Give them the best results. Also on the day, thousands, the data in thousands more are missing and loving in libya, International Aid organizations erasing to respond, Epic Proportions as not being a storm like this. In the range and was that in living memory . So the work now is really to get in supplies, but get in look at a lot. Sadly some of those supplies include things like 40 bucks. Welcome to the day. Its being billed as the trial. It could totally be shaped the Tech Industry and to shake the whole, but many Big Tech Companies have on that customers. An antique trust trial against google opened in washington dc. Today. Prosecutions allows the company illegally made itself the default app on many devices and services, crushing its competitive in the process. Noise for both sides have made. Opening statements of the trial is expected to last 10 weeks. Its a 1st time and a quarter of a century that a tech company has faced Anti Trust Laws in the us. The last time was when microsoft was prosecute to the of the dominance of its Internet Explorer browser. Google denies the accusations, incentives, products succeed simply because theyre the best on the market. Lets pick this up with jennifer huddleston, who is a Technology PolicyResearch Fellow at the Cato Institute in washington, dc. Welcome to the w a. So this is a federal case brought by the justice department. Why of a going after google . I think thats actually a really good question. And now that when were looking at this case, why are we seeing the American Government go after an incredibly successful american company, a company thats very popular with consumers, what the government and this case is brought by the department of justice. Its also, theres also a companion case brought by the attorney general of several different states. Our arguing is that google has not only obtained monopoly power, but that its using that monopoly power in anti competitive way or maintaining that monopoly power in anti competitive ways. Such as, by making itself the, the default Search Engine, or through what its doing in the Search EngineAdvertising Market. Whats interesting though is this is a company thats incredibly popular with consumer and much of it, 6. And much of, of whats going on here is actually a question of should consumers be the one to decide what products are successful in the market . Or is there a Government Intervention to dictate what the market in search should look like . So because that, that, thats of motivation to see a little bit of cloudy, that is, this could mean savings really yes. Just the sideways way of track of trying to break up this. And i know this a company like god taking down al capones not paying his taxes, as we certainly have seen a lot of scrutiny of big Cap Companies of these leading companies that are largely american on both sides of the atlantic. Actually, weve seen a lot of scrutiny from european regulators, but interestingly, were also seeing a lot of scrutiny from us regulators on both the left and the right. This is probably a result of various political motivations that vary depending on whether youre looking at it on the left or the right. But also it represents a pretty dramatic shift in the way that weve seen competition policy use in the us. And what i see as a very concerning shift away from something thats truly focus on the consumers and how the competitive markets are, are benefiting consumers or how anti competitive behavior. Maybe for me, consumers to something thats much more focused on kind of the idea of concentration in and of itself is a harm. The idea that competition policy should be focus more on competitors than on the outcomes that are best support. So what do you think the outcome of this child is likely to be . Can you see google being broken off full of, of perhaps just getting its wings clipped . The really interesting questions in this particular trial is what happens even if the government wins what, what, what would that look like in terms of a, a remedy . Because its not necessarily off the, is that there, there is a potential regulatory remedy now or slow. We stop and think about them, they are so anti consumer that its really concerning what those remedies would look like. The idea that when you open the web browser, there would be no default Search Engine. It would already either have to just be random or you would have to go through additional steps to select a Search Engine when thats something that consumers have largely come to expect. The fact that this could change the Advertising Market when add to prices have generally fallen in ways of having audibly benefit small businesses. Were now able to advertise online much more easily than in an era where you had to purchase Television Advertising or print advertising. But i think the other really interesting question here is, what does this do to the, in a station thats going on in search itself . What does it do in terms of the developments were seeing in a i the shift were seeing to how jen z as is searching completely differently and things like voice recognition. And then finally, what does it mean when it comes to what competition policy is being useful . What would this mean in terms of how we would see regulators, particularly in the us, potentially pursuing anti trust cases in the future . Right, the, just on the, the, the 1st of the many points you made that you make, it sounds like quite a complicated business of changing your, your search provider. Im googles defense. And certainly when i used my phone or the computer is, i know its really easy to change Search Engines, thats actually not a huge a but on the consumer as well. It is very easy to change. Search engines right now, its only 4 clicks away on your typical smartphone. But most people expect that there is a pre set Search Engine that youre not opening up the phone out of the box with nothing preinstalled in it that theres one and then you can can change it if you dont like that one. Or want to go to another one . I think that some of the question here too is, should the government be dictating what these business relationships can look like . And what products are offering to consumers when something comes out of the box . And interesting way, uh, on this side it month, it gives you as your hands about earlier, that you are paying union has just introduced legislative control, a big tech with a digital moffatts act designating a alphabet thats googles parent company. In amazon, apple bite down stick talks of this, and meta, they own as a facebook and microsoft as gatekeepers who will have now 6 months to ensure full compliance with these new laws. And can you see that being successful and something that the u, the u. S. Is likely to look at and try to adopt. It is very interesting to see this dynamic emerge between the you and us regulators. And i think its very concerning to see how many america leading american Tech Companies have really appeared to be the target of, of this kind of regulation that seems very specifically designed to go after not general practices, but those particular companies. These are leading Innovative Companies and were seeing them continue to compete, not only amongst each other, but against any number of emerging players, whether its in a i or whether its through the development of new social media or whether its 3 things in any wide array of of markets and industry. So when we see Something Like a Regulatory Framework in monday, i may, i really have questions about what thats going to do for the future of innovation. And again, is it really the role of government regulators to dictate what consumers should have access to in the market when we are continuing to see that this remains a competitive and innovative mark . So why event, dear thing, the us congress, which has consider this issue many a time of failed to write the name, what have been called based anti competitive practices of these companies . I think its a failure. I think that the proposal to be seen are very concerning and the way that they shift the focus away from, from the consumer. The proposals weve seen in the us congress would actually largely harm consumers and the way that it would prevent them from having certain features that they come to expect. And except to the ability to you knows it. When you google, find me the nearest hamburger restaurant that a map pops up with the, the list of the hamburger restaurants that are nearby. Or the way that when you are trying to find out more information or, or reviews about a place that you have several different options. Including those options that may be built in to a service. But you can also very easily go to other services if you dont like the options that are available and in google. And so when were seeing these regulations come in, what theyre telling companies is we think we know you think you know what your consumer wants. But we know better and rather than what to be popular by serving your consumers, were going to dictate so that we can make sure that your competitors have at hospice. Same advantages that you have. So if youre more innovative, if youre more successful, youre providing more popular services, were gonna try it and regulate that in a way to, to, to make the product go down the level rather than allowing the Market Competition to praise everything up a lot. So quick. What about money . Because of course, the big suspicion has pain that one of the reasons that big tech has been so successful in avoiding legislative oversights in the us system. More than 250000000. 00 that spends on lobbyist advertising pay all companies as well as political donations. Can you see them being able to spend their way as of this going or something that im really able to to speak on . What i will point out is that we continue to see a debate over anti trust, and that its important that we recognize the value of the existing anti trust framework, which is objective and flexible and economically sailed to deal with a wide array of industries. And that we recognize that any changes to antitrust law, even if they may be nominally directed at Big Tech Companies, are likely to impact the market far more generally. Good to hear. Thank you for taking us through that. So clearly, Jennifer Hudson from the Cato Institute, thousands of people have been killed in catastrophic flooding in libya. The International Federation of red crossman Red Crescent Society just as around 10000 people missing. After battling across the mediterranean storm dime, your hate causing floods which swept away in time neighborhoods in eastern coastal areas. The destruction is worst in done when to dams collapse, wiping out a course after safety. Emergency services put down as current desktop as around 2300 relief efforts have been complicated by the fact that libyas internationally recognized government and tripoli does not control the devastated eastern regions. Whole neighborhood submerged by will to residents in this area of east and libya come face to face with the devastation caused by the storm. Some buildings were swept away entirely by the force of wind and rain. While im going to the regions Armed Forces Say its almost impossible to currently assess the extent of the disaster. You have a lot of them. Although for a number of affected people is very high, the damage is huge. So you to call to describe or measure it stuff please. Yeah, im not gonna really well. My father view it a moment. I didnt have a social media search, it shows the dom that was demolished because the raging flood torches into the coastal search. You have done flooding the central streets. Age convoys makes the way through corruption, which is on the roads into done to reach resident stranded by the storm. The area has been declared to dissolve to zone and the libyan president ial counselors appealing for international help. But as the head of the International Red cross in libya, time of ramadan, told dw rescue team his face. Hes challenges access to that area as easy as well. Easy. Uh, also the collapse of the facilities is a big a big challenge is that the, there is no access to basic health services. In the consensus of communication is another big def charge because this is causing the problem is got and according to the, the networks are not working properly. We for long dollars lose communication with our teams on the account. Despite the difficulties, the search continues here for the thousands of people still believe to be missing. And we can take a closer look at the issues that cloud you have got, see me, whos a senior, i list a for libya and the International Crisis group. She done just from row. Welcome to dw, you have 22, but this is libby as 911 y say. Well 1st of all, it happened. The line isnt uh, and uh, in a certain sense this is a completely on, its a completely new experience for the but its a tragedy that the previous was the previous political feuds. I would say that even the war games could definitely has no comparison to. So its a, its, its a really a groundbreaking moment for a country. Its a travesty for those affected directly, but for the country as a whole, because in 40 years of theyve been history, weve never seen the storm of this extent was never seen a Natural Disaster of the system and so many casualties just in one day. So the comparison i think is at and its so devastating because, well there is this just been this con combination of capacitive fee, the size of the store, they add the apparent lack of preparation for uh, for the store, the collapse of these downs. It seems to be just one piece off the piles on top of another. Yes, exactly. I mean nobody was expecting the town part of rain of this extent. Nobody could have imagined it. Even the bins and a plain metal, socrates michel ro, decal, center hours before the tragedy in the now when warning that we would not warning this is a, as a a catastrophic event. They thought this would be just ok, the storm as usual. So there was some misinformation there, but the, the, the punted, your brain that came down is just of the charts. Thats one thing. The other problem was, of course, the infrastructure and theyve been in the past 10 years, has not, you know, has had divided government has been intermittently. It will definitely itself is one of the cities that has the most affected by ward over these years. Its been, its been a war zone for 5 years between 20142019. So theres been very little infrastructural maintenance in that area, including on these you know, the small that them outside the city which completely collapsed and, and the end, the bringing down buildings and in the valley adjacent to the diamond and, and further in the center of the city, so this is the 2nd level of the 2nd tragedies that the infrastructure didnt hold up. And i think were going to witness a 3rd tragedy, which is that the rest 2 assets are going to be very difficult because roads are being blocked. This area is isolated to reach the from big as it, which is the main. So do you nice and libya, you have to go through various show 2 points, which as far as we understand now, are still not accessible. So its in bridge that is a faulty road that is broken and so on and so forth. And just a few minutes ago, there was an alert from us ortiz a nice and theyve been saying that another diamond, the outskirts of been guys, is also at risk. So them warning and or can people to evacuate . So that could even complicate things, that unless it is your side of control or because of the country is still contested with different governments and the east and the west and this devastation is in the east of those 2 Governments Co operating on towards and 19, gra, rescue and relief efforts. Well, so far were not even seeing relief effort, so i cant even say that their cord and hits includes very well when seen relief efforts. And deadlock, for example, 48 hours after the tragedy that hasnt been one rescue humbly reaching the city. I havent seen footage of rescue teams even leaving buttons as a so so, so up until now were not seeing anything on the ground moving in terms of coordination between the 2 governments. Theyre talking to each other and they have been for months, but its more under the tables that have conversations dealing in wailings. Whether this now will leads to a outright sort of corporation. We can only hope so. Were not seeing evidence of that yet. Were not hearing that and certainly some of the statements, but from the politicians, when were not hearing that, were hearing the people saying, you know, its put politics aside. Lets join hands. Theres a human to human solidarity, you know, people to people solidarity on the ground. But we havent seen that type of vocal opening of hands on the i dont on the, the lack of preparedness of being infrastructure. I guess part of the eventual reckoning is going to be, well, well, these 2 dams, a collapse with a fit for purpose and was corruption a factor as well . I think thatd be pushing a bit too far. I mean, 1st of all, we have to acknowledge that the volume of water that came down was, as i said off the tight. So we dont even know if, if you dance where there would if, whether they would have held any way. Because the volume of water and the speed that at which they came though it came down from the mountains. Uh, it was extraordinary and beyond any possible sort of planning in terms of engineering of dance. But certainly the, there is the fact that they have the no upkeep of the infrastructure, at least for the past 10 years. Not only of these dams, of all the infrastructure, the roads, bridges in eastern libya, but even in western libya. So its, thats the state the country is, and i wouldnt blame corruption for that