed both of them. I’ve campaigned with both of them, and so I’m staying out,” the conservative firebrand three-term senator said in a Fox News Digital interview on Wednesday. The winner of the May 26 Republican runoff election will face off with Democratic nominee state Rep. James Talarico in this autumn’s general election in a race that’s among a handful which may decide if the GOP keeps its Senate majority in the midterms. The GOP currently controls the chamber, 53–47. BRUISING GOP SENATE PRIMARY SHOWDOWN HEADS INTO OVERTIME Cornyn edged Paxton by a point in the March 3 primary, as they were the top two contenders among a crowded field of Republican candidates. But since neither of the heated rivals cracked the 50% threshold to win the nomination, the race headed into overtime. While some of Cruz’s top outsider political advisors are supporting Paxton, the senator is declining to take sides. “I trust the voters of Texas to make this decision,” the senator said. ‘OPEN BORDERS, TRUMP-HATING RADICAL’—REPUBLICANS QUICKLY POUNCE ON TALARICO Talarico, who is considered a Democratic Party rising star, topped progressive firebrand Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a vocal Trump critic, in their party’s primary. Talarico is trying to become the first Democrat in nearly four decades to win a Senate election in right-leaning Texas. The Cornyn campaign and aligned super PACs have spent big bucks to run ads attacking Paxton, arguing that Democrats will flip the seat in the general election if Paxton’s the GOP’s nominee. Cornyn, his allies, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the campaign arm of the Senate GOP, repeatedly pointed to the slew of scandals and legal problems that have battered Paxton over the past decade, as well as his ongoing messy divorce. Paxton, a longtime supporter and ally of President Donald Trump and a MAGA firebrand who grabbed significant national attention by filing lawsuits against the Obama and Biden administrations, has pushed back by repeatedly questioning Cornyn’s conservative credentials and past support for Trump. The president, whose sway in Republican nomination battles remains immense, stayed neutral during the primary campaign. Hours after Cornyn and Paxton advanced to the runoff, Trump took to social media to announce, “I will be making my Endorsement soon.” Trump added that he would “be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!” All signs at the time pointed to Trump backing Cornyn. But more than three weeks since his social media post, Trump still remains neutral. And that has the MAGA faithful, many of whom are backing Paxton, hopeful that the president will stay out of the race, which would be a major victory for the Texas attorney general. Paxton traveled to the president’s Mar-a-Lago residence last weekend for a Palm Beach County GOP dinner, where he briefly met with President Trump, two sources with knowledge of the encounter confirmed to Fox News Digital. One of the sources called it a “check in” between Trump and Paxton. The news was first reported by Politico. There’s been a dearth of public opinion polling in the runoff, but the two surveys that have been released suggest Paxton holds a single-digit lead. The race between Cornyn and Paxton is viewed by many Republicans as a battle between MAGA world and the grassroots versus the party establishment for the soul of the GOP.
Iran war live: Tehran warns US, Israeli universities; Houthis fire missiles
blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, Antiwar protesters rally in Tel Aviv and US cities, as attacks kill a family of four in Iran’s Bushehr province and damage a water facility in Khuzestan. Published On 29 Mar 202629 Mar 2026 Click here to share on social media share2 Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on Googleinfo Adblock test (Why?)
Vice President JD Vance tops CPAC’s straw poll to be US president in 2028
For the second year in a row, United States Vice President JD Vance has topped the straw poll at the 2026 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), one of the biggest right-wing gatherings in the country. The poll is a bellwether – albeit, not necessarily an accurate one – for who might ultimately become the Republican nominee for the next presidential race. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list During this year’s four-day conference, attendees were asked which candidate they would prefer to lead the Republican Party ticket for the 2028 election. The results were revealed on stage Saturday. Vance had swept up 53 percent of the votes cast by nearly 1,600 attendees. But rising up the ranks was another senior official under US President Donald Trump: his top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio. A former senator from Florida, Rubio notched 35 percent of the vote. It was a markedly improved standing for Rubio, who tied for fourth place at last year’s CPAC straw poll. That poll, taken within weeks of Trump starting his second term, showed Vance with 61 percent support, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon with 12 percent, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with 7 percent. Rubio and Representative Elise Stefanik both earned 3 percent. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press following a G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 27, 2026 [AFP] Attendance at CPAC, an annual conference, tends to skew away from the political centre and farther to the right. Speakers at this year’s conference included Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Iranian opposition leader Reza Pahlavi, and Eduardo and Flavio Bolsonaro, the sons of Brazil’s former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was imprisoned last September for attempting to subvert his country’s democracy. Advertisement But this year’s straw poll comes at a critical time for the Republican Party. Less than eight months remain until November’s midterm elections in the US, and Republicans are hoping to defend their congressional majorities at the ballot box. Trump, long the standard-bearer for his party, has seen his approval numbers sink since his return to office in 2025. Earlier this week, a survey from the news agency Reuters and the research firm Ipsos found that only 36 percent of US citizens approved of his job performance, a new low. The ongoing war in Iran and economic frustrations, including rising gas prices linked to the conflict, are among the factors contributing to the slump. While Trump has teased he may seek a third term, US law prevents modern presidents from serving more than two. His second presidency is set to expire in 2028. That leaves an open question as to who may succeed the 79-year-old Republican. Vance, a veteran and former single-term senator from Ohio, is seen to represent a more isolationist branch of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) base. He has generally been opposed to US involvement in foreign conflicts, though he has defended Trump’s decision to join Israel in joint strikes on Iran. Rubio, meanwhile, has a longer political resume than Vance and is seen to be more hawkish towards regime change, particularly in his family’s ancestral home of Cuba. He served as a senator for Florida from 2011 until his unanimous confirmation as secretary of state in 2025. Both men had been critical of Trump before joining his administration. Vance once called Trump “unfit” for office, and Rubio derided Trump as a “con artist” and an “embarrassment” when he was a rival candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Senator Ted Cruz speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 28 [Gabriela Passos/AP Photo] CPAC tends not to survey participants about who should be president when a Republican is already in the Oval Office. But the straw polls it held before and after Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, have shown a noticeable realignment in the Republican Party. In the decade leading up to the 2016 election – Trump’s first successful campaign for office – moderate Republican Mitt Romney and libertarian Rand Paul consistently won the CPAC straw polls. Ever since his first term, however, Trump has trounced the competition. Despite his 2020 election defeat, he still garnered the most backing in 2021’s straw poll, with 55 percent support, and his numbers climbed each successive year, through to his re-election in 2024. Advertisement Experts have noted that the Republican Party has largely consolidated around Trump’s politics, with the few remaining moderate and critical voices increasingly marginalised. The CPAC straw poll, however, is not always accurate. Ahead of Trump’s victory in 2016, the majority of straw poll participants backed Senator Cruz of Texas to be the next president. Trump came in third place with 15 percent support, trailing Rubio at 30 percent. Adblock test (Why?)
As war on Iran enters second month, Yemen’s Houthis open new front
Yemen’s Houthis have attacked Israel for the first time, a month after US and Israeli forces began striking Iran, opening up a new front in a rapidly escalating conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced millions and rattled the global economy. The Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, entered the fray on Saturday with two missile and drone attacks on Israel in the space of fewer than 24 hours. The Israeli army said the attacks were intercepted, but the Iran-aligned group pledged to continue fighting in support of “resistance fronts in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq, and Iran”. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list The Houthis had sat out of the hostilities until now, in contrast with their stance during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, when their attacks on shipping vessels in the Red Sea upended commercial traffic worth about $1 trillion a year. Their widely anticipated involvement in the latest conflict comes just as Iran has throttled traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital chokepoint for about a fifth of the world’s oil, raising fears that the Yemeni group will again disrupt Red Sea traffic by blocking the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Reporting from Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, Al Jazeera’s Yousef Mawry described Bab al-Mandeb as the group’s “ace”. “They want to make Israel pay economically. They want to disrupt their trade routes. They want to disrupt the imports and exports in and out of Israel,” he said. ‘Civilians bearing brunt of war’ The Houthi attacks came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington expected to conclude its military operations against Iran within weeks, even as a new deployment of US Marines has begun to arrive in the region, so US President Donald Trump would have “maximum” flexibility to adjust the strategy as needed. Advertisement With no immediate diplomatic breakthrough in sight as both the US and Iran harden their positions, many fear that the US-Israel war on Iran, which started on February 28 and has since engulfed the region, will spiral out of control. The US and Israel continued their bombardment over the past 24 hours, with the Israeli military claiming it had struck an Iranian research facility for naval weapons, while a series of loud explosions rattled Tehran as night fell on Saturday. Iranian media said at least five people were killed in a US-Israeli attack on a residential unit in the northwestern city of Zanjan. In Tehran, authorities said the University of Science and Technology was the latest educational facility to be struck, prompting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to issue a threat against Israeli and US universities in the region. Separately, Iran’s Fars news agency said a water reservoir in the city of Haftgel, located in western Khuzestan province, had also been attacked. The Iranian Ministry of Health announced that 1,937 people have been killed since the start of the conflict, including 230 children. Iran’s Red Crescent Society said US-Israeli strikes had damaged more than 93,000 civilian properties. “Civilians are bearing the brunt of this war,” Al Jazeera’s Mohamed Vall, reporting from Tehran, said. Devastation in Lebanon Meanwhile, Israel’s devastation of Lebanon continued apace, as the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported that 1,189 people had been killed in Israeli attacks since March 2. The death toll has been mounting as Israeli troops have pushed further into the south, advancing towards the Litani River in their stated bid to wipe out Hezbollah and carve out a buffer zone along the lines of the “Gaza model”. Among Saturday’s killings, an Israeli strike killed three journalists in southern Lebanon. In parallel, the Health Ministry announced that Israel had also killed nine paramedics, bringing the death toll among healthcare workers in the latest war to 51. Lebanon’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre said an Israeli attack on the town of al-Haniyah, in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, killed at least seven people, including one child. An Israeli air raid on the southern Lebanese town of Deir al-Zahrani killed a Lebanese soldier, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported. Hezbollah, which attacked Israel amid a ceasefire that Israel kept violating in retaliation for the assassination of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, claimed dozens of operations against Israeli forces in the past 24 hours. Mixed messages Trump has threatened to hit Iranian power stations and other energy infrastructure if Tehran does not fully open the Strait of Hormuz. But he has extended the deadline he had imposed for this week, giving Iran another 10 days to respond. Advertisement With the US midterm elections coming up in November, the increasingly unpopular war is weighing heavily on the president’s Republican Party. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, said on Friday that he believed Tehran would hold talks with Washington in the coming days. “We have a 15-point plan on the table. We expect the Iranians to respond. It could solve it all,” Witkoff said. Pakistan, which has been a go-between between US and Iranian officials, will host foreign ministers from regional powers Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and Egypt in Islamabad for talks on the crisis. Pakistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar spoke with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, late on Saturday, urging “an end to all attacks and hostilities” in the region. In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Dar had told Araghchi that Pakistan remains committed to supporting efforts aimed at restoring regional peace and stability. Dar also announced that Iran had agreed to allow 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, calling it a meaningful step towards easing one of the worst energy crises in modern history. Adblock test (Why?)