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Breaking up Google, charging a billionaire and targeting trans congresswoman

 
Today's TECH story

Justice Department seeks breakup of Google, Chrome

What happened
The Justice Department last night asked a federal judge to order Google to sell off its popular Chrome browser and, potentially, its Android mobile operating system to level the playing field in internet search. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who is overseeing the government's sweeping antitrust case against the search giant, ruled in August that Google was a monopolist.

Who said what
Being forced to sell Chrome, with an estimated 67% of the world's browser market, and Android, with about 71% of the smartphone market, "would be among the worst possible outcomes for Google," The New York Times said. Google, the default search engine on Chrome and Android, handles about 90% of the world's web searches, according to Statcounter. Search engines "typically improve based on the data they gather from searches conducted by users," The Wall Street Journal said, creating a "cycle where success leads to higher quality which leads to even more success."

"The playing field is not level because of Google's conduct, and Google's quality reflects the ill-gotten gains of an advantage illegally acquired," the Justice Department said. "The remedy must close this gap and deprive Google of these advantages." Along with splitting off Chrome, prosecutors asked Mehta to bar Google from favoring its services on Android and end its multibillion-dollar deals with Apple and other companies to make Google the default search engine on their browsers.

The payments to lock in Google search on other platforms was "one of the main practices that bothered Mehta," but it's "less clear" if he would embrace the DOJ's breakup proposal, The Associated Press said. An appeals court "overturned an order that would have broken up Microsoft" in 2001, and that may "make Mehta reluctant to go down a similar road." If he did, The Washington Post said, Google would be the "first big tech company broken up under federal antitrust law since AT&T in 1982." 

What next?
Google has a month to respond with its own proposal for Mehta, who plans to hold hearings on Google's punishment starting in April and issue his decision in August. Google's likely appeal of that ruling could delay any sanctions for months or years, and President-elect Donald Trump's incoming antitrust team is another wild card.

 
 
Today's INTERNATIONAL story

US charges Indian tycoon with bribery, fraud

What happened
The Justice Department yesterday unsealed an indictment charging Gautam Adani, the billionaire founder of one of India's largest business conglomerates, with fraud tied to more than $250 million in bribes he and associates allegedly paid Indian government officials to secure lucrative solar energy supply contracts. U.S. prosecutors and regulators said the secret bribery scheme defrauded U.S. investors in Adani's companies.

Who said what
Adani and his codefendants "orchestrated an elaborate scheme to bribe Indian government officials to secure contracts worth billions of dollars" for Adani Green Energy, then "lied about the bribery scheme" to "enrich themselves at the expense of the integrity of our financial markets," Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Byron Peace alleged. Adani and his associates allegedly kept meticulous records of "their bribes and offers to Indian officials using messaging apps, phones and PowerPoint presentations," The New York Times said. Prosecutors said Adani also met with government officials to personally advance the bribery scheme.

Adani, 62, was "once Asia's richest man — and briefly the world's second-richest person" — until 2023 fraud allegations by a Wall Street investigative firm "tarnished his net worth" and reputation, The Washington Post said. Still worth about $70 billion, he is "one of the few billionaires formally accused in the United States of criminal wrongdoing," Reuters said.

What next?
None of the defendants were in U.S. custody, and Adani was believed to be in India, Peace said. The billionaire has longstanding close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indian opposition leader Jairam Ramesh yesterday called for a parliamentary inquiry, saying the U.S. indictment was "consistent with a long record of fraud and criminality carried out with impunity with the obvious protection of the prime minister."

 
 
Today's POLITICS Story

GOP's Mace seeks federal anti-trans bathroom ban

What happened
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) yesterday introduced a bill to block transgender people from using restrooms and changing rooms that do not match their birth-assigned sex at all federal buildings and national parks. On Monday, Mace pushed forward a similar resolution about transgender people in the U.S. Capitol, a measure she said was "100% because of" congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.), adding that the newly elected trans woman "doesn't get a say" in the policy.

Who said what
"The radical left says I'm a 'threat,'" Mace said on X after introducing her bill. "You better believe it." Republicans have "increasingly amplified anti-trans messaging in recent years and it's morphed into a common political talking point," NPR said. Mace alone has made "hundreds" of social media posts "about the bathroom issue in recent days," framing it as a safety issue, The Washington Post said.

The federal transgender bathroom bill — which also "appears to extend" to Washington, D.C., "libraries, recreation centers and, potentially, D.C. Public Schools" — is "unlikely to overcome the Senate filibuster," the Post said, and it would run afoul of changes President Joe Biden made to Title IX. But a majority of the GOP-controlled House could approve Mace's resolution for the Capitol. McBride said yesterday she was "not here to fight about bathrooms," but to "fight for Delawareans and to bring down costs facing families."

What next?
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sidestepped Mace's proposals but said yesterday he was formally decreeing all Capitol single-sex bathrooms "reserved for individuals of that biological sex," adding that every House member had a private bathroom and "unisex restrooms are available throughout the Capitol." McBride said she "will follow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson even if I disagree with them."

 
 

It's not all bad

For Lenore Lindsey, the news could not have been sweeter: Vamarr Hunter, a longtime customer at her Give Me Some Sugah bakery in Chicago, was her biological son. When she called to tell him, "it was crazy," Hunter told The Washington Post. Lindsey, who was 17 when she placed Hunter for adoption, said they felt an "immediate connection," and their bond has tightened even more since Hunter quit his job to help run the bakery. "I'm loving every minute of it," he said.

 
 
Under the radar

Sudan boasts even more pyramids than Egypt, but its treasured archaeological heritage is increasingly under threat from its brutal civil war. Meroe, a city on the banks of the Nile and once the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kush, formerly "drew intrepid tourists to see the carvings and hieroglyphs housed in some of the 200 pyramids" built nearly 2,500 years ago, said the Financial Times. But since Sudan's civil war broke out last year, the site has been "deserted." 

The pyramids' sole caretaker, a woman named Fozia Khalid, is "the only person standing between some of Sudan's greatest art treasures and rampaging armies accused of looting priceless antiquities," the Financial Times said. "The militias are not far," said Khalid, referring to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the paramilitary group locked in a battle for power with the Sudanese Armed Forces. "I fear they may come and ravage centuries of history." 

In September, Sudan's national broadcaster SBC reported that the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum, considered one of the most important in Africa, had been targeted by a "large-scale looting and smuggling operation" by RSF soldiers. "Tens of thousands of artifacts" were taken, an anonymous official from the institute told The Guardian. 

That same month, UNESCO warned that the "threat to (Sudan's) culture appears to have reached an unprecedented level." The UN's cultural heritage body has told the world's art market not to purchase any objects from Sudan. "Any illegal sale or displacement of these cultural items would result in the disappearance of part of the Sudanese cultural identity and jeopardize the country's recovery," UNESCO said a statement.

 
 
On this day

November 21, 2017

Robert Mugabe, the leader of Zimbabwe, resigned from office after an impeachment proceeding was started against him by his own party. Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years, becoming one of Africa's longest-serving leaders; his autocratic rule was marked by widespread allegations of corruption and human rights violations.

 
 
TODAY'S newspaperS

Thanksgiving is still a week away, but "'pack your patience' for record travel over holiday weekend," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says on Thursday's front page. Another thing to prepare for, "U.S. egg supply in pre-holiday slump as avian flu cases surge," The Washington Post says. Donald Trump's Cabinet "picks draw from Project 2025," the Post adds, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "skepticism and Oregon vote further turn tide against fluoride."  The Boston Globe says "diverse foes line up against Kennedy," with both "left and right" worried about his "contrarian views." The House Ethics Committee investigation of Trump pick Matt Gaetz showed "payments went to women," bolstering "claims of sex for hire," The New York Times says.

► See the newspaper front pages

 
 
Tall tale

Not bananas

Leaked emails from Paulina Brandberg, Sweden's minister for gender equality and working life, reveal the severity of her banana phobia, with the politician telling aides there must be "no traces of bananas" in any meeting rooms. Brandberg, who announced she is receiving professional help to deal with the matter, has the support of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. "I have all the respect for people who have different phobias," he said, adding that he is "disturbed" by people mocking Brandberg.

 
 

Morning Report was written and edited by Theara Coleman, Nadia Croes, Catherine Garcia, Scott Hocker, Anya Jaremko-Greenwold, Justin Klawans, Harriet Marsden, Devika Rao, Rafi Schwartz and Peter Weber, with illustrations by Stephen Kelly and Julia Wytrazek.

Image credits, from top: Kimihiro Hoshino / AFP via Getty Images; Sumit Dayal / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images; Illustration by Julia Wytrazek / Getty Images