The Daily Brief - Mar. 6, 2026

The latest on the Epstein files, the jobs report, Iran, 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 Girls’ School

The United States is probably responsible for the lethal air strike of an elementary school for girls in southern Iran, according to two US officials who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

The attack, carried out last Saturday on the first day of the war, killed around 150 students, Iran’s ambassador to the UN said. The Balochistan Human Rights Network said it had verified the names of 57 victims, 50 of whom were students aged six to 12. Iranian state television broadcast footage of the girls’ funerals on Tuesday.

The school is located in the city of Minab. According to maps and archived versions of the school’s website, it is adjacent to a complex used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Farzin Nadini, a specialist on Iran’s military at the Washington Institute, told The Wall Street Journal that the school was for children of IRGC personnel. IRGC facilities have been targeted throughout the conflict.

US officials have not publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, but say they’re looking into it.

“We’re investigating that,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday. “We, of course, never target civilian targets. But we’re taking a look and investigating that.”

War Update

President Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender” on Friday as the war entered its seventh day. He said it would be followed by the selection of “great and acceptable” new leaders for the country, and that the US would “work tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said previously that certain countries had “begun mediation efforts,” without saying which countries or what was being discussed. At the UN, Secretary General António Guterres called for a cessation of hostilities.

There was no letup in the fighting. Israel said it had bombed an underground bunker used by Iran’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war. It also carried out extensive airstrikes in Lebanon against Hezbollah, a paramilitary force backed by Iran.

Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted Iranian drones and missiles targeting a military facility in Riyadh. Qatar said that Iran had attacked buildings in Bahrain that hosted Qatari navy personnel but that no one had been killed.

Russia is giving Iran information on the locations of US forces and assets, including ships and aircraft, according to unnamed US officials who spoke to The Washington Post. Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, declined to comment on the allegation. Russia and Iran have often cooperated in military and geopolitical activities; Iran has been an important supplier of drones that Russia uses in the Ukraine war. The United States has regularly provided information on Russian forces to the Ukrainian government.

The Iran war’s economic impact was beginning to be felt in the US. Oil tankers remained unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply flows. Kuwait announced that it was cutting oil production because it lacked storage space for more oil. According to AAA, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United States has risen by about 34 cents, to $3.32, since the war began.

DHS Funding

Senate Democrats blocked a spending bill on Thursday that would have reopened the Department of Homeland Security, marking the third time they’ve refused to approve the measure. Funding for DHS lapsed nearly three weeks ago, and Democrats have refused to vote in favor of any additional money until Republicans agree to put new limits on immigration enforcement. Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote with Republicans in favor of reopening DHS, which oversees ICE, CBP, FEMA, and the TSA.

Among the Democrats’ demands are restrictions on the use of force by federal immigration enforcement agents, banning them from wearing masks, and requiring them to get a warrant from a judge before entering anyone’s home. The judicial warrant requirement would expressly reject ICE’s previously reported internal policy of relying only on administrative warrants, which legal experts say is a violation of the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment. Senate Democrats proposed a measure that would fund the department except for ICE and CBP while negotiations were ongoing, but Republicans objected.

The standoff arose in the wake of controversial immigration enforcement actions across the country, particularly in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two US citizens. The firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem yesterday didn’t yield any movement toward an agreement.

“I am so happy that one of the worst administrative leaders I’ve ever seen is gone,” said Sen. Cory Booker. “But the agency itself is still reckless and out of control, and we should not be funding it until these issues are addressed.”

Trump-Related Epstein Files Released

The Justice Department has released several previously withheld pages of the Epstein files related to an allegation from a woman who claimed Donald Trump sexually assaulted her when she was a minor.

The newly released files include three summaries of FBI interviews with the woman. She alleges Trump forced her to perform oral sex on him and when she bit his penis, he punched her. She says she was between 13 and 15 years old at the time.

Several news organizations noticed the missing pages from the Epstein files because an index showed they existed, but the pages could not be found. At the time the Justice Department said “the only materials that have been withheld were either privileged or duplicates” but they would look into it.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said they would investigate why the pages were missing.

The interview summaries released yesterday include several claims beyond what the woman says happened with Trump. She also said she was threatened, including in a phone call where someone said, “You better keep your mouth closed.” The woman says there were times where she was nearly run off the road. She did not elaborate on who might have been behind the incidents.

In another summary, she was asked specifically about Trump, and agents said she responded that she didn’t see the point in talking about it because the statutes of limitations may have run out, and nothing could be done about it.

WH Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt says the claims are “completely baseless accusations, backed by zero credible evidence.”

Jobs Report

The US economy lost 92,000 jobs in February, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) announced today. In addition to showing disappointing numbers from last month, the jobs report also revised January’s job growth number downward from 130,000 to 126,000 — and showed that rather than adding 50,000 jobs in December of last year, the US actually lost 17,000.

The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.4%, and labor force participation — meaning the number of people either working or looking for work — fell by .1 percentage points to 62%.

The healthcare sector was the primary driver of job growth in the US last year, but lost 28,000 jobs last month in large part due to the strike at Kaiser Permanente.

The numbers are raising concerns about the state of the economy, especially since the revisions made 2025 the first year with five months of job market declines since 2010.

The Federal Reserve, which is tasked with guiding US monetary policy to promote maximum employment and control inflation, is set to meet later this month. With the labor market weakening and the price of goods also rising, the Fed’s two goals are pitted against one another.

“If the job market is getting worse and inflation is getting worse at the same time, it’s not obvious to me what the immediate response should be,” said Austan D. Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Rep. Gonzales Update

A day after he said he was staying in his House race, Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales has announced he will no longer seek reelection.

Republican House leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, along with others, called on him to drop out of the race yesterday after he admitted to an affair with a former staffer. The House Ethics Committee is investigating the relationship and claims he gave the employee favorable treatment, which Gonzales denies.

Gonzales now says “after deep reflection and with the support of my loving family, I have decided not to seek re-election while serving out the rest of this Congress with the same commitment I’ve always had to my district.”

That means his challenger, Brandon Herrera, whom he would have faced in a runoff election in May, will get the Republican nomination. Gonzales beat Herrera by only a few hundred votes in a runoff in 2024. Herrera is a YouTuber and firearms manufacturer who is known as The AK Guy.