Google antitrust lawsuit closes; Steve Inskeep celebrates 20 years at Morning Edition

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Today's top stories

Closing arguments wrapped up today in the government's antitrust lawsuit against Google. The Justice Department has accused the tech giant of illegally abusing its monopoly power by paying billions to companies like Apple, Samsung and Mozilla to be the default search engine on their devices — pushing rivals out of the market and leaving customers with a lower-quality experience. Google says it's the most popular search engine because it's the best — not because of its business dealings. Here's what you need to know about where things stand.

• On Up First, NPR's Dara Kerr says the judge has been asking very pointed questions and poking holes in both sides' arguments. "So, the judge has really given no indication of which way he'll side," Kerr reports. If he finds that Google acted illegally, the judge could sanction Google with fines or break up the company. "This decision has the real potential to change how we experience the internet," says Kerr. 

After more than a week of silence, President Biden addressed the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses yesterday. In a short speech, he stressed the need for a balance between free speech and the rule of law. He defended the protests against the war in Gaza happening at colleges across the nation but emphasized that there's no place for antisemitism or hate speech in America.

• "Biden very clearly does have a lot of work to do to win over young, progressive voters who are disappointed with his approach to the war," NPR's Tamara Keith says. But she says that didn't appear to be his goal yesterday, as he stated that the protests have not forced him to reconsider his Mideast policy. 

Stay updated on campus protests over the Gaza war here.Protests have also roiled the nation of Georgia for the past several weeks. Demonstrators are rejecting a bill the country's parliament is considering that would require organizations receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as agents of foreign influence, a requirement opponents attack as authoritarian and Kremlin-inspired.

• The U.S. and Europe have urged Georgia's government to reconsider the law as they warned it will damage Georgia's long-term prospects to join the EU and NATO, NPR's Charles Maynes says. But Maynes says the problem is that the government already backed off the law last year due to mass protests, and it seems determined not to bow to public pressure a second time. 

Today's listen

NPR's Steve Inskeep is celebrating 20 years in the Morning Edition host chair today. He's joined by a familiar face: Renee Montagne, who co-hosted the show with him from 2004 to 2016.

Listen to archival clips from Steve's most iconic stories and interviews as he and Renee look back on the last two decades of his career. Congratulations, Steve!

Weekend picks

Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:

Movies: Ryan Gosling is a wonderfully expressive goofball in The Fall Guy. He plays Colt Seavers, a stuntman returning to his job under mysterious circumstances after a life-threatening injury.

TV: NPR's David Bianculli is convinced that Elisabeth Moss is playing her best role yet in The Veil. The new FX series follows several different spy agencies as they try to discover the details of a suspected new 9/11 terrorist plot.

Books: Many philosophical ideas get an airing in Rachel Khong's latest novel, Real Americans, including the existence of free will and the ethics of altering genomes to select for "favorable" inheritable traits.

Music: Kendrick Lamar is Drake's biggest hater. He recently released a six-minute track aimed at Drake as a rap artist and an assassination of Drake's character on a human level.

Podcast: Rachel Martin has a new podcast. She is one of the founding hosts of Up First and a former host of Morning Edition. Wild Card is part interview, part existential game show, as guests are invited to play a game about life's biggest questions. Listen to the first episode with comedian and actress Jenny Slate now.

Quiz: My second-ever perfect score on the NPR news quiz feels just as sweet as the first. How well will you do?

3 things to know before you go

1. Amateur photographer Michael Sanchez became the envy of birders everywhere when he snapped a photo of the first-ever sighting of a blue rock-thrush in the U.S. during his trip to Oregon.  
2. Joshua Dean, a former Boeing quality auditor who raised concerns about Boeing jets, has died. His family said  he quickly fell into critical condition after being diagnosed with a MRSA bacterial infection. He's the second Boeing-related whistleblower to die in the past three months.
3. A group of Black Democratic lawmakers have reintroduced legislation called the CROWN Act in the House of Representatives. The bill aims to make discrimination based on a person's hairstyle or hair texture illegal.

This newsletter was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.