Good morning and welcome to way too early, Mali Vitale, on this Thursday, March 19th, and we will start with the news.

Strikes on major energy facilities across the Middle East are sending oil prices surging, now 20 days into the war with Iran.

Israel hit Iran's giant South Pars gas field yesterday, which is part of the world's largest gas field and Iran's biggest

source of natural gas. Iran is now retaliating, targeting energy infrastructure throughout the Gulf.

Qatar says a key natural gas site was attacked, suffering extensive damage from missile fire.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, reported downing Iranian drones targeting its natural gas facilities.

And the UAE temporarily shut down operations at crucial energy sites amid missile interceptions over

the area. Now, President Trump is threatening to, quote, massively blow up the entire Iranian

gas field. If the country keeps up, its retaliatory attacks on Qatar. Elsewhere, Palestinian officials say

at least three people were killed and several more injured during an Iranian missile attack that

damaged a makeshift hair salon in Israeli-occupied West Bank. The town's mayor said the salon had

been full of women getting their hair done ahead of the festival marking the end of Ramadan.

The Israeli military blames an Iranian missile carrying cluster munitions for that deadly attack.

We are going to come back to the war with Iran as well later in the show digging in on what could

happen next there as there's a threat of more troops being sent.

But we're also going to talk about what Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said to

lawmakers about where things stand and why this war had to start when it did.

But also on Capitol Hill yesterday, confirmation hearing for Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen

of Oklahoma, who's the president's next pick to fill the role of Homeland Security Secretary.

Yesterday's hearing almost immediately devolved into accusations and arguments with Homeland Security

chairman, Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, opening his remarks with a long list of

grievances against the nominee. It was frankly, jaw-dropping, even to those of us who knew

...