The World and Everything in It: August 27, 2026

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning!

New efforts to reduce the reach of the Department of Education.

WALBERG: It’s become a monolithic organization that’s cost us three trillion dollars so far, and all we’ve seen are declining test scores.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And, we’ll talk to an expert about America’s new economic pressure campaign on Iran.

Also, families with loved ones killed by illegal immigrants share their perspective on border policy.

And VA clinic closures force aging veterans to start over.

FRANK: All of a sudden the government says, “Sorry, but you can’t use that doctor anymore,” that bothers me a lot.

And WORLD commentator Daniel Suhr on the massive settlement by Meta that could change how teens interact online.

BROWN: It’s Thursday, August 27th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

REICHARD: And I’m Mary Reichard. Good morning!

BROWN: Up next, Kent Covington with today’s news.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Meta settlement » Meta will pay up to $18 billion dollars to settle claims that it built Instagram and Facebook to hook children.

The settlement ends a trial in Oakland, California and covers 47 states: Florida, New Mexico and Texas are not part of it. Meta does not admit wrongdoing in the deal and a judge still has to sign off.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta called it a strong downpayment on protecting kids:

BONTA: Meta has agreed to make significant changes that will reduce the risk of harm that Instagram and Facebook pose to teen users.

Those changes include a two-hour daily limit for teen users, unless a parent lifts it.The apps go dark from midnight to 6 a.m. No push notifications during school hours. Like counts hidden. Parents can turn autoplay off. And an outside auditor checking whether Meta actually does it.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes called it the beginning of the end:

MAYES: Of the bad old days when children had unfettered access to products designed to addict them and expose them to serious mental harm.

She also called on other social media platforms, like TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube to mirror the changes Meta has committed to making.

There's money riding on that. Roughly $5 billion dollars of Meta's potential payout comes only if other major platforms agree to similar measures.

Other Dan Sulivan advances in Alaska » In Alaska, Dan Sullivan has advanced in a Senate primary in a bid to unseat incumbent the Senator, Dan Sullivan. If you’re confused, you’re not alone. WORLD’s Benjamin Eicher explains.

BENJAMIN EICHER: Dan J. Sullivan is a retired teacher who happens to have the same name as the incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.

A top state elections official had ruled that Dan J. Sullivan had filed his candidacy with an intent to confuse voters. But a judge invalidated the decision, allowing him on the primary ballot.

Alaska doesn’t choose separate Republican and Democratic nominees. Instead, all candidates run in the same primary, with the top four advancing to a ranked-choice election in November. And as of Wednesday, Dan J. Sullivan officially advanced.

Some believe the resulting confusion on the ballot could be just enough to tilt a tight race in the direction of Democrat Mary Peltola [pel-TOLL-uh].

For WORLD, I’m Benjamin Eicher.

Trump says CIA chief's Russia trip routine » Why was the United States CIA Director in Moscow?

That's a question many are asking after a visit by Director John Ratcliffe, who was reportedly spotted in the Russian capital Tuesday morning. Moscow officials later confirmed the visit.

PESKOV: Speaking in Russian

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says Ratcliffe spoke with representatives of Russian intelligence services, but there were no meetings with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He declined to comment further.

President Trump told The Glenn Beck Program:

TRUMP: He's there on very, sort of semi-routine, I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war in Ukraine end...and he's not in there for any of the things that you said. Now something may come out of it. We're working very hard to get that war ended. And frankly, they both want to see it ended.

Trump also dismissed rumors that Russia was planning a strike against NATO, or that the CIA director was there to show the U.S. was serious about Iranian sanctions.

Pakistan hospital fire » Grieving parents in Pakistan are demanding answers after a hospital fire killed at least 14 newborns on Wednesday.

Rescue crews climbed ladders to a third-floor window in Islamabad, but were only able to pull one baby out alive.

KAMAL: (Speaking in Urdu)

Pakistani Health Minister Mustafa Kamal told reporters that multiple agencies are investigating the tragedy, and that all evidence will be revealed.

Early reports pointed to an exploding air conditioner. It appears all but one of the children who died were on oxygen support.

Parents gathered outside, weeping. One mother said she gave birth three days ago. She said she doesn't know whom to blame, only that her child is gone.

Nepal/China flooding » And on the Nepal-China border, at least 160 people are dead, with hundreds missing following flash floods. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin reports.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: A wall of water came down a Himalayan valley and buried whole villages to the second floor.

Most of those missing in Nepal are foreigners. Nepal says 133 Indians were on pilgrimage to a sacred mountain in Tibet and 47 Americans are unaccounted for.

Scientists say a glacier gave way, an avalanche of ice and rock that dammed a river, then let it go all at once.

One river rose 27 feet in half an hour.

Nepal has asked India and China for help.

It's the second such flood on the Lhende Khola River in 14 months.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Actor Tim Curry dies at 80 » Actor Tim Curry has died at the age of 80. He was known for his portrayal of loony characters on stage and screen, including a smug concierge in “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.” And as the butler in the 1985 comedy-mystery Clue:

CLIP (Clue):  I'll find out who killed him and where and with what There's no need to shout I'm not shouting. All right, I am. I'm shouting, I'm shouting, I'm shouting...

Curry earned three Tony nominations — for “Spamalot,” “My Favorite Year” and “Amadeus” — and an Emmy nod in 1994.

I'm Kent Covington.

Coming up, taking the war with Iran to the bank. And later ,VA clinic closures force aging veterans to start over.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 27th of August.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Up first, Taking the war with Iran to the bank.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced what he called an economic “D-Day” on Iran:

BESSENT: The actions of Treasury and other agencies will tighten the noose and block every potential source of revenue that funds the IRGC and the evil Iranian regime.

BROWN: The administration immediately imposed sanctions on sixty entities. Bessent warned helping Iran sell oil illegally or purchase weapons could also bring penalties.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military continues to blockade Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. while working to keep oil moving for American allies.

REICHARD: Joining us now to talk about it is Richard Goldberg…a former White House and Congressional advisor and is now Senior Advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Rich, good morning.

RICH GOLDBERG, GUEST: Good morning.

REICHARD: Well, let's start with the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump says the U.S. has cleared the mines and will block Iran from laying down any more. Which poses the greater threat to Gulf oil shipments? Mines or drones?

GOLDBERG: Well, I think we've all seen through the course of this conflict that the combination of drones and missiles are the real threat here and while there have been mines which limited some of the traffic lanes, the U.S. has proven quite capable in detecting any mines laid and then very quietly, without major minesweepers in the area, figuring out a way to diffuse or remove those mine threats, as the president said. We've also figured out how to evade most, not all, but most of the drone and missile threats as well, to get oil out of the Strait of Hormuz on our terms.

But we're talking about large amounts of oil, an increasing number. The trends are very good for the world oil market, from seven to nine, maybe ten million barrels per day coming out. Not everything is getting through without getting hit. We're seeing that in the news. I don't want to pretend that there is no threat, but we have willing ship captains under the protection of the U.S. military, willing to go through a process to get oil out to market. And you add on the pipelines that already exist in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and we are getting more relief to the global oil market while the blockade on the other side keeps taking hold and, as you mentioned in the opening, we start seeing the walls closing in with what the Treasury Department has in store.

REICHARD: So would you say then that U.S. efforts to help Gulf states move their oil through the strait has been fairly successful? What grade would you give it?

GOLDBERG: We are probably at a B, B+ right now. We're not at pre-war level, but we're getting much closer to it when you add on the, the oil that's also moving through overland pipeline and on an increased basis compared to pre-war. We're still at a deficit in global stocks.

There's missiles and drone attacks on other energy infrastructure. There's the Houthis threatening the Red Sea. So there are other pressures in the oil market, but pretty good right now in continuing to get oil out on our terms.

REICHARD: All right, let's talk about the U.S. increasing pressure in a different way now, threatening sanctions on companies and countries that do business with Iran. What entities would that include, Rich, and how might it change economic behavior?

GOLDBERG: Well, I think there's a few different things going on here and and we'll have to let it play out through the week and and the coming days. Obviously what we saw on Monday from Treasury Secretary Bessant was a warning.

And what I think the Treasury Department wants to do is bring down the House of Cards, find out which cards get pulled out and the whole thing comes tumbling down because they are not selling oil, they are not selling petrochemicals, they have no real revenue coming into the government, they can't pay people, the banks are out of money. And so how are they keeping afloat? Well, you have other ways of smuggling in cash.

One of the things that the Treasury Secretary talked about was the aviation sector. Are we going to see suddenly all the airports around the world that still allow Iranian airplanes to fly in and out say they're closing their airspace to Iranian flights? And then access to dollars in other ways, whether that's in the UAE, whether that's in Qatar, whether that's from China or Russia or Iraq. Are we going to see all the other spigots of cash being shut down?

But if people don't comply, that's when you know the warning has to be turned into action. And we heard the Treasury Secretary say “I wouldn't be surprised by the end of the week to have imposed sanctions on a major financial institution.” That was a big statement from Scott Bessant. So now we're all sorta tuned in. Are we gonna see compliance? Are we gonna see the walls close in on our terms? Or are we gonna have to take some more robust action against third parties that are still keeping the spigots open for Iran?

REICHARD: All right. Now Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that the U.S. is shifting from military strikes to sanctions and dealing with the Iran, at least for now. Do you think sanctions can actually finish the job or do you think more military action might be needed?

GOLDBERG: I think this is an all-of-the-above approach going on. And I think it's a better option set than just simply returning to bombing things and not getting anything more out of the regime, because remember, their leadership is down in tunnels. They're down in underground facilities. We have not been able to penetrate many of those. That's why they still have missiles. We did not succeed in destroying them all. By not having major military operations, we're saving our munitions, we're rebuilding our stockpiles. We are having the people out in the streets, meaning they're driving. They're running out of gasoline. Prices are through the roof. This is creating a whole pressure cooker politically inside the country where you may in fact see another uprising real soon.

REICHARD: Well speaking of gas, that makes this a domestic policy issue for the U.S. too. Gas prices top of mind for Americans getting ready to vote pretty soon. What October surprises from Iran do you think the U.S. may have to encounter?

GOLDBERG: Well, certainly if the Iranians wanted to blow up the oil market and they just want to go all in, target everything they can, they can find in the Persian Gulf, they could do that potentially. They will see the wrath of the entire Gulf states and their militaries combined with the U.S. military retaliating. And that will be the last time they do that. So if that's their choice, if they want a Thelma and Louise moment in October, yes, that could have a political consequence and a short term effect on the oil market and gas prices, but it would also be game over for the regime.

REICHARD: Rich Goldberg is a senior advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Rich, thank you so much.

GOLDBERG: You bet.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: immigration policy turns personal.

The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown has provoked fierce opposition from some quarters.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: But for families whose loved ones were killed by people in the country illegally, enforcement isn’t just political, it’s personal.

WORLD’s Josh Schumacher talked to some of those families.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: Five years ago this fall, Anatoly Varfolomeev got a 3 a.m. call with the news every parent fears. His 19-year-old daughter Anya had been in a wreck.

VARFOLOMEEV: And it was such a terrific scene that their car basically crossed several lanes after the impact and got on fire and our kids burned in the car.

She and her boyfriend had been headed to his parents’ house. They were about to pull off California’s 405 highway when a car hit them at roughly 100 miles per hour.

VARFOLOMEEV: After that, the family tries to be united, but that tragedy broke everything.

The families buried Anya and Nicholay in closed caskets. The other driver received a 10-year prison sentence. He qualified for early release three and a half years later. It was only then Anatoly Varfolomeev learned his daughter’s killer was an illegal immigrant.

The Varfolomeevs are known as an angel family—a term for those who’ve lost a parent, sibling, child, or spouse to the criminal act of an illegal immigrant. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, and advocacy groups estimate there are thousands of such families nationwide.

Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge who’s now a senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, says many critics of recent immigration changes complain about the increased enforcement:

ANDREW ARTHUR: That it's so harsh, and that they're doing things that nobody ever did before, and that Democrats need to rein the president in, that Republicans need to rein the president in, that ICE is out of control.

Plenty others say the administration does too little.

ARTHUR: And there is a lot of frustration from many on the right that the number of deportations isn't what they were promised.

But many of the angel families that spoke to WORLD explained that from their perspective, the Trump administration is taking necessary steps to restore law and order.

AGNES GIBBONEY: I want to say thank you, President Trump. You are the only one who gave us a voice, who said, you're not going to forget our loved ones.

That’s Agnes Gibboney. She’s an angel mom and the founder of Angel Families of America. An illegal immigrant shot and killed her 29-year-old son in April 2002.

GIBBONEY: President Trump is the only one that acknowledged, that respected, gave us a voice. And he's doing something about it.

Anatoly Varfolomeev also said he was grateful for President Trump’s actions on the border. He only found out about the immigration status of the man who killed his daughter after President Trump resumed office in early 2025.

Varfolomeev said he had previously asked, but California authorities claimed they weren’t able to tell him.

VARFOLOMEEV: We found out about his illegal status only through the involvement of Fox News reporter Bill Melugin who was interested in the story.

Melugin’s story drew outrage from across the country. Varfolomeev said within 90 minutes of airing, it reached the White House.

ICE agents took custody of the killer as he walked out of California state prison. He has since been sentenced to several years in federal prison, not for Anya Varfolomeev’s death, but for being in the country illegally.

VARFOLOMEEV: And the sentencing and his plea to the judge, they were disgusting. He was complaining that he wouldn't have a chance to be at his daughter's wedding. And he wanted to be there. What about my rights, about my daughter, who is six feet under the ground? Would I have a chance to be at her wedding?

Varfolomeev doesn’t think justice was fully served in his daughter’s case but said he appreciated the efforts of federal agencies to hold her killer responsible.

VARFOLOMEEV: Any time of the day you ask me who I would be standing for, it's Department of Homeland Security, ICE, because those guys picked him up from the prison. detained him and transferred him to U.S. Marshals custody.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security this week said it arrested more than 1,300 illegal immigrants in Maryland and Virginia. It carried out a similar operation earlier this year in Atlanta, Georgia that led to the arrest of 1,200 people. The department said many of the individuals arrested were gang members, drug dealers, sexual predators, or violent offenders.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Next up, winding down the Department of Education. A legislative package of 10 bills aims to reduce the federal government’s role in education.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s part of a broader vision that could restore more responsibility to parents. WORLD’s Jenny Rough reports.

JENNY ROUGH: At a House committee session in July, Congressman Tim Walberg laid out the failures of the Department of Education.

REP. TIM WALBERG: At the post-secondary level, 40 percent of students fail to graduate within six years. The students who do graduate are unprepared with 85 percent of recent graduates saying they wish their college had better prepared them for the workforce. … At the K-12 level, fewer than one-third of eighth graders can read or do math at grade level.

Walberg, a Republican from Michigan’s 5th district, chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee. It recently advanced a legislative package of 10 bills, called Less Bureaucracy, Better Education.

Congressman Walberg told me he has long felt the Department of Education was a mistake.

WALBERG: It’s become a monolithic organization that’s cost us three trillion dollars so far, and all we’ve seen are declining test scores. … [5:47] And so our efforts are to remove the authority of the federal government in education.

Congress created the Department in 1979. But Walberg says the primary responsibility for education belongs with the family… not the federal government.

WALBERG: Every parent should realize they are the key in education for their children.

Not that every parent should home educate. But public, Christian, and private schools should assist parents, not take over. States and local school boards should listen to and answer to parents.

The legislative package is part of a broader vision to make that happen. It adopts President Donald Trump’s executive orders transferring education programs to other federal agencies. For example, moving the student loan program to the Treasury Department. Or moving policies on tribal education to the Department of Interior.

But will that work?

WILLIAM WAGNER: Incredible, wonderful name: Less Bureaucracy, Better Education.

William Wagner formerly served as U.S. Senate legal counsel. He agrees with the legislation’s general idea. But?

WAGNER: If power doesn’t move closer to parents, all you’re doing is relocating government power. You’re not making any real reform. And how many offices change addresses in Washington, D.C. matters far less than whether families gain more authority over their children’s education, whether schools face fewer government burdens, whether our students are better served.

Congressman Walberg says a current problem is duplicate agency involvement. The legislation streamlines that.

WALBERG: For job training, workforce development, over to the Department of Labor where it was before the Department of Education was put into place.

He says that approach will better connect students with skills necessary to match real-world needs.

WALBERG: The United States is still the leader, but there are plenty of other countries that are lapping at our heels right now in the areas of technology, in the areas of science, in the areas of computers, in the areas of AI. All of the rest.

He acknowledges there are plenty of excellent public school teachers, but both teachers and parents lack control over subjects.

WALBERG: When you think about what they are teaching kids in the area of gender and sexuality, it’s destroying kids’ lives. And it’s taking control away from parents. … Or put in a place where they’ll be groomed to accept radical ideas that go against science and reality itself.

Like the basic truth about biological sex and the importance of sexual differences.

WALBERG: Making sure that the truth gets out and is done properly. And the impact of education in individual lives starts with understanding what truth is.

Former Senate legal counsel Wagner agrees.

WAGNER: Deuteronomy speaks directly to the duty of we as parents to teach our children diligently. Scripture places the formative responsibility for children not with the government, but with the family. … And so decisions ought to remain nearest to those who know the child, the parent. Nearest those who love the child, the parent.

Technically, the Department of Education will still exist. It cannot be abolished without the vote of a full Congress. And again, so far, the legislative package has only been advanced by the committee.

WALBERG: We have to get it through the floor of the House, pass it with a majority vote there, and send it to Sentate. I think we can get that done in the House. Will the Senate take it up? … but we believe it’s worth doing… because the president is ready and willing to sign all of the bills.

The House returns to work August 31st.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Jenny Rough.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Why choose between a bus tour in Tokyo and all you can eat sushi…when you can do both at the same time?!

Meet the Sushi Bus: it’s a double-decker restaurant on wheels. Chefs work downstairs while upstairs, plates travel to 20 diners on conveyor belts as Toyko passes right on by.

Quite a feat, actually- developers spent a couple of years figuring out how to keep the sushi from flying off the plate during sudden stops. The tour’s about an hour and starts next month costing around $100.

Here’s hoping they secured the chefs and their knives, too. But it does look like Tokyo’s latest attraction is just about ready to roll!

It’s The World and Everything in It.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, August 27th.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: The cost of federal belt-tightening.

Across the country, the Department of Veterans Affairs has been consolidating healthcare services and closing smaller outpatient clinics to trim budgets. But for the veterans relying on those neighborhood clinics, the math doesn’t always add up.

BROWN:  WORLD’s Theresa Houghton brings us the story of one veteran caught in the middle of a national shift.

THERESA HOUGHTON: Bill Frank spent 1971 in Vietnam, serving as a finance officer for the United States Army. His mission? Making sure new recruits and soldiers got paid.

FRANK: I was a disbursing officer at Cam Ranh Bay, and I had a vault of $6 million in currency…

He spent his time counting, transporting, and distributing money.

FRANK: A brick of 20s is about 200,000. So all you have to do is count, you know, okay, you still have those five bricks, that’s a million bucks, you know what that was equal to today? About $45 million.

He saw currency rather than combat, but Frank’s time in the military exposed him to one of the war’s most insidious dangers.

FRANK: That’s another thing with veterans who were over in Vietnam, because they sprayed that so much all over the place, that we were all exposed to Agent Orange.

Agent Orange is a blend of tactical herbicides the U.S. military sprayed around bases to remove dense foliage enemy troops might use for cover. Exposure has been linked to several health problems, including various cancers. Frank got screenings as part of his annual physicals.

FRANK: I had always gotten a PSA test once a year. When I came in after I had turned 75, they tested me, and the reading was 23, which was like through the roof. …

The VA diagnosed him with stage 4 prostate cancer and awarded him 100% disability. That meant access to a full range of services, mostly delivered by a small, dependable clinic right up the street from his home in Schenectady, New York.

FRANK: I take blood pressure medication, so they check that. I guess you could say I’m being treated for it.

At the clinic, Frank sees his primary care physician for annual checkups and regular pressure monitoring. He also gets bloodwork done before seeing his oncologist at the main VA hospital in Albany. But in March, Frank and approximately 1,500 other local veterans got a letter announcing the clinic is closing its doors at the end of this month.

The closing is part of a wider national trend prompted by recent federal reviews and cuts. The VA claims they’re closing clinics due to factors like poor performance, declining veteran populations, and high costs. Closing Frank’s clinic, for example, will save the VA $1.5 million per year.

The Schenectady location is known as a community-based outpatient clinic and costs around $174,000 per month to run — double what it cost five years ago. Putting a new contract in place to keep it running could cost up to $13 million. Projections show a nearly 50% decline in the city’s veteran population over the next 20 years. So for the VA, the numbers just don’t add up.

But for veterans like Frank, the closing feels personal.

FRANK: It’s like anybody in civilian life, if they were going to a doctor that they really cared for and had, you know, success and everything, and all of a sudden the government says, “Sorry, but you can’t use that doctor anymore,” that would bother them. And it bothers me a lot. I’m gonna have to start all over with a new primary care.

The VA says it will be hiring new care teams at one nearby clinic, but Frank knows other veterans who are worried about transportation, long wait times, and overwhelmed staff.

FRANK: It’s my understanding that they’re not hiring new doctors, new nurses at the VA hospital, and that’s one of the choices that the veterans have. So if they do choose to go to the VA hospital, those doctors and nurses are gonna have a workload increase, and they’re gonna be impacted, but they can’t get any relief.

Despite his misgivings, Frank plans to switch his care to the Albany VA. But for now…

FRANK: I’m holding out. I just wanna see if there’s any success in attempts to back off their position. But I don’t see any of that happening, honestly.

A half-century after he served his country by counting money, Frank is waiting to see if budget cuts will mean he can still count on the VA to keep serving him.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Theresa Houghton in Schenectady, New York.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Meta has agreed to pay at least $12.7 billion to settle lawsuits over its treatment of teenage users.

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general accused the company of designing Facebook and Instagram to keep young people hooked—even at the expense of their well-being and their parents’ wishes.

REICHARD: The proposed settlement still needs court approval. But WORLD commentator Daniel Suhr says the changes Meta has agreed to make could matter even more than the money.

DANIEL SUHR: Start with the clock.

For users under eighteen, Facebook and Instagram will have a default two-hour daily time limit. Teens won’t be able to turn it off without a parent’s permission.

From midnight to six in the morning, a new night mode will block most use of the apps. And during the school day, most push notifications will go silent.

Those restrictions address a growing concern about how much time children spend on screens.

Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos with the Surgeon General’s office recently summarized the problem on Fox News:

HARIDOPOLOS: Mental health problems, depression, anxiety, there’s cyber bullying not to mention body image dysmorphia. Academics has also plummeted.

Excessive screen use is linked to problems with attention and academic performance, depression and isolation, and increasingly sedentary lives.

That’s the public-health problem.

But there’s a business problem, too.

Facebook and Instagram are free to use. Meta makes most of its money by selling advertising. The longer users stay on the apps, the more opportunities Meta has to show them ads.

More than twenty years ago, professors Thomas Davenport and John Beck gave this business model a name: the attention economy.

In a world overflowing with information, attention is scarce—and therefore valuable. For companies that make money selling ads, capturing more attention means making more money.

And the states alleged that Meta built features specifically to capture and hold teenagers’ attention—even when doing so worked against their well-being.

That’s why these time limits matter. They ask the company to put a brake on the very thing it has a financial incentive to maximize.

But time is only part of the problem.

What happens while teens are on these platforms matters, too.

Former Meta employee Arturo Bejar testified before Congress in 2023. His appearance came after his own daughter experienced unwanted sexual advances on Instagram. He said the company knew young users were encountering serious harms but failed to do enough.

BEJAR : When I left Facebook in 2021, I thought the company would take my concerns and recommendations seriously to heart—and act. Yet years have gone by and millions of teens are having their mental health compromised and are still being traumatized by unwanted sexual advances, harmful content on Instagram and other social media platforms.

That testimony points to the work still ahead.

First, other platforms that attract huge teen audiences need comparable safeguards. In fact, the Meta settlement is designed partly to push YouTube and TikTok toward similar restrictions.

Second, time limits alone cannot solve the content problem. Parents should care not only about how long their children are online, but what they encounter there—and who is able to reach them.

This settlement is a positive development. There’s more to be done, though. The conservative champion serving as attorney general of Florida, James Uthmeier, has decided not to join the multistate settlement and will instead see Meta at trial, which he says is necessary to ensure the company is fully accountable for its actions and algorithms.

His attitude underlines an important truth: this settlement represents a first step, not a final act.

And the last step belongs much closer to home.

Government can require safer defaults. Meta can build the parental controls.

But Meta cannot supply the parent.

For WORLD, I’m Daniel Suhr.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Tomorrow: John Stonestreet will be here for Culture Friday.

And, classic Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote makes his theater debut in Coyote vs. Acme. We’ll have a review.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

The Bible says, “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” — Thessalonians 4:16-18

Go now in grace and peace.

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