Iran Rejects US Peace Proposal, Troop Deployment, Social Media Trial

0:02Iran offers its own proposal to end the war. It demands reparations for war damages and ending attacks on Iranian leaders and Iranian allies. Israel wants to keep fighting. How will the U.S. respond? I'm Steve Inscape with A. Martinez and this is Up First from NPR News. President Trump considers whether to try to take control of Karg Island. Even inserting U.S. forces so close to Iran's shores would be risky and carry the potential for casualties. How might Iran retaliate against American boots on the ground? And a jury found Google and Meta responsible for making addictive products fueling anxiety and depression.

0:41We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable just because of the features alone that drive addiction. Stay with us. We've got all the news you need to start today.

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2:18Let a career coach from strawberry.me help you get unstuck. Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner and get 50 % off your first coaching session at strawberry.me slash NPR. Iran has responded to a U.S. peace plan with a proposal of its own. The U.S. offered sanctions relief if Iran ended its nuclear program. Iran says it does not plan to negotiate at all. White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt warned of further attacks if Iran does not accept a deal. President Trump does not bluff and he is prepared to unleash hell. Iran should not miscalculate again. Israel wants to keep fighting.

2:58Officials there say attacks on Iran will increase in the coming days. NPR's Daniel Estrin joins us now from Tel Aviv. Daniel, what do we know about the U.S. proposal for a ceasefire? This is a 15-point proposal given to Iran via Pakistan, according to the Associated Press. Iran, according to this proposal, would need to end its nuclear program. It would have to stop supporting proxy militias in the Middle East. It would have to reopen completely the Strait of Hormuz. And it would have to limit its missile program. And in exchange, Iran would get relief from sanctions. essentially the terms the U.S.

3:33came to Iran with before this war started. Iran has officially rejected this and said it does not even plan on negotiations, and it countered with its own terms. And what are those terms? It has countered the U.S. 15-point proposal with an Iranian 5-point proposal. And here are the five points. Iran wants no more war or killing its leaders. It wants guarantees there would be no further war or other new war against Iran. It is demanding reparations for war damages. It is asking for an end to the war on all fronts. So not just in Iran, but also against what it calls all resistance groups in the region, referencing Iran's proxies in Lebanon and Iraq.

4:17And it's also asking for international guarantees of Iran's sovereign right to control the Strait of Hormuz. So the question now is if the U.S. and Iran will actually hold talks in the coming days. Maybe it will happen in Pakistan. Pakistan has emerged as a potential mediator for talks. And an official in Islamabad, who was not authorized to speak about this publicly, told NPR that the Pakistani interior minister actually held a secret meeting today with the Iranian ambassador in Pakistan. China has also said that it's involved in a flurry of diplomatic efforts. And at the very same time, A, the U.S.

4:55is sending paratroopers to the Middle East from the 82nd Airborne Division. These are soldiers trained in parachuting into territory to take control. The speculation is that they could try to take control of land near the Strait of Hormuz, which would be very dangerous. Iran could ambush them. So we've talked about what the U.S. wants and what Iran is counter demanding. But there is a third party here, and that's Israel. What does Israel want? Israel wants to keep fighting in Iran. Two military officials told me they're hoping for weeks more of war in Iran. And I spoke to another person today, briefed on the operation, not authorized to speak publicly, who said the Israeli military is actually speeding up its targeting in Iran over the next 48 hours.

5:39They're trying to hit as many Iranian arms factories as they can in case a ceasefire is declared. That person told me that Israeli leadership knew the U.S. was trying to negotiate an end of the war, but actually the Israeli military was caught by surprise about that. And there is one ceasefire condition that Iran has laid out, which is that Israel should stop attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israel wants the very opposite. It is preparing as soon as the war ends, according to the person I spoke with, to send more ground troops to southern Lebanon to take over more of that part of the country. That's NPR's Daniel Estrin in Tel Aviv.

6:19Daniel, thank you. You're welcome. President Trump is weighing whether to seize the home of Iran's main oil processing facility. Yeah, the Pentagon has ordered thousands of paratroopers and Marines to the Middle East. We do not know if they have an objective, but as we heard from Daniel, analysts ask if they could be told to seize territory in the Persian Gulf region. One objective could be Karg Island. Analysts say a takeover of that island would be risky for U.S. service personnel, to say the least. NPR's international affairs correspondent Jackie Northam is with us now. So, Jackie, why is this island so important?

6:54Well, Karg Island is considered the crown jewel of the Iranian economy. You know, it's just a small island about eight square miles in size. in the Persian Gulf, not far off the coast of Iran, but more than 90 % of Iran's oil exports are funneled through the island. So it's an economic lifeline for Iran. But it's also a symbol of the country's status as a major oil exporter, at least before all the Western sanctions were placed on Iran. As you mentioned, with this buildup of troops heading to the Middle East, it's looking increasingly likely as though the U.S. will try to seize and hold Karg Island.

7:28Now, earlier this month, the U.S. did bomb military installations on that island. They left, though, the oil processing facilities alone. Why would the Pentagon want to seize it now, if that's, in fact, what they're planning to do? Well, one thought is this buildup of U.S. service personnel could be a negotiating tactic to put pressure on Iran to make concessions as a way to end the war. Although I spoke with Caitlin Talmadge, and she's a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she focuses on U.S. military strategy and operations, including in the Persian Gulf. And Talmadge says it's unclear why Iran would buckle to pressure over Karg Island when it's already withstood a large-scale bombing campaign for the past month.

8:10She also said seizing and holding Khark Island, you know, less than 20 miles from Iran's heavily defended coastline, would be militarily challenging. Here she is. Even inserting U.S. forces so close to Iran's shores would be risky and carry the potential for casualties. And then there's the question of sustaining that U.S. military presence on the island, which I don't think would be simple. Again, because U.S. forces would be within range of Iranian weapons very close to Iran's shores. And Talmach says, you know, this is really about a military mission that's in search of a strategic rationale.

8:48You know, what will the U.S. get in exchange for taking Kargah Island? Well, how about getting ships to move through the Strait of Hormuz again? Well, the Strait of Hormuz is about 300 miles south of Kargah Island. So it's hard to see what impact that would have. You know, the fact of the matter is, Iran has military assets all along its coastline and on many of the smaller islands. And of course, it can put mines in the water. It's still got drones and missiles. And as Professor Talmage says, you know, any U.S. troops trying to hold Karg Island could face bombardment daily by Iran. And if the U.S.

9:20did try to move to take the island, how could Iran retaliate? Well, it's warned that it would launch retaliatory strikes against energy infrastructures in other countries, you know, in the Gulf region. and that could include Abqaik, which is a major oil facility in Saudi Arabia. You know, that could send world energy prices soaring. Iran could also instruct proxies such as the Houthis to disrupt shipping in the Red Sea. And then there's also the thought that Iran could apply scorched earth tactics, in other words, setting their own oil fields on fire out of desperation, again, affecting world markets.

9:53That's NPR's Jackie Northam. Jackie, thank you. Thank you.

10:04Google and Meta are to blame for a woman's anxiety and depression and should pay$6 million because of it. That's what a Los Angeles jury found on Wednesday in a verdict that connected Silicon Valley companies to damage in young people's mental health. The plaintiff in this case said she became addicted to social media as a child. The damages are tiny compared with the company's net worth of trillions of dollars, but the case could have huge consequences for the future of social media. NPR correspondent Bobby Allen was in the courtroom. Bobby, why is this trial so important? So it's been hard to sue tech companies for decades because of this federal law known as Section 230 that protects their content.

10:45So this trial did something different. It focused on features baked into the design of Google's YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook. Things like the algorithm, the infinite scroll, autoplay, beauty filters, which can smooth out people's skin and make them appear thinner. The woman at the center of this case, known as Kaylee, told jurors that these features made it nearly impossible to put down her phone and let her down some dark paths. She told the jury that social media worsened her depression, anxiety. She developed body image issues. Her lawyers argue that social media companies designed the apps this way deliberately, that the apps basically should be seen as defective products that contributed to her mental health struggles.

11:24Here's Mark Lanier, who was the main lawyer representing Kayleigh. We've sent a message with this that you will be held accountable just because of the features alone that drive addiction. That's a huge message for these companies. OK, so those companies met in Google. How have they responded to the verdict? Yeah, they're vowing to appeal. Here's Meta's Ashley Nicole Davis after the verdict. Teen mental health is profoundly complex and cannot be linked to a single app. We will continue to defend ourselves vigorously as every case is different. And we remain confident in our record of protecting teens online.

12:03So, Bobby, this case was about one person, Kaylee. How could the verdict, though, affect the entire social media industry? Yeah, well, this case is actually one of 2 ,000 consolidated cases brought by parents, school districts, and state officials, alleging that tech companies intentionally built social media apps to operate like a digital slot machine. The Los Angeles trial that I was here for was the first test case of this huge group of lawsuits. There will now be additional test cases brought to trial, and eventually, A, social media companies are expected to settle this huge litigation. When lawyers suing the companies have been asked what changes could be in store, they've pointed to what this trial has been about.

12:44All of the design features that keep people sucked into their social media feeds. So it's possible social media companies will be wholly refigured. The way that we see social media now may be totally different than what it looks like some years from now. Now, this is already being compared, A, to the huge litigation against big tobacco in the 1990s that forced the industry to stop targeting minors in advertising. Many see this verdict in Los Angeles as the start of a massive reckoning. Now, this is just the second big verdict against Meta this week, right? That's right. So in New Mexico, there was a separate jury that ordered Meta to pay$375 million, so much more, for failing to protect kids from predators online.

13:24Again, for a company worth$1.5 trillion, this won't exactly make them crumble. But it has been a punishing week for Silicon Valley. And its critics say the floodgates are only about to be unleashed. NPR's Bobby Allen. Bobby, thanks. Thanks, A. And we should note Google is a financial supporter of NPR.

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14:20And that's Up First for Thursday, March 26th. I'm E. Martinez. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Jerry Holmes, Tara Neal, Brett Neely, Alice Wolfley, and H.J. Mai. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Nisha Hainas, and our technical director is Carly Strange. Our deputy executive producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow.

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