The Daily Brief - Mar. 20, 2026

The latest on Iran, transgender care, 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 Executions

Iran executed three men yesterday, including a 19-year-old international wrestling star, after accusing them of killing police officers during protests earlier this year.

The men were convicted of “moharebeh,” which means waging war against God. In Iran the charge is punishable by death.

The Center for Human Rights in Iran said the hangings “followed grossly unfair trials without any semblance of due process, with forced ‘confessions’ obtained under torture.”

Saleh Mohammadi was on Iran’s national wrestling team, and had won a bronze medal at a competition in Russia in 2024. Amnesty International said his hands were fractured after being beaten in jail.

Several others have already been sentenced to death, and two 17-year-old children are also facing the death penalty, along with dozens of others, according to Amnesty.

White House spokesperson Olivia Wales responded to the executions by saying, “President Trump will never allow these murderous, evil terrorists to obtain a nuclear weapon to threaten the American people, and this horrific tragedy is a stark reminder why Operation Epic Fury is righteous, and necessary.”

Comey Subpoena

Former FBI Director James Comey was subpoenaed in a federal criminal investigation over whether Obama-era officials conspired to improperly investigate President Trump regarding allegations that his 2016 presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government.

A 2017 intelligence community assessment overseen in part by Comey and Obama’s CIA director, John Brennan, concluded that Russia had tried to sway the election in Trump’s favor. The assessment led to a special counsel investigation, which found Russia had tried to interfere in the election but Trump and his campaign had not colluded with it. A later special counsel investigation found that the original intelligence assessment contained unverified claims.

Throughout his first term, Trump decried the investigation of Russian interference as politically motivated and meant to damage him. After returning to office, he pressured the Justice Department to carry out criminal investigations of former officials, including Comey and Brennan, who had set it in motion.

In September 2025, Comey was indicted for allegedly lying to Congress, but a judge threw the case out earlier this year, saying that the prosecutor had been improperly appointed. The new subpoena of Comey, issued by a grand jury in Florida, relates to an ongoing investigation of whether Brennan lied to the House Judiciary Committee in 2023.

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Newsbreak

In Pursuit is a new nonpartisan history project from More Perfect built around a simple but timely idea: if we’re going to make sense of where the country is headed, we need to look honestly at where it has been. Across 2026, the project is publishing short, accessible essays that revisit the first 250 years of the American experiment and draw out lessons about leadership, character, citizenship, and democracy.

It’s history written for the present tense, and the range of contributors tells you something about the ambition of the project: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Sharon McMahon, and dozens of historians, journalists, and other public voices are all part of it. If you’re hungry for history that is thoughtful, readable, and actually useful, In Pursuit is worth your time.

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Transgender Care

A federal judge in Oregon ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., overstepped his authority when he issued a declaration that providers who offer procedures and medications to minors “do not meet professionally recognized standards.” The declaration — made last December — was the first step in a plan to investigate institutions that provide care for minors who identify as trans or nonbinary, and potentially bar them from receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funds.

A group of 21 states led by Democrats sued the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that the declaration infringed on states’ power to regulate the practice of medicine within their own borders, and violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The Trump administration argued that the states didn’t show that they were harmed by the declaration since no medical providers had yet been banned from receiving federal funds. The administration also sometimes suggested that the declaration was a “non-binding policy position.”

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled in the states’ favor, explaining that the federal government cannot simply issue declarations and “see if we can get away with it.”

The decision is likely to be appealed.

Trump Gold Coin

The US Mint can now start producing a 24k gold coin with Trump on it.

Last fall, President Trump fired the members of the US Commission of Fine Arts, which is an independent agency that advises presidents and Congress on designing things like monuments, federal buildings, and coins.

The White House said Trump wanted to replace the commissioners with allies that are “more aligned with President Trump’s America First policies.” That includes his former executive assistant, Chamberlain Harris.

Approved design of commemorative coin featuring President Trump

Now, the panel has approved a new gold coin to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary that depicts Trump with his fists on a desk on one side, and an eagle on the other.

The agency commissioner, James McCrery II, said the coin should be as big as possible, maybe even close to 3 inches in diameter, reportedly saying, “Don’t sell out, the larger the better,” in the meeting where the approval happened.

Harris chimed in to say she thinks the president would want it to be the “largest of that circulation” and that they have approved “a very strong and a very tough image of him” for the coin.

Federal law prohibits any living president from appearing on US currency, but because it’s a commemorative coin, Congress doesn’t need to approve it.