This verdict carries implications far beyond this courtroom. It establishes a framework for how similar cases across the country will be evaluated and demonstrates that juries are willing to hold technology companies accountable when the evidence shows foreseeable harm.
The case is one of the most notorious examples of British involvement in illegal enslavement in Brazil, said historian Joseph Mulhern and a stark symbol of how, even after the UK Slavery Abolition Act of 1833, British citizens and companies profited from slavery in Latin America's biggest country for another half century.
Companies across sectors such as banking, industry, and technology report that their digital infrastructure is closely intertwined with American software and cloud platforms. Many organizations rely on services from large American suppliers for office software, cloud storage, and AI applications. According to them, this dependence cannot be reduced quickly without operational disruptions.
Apple and Google, the two companies that collectively control how more than six billion people access the internet from their pockets, are now facing coordinated antitrust enforcement actions across North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. The simultaneous pressure marks a structural shift in how governments worldwide approach platform power.
The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC)-an agency with the extraordinary power to block imports and, in turn, influence the direction of American technology policy-has drifted out of that balance. To align with the Trump Administration's intellectual property priorities and pro-investment agenda, the ITC is in urgent need of reform.
We're still increasing pricing based on the most up-to-date tariff announcements from India and the U.S., because it's not going back down to zero. It's still elevated. The cost of our goods has also shot up, because gold has almost doubled since last year.
A moratorium that has protected vital rainforest since 2009 is on shaky ground as several players from Brazil's soy industry say they are pulling out. Specifically, the Brazilian industry association ABIOVE, whose members include global companies such as Cofco International, Bunge, Amaggi and JBS, have said they will no longer refrain from growing soy on deforested land. Environmentalists fear this could fuel a new wave of Amazon logging.
Currently there is no regulation over who can provide procedures that do not involve incisions. The committee said this had created a "wild west" market with procedures, including liquid breast enlargements, reportedly being done in Airbnbs, hotels rooms, garden sheds and public toilets. In early 2024, Sasha Dean, from Bedfordshire, was left in a coma after receiving a liquid BBL.
Its rapid growth, fueled by products far more appealing than the market average, ended with its liquidation last November and the arrest of its president, Daniel Vorcaro, as he attempted to flee Brazil. According to initial estimates by Brazil's Federal Police, the bank's missing funds could reach 12 billion reais (more than $2.2 billion), and at least 1.6 million people have been affected. A dozen partners and executives have been arrested.
The European Union will on Saturday sign a deal 25 years in the making with the South American trade bloc Mercosur, creating one of the world's largest free trade areas at a time of growing protectionism and volatility. The long-awaited agreement comes amid the sweeping use of tariffs and trade threats by US President Donald Trump's administration, which has sent countries scrambling for new partnerships.
The crunch moment in Google's antitrust battles with the Justice Department over its ad tech stack looms ever closer, with Justice Leonie Brinkema expected to issue her remedies ruling by the close of Q1. While these deliberations take place in the chambers of a courtroom in the Eastern District of Virginia, developments elsewhere underscore the political undercurrents at play, namely the push to limit Big Tech's power.
Notice that Google doesn't refute the allegations. The exact details of the EU investigation haven't been reported, but Google is no doubt still feeling burned after evidence surfaced in the DOJ's 2023 search antitrust trial about its opaque search ad pricing. Jerry Dischler, then GM and VP of Google Ads, testified that Google would increase ad prices by up to 10% when it needed to meet investor revenue expectations. He jokingly referred to the practice as "shaking the couch cushions."
The magistrate ordered on Thursday that former President Jair Bolsonaro, a retired army captain, be transferred to the maximum-security prison complex in Papuda, also in the Brazilian capital. The far-right politician will initially be placed in a wing designated for military personnel and officials, but will first undergo a medical examination to determine if he should be transferred to the prison hospital.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it will appeal the November ruling in favor of Meta in its antitrust case against the social media giant. The FTC said it continues to allege that, for more than a decade, Meta Platforms Inc. has "illegally maintained a monopoly" in social networking through anticompetitive conduct "by buying the significant competitive threats it identified in Instagram and WhatsApp."
But what is legally possible could pose a serious political problem. Because, as the European Commission pointed out when remarking on the Parliament's negative vote, the legal formula used to process the ratification of this agreement is the same one used for an agreement reached with Chile that did not raise any questions inside the European Parliament. In other words, the outcome of this vote suggests that the opposition for legal concerns is motivated less by legal reasons than by political ones.