Deadly Social Media ‘Games’

 

Read Online  |  April 21, 2026  |  E-Paper  | 🎧 Listen

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Ivan Pentchoukov
National Editor

Good morning, it’s Tuesday. Here are today’s top stories:

• Despite bans, kids are still dying from social media challenges. Parents who lost children to viral “choking games” hope social media companies will be held accountable, as the debate over safety versus free speech continues.
• Ahead of an anticipated second round of U.S.–Iran talks in Pakistan today, President Donald Trump said that he’s unlikely to renew the truce with Iran if a deal to end the war is not reached before the Wednesday deadline.
• The Supreme Court agreed to decidewhether Colorado may decline to fund Catholic preschools. Two Catholic parishes challenged a state directive that required them to enroll children of same-sex couples to receive public funds. 
• Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer is leaving her post for the private sector, the White House said. Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling will serve as acting secretary. 
• 🍵 Health: What if aging isn’t decline? A new study finds that for many, it isn’t.

(Left) Joann Bogard holds a photo of her son, Mason, in Washington on Jan. 31, 2024. (Middle) Judy Rogg holds a photo of her son, Erik, in Los Angeles on April 15, 2026. (Right) Annie McGrath holds a photo of her son, Griffin, in Los Angeles on Feb. 18, 2026. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Accountable Tech, John Fredricks/The Epoch Times, Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

Dangerous Games: Kids Still Dying From Challenges on Social Media, Despite Bans

LOS ANGELES—Judy Rogg had waited years for this moment. In late February, a YouTube executive took the stand in a landmark social media addiction trial in Los Angeles—the first to test whether tech companies could be held liable for the design and operation of their platforms and resulting psychological harm to children.

For parents who have lost children to accidental deaths or suicides they say were caused or facilitated by social media, it was a watershed moment, and an emotional one. How would leaders of the world’s most powerful social media companies answer claims that they knew the risks, but targeted young people anyway?

Rogg, now in her 70s, was a little older than the other parents who were a fixture at the trial. She wore a large pin with the image of her son, Erik: freckled, forever 12, his bright blue eyes echoing his mother’s. She lost him in 2010 after he tried a “choking game” challenge, also known as a “blackout challenge,” in which kids attempt to get a brief high by hyperventilating or using ligatures to cut off oxygen until they pass out.

Such games predate the internet, but algorithms and mimetic posting on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have exponentially amplified their reach, globalizing what was once a localized adolescent dare.

Both companies prohibit dangerous challenges and have become more proactive about removing them, and both use AI to detect and remove underage accounts. Executives have said for years that they can’t find evidence of choking challenges, even suggesting many viral trends are in fact “hoaxes” fueled by media and moral panics.

And yet, kids keep dying after seeing these videos on their apps.

As she watched an attorney for the plaintiff in the Los Angeles trial grill Cristos Goodrow, YouTube’s vice president of engineering, on Feb. 23, Rogg said she felt vindicated by internal documents that painted a damning picture of the company’s approach to safety, and by a timeline that coincided with her own research about the circulation of choking game videos on YouTube. (More)

IRAN WAR

• The United States has rejected 27 vessels around the Strait of Hormuz since beginning its blockade in the Gulf of Oman in the Arabian Sea. 
• Trump said that Israel did not force his hand to launch the war with Iran, posting on social media that it was his “lifelong opinion that IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.”
• The head of the International Energy Agency proposed building a new oil pipeline linking Iraq’s Basra oil fields and Turkey’s Mediterranean oil terminal in Ceyhan to bypass the currently blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
• The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has warned that Iranian-backed terrorist groups in Iraq are plotting attacksagainst U.S. citizens in Iraq.
• More than 90 percent of Iranian attackson the United Arab Emirates have been on civilian targets, Abu Dhabi said

LATEST NEWS

• Apple announced a shakeup to its top leadership, with Tim Cook to become executive chairman of the company’s board of directors and John Ternus the next CEO.
• Trump’s Fed chair pick, Kevin Warsh, will say at his confirmation hearing today that central bank independence is up to the institution itself, according to prepared remarks released earlier. 
• Supreme Court justices declined to take up a case involving a Massachusetts schoolgirl whose parents say officials wrongly hid their daughter’s purported identity as a male from them.
• Alt-pop singer D4vd has been formally charged with murder in the death of a 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains were discovered inside a vehicle registered to him.
• The federal government sued the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority over a catastrophic sewage spill that dumped hundreds of millions of gallons of raw, untreated waste into the Potomac River.

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Rumen Radev, former Bulgarian president and leader of the Progressive Bulgaria coalition, speaks to reporters after the first exit polls at the parliamentary election, in Sofia, Bulgaria, on April 19, 2026. (Reuters/Spasiyana Sergieva)

WORLD

• Former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, who has expressed Eurosceptic views and wants a thawing of relations between Europe and Russia, won the Bulgarian parliamentary election.
• The U.S. and Philippine militaries kicked off one of their largest combat drills to strengthen collective defense in Asia as the region faces increased aggression from the Chinese regime.
• USA Rare Earth agreed to acquire Brazil-based Serra Verde Group in a deal valued at approximately $2.8 billion, a significant move to expand production of rare-earth elements outside Asia.
• The Chinese communist regime has moved to tighten oversight of retired officials across the country, introducing new rules that extend political supervision beyond active service and into retirement.
• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the act of an Israeli soldier after a photograph circulated on social media showed him using a sledgehammer to smash a statue of Jesus on the cross in southern Lebanon.

 

OPINION

• Will California Spend Another $900 Million in China?—by Anders Corr(Read)
• Questions for the Nominee for CDC Director—by Jeffrey A. Tucker (Read)
• The World We Want Requires Builders—by Mollie Engelhart (Read)
• Evaluating the American President—by William Brooks (Read)

Aerial view of the Cerro Siete Colores (Hill of the Seven Colors) in Calingasta, Argentina, on April 20, 2026. (Luis Robayo/AFP via Getty Images)

📸 Day in Photos: Shooting in Louisiana, Boston Marathon, and Hill of the Seven Colors (Look)

🍵 Health: A Daily Detox Routine for Radiant, Glowing Skin (Read)

❓ Explainer: A raft of lawsuits has been filed against makers of AI chatbots, accusing the chatbots of enabling users to commit suicide or encouraging psychotic delusions. Our reporter, Jacob Burg, breaks down some of the suits. 

🎙️ Podcast: Beijing avoids the battlefield, then shows up for the rebuild to snatch oil, minerals, and influence. How does the United States protect its strategic interests in Iran’s post-war reconstruction? This week’s China Watchhas the analysis. (Listen)

🎵 Music: Discover the story behind Mozart’s unfinished “Lacrimosa” masterpiece and the mystery surrounding it. (Read & Listen)

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ARTS & CULTURE

“Henry V Discovering the Conspirators,” by Henry Fuseli. Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon, England.

Shakespeare’s ‘Henry V’ and the Qualities of a Great Leader 

More than one critic has argued that in “Henry V,” William Shakespeare presents his ideal version of a king.

“‘Henry V’ is … a dramatization of what makes for excellence in a good king,” wrote Shakespeare scholar Gideon Rappaport in his excellent book “Appreciating Shakespeare.” “In Henry, Shakespeare’s ideal king, we find virtue, justice, self-knowledge, wit, the power to inspire his followers, and humility before God.”

Assuming that’s the case, what’s the value of a play about ideal kingship today, when the age of kings is long over? Here, we must conceive of kingship more broadly than we’re used to. Many of us fill the role of a “king” in some limited sense: a father, a business leader, a priest. 

The principles of kingliness remain valid and valuable for anyone who holds a position of authority, paternality, and leadership. Studying kingship—particularly Shakespeare’s depiction of its ideal form—teaches us about just rule and the traits necessary for a leader to achieve excellence.

What traits of ideal kingship do we see mirrored in the character of Henry V? He rises up from the page or the stage as an indomitable figure, powerful and lifelike. Henry exemplifies the most important trait of a good leader: acting responsibly.

Even before Henry V takes the stage, we learn from the archbishop of Canterbury that the king recognizes the weight of responsibility entrusted to him. This is the first step for a leader: to take his or her role seriously. The archbishop recounts that after his rather wild youth, Henry quickly sobered up when he realized that the weight of the crown was descending upon his brow. (More)

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Thanks for reading 🙏

Have a wonderful day!

—Ivan Pentchoukov, Madalina Hubert, and Kenzi Li.

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