The Daily Brief - Mar. 10, 2026

The latest on Iran, the Epstein investigation, and more

These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Read below to catch up on all the news you might’ve missed.

Iran War

President Donald Trump said that the war with Iran could end soon. He also suggested that the United States might take control of the Strait of Hormuz to secure oil supplies.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump told CBS News in an interview on Monday. “If you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing left in a military sense.” At a news conference later that day, Trump was more ambiguous, saying, “We could call it a tremendous success right now… Or we could go further, and we’re going to go further.”

On Tuesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the day would be, “yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran — the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.”

In the same CBS interview, Trump discussed the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply is shipped. Under international law, the strait is controlled by the countries bordering it, primarily Iran and Oman. The United Nations Convention on the Laws of the Sea, a treaty, requires them to guarantee passage, but on March 5 Iran said it had “complete control” of the strait and threatened to “set ablaze” any tanker trying to pass through it. Shipments through the strait have drastically fallen since then, and this week Iran said it had begun to lay mines in the strait.

Trump said that the US “could do a lot” to restore shipping through the strait and was thinking of “taking it over” but would not do so yet. The government of Pakistan said that its military was escorting Pakistani commercial vessels, and the government of India was considering providing military escorts for its own tankers.

Congressman Leaves Republican Party

Rep. Kevin Kiley, a Republican from California, said he’s leaving the party to become an Independent, effective immediately. He said he has always made independent decisions and serves his constituents, not party leaders, and that he wants to find a way to bring Americans together.

Kiley is in a tough reelection campaign after redistricting in the state. He’s now going to run in the newly-created 6th district, which leans Democratic.

Rep. Kevin Kiley

He’s been trying to distance himself from the Republican party in recent months, including publicly criticizing Speaker Mike Johnson.

He said he will still caucus with the Republicans for “administrative purposes” — meaning he’ll continue to fall under the Republican party for his committee assignments — but he refused to say he’ll be a reliable vote for them.

House Republicans have a razor thin majority, with 218 seats (including Kiley) to the Democrats’ 214, but there are currently three vacant seats.

Epstein Ranch Searched

Investigators searched Jeffrey Epstein’s former ranch Monday, after the New Mexico state Attorney General Raul Torrez reopened an investigation into the property following the release of the Epstein files last year.

The files contained allegations of sexual abuse and trafficking of teenagers at the property known as Zorro Ranch, along with a letter from an anonymous sender claiming two bodies are buried there. The letter states two foreign girls died by “strangulation” and were buried in the hills near the ranch.

A previous investigation in New Mexico was closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors.

The ranch is currently owned by Don Huffines, who bought it in 2023. Huffines is a Texas businessman and former state senator who just ran for — and won — the Republican nomination for Texas state comptroller. Huffines’s son Russell works in the Trump administration and the president endorsed Don in his race.

New Mexico authorities said the new owners of the ranch are cooperating with the investigation. Don Huffines says he plans to make the property a “Christian retreat.”

So far authorities haven’t released any info specific to yesterday’s search, but a Reuters witness said they saw state police and indications that dogs were being used in the search.

Supreme Court Disagreement

Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Brett Kavanaugh publicly disagreed about the court’s use of its emergency docket at an event yesterday. During President Trump’s second term, the Supreme Court has granted an unusually high number of requests for emergency intervention on the president’s behalf.

At the event, which was held at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC, Justice Jackson criticized the court’s use of the emergency docket to bolster the president’s agenda. “What is happening now is the administration is making new policy, but then insisting that the new policy take effect immediately before a challenge about its lawfulness is determined,” Jackson said. “I just feel like this uptick in the court’s willingness to get involved… is a real unfortunate problem… It’s not serving the court or this country well.”

The emergency docket, also known as the “shadow docket,” allows parties to ask the court to make emergency decisions on a case without going through the full briefing and oral argument process, and the justices may decide the cases without explaining their reasoning in fully-written opinions. The court has allowed several of Trump’s policies to go forward in emergency docket decisions, including firing agency heads, gutting the Department of Education, and banning transgender soldiers in the military.

Justice Kavanaugh disagreed with his colleague. “This is not a new phenomenon in the Trump administration,” Kavanaugh said. “There’s a more aggressive executive branch over the years because it’s difficult to get legislation through Congress… None of us enjoy this.”

It’s rare for Supreme Court justices to air disagreements about the court’s inner workings in public. At the same event, both Jackson and Kavanaugh expressed concern about the increase in violent threats against judges.

Arizona Voting

The FBI has issued a grand jury subpoena seeking information about the results of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona.

The subpoena was issued to the Arizona state senate, which oversaw a Republican-led audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County. The audit confirmed that President Trump lost the county to Joe Biden in the 2020 election.

The Republican president of the Arizona state senate confirmed receiving and complying with the subpoena, writing on social media that “The FBI has the records” from the 2020 audit of Maricopa County.

President Trump praised the investigation, sharing a link to an article about the FBI obtaining the records and writing “Great!!!”

However, the Arizona attorney general said in a statement that the 2020 election results had already been “certified, litigated and confirmed,” and that “what the Trump administration appears to be pursuing now is not a legitimate law enforcement inquiry… It is the weaponization of federal law enforcement in service of crackpots and lies.”

Pentagon Spending Spree

Pentagon staff dined well in September, according to a report by Open the Books, a group that monitors government spending.

The Defense Department typically tries to use up its annual budget by the end of September, so it doesn’t forfeit unused portions of its budget.

The September spending spree at the Pentagon totaled $93.4 billion — the largest single-month expenditure on grants and contracts by a federal department or agency since at least 2008.

The purchases included spending $15.1 million on ribeye steak, $6.9 million on lobster tails, $2 million on Alaskan king crab, $1 million on salmon, $139,224 on doughnuts, $124,000 on ice cream machines, and $26,000 on sushi preparation tables.

In September, the Defense Department also spent $5.9 billion on information technology and communications, $225.6 million on furniture, and $1.8 million on musical instruments, including nearly $100,000 for a Steinway piano for the home of the Air Force chief of staff.