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Here's the Scoop
Future of the West Bank in Flux and New Mexico’s Attorney General on Meta Lawsuit
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Hey, everybody. Welcome to here's the Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vasugian. It is Friday. And coming up, we have New Mexico's attorney general joining us to talk about the case that he brought against Meta over child sexual exploitation on Facebook and Instagram. Plus, which agencies will be impacted when funding for the Department of Homeland Security runs out this weekend. And a special guest for you in our Olympic minute, it's going to be.
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A fireworks display like no other.
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That is Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton previewing the U.S. figure Skating team's quest for gold. Up first, though, we turn to Israel. The second phase of the Israel Gaza peace plan is moving forward. Israel reopened the Rafah border crossing, allowing more aid into the enclave. And Hamas is supposed to disarm. But in the West Bank, a different reality is taking shape. Netanyahu security cabinet adopted measures on Sunday to to expand Israel's enforcement authority over land use in Palestinian Authority areas, including the West Bank. The steps are going to make it easier for settlers to pressure Palestinians into relinquishing land. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen warned earlier this week that they amount to implementing de facto sovereignty of the region for Israel. Palestinians in Arab countries have condemned the measure as a annexation. So what does this mean for the west bank and the tentative peace plan in the region? For that, I want to bring in NBC News foreign correspondent Matt Bradley.
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C
Hey.
- [01:36]
A
Hi, Matt. Good to have you. I want to start with what happened earlier this week because it kind of got brushed underneath the rug. The Israeli cabinet adopted measures expanding Israel's control over land use and planning in areas run by the Palestinian Authority. This would actually make it easier for Israeli settlers to force Palestinians to give up land. Why are they doing this now?
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C
Well, there's a lot of different answers to this. And one of the reasons, of course, is that we're actually kind of facing elections here in Israel as soon as October. And this is something that means that a lot of the people who are currently in government who are feeling the unpopularity, this very right wing government that's kind of coming from especially places like here in Tel Aviv for Netanyahu and his top lieutenants. They're trying to accomplish something that they've spent their careers trying to accomplish. And we're talking specifically here about Bezel Smotrich. He's the finance minister, one of the authors of this new law. And he could be on the outs coming up with the next election. So he did this now. He did this even after we heard from President Donald Trump just in the past Couple of weeks saying repeatedly that there will be no annexation of the West Bank. So you have the sound we are getting from Washington saying there is no annexation. The sound we're getting from the streets of Israel saying that bezel ol Smoltrich and his ilk, their time could be numbered. And now we have a legacy defining move that came out with such little fanfare. It's really interesting that you mentioned this, how this was something that our audience might not have seen.
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A
Right. Kind of brushed under the rug a little bit.
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C
That's right. And this is something that some of the analysts that I've been speaking to, a lot of people who have been watching this have been saying there's a reason this is so boring. You know, I had to read the articles twice. Every time I read them I was. My eyes were glazing over and I followed this stuff. It just is a really obvious effort to kind of coat this in legalese and bureaucratic boringness in order to get it over the line without causing a lot of fuss.
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A
Not much fanfare.
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C
That's exactly right. And we've seen that that could be kind of the story of Israel's settlement expansion project in the west bank, really for generations. This is a battle of inches and yards. It is not something that we're seeing happening overnight. Big announcements. Even though we're seeing a lot of settler attacks and other sort of more spectacular violence and headline grabbing events, this was something that could sneak under the radar.
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A
I want to talk about how this is being applied and I think in order to do that, we need to talk about the way in which the west bank is split up. For folks that don't know, there is an Area B and an Area A as well. Area A is controlled by the pa, the Palestinian Authority, containing a lot of significant holy sites like the Church of the Nativity and the Mount of Temptation. Then there's Area B, which is joint control. Right. Palestinian Authority handling civil control and joint Israeli Palestinian security control. This area has been obviously a huge hotspot for quite some time. You've got more than 700,000 or so Israeli settlers already living inside the west bank and East Jerusalem alongside Palestinians. How is this going to change the dynamics in this area?
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C
And I want to add to that there's another area. There's an area C. So you've got A, B and C. C is 60% or thought to be about 60% of the West Bank. It's most of the west bank and it is under almost entirely Israeli control with some administrative functions and things like education and other things controlled by the Palestinians and by the Palestinian Authority. Areas A and B, under this rule that was passed on Sunday, now, Israelis, Jewish Israel, those who are my neighbors here in Tel Aviv, can purchase now land in the west bank in areas A and B. And that's not all. That also means that they're basically repealing the law from 1967, from that war when Israel took over the west bank from the Jordanians. They're repealing a law that says that Jews can't buy land there. They've also repealed a requirement for what's called a transaction permit before a land purchase. That basically meant that entities like the Ministry of Defense or others could get in there and say, you can't buy land here because it's going to cause trouble for everybody. That's now been waived. Now, there are Palestinian laws that will still forbid Palestinians from selling land to Israeli Jews. And that has been on the books for quite a long time. But another thing that this will do, and this is a really interesting part of this, it opens up the land registries. This is something that I had to learn about. The land registries in the west bank had been concealed. They were anonymous. Now, potentially Jewish buyers who now have this right to purchase land in the areas A and B, they can now find out who owns these bits of lands and approach them. They weren't able to do that before. And a lot of the owners of this, of these lands were absentee owners, Jordanians, people who have long since fled with their families. So now they have names for these people. They can find them and locate them and offer them money.
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A
There's also the historical stake in all of this, which is Palestinians believing as if this is their rightful land.
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C
Well, it completely destroys the prospect of a Palestinian state, which is deliberate, which was stated by Bezalel Smotrich after he passed this rule.
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A
But that was part of the peace plan that President Trump put forward between Israel and Gaza, was the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state through the Oslo Accords.
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C
And it's not just the Palestinians who have that expectation that the west bank and Gaza would become part of a future Palestinian state, ideally for Palestinians, with East Jerusalem, which was annexed to the Israelis or the Israelis annexed back in the 1980s with East Jerusalem as their capital. But that's not just the Palestinians who believe that. That's the international community, other Arab countries, neighboring Israel, who have made very unpopular and sensitive normalization deals with diplomacy, who now share ambassadors with the Israelis who have diplomatic relations. Those agreements, like between the Jordanians and the Egyptians, some of the Abraham Accord deals, they were all predicated on the notion that there will eventually become a Palestinian state.
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A
Right?
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And now you're seeing these senior officials, elected officials, successfully passing legislation saying there will be no Palestinian state. And this legislation is meant to do that. So it begs the question, why should Palestinians believe that they will have a future Palestinian state? Why should those countries who are partnered with Israel, whose cooperation with Israel is predicated on the notion that there should be a Palestinian state, why should they all stay in their diplomatic positions if Israel seems intent on not following through with providing a Palestinian state or allowing one to exist?
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A
You mentioned President Trump and the president met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday here in the United States, and they discussed, from our understanding in the readouts there, Iran, Gaza, regional developments as well. He also gave an interview a day earlier in which he talked about the potential annexation of the West Bank. And he said, essentially, we have too many other things going on right now. I'm not supportive of that. Is this going to become a bone of contention between the two leaders, considering where the president stands on this, the efforts he has put into the Israel, Gaza peace deal, and where Prime Minister Netanyahu stands on this, along with his conservative cabinet led by Smortridge?
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C
We've already heard from the president saying very clearly, just as you mentioned, that annexation is something that he opposes and he's opposed annexation for weeks. But this isn't annexation. And that is the whole point. This is de facto annexation. That's what it's being called by a lot of analysts, by a lot of people who watch this very closely, by Palestinians who are furious about these new laws. They're saying that this is annexation in everything but name. And so it, it's a workaround. It's a workaround. So I think the question isn't necessarily whether the White House is going to be satisfied or angered by this new deal. The question is whether the right wing in Israel is going to be satisfied by something short of annexation or whether they're going to push it further to full formal annexation or when they might decide to do that. For now, this is going to be a pretty big coup for those who want to see the settlement project in the west bank expand. That is what is motivating quite a few voters on the conservative far right side. And so this is something that Smotrich might be satisfied with because he's able to get something like annexation without pissing off the President of the United States, who is more popular in this country than Netanyahu or any of these other politicians combined.
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Matt Bradley, thank you.
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C
Thank you.
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A
All right, we're going to take a very quick break and when we are back, New Mexico's attorney general is going to join us to discuss his state's case against Meta and its social media platforms. Stay with us. And hey, while you have a minute, why not click that Follow or Subscribe button on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to. Here's a scoop. That way we will be right there in your feed on Monday and you'll never miss an episode with that. We'll be right back.
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And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Social media companies are on trial in two different states this week. In California, Meta owned Instagram's CEO Adam Mosseri testified that he doesn't believe social media causes clinical addiction, a central dispute in the case against Meta and YouTube. The lawsuit brought by a 20 year old woman identified as KGM alleges that algorithmic design left her addicted to social media and damaged her Mental Health. TikTok and Snap have already reached settlements. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is scheduled to testify next week. Meanwhile, in New Mexico, Meta is facing its first jury trial in a Government lawsuit over child sexual exploitation on its platforms. Prosecutors posed as minors online and received a flood of sexual solicitations. They claim that Meta designed a platform that has become the largest and most active marketplace for predators and pedophiles in the world. Meta calls the investigation, quote, ethically compromised and denies the design allegations. I spoke to the man who led the investigation and brought the case against Meta earlier this week. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torres. Attorney General, hello. Thanks for joining me.
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G
Thanks for having me. Appreciate you having this conversation.
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A
Great to have you on an incredibly important case to talk about. I want you to take me back, if you can, to the beginning. Your office created these fake social media accounts posing as kids. And then those accounts essentially started getting messages from adults. Explain how quickly this happened and the nature of the messages which you guys were receiving.
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G
Well, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to go back even a little bit further and talk a little bit about my background is an Internet crimes prosecutor. I started doing that work about 20 some odd years ago. At that time, you really had to go into the deepest sort of darkest corners of the Internet to find people who were trading child pornography, to find people who were targeting children for child solicitation. But there has been this real revolution in technology, smartphones, social media platforms. And what we, we're hearing from our investigators and from people on the front lines is that all of those predators had started to migrate from these disparate websites onto the biggest social media platforms in the world. And specifically we were concerned about the volume of activity that was coming out of Meta's platforms. We have established techniques for doing these types of investigations. We, we created undercover accounts and using artificial intelligence, basically transformed some of our special agents, who are middle aged law enforcement guys, into what appeared to be young girls on the platform and created accounts. And so those accounts were established on the platform because we're trying to get a sense of what a young person on that platform would be exposed to. Almost immediately, these accounts were flooded with graphic pictures of genitalia, unwanted solicitations for sex. And more than anything, there was this explosive growth in the types of people who were following what appeared to be a 12 year old, and they were mostly men, thousands of men started following these accounts and, and rather than raising a red flag inside the company, the company realized that these accounts were having such explosive growth. And so their reaction was to push out content, to try and inform the users about how they could commercialize their following, how they could grow that, that following and turn it into A revenue stream. After all of this was included in the complaint that was filed against the company. There were allegations from the company or claims by the company that this was inaccurate, that it was not representative of the types of experience that people would have on the platform. So we did it again. We created a separate, this time criminal investigation, again creating undercover accounts, again posing as young people on the platform, young girls on the platform, and had interactions with men right here in New Mexico. And as a consequence, they targeted what they believed to be a young girl to have sex at a local motel. And when they showed up, they ended up being placed in handcuffs. They were charged with attempted child solicitation and they've all pled guilty. They're all in jail.
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Now.
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What is interesting about that is that when we did additional discovery, we found out that the people we arrested had already been flagged inside the company for having previously interacted in ways that were inappropriate with other young people that were dangerous. And the question automatically is why? If you know that this is somebody who's engaged in dangerous behavior, why are they still on your platform? Why do they still have an active account? Why are they allowed to use this space as a breeding ground for predatory behavior?
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For Meta's sake, they're denying any legal violations and they're saying that prosecutors are cherry picking evidence to make sensationalist arguments. Andy Stone, who's the vice president of communications at Meta, accused the state of using images of real children, delays in reporting child sexual abuse material, and having disposed of data from devices used in the investigation. What is your response to that?
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G
Well, listen, this is just more spin from a company that has been engaged in trying to deflect and deny responsibility for the product design choices that they've made for the way they've allowed these dangers to persist. And, you know, a company that I think is desperate to avoid accountability, I don't, frankly think the jury is going to accept that approach, because I think there is an expectation that companies like this when they make public statements, as Mr. Zuckerberg has repeatedly in front of Congress to the public about the fact that we don't allow this kind of content, we have features in place that prevent this kind of exploitation, then why is it that it was so easy for us to bother see inbound traffic of a graphic sexual nature? Why was it so easy for law enforcement to be able to identify predators on the platform?
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A
So the way in which a lot of these media platforms, these social media platforms, have been able to keep their hands clean of all of this is oftentimes they cite Section 230, which is this US law that protects online platforms from liability for third party content. But your complaint, just so we are all clear, is not necessarily just about the content. It is really about kind of the algorithm, the design itself of the platforms.
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G
That's right. In many respects, this is a product's liability case. Right. There have been specific design choices that have gone into the creation of these platforms that have been focused on enhancing and increasing growth and engagement, specifically amongst young users who are a valuable revenue source for the company. And as a consequence of those design features, they are actually amplifying the ability for people who are interested in targeting children to find those children. The same underlying mechanics of an algorithm that will connect a user to maybe a shoe they want to buy or a trip they want to take. Right. You, they're able to build a digital profile on every person on the platform about their inherent interests, things that, that draw their attention. Well, guess what, the same mechanics work for people who have a sexual interest in children. There's nothing different about how that, how that algorithm functions. And despite the fact that Meta tried to get out of this lawsuit by advancing arguments under Section 230, the court rejected that. Because this isn't about the content of other people. It's about the design features and the product features that they themselves have intentionally made. And in addition to that, they're also liable for the misrepresentations. Right. When you tell people this space is safe because we do X, Y and Z and you know that X, Y and Z is either not true or you have information about inherent dangers that you keep hidden, but you don't tell your users. You are also responsible for that.
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A
I mentioned at the top of this interview, as I came to you, that there are a number of cases now against Meta. We mentioned obviously the case that's coming out of California. More than three dozen state attorney generals have filed a lawsuit as well, alleging that Meta has hurt kids mental health. Again, four design features that they say led to addiction. New Mexico actually didn't initially join that case. What does accountability actually look like for you? How do you protect kids, teens, especially when you look to what is happening in Australia with a ban on social media for teenagers.
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G
Well, fundamentally, we're trying to get fundamental change in the way this company does business and other companies do business. We should be able to have a healthy space on the Internet and on social media platforms where we can set guardrails around the type of activity and the type of conduct that will be allowed and permitted. And we have to have transparency in those design features that we know are adversely impacting kids. Right. We, one of the reasons that we chose not to join the other AGs who filed their lawsuit is that their lawsuit is primarily focused on the mental health harms, the psychological harms, the addictive nature of the products themselves. We will also make a presentation on that, but I thought it was important to really highlight the more serious concern that I have about predatory behavior and the presence of predators in these spaces. I don't think most parents know that they are potentially enabling a predator in the real world to find and target their children for sexual exploitation when they hand their kid a phone and allow them to have access to a social media platform like Meta. And I think it's incredibly important for people to have an awareness of this kind of conduct because we're also at the edge of one of the most transformative moments in the history of technology on this planet. And that's AI and that's. And that is the. That is clearly where Meta is moving and a lot of other people are moving. And if they can't be trusted to make this safe, why would we trust them to make that safe? That is a lot of what is at the forefront of my mind in terms of why this is so urgent for us to engage in.
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A
Attorney General Torres, you got an uphill battle ahead of you and we will certainly be watching. Thank you.
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G
Appreciate it.
- [24:54]
A
Coming up, get ready for our third partial government shutdown in six months. Who's going to be impacted? So stay with us for the headlines.
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- [26:32]
A
And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. Let's get to some headlines. The Department of Homeland Security is set to shut down this weekend with lawmakers heading out of town for a week long break without a deal to fund the agency. The White House has been negotiating with Democratic leaders who are demanding reforms to how ICE is conducting immigration enforcement. And while the talks have sparked some hope, there is no word on the details of these ongoing negotiations. During the shutdown, federal employees at agencies like fema, the Coast Guard and TSA won't be paid, but workers at ICE and Customs and Border Protection will still be getting their checks. Those agencies have access to more than $75 billion in new funding that Republicans passed in the so called one big beautiful bill last summer. Meanwhile, two senior DHS officials tell NBC News there are no immediate plans for new surges by ICE or Border Patrol in the US after border czar Tom Homan announced an end to Operation Metro surge in Minneapolis on Thursday. The first inflation report of 2026 is in and consumers are finally feeling a little bit of relief. Inflation rose just 0.2% from December to January, and year over year, the inflation fell to 2.44%, both numbers lower than economists had expected. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report said housing quote was the largest factor in the increase for the month, followed by grocery prices. In recent months, the Trump administration has rolled back tariffs on dozens of food items, but there were significant signs that tariff prices are still passing through to the consumers, including in the rising costs of laundry equipment, computers and home furniture. But there was some good news, including the price of energy, which saw one of the biggest drops in January, falling 1.5%. Amazon has canceled plans to partner their ring doorbell cameras with the police surveillance company Flock Safety. Back in October, Amazon announced that ring customers would have the option to participate in a program called Community Requests. The program shares video from customers doorbell cameras with police. In certain instances, Flock uses video to create a centralized database and lets participating police officers track vehicles movements without warrants. But that access has caused controversy, leading some cities and towns to cancel their contracts with Flock. With Flock and Amazon confirmed the canceled partnership and framed the decision as mutual. And finally, we have something very special for you today. Not one, but two Olympic minutes. First, here's NBC News correspondent Shaquille Brewster.
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Well, big moments for Team USA even as they're expecting some stiff competition heading into the weekend. If you look at curling, big win for the women's curling team taking down the gold medal favorites, Canada after a back and forth match. This was the first time you had the women's curling team beating Canada in Winter Olympics history. Meanwhile, when you look at hockey, a lot of action on the ice expected this weekend. It was earlier this week when the men's team beat Lafayette 5 1. It was the first time that you had professional NHL players competing on Olympic ice in some 12 years. And Team USA really coming out strong for the women. They are now officially in the knockout rounds, meaning they need to win or go home. Meanwhile, we're expecting to see this weekend the first real bobsledding competition. Multiple events and bobsledding. And of course, don't forget about the action on the slopes where we expect to see Mikayla Shiffrin back out. She'll be competing in the giant slalom. She did not earn her medal earlier this week. So many people keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that changes when she competes on Sunday.
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And now Our special guest, 1984 Olympic gold medalist and NBC News contributor Scott Hamilton.
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This is your Olympic minute. Scott Hamilton here. And the men take the ice and woo hoo. It's going to be a fireworks display like no other. Next week is the women's competition. It's Japan versus the United States and the women. And this is where Japan might get a little revenge. Kaori Sakamoto. And the team event was amazing, focused and solid. And as a three time world champion, she'll give the American women all they can handle to try to get on that top podium spot for the gold medal. But it's going to be exciting because you know what it is, The Olympic Games on NBC. Yep, that's what it is.
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A
Thank you, Scott. That was, by the way, a beautiful rendition of the Olympic theme. We will all be watching. All right, that is gonna do it for us at here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Bissugin. We'll be back Monday with a special President's Day episode. And if you like what you heard, subscribe. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you Monday.
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Hey, listeners, I'm Saeed Jones.
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And I'm Zach Stafford.
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And we are the hosts of a podcast called Vicheck with where we make sense of what's going on in news.
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