Trump Friend Asked ICE to Detain the Mother of His Child  —  Last year, Paolo Zampolli, the former modeling agent who famously introduced Donald and Melania Trump, asked the administration for a favor.  —  Megan Twohey  —  Zampolli was in a custody battle with his Brazilian ex-girlfriend over their son.

Top Disaster Response Official Claims He Teleported to a Waffle House  —  FEMA's Gregg Phillips says he has experienced multiple “scary” episodes of sudden teleportation  —  Far-right activist turned high-ranking FEMA official Gregg Phillips has a problem.

Trump Is Getting Drilled, Baby, Drilled  —  There has always been a chasm between the actual MAGA voters and the MAGA intelligentsia that purports to speak for them, but it has rarely been as visible as it is this week.  Many of the leading lights of the literate right have been pulling their hair out …

Transcript: Trump War Takes Dark Turn as Leaks Unnerve Dems: “Madness”  —  The following is a lightly edited transcript of the March 20 episode of the Daily Blast podcast.  Listen to it here.  —  Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.

Trump mulls risky Kharg Island takeover to force Iran to open strait  —  The Trump administration is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island to pressure Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, four sources with knowledge of the issue tell Axios. … In the meantime, global energy prices are surging.

Putin offers to stop sharing intel with Iran if US cuts off Ukraine  —  Moscow proposed a quid pro quo to the U.S. under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence information with Iran, such as the precise coordinates of U.S. military assets in the Middle East, if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia.

U.S. Prosecutors Investigate Colombia's President, a Onetime Trump Foe  —  The Justice Department is examining whether President Gustavo Petro of Colombia has ties to drug traffickers.  —  President Gustavo Petro of Colombia, who has had a volatile relationship with President Trump …

CBS News will end radio service as Weiss struggles to right ship  —  The troubled network is eliminating its century-old CBS News Radio division and laying off more staff.  —  CBS News will end its nearly century-old radio service, CBS News Radio, and cut more jobs amid a rocky turnaround effort under …

Google Search is now using AI to replace headlines  —  We're seeing Verge headlines rewritten by Google AI. … Since roughly the turn of the millennium, Google Search has been the bedrock of the web.  People loved Google's trustworthy “10 blue links” search experience and its unspoken promise …

Trump leverages Army-Navy game to ramp up pressure on broadcasters … The order appears to grant Carr the bandwidth to revoke licenses for any broadcasters who schedule a college football game “in a manner that directly conflicts with the Army-Navy Game,” which has been broadcast on CBS since 1996.

Feds move to dismiss charges against officers accused of falsifying warrant in Breonna Taylor raid  —  Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to dismiss the charges against two Louisville officers accused of falsifying the warrant that led police to raid Breonna Taylor's apartment the night she was killed six years ago.

Trump administration waves the white flag in some ICE cases … The new phenomenon is the latest manifestation of the extraordinary strain that the administration's mass deportation effort — compounded by the mass detention of people who have lived for years without incident in the U.S. interior — has exacted on the justice system.

Iran's Government Seen as Tightening Grip Despite Strikes  —  The Iranian regime isn't close to falling and officials are coalescing around the remaining leaders, according to western intelligence assessments and people familiar with the matter.  —  Strikes by the US and Israel …

U.S. War Planes and Helicopters Kick Off Battle to Reopen Hormuz  —  Effort takes on new urgency nearly three weeks into the war with Iran as oil prices soar

“He needs to go”: Dems rage over Fetterman's DHS vote  —  Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is under heavy fire from fellow Democrats for casting the deciding vote to advance Sen. Markwayne Mullin's (R-Okla.) nomination for DHS Secretary, with some openly calling for his ouster.

She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital.  Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section.  —  A virtual court hearing from a pregnant mother's hospital bed shows what forced medical treatment can look like.  —  It's difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley …

Scenes from the Death of the Pax Americana  —  No real post today.  I don't have it in me.  Just a few scenes from the accelerating collapse in America's reputation and influence.  —  Item: The Danish Broadcasting Corporation, roughly speaking Denmark's equivalent of the BBC …

Record Number of Student Loan Borrowers Are in Delinquency and Default  —  Recently released data from the Education Department showed that by the end of last year, 7.7 million borrowers had defaulted on $181 billion in federal student loans.  —  A record number of borrowers have fallen far behind …

Hegseth Invokes Divine Purpose to Justify Military Might  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has imbued U.S. military actions with a Christian moral underpinning that suggests they are divinely sanctioned.  —  He spoke of “overwhelming force” and the U.S. military's unmatched ability to rain …

As Trump Demands Voter Data, This Fiercely Independent Red State Says No  —  States were on notice from the U.S. Department of Justice that if they didn't fall in line, the federal government would force them into compliance.  —  It wasn't President Donald Trump's administration applying pressure.

After yesterday's revelation that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is blocking the release of a memo related to a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation into sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and 14 co-conspirators, Attorney General Pam Bondi added more evidence to the idea that the DOJ is engaged …

The Trump Administration Is Turning the U.S. Census on Its Head  —  The changes could cloud the government's understanding of what the United States population looks like and the resources it needs.  — Copy  —  The 2030 U.S. census is poised to look very different than the one released in 2020.

U.S. strikes alleged drug boat in eastern Pacific Ocean, leaving 3 survivors  —  The attack on the alleged drug boat is believed to be the second such strike to be conducted during the ongoing war with Iran.  —  The U.S. military conducted another strike on an alleged drug boat in the eastern Pacific Ocean …

Iran makes chilling threat to target tourist sites worldwide — as spring break kicks off in US  —  Iran threatened Friday to start targeting tourist sites worldwide — just as spring break kicked off across the United States.  —  Iranian military spokesman Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi blasted …

House Republicans subpoena prosecutor for records tied to Stephen Miller protester  —  The demand comes after Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, opened an inquiry into Parisa Dehghani-Tafti, Arlington County's lead prosecutor.  —  A House committee on Friday subpoenaed …

The US is on the verge of an all-time heat record for March.  Yes, it's climate change  —  An unprecedented heat wave in the West is on the verge of breaking the record for the hottest March temperature anywhere in the United States: 108 degrees.  It's an alarming signal of how hot the planet is getting and how fast it's happening.

Trump brags he's in better health than the Navy football team — and even got a doctor's opinion  —  President Trump on Friday argued he's healthier than the Navy championship football team and got his former White House doctor to agree.  —  The president welcomed Navy midshipmen …

Judge rules US government overreached with transgender health care declaration  —  A federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.

State Legislature Pursues Accountability for Convicted Jan 6 Rioters  —  Legislation Would Ban Convicted Rioters from State Positions  —  In a cavernous hearing room, Cheryl Kagan sat in the leather chair at the witness table and put on her glasses to read a statement that - five years ago - would seem unthinkable.