Tim Pearce

President Trump has stepped up efforts to control the Strait of Hormuz as the U.S.

and Iran standoff continues.

Here with the latest is Daily Wire contributor Tim Pearce.

Oil prices have spiked over the past two days as President Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran.

The international benchmark Brent crude surged over $100 a barrel on Wednesday and remained high through this afternoon, while the U.S.

benchmark West Texas Intermediate stayed slightly lower at over $90 a barrel.

Trump extended a ceasefire with Iran earlier this week because of dysfunction inside the Iranian regime.

The president kept in place a blockade on Iran's shipping that has strangled its economy and increased pressure on oil prices, especially in countries like China that rely on Iranian oil.

After the notorious Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center was outraged at PayPal.

The SPLC called the payment processor the banking system for white nationalism.

Because of SPLC pressure, PayPal cut off dozens of accounts linked to the rally.

But the Justice Department says that at the time of the white nationalist rally, the SPLC was secretly paying one of the event's organizers.

On Tuesday, the DOJ accused the SPLC of spending millions to fund the type of hate that it raised fortunes to fight.

Famous kidnapping victim and child safety advocate Elizabeth Smart won first place at a bodybuilding competition in Salt Lake City last weekend.

Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake has the story.

Cocaine use is increasingly polluting waterways, and scientists say the effects on wildlife are a clear warning.

Daily Wire assistant editor Andy Valdez has more.

Treasury Secretary Scott Besant fought back on Wednesday after Democrats accused him of needlessly canceling a supposedly free tax program.

Besant said the program actually costs taxpayers millions of dollars a year to run and was a less popular version than other no-cost options.

Those are your Drive Home updates this evening.