Social Media Safety Verdict, Lord of the Rings, & Friction-maxxing

News without the noise

Adam Rogers
March 26, 2026

Good Morning! Today’s edition is 926 words, a 4-minute read.

What’s on tap:

First-time reader? Sign up here!

A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube negligent in the design of their platforms, awarding $3 million in compensatory damages to plaintiff K.G.M., a 20-year-old who testified that Instagram caused her depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia.
It is the first verdict to hold social media companies liable for addictive platform design. The jury found Meta 70% responsible and YouTube 30%. Both Meta and YouTube plan to appeal.
More than 1,600 plaintiffs, including 350 families and 250 school districts, are waiting in consolidated cases behind this one. The verdict is expected to shape how those cases are argued and settled. TikTok and Snap were also defendants in the lawsuit but settled before trial.
The verdict comes the same week a New Mexico jury ordered Meta to pay $375 million in a separate child exploitation case.

Democrat Emily Gregory won a Florida state legislative special election Tuesday, flipping a district that includes Mar-a-Lago — Trump's Palm Beach estate and legal residence — by 2.4 percentage points. The district had gone Republican by 19 points in 2024. Trump endorsed the Republican candidate, then distanced himself from the loss, saying, "I'm not involved in that.”
Tuesday's result is the 29th seat Democrats have flipped from Republican control since Trump took office. Democrats also flipped a reliably Republican Texas state Senate district in January and won the Miami mayoral race in December — the first Democrat to lead that city in nearly three decades.
Democrats say the string of victories signals voter frustration ahead of November's midterm elections, which will decide control of Congress.

NASA announced a $20 billion, seven-year plan to build a permanent human settlement on the moon. The agency scrapped a previous plan to first construct a lunar-orbiting space station, redirecting those resources toward the base directly. Artemis IV and V — the missions that will land astronauts on the moon for the first time since 1972 — are slated for 2028.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman framed the effort as a direct race against China. "The clock is running in this great-power competition, and success or failure will be measured in months, not years," he said. After the 2028 landings, NASA plans to land astronauts every six months, gradually building the permanent base with help from Japan, Italy, and Canada.
Artemis II, NASA's first crewed lunar flyby in 50 years, launches as early as April 1. SpaceX and Blue Origin are both developing landers for the moon missions, but neither can carry crew until it completes a successful uncrewed landing first.

A government audit found serious gaps in TSA airport screening, but the agency hasn't responded in five months, and a former DHS secretary told Congress the problems were already fixed. (More)

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled internet providers can't be held liable for customers who pirate music and movies, throwing out a $1.5 billion judgment against Cox Communications. (More)

North Carolina's powerful Republican Senate leader, Phil Berger, lost his primary by just 23 votes to Rockingham County Sheriff Sam Page, despite carrying Trump's endorsement. (More)

Iran rejected a US ceasefire offer and demanded control of the Strait of Hormuz among five conditions for ending the war, state media reported Wednesday. (More)

Philippine President Marcos declared a national energy emergency, saying the US-Israel war with Iran threatens the country's oil supply, 98% of which comes from the Middle East. (More)

Dutch scientist Huub Lilieveld won the $500,000 World Food Prize on Wednesday for six decades of work on food safety standards across 113 countries. (More)

US stock markets closed higher on Wednesday (S&P +0.54%, Nasdaq +0.77%, Dow +0.66%) as traders hoped for a ceasefire in Iran. (More)

OpenAI's decision to shut down its Sora video app has killed a planned $1 billion Disney licensing deal that would have put over 200 Disney characters in AI-generated videos. (More)

SpaceX is weighing a $75 billion IPO that would shatter the record for the largest stock market debut in history. (More)

The Yankees opened the 2026 MLB season with a 7-0 win over the Giants, with Max Fried throwing six-plus shutout innings and every starter except Aaron Judge recording a hit. (More)

Mikaela Shiffrin won her record-tying sixth World Cup skiing title Wednesday, holding off German rival Emma Aicher on the final day to match a mark set in the 1970s. (More)

Stephen Colbert, a lifelong "Lord of the Rings" superfan, will write a new film in the franchise following the cancellation of his CBS late-night show this spring. (More)

Researchers scanning 10 million websites found nearly 1,750 exposed security keys from companies like Amazon and Stripe that could let hackers into cloud servers and bank accounts. (More)

Scientists found supermassive black holes are growing far more slowly today than 10 billion years ago, likely because the cold gas they feed on has greatly diminished. (More)

Trump appointed Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia's Jensen Huang, and other top tech executives to a White House science panel expected to shape the administration's AI policy. (More)

How friction-maxxing could help you cut your tech usage.

See new species discovered in Cambodia, including flying snake.

Ranking the top US cities for young professionals.

Driver caught using a fake passenger in the carpool lane.

Your feedback helps us provide the best newsletter possible.