“A New Mexico jury found Meta liable for misleading consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangering children, ordering the company to pay $375 million in civil penalties for violating the state’s consumer protection laws. The verdict in the landmark State of New Mexico v. Meta Platforms, Inc. trial makes New Mexico the first state in the nation to win against a major tech company accused of harming young people. The jury ordered Meta to pay the maximum penalty under the law of $5,000 per violation, totaling $375 million.” [editor’s note: On the up side, idiocy like this will hopefully help move social media toward more decentralized/ownerless models so that there aren’t any deep pockets to pick – TLK] (03/24/26)
“Asian countries are turning to coal as the Iran war disrupts oil and gas shipments. The continent is exposed because it relies on imported fuel, much of it passing through the Strait of Hormuz — a chokepoint for about a fifth of global oil and natural gas trade. … It burns cleaner than coal, but still emits climate change-causing gases, especially methane. The war has countries shifting back to coal to cover LNG shortfalls. India is burning more coal to meet higher summer demand. South Korea has lifted caps on electricity from coal. Indonesia is prioritizing using its domestic supply. Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam are boosting coal-fired power. Burning more coal risks worsening smog in major cities, slowing the transition to renewable energy and increasing the region’s planet-warming emissions.” (03/24/26)
“Israel will occupy southern Lebanon up to the Litani River to create a ‘defensive buffer,’ Defence Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday, spelling out for the first time Israel’s intent to seize territory amounting to nearly a tenth of Lebanon. At a meeting with the military chief of staff, Katz said Israeli forces would ‘control the remaining bridges and the security zone up to the Litani,’ a river that meets the Mediterranean about 30 km (20 miles) north of Israel’s border. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said it would fight to prevent Israeli troops from occupying southern Lebanon, calling such a move an ‘existential threat’ to the Lebanese state.” (03/24/26)
“A rebel group in eastern Congo has detained civilians, including two journalists, in metal shipping containers without light or ventilation, an advocacy group said Tuesday. Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said the Rwanda-backed M23, which controls parts of eastern Congo, used the containers in the city of Goma as makeshift detention cells under ‘inhumane’ and ‘degrading’conditions. … As many as 80 detainees at a time were placed inside a container, without light or ventilation and allowed out only once a day. Witnesses said they received minimal food, while some reported routine beatings. According to the testimonies, conditions were extreme — suffocating heat by day and cold at night — with deaths reported. Survivors were often held for weeks before being transferred to other locations.” (03/24/26)
“NASA is cancelling plans to deploy a space station in lunar orbit and will instead use its components to construct a $20 billion US base on the moon’s surface over the next seven years, its new chief Jared Isaacman said on Tuesday. Isaacman, who was sworn in at the agency in December, made the announcement at the opening of a day-long event at NASA’s Washington headquarters at which he outlined a raft of changes he is making to the agency’s flagship moon program Artemis. … The Lunar Gateway station, largely already built with contractors Northrop Grumman and Vantor, formerly Maxar, was meant to be a space station in a lunar orbit. Repurposing the craft for a lunar surface base is not simple.” (03/24/26)
“Chile on Tuesday said it was withdrawing its backing for the candidacy of former President Michelle Bachelet as Secretary-General of the United Nations, ahead of an election that will decide its leader for a five-year term starting in 2027. The withdrawal of Chile’s support comes weeks after the swearing in of President Jose Antonio Kast, marking the South American country’s sharpest shift to the right in decades. Kast has repeatedly criticized Bachelet’s presidency and said his leftist predecessor Gabriel Boric ‘made a mistake’ when he supported her nomination, alongside Brazil and Mexico, for the leadership of the U.N. Bachelet was considered a frontrunner for the race.” (03/24/26)
“Ahead of a Tuesday hearing where Minnesota lawmakers will discuss food stamp fraud, Fox News Digital spoke to a millionaire who says he was able to qualify for food stamps through a loophole — one that he hopes will soon be closed as the state grapples with a massive fraud scandal. Rob Undersander, a retired engineer who volunteers to help seniors navigate the government benefits system, said he learned during training that eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Minnesota was based on income only, not assets. Because his retirement income was low, he realized he could qualify even though he had significant savings and property. To test the system, Undersander applied for benefits in Stearns County in 2016 and was approved within weeks. He later said he collected thousands of dollars in SNAP benefits over more than a year, which he donated to charity, in an effort to draw attention to the issue.” (03/24/26)
“The European Union and Australia agreed to a sweeping trade deal on Tuesday, the latest move by U.S. allies to rethink their economic ties amid deepening global geopolitical uncertainty. The agreement, which resulted from almost eight years of talks, would remove most of the tariffs the two sides had imposed on each other’s goods and allow the EU greater access to critical mineral supplies from Australia. … The European Union has pushed to clinch new agreements with trade partners over the past year in an effort to diversify its economic relations, defense and military security partnerships that have come under threat as the U.S. appears to be increasingly unreliable.” (03/24/26)
“The University of Southern California decided to cancel its Tuesday night gubernatorial debate after accusations that it excluded four of the only candidates of color, the Los Angeles Times reported. The private university came under fire when Xavier Becerra, a Mexican American candidate for governor, sent a scathing letter to the university’s president last week accusing it of the blatant exclusion of four candidates from the debate. He called it ‘a chilling and dangerous move.’ The university decided to cancel the event on Monday, less than a day before it was scheduled to take place. Becerra celebrated the news, which was first reported by the Times. ‘We fought. We won! We stood up against an unfair candidate debate set-up that prematurely chose winners and losers,’ he wrote on X on Monday night.” [editor’s note: This should be no surprise to Libertarians, who have seen Ed Clark, Harry Browne, Gary Johnson and others similarly excluded from Presidential debates for low polling and fundraising numbers – SAT] (03/24/26)
“A coalition of leading cultural and architectural preservation organizations has asked the court to stop the Trump administration from carrying through with its quarter-billion-dollar Kennedy Center reconstruction project. The National Trust for Historic Preservation in the United States, along with seven other organizations, filed a lawsuit Monday in a Washington, D.C., federal court seeking injunctive relief prohibiting the Trump administration from starting any construction work at the iconic Potomac River center without completing the required public review and consultation process.” (03/24/26)
