The Daily Brief - Mar. 25, 2026
The latest on Iran, social media lawsuits, and more
These are today’s top stories, delivered straight to your inbox. Catch up here on all the news you might’ve missed.
Iran
A day after Iranian officials expressed openness to meeting with American negotiators to discuss President Trump’s 15-point proposal for negotiations, Iran rejected the plan and continued its missile strikes across the Middle East. Iranian officials said they would not entertain talks about a temporary ceasefire, and they denied that any negotiations are taking place.
Instead, Iran announced its own counterproposal on state TV, calling for a halt to killings of its officials, guarantees that no new war will be waged against it, war reparations, and international recognition of Iran’s authority over the Strait of Hormuz.
Officials told The New York Times that Iran feared the United States and Israel would use a ceasefire to reinforce their military forces before resuming strikes against them.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military said it had struck what it described as the only facility in Iran responsible for designing and developing submarines and support systems for the Iranian Navy located in Isfahan.
Another Democratic Flip
Democrat Emily Gregory flipped a Florida state legislative district yesterday that includes President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. Gregory, a first-time candidate and public health executive, defeated Jon Maples, a financial planner who had received Trump’s “complete and total endorsement.” She won 51% of the vote to Maples’ 49%.
The district was previously represented by Mike Caruso, a Republican who resigned to become Palm Beach County’s clerk. Caruso won by 19 percentage points in 2024, making Tuesday’s result a leftward swing of nearly 21 points. Trump carried the district by about 9 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
Tuesday’s result is at least the 28th time Democrats have flipped a GOP-held seat in state and local elections since Trump’s reelection. Republicans, meanwhile, have not flipped any Democratic seats since November 2024.
Democrats framed Tuesday’s win as an early warning sign for Republicans ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November,” said Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
DHS Shutdown
Negotiations to end the partial government shutdown are continuing, with Senate Democrats announcing their counteroffer to a Republican plan to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees TSA.
Earlier this week, Republicans offered to fund all of DHS except specific portions of ICE, which was already funded under last year’s GOP spending bill. Democrats rejected that as insufficient, countering with a proposal that includes reforms to ICE — the agency at the center of the dispute. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “reasonable, good-faith proposal.” Majority Leader John Thune said Democrats “keep moving the goalposts.”
Democrats are refusing to fund the department without restraints on Trump’s immigration enforcement operations, following the deaths of two US citizens at the hands of federal agents during an ICE operation in Minneapolis.
Meanwhile, the top official at TSA told House lawmakers that staffing shortages have led to the “highest wait times in TSA history.” She said the agency has lost more than 480 officers since the shutdown began on Feb. 14. Callouts at some airports have reached 40%.
Meta Ordered to Pay $375 Million
A New Mexico jury on Tuesday ordered Meta to pay $375 million in civil penalties for harming children’s mental health and making them vulnerable to sexual exploitation.
The decision came after a nearly seven-week trial in which jurors sided with state prosecutors who argued that Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp — prioritized profits over safety. The jury found that Meta violated state consumer protection laws and misled people about the safety of its platforms.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez sued Meta in 2023 following an undercover operation involving a fake social media profile of a 13-year-old girl that he previously told CNBC “was simply inundated with images and targeted solicitations” from child abusers.
Jurors found thousands of violations, each counting separately toward the $375 million penalty. “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson said.
Separately, a California jury on Wednesday ordered Meta and Google-owned YouTube to pay $3 million to a 20-year-old woman who said the companies designed their apps to be addictive and harmful to adolescents. Meta was ordered to pay 70% of the damages and YouTube 30%.
The jury sided with plaintiff K.G.M., who testified that her social media use — which began before she was a teenager — had contributed to anxiety and depression. Both companies are facing hundreds of similar lawsuits from individuals, parents and school districts across the country.
Newsbreak
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Suspicious Trades
A pattern of well-timed market trades ahead of President Trump’s consequential announcements is drawing scrutiny from lawmakers and economic experts.
Data analyzed by Bloomberg and CNBC showed a sharp spike in stock futures and oil futures trading shortly before the announcement, with large bets placed on stocks rising and oil prices falling — moves that proved profitable when markets opened: stock futures climbed more than 2.5% and crude futures fell roughly 6%.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy alleged insider trading. “A $1.5 BILLION BET,” he wrote on X. “Bigger than any futures purchases made at the time. Five minutes before Trump’s post. Who was it? Trump? A family member? A White House staffer? This is corruption.”
In February, two House Democrats demanded a formal investigation into “potential insider trading and market manipulation.”
Axios has documented a pattern of similar moves: a $580 million surge in oil futures about 16 minutes before Trump’s Iran announcement; betting activity on the platform Polymarket ahead of US strikes; a trader turning roughly $32,000 into more than $400,000 betting on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; and a spike in stock trades before Trump paused tariffs last April.
A White House spokesperson told the Financial Times that the administration does not “tolerate any administration official illegally profiteering off of insider knowledge,” calling the accusations “baseless and irresponsible reporting.”
Separately, CNN reported that a trader made nearly $1 million since 2024 from dozens of well-timed Polymarket bets correctly predicting US and Israeli military actions against Iran, winning 93% of five-figure wagers. “All of this is strong signaling of insider activity,” Bubblemaps CEO Nick Vaiman told CNN.
Cox v. Sony
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 today that internet service providers cannot be held liable for copyright infringement committed by their subscribers, a major victory for Cox Communications in its long-running legal battle with the music industry.
In 2018, Sony, Universal, Warner and other major labels sued Cox Communications — one of the largest broadband providers in the US. A jury initially awarded the labels $1 billion in damages.
Sony argued that Cox, by knowingly allowing repeat infringers to stay on its network, was itself responsible for music piracy. Cox countered that holding providers liable for what their customers do would force companies to cut off hospitals, universities and millions of ordinary users based on unverified accusations.
Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, said that Cox’s role was simply to provide internet access — not to facilitate piracy — and it did not intend for users to infringe copyrights.
SFO Arrests
New details have emerged about the arrest of a Guatemalan national and her 9-year-old daughter at San Francisco International Airport last Sunday.
TSA officials alerted ICE two days before the flight of Angelina Lopez-Jimenez, after the agency identified her as being under a deportation order. She and her daughter were traveling to Miami and have since been deported to Guatemala.
According to Rep. John Garamendi, the Democratic congressman representing the area of San Francisco where the family lived, Lopez-Jimenez had no criminal history, though he added that she had entered the country illegally.
The arrest, captured on video by a bystander, has been widely shared on social media.
Documents obtained by The New York Times show how TSA agents shared names and birth dates of undocumented migrants, allowing ICE officers to detain and deport them as they pass through airports.
LaGuardia Crash
Following an Air Canada airplane crash involving a firetruck at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the role of air traffic controllers. Two pilots were killed and more than 40 passengers were injured.
The NTSB is examining whether having two controllers on overnight duty was sufficient, why a runway warning system failed to alert of a potential collision, who was coordinating air and ground traffic, and whether the fire truck received the controller’s last-second warning in time to stop.
“We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “When something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.”
I would love to see a list of each time the administration has called a report "baseless" -- along with the eventual proof that the reporting was ultimately true, or, as is the case here with the timing of these trades and bets, the only logical explanation for the reality we can all see.