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.

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.

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.

Iran War Puts Global Energy Markets on the Brink of a Worst-Case Scenario  —  “This will be so, so, so, so, so bad,” one analyst says.  —  The war in Iran reached a new extreme this week, as both Israel and Iran launched strikes on oil and gas production and export facilities.

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.

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 …

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.

US furiously seeks to avert potential monthslong closure of Strait of Hormuz  —  The Middle East National security Donald Trump Federal agencies  —  US officials are furiously trying to avert a potential monthslong closure of the Strait of Hormuz, privately acknowledging that reopening …

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.

“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.

Preserving America's Game  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Purpose.  For over a century, the Army-Navy Game, known as “America's Game,” has stood as a symbol of excellence and the American spirit.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

She Was in Labor at a Florida Hospital.  Then She Was in Zoom Court for Refusing a C-Section.  —  It's difficult to put yourself in the place of Cherise Doyley, a pregnant mother of three who found herself facing a judge while in labor at the University of Florida Health hospital in downtown Jacksonville.

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 …

Mullin Said to Have Credited the King of Jordan for a Helicopter Rescue  —  The homeland security nominee brought up a mysterious trip in mid-2016 at a confirmation hearing.  He visited Jordan that August, congressional records show.  —  Soon after Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma joined …

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 …

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.

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 …

TSA lines are miserably long.  Don't miss your flight because of them.  —  Monitor security checkpoint wait times, register for expedited security programs and invoke the “flat-tire” rule.  —  On Tuesday, a sign at a TSA security checkpoint at Miami International Airport said the wait time was 18 minutes.

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.

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 …

Massachusetts Loses Billions in Income After Millionaire Tax  —  Residents exiting Massachusetts took a net of $4.2 billion in adjusted gross income with them in 2023, one of the largest totals in the country, after a tax on millionaires took effect.  —  The amount was an 8% year-over-year increase …

Ex-FBI agents assigned to Trump cases sue Kash Patel over ‘unlawful’ firings  —  The former special agents filed suit anonymously, saying they'd be at “immediate risk of doxing, SWATting, harassment, and physical harm” if they were named.  —  Two former FBI special agents who say they played minimal roles …

‘Hormuz has to reopen’: Why the oil industry can't help Trump tame rising gasoline prices … Much of the administration's messaging has acted as a disincentive for drilling, said an oil and gas executive granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.