Social Media Addiction Verdict & Iran Deal In Reach? | 3.26.26

Summary

Morning Wire Podcast Summary

Episode Title: Social Media Addiction Verdict & Iran Deal In Reach?
Date: March 26, 2026
Hosts: John Bickley, Georgia Howe, Brent Scher
Produced by: The Daily Wire

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Episode Overview

This episode of Morning Wire discusses three major news stories:

1. A possible breakthrough—and public rejection—in US-Iran peace negotiations, alongside military developments in the region.
2. Historic flooding in Hawaii causing extensive damage to already traumatized communities.
3. Two landmark court rulings holding social media giants Meta (Facebook/Instagram) and Google (YouTube) legally responsible for contributing to youth mental health crises and failing to protect children from online predators.

The discussion brings together reporting, expert analysis, and some powerful reactions to these late-breaking stories.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. US-Iran Peace Negotiations and Escalating Tensions

Timestamps: [00:34] – [06:46]

• Trump's Fifteen-Point Peace Plan

  • President Trump offered Iran a plan via intermediaries (Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan), asking for major nuclear concessions: dismantling nuclear sites, removal of enriched uranium, restricting ballistic missiles, and full access to the Strait of Hormuz ([02:53]).
  • In return, the US would allow a strictly civilian nuclear program, closely monitored, and offer relief from some economic sanctions.
  • The plan featured a proposed 30-day ceasefire for larger negotiations ([03:30]).

• Iran's Response

  • Initially denied receiving the offer, then publicly rejected it, calling US demands, “excessive and inconsistent with the reality of its defeat on the battlefield.” They insisted on setting their own terms for peace timing ([04:14]).
  • Privately, Tehran signaled willingness to talk but with heavy preconditions: end of US military strikes, closure of US bases in Gulf, full control of Strait of Hormuz, lifting all sanctions, and security guarantees ([04:48]).

• Military Context

  • Trump's pause on strikes set to expire as troop reinforcements arrive: 2,200 additional Marines joining 2,000 paratroopers already deployed ([05:22]).
  • Iran alleges a planned US operation to “occupy one of the Iranian islands” and threatens new attacks if such a move occurs ([05:52]).
  • Analyst Cabot Phillips highlights the significance of online prediction markets putting a 60% chance on “boots on the ground in Iran” by end of April:

    “They have been remarkably accurate at predicting all sorts of geopolitical events in the past year.” ([06:17])

Notable Quotes

• Analyst Cabot Phillips on the offer’s logistics:

  “Acceptance of this plan would reportedly result in an immediate 30-day ceasefire, during which time a broader, more permanent solution could be decided upon.” ([03:30])

• Trump administration stance:

  “The president’s preference is always peace. There does not need to be any more death and destruction.” ([04:02])

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2. Historic Hawaii Flooding

Timestamps: [07:53] – [10:58]

• Disaster Details

  • Worst flooding in 20 years, compounding trauma in areas previously hit by devastating wildfires.
  • Volcanic mud flooding homes, roads, a hospital, schools—some structures swept off their foundations ([08:07]).
  • Over 230 people rescued; residents used surfboards to escape flood waters ([08:30]).

• Resident & Community Response

  • Community self-reliance highlighted during the disaster:

    “During the floods, we saw how self-reliant we needed to be… we had to go get people. We had to feed people.” – Analyst Cabot Phillips ([09:00])

• Causes and Damages

  • Back-to-back “Kona lows”—heavy rainstorms native to Hawaii—prevented recovery between downpours ([09:49]).
  • Estimated damage over $1 billion, with federal aid requested for major repairs ([10:21]).
  • Clean water is scarce; residents advised to boil before drinking while recovery efforts begin.

Memorable Moment

• Anecdote of a resident:

  “This one woman went to run a quick errand and within 15 minutes… she saw cars floating down the street.” – Reporter Linda ([09:24])

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3. Landmark Social Media Addiction & Safety Rulings

Timestamps: [11:31] – [15:55]

• Case 1: Kaylee vs. Meta and Google in Los Angeles

  • 20-year-old Kaylee sued Meta and Google over serious mental health issues she attributed to early and frequent social media use—YouTube at 6, Instagram at 9 ([11:51]).
  • Jury found both companies negligent for designing platforms to be addictive and knowingly ignoring their effect on mental health ([12:39]).
  • Jury awarded Kaylee $3 million, majority from Instagram; this case sets important precedent for similar claims ([13:07]).

• Case 2: New Mexico vs. Meta

  • New Mexico state sting showed Facebook account (posing as 13-year-old girl) overwhelmed with messages from child predators.
  • Evidence included Meta employees admitting encryption policy made law enforcement investigations more difficult ([13:49]).
  • Meta fined $375 million for violating child safety laws and hindering investigations.

• Broader Legal Implications

  • Over 1,600 similar personal injury cases already filed in California alone, potentially paving way for massive settlements or platform changes ([15:03]).
  • 42 other states have legal action pending regarding child protection and social media.
  • Meta vows to contest rulings, claims verdicts are based on “cherry-picked” evidence ([15:35]).

Notable Quotes

• Analyst Cabot Phillips on Kaylee’s case:

  “She says… she now has anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, suicidal ideation, all directly caused by those platforms.” ([12:24])

• On the New Mexico sting:

  “The account was absolutely inundated with messages and content from child predators.” – Guest Commentator ([13:57])

• Brent Scher, on parental reactions:

  “I think a lot of parents are really cheering on these suits and hoping there will be changes made.” ([15:48])

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Noteworthy Moments & Quotes

• Iran Talks & Doubts:

  “Iran will end the war at a time of its own choosing and only if the conditions it has set are fulfilled. It will not allow Trump to determine the timing of the war’s end.” – Iranian Regime Official ([04:24])

• On Social Media Liability:

  “The jury looked closely at interface features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, beauty filters, as well as internal documents relating to discussion of those features…” – Analyst Cabot Phillips ([12:39])

• On Hawaii’s Resilience:

  “We had to get people. We had to feed people. We had to figure it out on ourselves.” ([09:00])

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Important Segment Timestamps

• US-Iran Peace Deal Context: [00:34] - [06:46]
• Hawaii Flooding Details: [07:53] - [10:58]
• Social Media Lawsuit Rulings: [11:31] - [15:55]

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Conclusion

This episode provides a factual, urgent update on three major ongoing stories:

• The precarious nature of US-Iran negotiations and rising risk of direct conflict,
• The devastating physical and emotional toll of Hawaii’s worst flood in two decades, and
• A judicial breakthrough in holding tech platforms accountable for harm to minors’ mental health and safety.

The Morning Wire team balances breaking news with deeper context, backing up every claim with concrete evidence and first-hand expert commentary, making this episode especially valuable for anyone tracking society’s response to emerging risks—be they geopolitical, environmental, or digital.

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For full coverage and additional updates, listen to the complete episode or visit DailyWire.com.

Transcript

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[Host Brent Scher]

Iran publicly rejects President Trump's peace offer, but the White House says they're making progress behind the scenes.

[Reporter Linda]

It was made clear to the United States that Iran wanted to talk. President Trump is willing to listen.

[Host Brent Scher]

I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Executive editor John Bickley. It's Thursday, March 26th, and this is Morning Wire.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

Hawaii residents reel from historic flooding as massive storms wreak havoc on the islands.

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

This is the largest flood that we've

[Sponsor Voice]

had In Hawaii in 20 years, the

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

largest flood since the flood in Manoa back in the early 2000s.

[Host Brent Scher]

And in a landmark ruling on social media addiction, a court finds YouTube and Meta guilty of contributing to growing mental health problems.

[Sponsor Voice]

The verdict was a finding of liability

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

on all counts against both Meta

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.

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[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

As the US continues to build up ground forces in the Middle East, President Trump is trying to nail down a peace deal to end the war in Iran.

[Host Brent Scher]

Wired In Live host Cabot Phillips joins us now to break it all down. So, Cabot, we have learned the details now of President Trump's offer to the Iranians. What kind of details did we find out?

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

Right. He suspended those potential strikes on Iranian power plants this past Saturday and gave a five day window for peace talks to take place. And in the last 24 hours, hours, we've gotten new details on the offer that he's making, which again is going not directly to the Iranians, but through intermediaries like Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan. From what we know, this is a 15 point plan that includes a number of major concessions from the Iranians. For example, it requires they dismantle their three largest nuclear sites and remove all enriched uranium from the country, while agreeing to cease all future enrichment. It also places severe limits on their ballistic missile capabilities and demands a full opening of the Strait of Hormuz. In exchange, the White House offered to let the regime keep a nuclear program for civilian use, albeit with very close oversight. They also reportedly offered to lift a number of economic sanctions that have hampered the Iranian economy for years now. Now, from a logistical standpoint, acceptance of this plan would reportedly result in an immediate 30 day ceasefire, during which time a broader, more permanent solution could be decided upon. For their part, the White House said Wednesday that Iran's new leaders should take notes from the mistakes of their deceased predecessors and accept a deal.

[Reporter Linda]

The remaining elements of the Iranian regime have another opportunity to cooperate with President Trump. The president's preference is always peace. There does not need to be any more death and destruction.

[Host Brent Scher]

How are the Iranians responding?

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

Well, initially they denied that they had engaged in any talks to begin with. However, on Wednesday, regime officials announced that they had in fact received Trump's offer but rejected it completely. In their words, US Demands were, quote, excessive and inconsistent with the reality of its defeat on the battlefield. They added that, quote, Iran will end the war at a time of its own choosing and only if the conditions it is set are fulfilled. It will not allow Trump to determine the timing of the war's end. But according to reports, they did privately signal a willingness to talk to Washington, though their demands right now are quite hefty, to say the least.

[Host Brent Scher]

And what are those demands?

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

So, according to the Wall Street Journal, the regime is saying any plan must include an immediate end to U. S. Strikes, the closure of all American military bases in the Persian Gulf, lifting of all economic sanctions, total control of the Strait of Hormuzzi. And the right to collect fees from passing ships guarantees that no strikes will occur in the future. And the list goes on. Now, obviously, most of those points are never going to be accepted by the president. But the question is whether they are legitimate demands or simply just posturing. Iranian officials, for their part, have expressed doubts that even Trump's offer was legitimate, with some calling it a, quote, ploy to benefit markets or even a distraction to allow for the US to continue its infantry buildup in the region while these talks go on. And to that point, Trump's five day pause on power plant strikes will expire Right, as new troops arrive in the region. We mentioned yesterday that he deployed those 2000 elite paratroopers. Well, they'll be joined Friday by 2200 more Marines from the 31st Expeditionary Unit. So if Trump decides the talks are not going anywhere, he could well use those troops to secure the Strait of Hormuz from the ground.

[Host Brent Scher]

Now, Iran is also claiming that President Trump is planning a ground operation. What are they saying?

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

Right. Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammed Gallaboff, claimed yesterday that, quote, Iran's enemies, with the support of one of the regional countries, are preparing to occupy one of the Iranian islands. He went on to threaten new attacks on infrastructure in the region if such an operation took place. Now, the White House has yet to acknowledge those remarks, but he could be referring to Kharg island, which is home to much of Iran's oil infrastructure. And it's worth noting, online prediction markets currently have the odds of U.S. boots on the ground in Iran at 60% of by April 30th. Now, I know some people might roll their eyes when they hear that. They don't really care about prediction markets, but they have been remarkably accurate at predicting all sorts of geopolitical events in the past year, including the initial start of the war itself. So it is worth keeping an eye on.

[Host Brent Scher]

Well, if those betting markets are correct, boots on the ground would be a major development.

[Guest Commentator]

It would.

[Host Brent Scher]

Cabot, thanks for reporting.

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

Absolutely.

[Host Brent Scher]

And just a reminder to our audience, you can hear more from Cabot on the next episode of Wired in live, which airs today at 4pm Eastern on

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[Host Brent Scher]

the worst flooding to hit Hawaii in two decades has left parts of the islands destroyed and in need of help.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

Daily Wire reporter Lyndon Blake joins us now with the details. Hey, Lyndon. So some disturbing footage and reports coming out of Hawaii.

[Guest Commentator]

What is the latest?

[Reporter Linda]

Yeah, well, you have to keep in mind the same parts that are getting hit by all this rain and flooding is the same parts of the island that were hit by those horrible deadly wildfires a couple of years ago. So right now in Hawaii, they're experiencing this thick reddish volcanic mud that has been rushed through the islands because of all this rain they're getting in parts of Oahu. So the flooding has damaged homes, literally picked them up off their foundation, taken down the street, schools and even a hospital in Maui. And the homes quickly washed away over the weekend because they had back to back heavy downpours. And that's what led to rain just toppling over already saturated grounds. 230 people have actually had to be rescued and some residents even had to use their surfboards to escape their homes that were flooding. Other people had to brave the floods to help their neighbors. And you can hear from some of them right here just coming off the

[Guest Commentator]

street and offering help dropping off wheelbarrows and shovels.

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

During the floods, we saw how self reliant we needed to be, right? It was all left on us. We had to go get people. We had to feed people.

[Sponsor Voice]

We have to figure it out on ourselves.

[Reporter Linda]

So what made this a big problem in Hawaii is that rain just kept coming. So after the weekend downpour earlier this week, they had to deal with more rain on Monday and that turned streets into rivers. So to give you an idea of how fast the water's piling up, in some areas, it even went up to four feet in a matter of minutes. It was one of those Things that residents describe as coming out of nowhere because you had them going to run errands. This one woman went to run a quick errand and within 15 minutes, by the time she left the store, she saw cars floating down the street.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

Hard to imagine experiencing that firsthand. So this has been described as historic. Just how unusual is this kind of flooding for Hawaii?

[Reporter Linda]

So Hawaii has not had this type of flooding since 2004. And these storms are happening in the winter mines and they're called Kona lows. And these are the specific, specific types of storms that happen in Hawaii between October and April. And they can bring massive downpours. And what's happening right now in Hawaii is they had back to back Kona lows and that just made it almost impossible to recover and try to get some of that ground dry before the next downpour came in.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

So as of now, how much damage are we talking about? And is there any sign that this is going to let up?

[Reporter Linda]

Yeah. So right now Governor Josh Green says the damage is upwards of $1 billion. So he's reached out to President Trump to ask to send federal aid. They're going to have to use as to repair airports, schools, roads, homes, and that hospital that I mentioned earlier in Maui. So the good news is it looks like the rain's letting up. Now, I checked the forecast in Hawaii and the precipitation chances were low, but residents in the meantime are having to boil their water. It's not safe to drink right now, but hopefully the rain will hold off. Another big storm holds off so they can start cleaning up and rebuilding.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

Let's certainly hope so. And as you said, this community has already experienced a lot of trauma in the last couple of years. Linda, thank you so much for reporting.

[Host Brent Scher]

Thanks.

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[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

After years of parents sounding the alarm over the dangers of social media, the courts are echoing their concerns in back to back rulings.

[Host Brent Scher]

Daily Wire editor in Chief Brent Scher is here to bring us up to speed. So Brent, we just saw two major verdicts. They're being called watershed rulings. First, let's start with the one most recent one in Los Angeles yesterday. What happened There.

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

Yeah.

[Guest Commentator]

Rough couple of days for Meta's public image and Pocketbook. There are multiple California cases right now, but the big one that got a ruling yesterday is a personal injury case called KGM, or Kaylee versus Meta and Google. Kaylee, she's now 20 years old. She claimed she experienced serious mental health issues, all stemming from years of social media use, specifically on Instagram and YouTube. She says those companies are liable for her suffering because they knew that the product was addictive and causes mental health problems for young teens. So she began using YouTube, she says, at age 6, Instagram at age 9, and she brought the suit when she was 19. She says she now has anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, suicidal ideation, all directly caused by those platforms. An LA county jury yesterday has now agreed with her. They found both Meta and Google were negligent. The case, which was tried in the California Superior Court, considered whether the platforms knowingly design their platforms to get young users addicted. The jury looked closely at interface features like infinite scrolling, autoplay, beauty filters, as well as internal documents relating to discussion of those features and the fact that the company was well aware that the product caused the exact symptoms that Kaylee says she felt. The jury ended up awarding Kaylee $3 million, with most of that coming from Instagram. But the big thing here is that it obviously paves the way for many other people to pursue similar claims because obviously, you know, she's not the only one who's been on YouTube and Instagram since they were 6 or 10 years old.

[Host Brent Scher]

And addiction is just one of the issues the parents are concerned about. We also saw a case coming out of New Mexico relating to these platforms exposing children to child predators. Tell us about New Mexico verdict.

[Guest Commentator]

Yeah. So back to back days for Meta. That jury in New Mexico ruled that Meta violated consumer protection laws and was ordered to pay the state $375 million. The case stems from a sting operation that the state conducted in 2023 where they posed as a 13 year old girl on Facebook and found the account was absolutely inundated with messages and content from child predators. One of the more damning exhibits the state brought during the trial was internal communications between employees where they were explicitly discussing how a 2019 decision by Mark Zuckerberg to have all communications be encrypted would make it very hard for law enforcement to investigate child sex abuse. So clearly Meta knew this was a big issue and that their policy of encryption would actually protect predators. But the platform, they fired back, saying that the examples brought by New Mexico were cherry picked. Ultimately, the jury cited against Meta. They recommended that hefty $375 million fine.

[Host Brent Scher]

Now they're calling the California case, in particular, a bellwether. What other cases are on the docket in California or elsewhere that could be affected by these verdicts?

[Guest Commentator]

Yeah, it's huge liability. I mean, you see the, what, California one's only 3 million. The New Mexico one's 375 million. The California ruling may end up being way bigger because there are 1600 personal injury cases already filed. So if it's 3 million for each case, we could see a massive wave of settlements that come in and potentially changes to these platforms themselves to protect themselves from, you know, further lawsuits for New Mexico. 42 states have already filed similar child safety suits. So, you know, these things can pile up pretty quickly. For their part, Meta put out a statement saying they respectfully disagree with the ruling and that they are pursuing all legal options.

[Host Brent Scher]

Well, I think a lot of parents are really cheering on these suits and hoping there will be changes made. Bren, thanks for reporting.

[Guest Commentator]

Yeah, of course. Thanks, guys.

[Reporter Lyndon Blake]

Thanks for waking up with us. And if you're listening to the show, you can also now watch the show free on Daily Wire. We'll be back this evening with more news you need to know.

[Analyst Cabot Phillips]

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