Good morning. A Los Angeles jury is poised to consider a central question in the debate over social media and teenage welfare: Are platforms such as Instagram and TikTok causing mental-health disorders?

• First test: A personal-injury trial begins this week over a young woman’s claim that social-media platforms built products that fostered addiction in adolescents and caused her a host of mental-health problems. It is the first such case to go to trial as thousands of other similar lawsuits, brought by individuals, school districts and state attorneys general, wait in the wings.
   
• 5,000 more: Meta Platforms, TikTok, Snap and YouTube are facing more than 3,000 lawsuits alone in California. Another 2,000-plus cases are pending in federal court. Plaintiffs allege that the companies should be held liable for building algorithmic recommendations and product features such an infinite scroll and video autoplay that make it hard for teens to look away.
   
• Negative effects: This first case centers on a woman—known by her initials K.G.M. in court papers—who alleges that social-media use as a teen led to her struggles with body dysmorphia, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, addiction and depression. Mark Lanier, the lead trial lawyer for the plaintiff, said social-media apps affected his client’s behavior, social skills and her education. “I wish we knew what her life would be if she didn’t have that trap,” he said.
   
• Denials: The cases cut to the heart of social-media companies’ business models. They deny the allegations and say they have been investing for years in making their platforms safer, even at the expense of audience growth. They also say that a victory for the plaintiffs would make it impossible to have free expression and open communication across social-media platforms.

Booz Allen contracts canceled by Treasury Department.

The Treasury Department canceled all of its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton in the latest hit the consulting firm has taken from the Trump administration’s cuts to government-contract funding.

The Treasury Department on Monday said it currently has 31 contracts with Booz Allen totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations.

The department cited the case of former Booz Allen employee Charles Littlejohn, who leaked confidential tax information on President Trump and other Americans to news organizations while working as an Internal Revenue Service contractor.

PetroNor subsidiary charged by Norwegian prosecutors for bribes in Republic of Congo.

Norwegian prosecutors indicted a subsidiary of oil company PetroNor E&P and two individuals for bribes linked to the president of the Republic of Congo and his family, Risk Journal reports.

The Norwegian economic prosecution agency alleged Monday the PetroNor unit and individuals engaged in gross corruption and accounting violations when orchestrating a bribery scheme from 2016 onward that “took place in parallel with” the company applying for and winning oil licenses in the country.

PetroNor in a statement said the indictment concerns Hemla Africa Holding, an indirect subsidiary that owns a majority stake in an entity with a 20% interest in licenses for a drilling project off the coast of the Republic of Congo. The U.S. Justice Department closed a parallel bribery case into PetroNor E&P in April, according to a company statement.

• The European Union said it will tighten its oversight of Meta Platforms’ WhatsApp because the messaging service’s “channels” feature has enough European users to warrant stricter control under its content moderation rules.
   
• The European Union has launched a new legal process to help Alphabet’s Google comply with the bloc’s digital-competition rulebook.
   
• The chairman of the Senate’s antitrust subcommittee is raising concerns over Netflix’s proposed acquisition of the Warner Bros. movie-and-television studios and HBO Max streaming service.
   
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is ending its enforcement action against Gemini Trust related to the cryptocurrency exchange’s Earn investment program after investors who lost crypto assets were made whole, reports Risk Journal’s Mengqi Sun.

Minnesota CEOs walk a fine line in call for ‘Immediate De-Escalation’

Politics can be toxic for stocks, and CEOs know it.

Over the weekend, CEOs of Minnesota companies broke their silence on the tension in the Twin Cities after weeks of conflict between protesters and ICE agents culminated in the second fatal shooting in less than a month. How they did it highlights the current challenge American corporations face when navigating hot-button issues.

There may be safety in numbers. On Sunday, more than 60 executives from companies based in Minnesota—including 3M, Allianz Life Insurance, Ameriprise Financial, Best Buy, General Mills, Piper Sandler, Target, and UnitedHealth Group—signed a letter calling for an “immediate de-escalation” of tensions. The letter, released by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, follows the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen, by a federal agent over the weekend.

See also: 

• The 48 Hours That Convinced Trump to Change Course in Minnesota
• Trump Wants Minnesota Cooperation for Withdrawal of Some Immigration Officials
• The Lawyer for the Agent Who Shot Renee Good Thinks ICE Has Gone Too Far
• Border Patrol Chief Bovino, Public Face of Immigration Crackdown, to Leave Minnesota

Trump’s tariff threats designed to influence pending USMCA talks, Canada PM Carney says.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said President Trump’s tariff threats likely represent some prepositioning ahead of negotiations later this year to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact.

Carney said Monday he expects a robust review of the continental trade pact, known as USMCA, which the Trump administration will lead later this year. Trade analysts expect Trump and his negotiators to push for more concessions from Canada to keep the deal intact.

• This year, global growth is being brought to you by the government. Rocked by an avalanche of growth-sapping shocks, countries around the world are tearing up savings plans and rolling out large fiscal stimulus packages financed by bumper budget deficits.
   
• The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships have entered the Middle East, U.S. officials said, giving President Trump additional offensive and defensive capabilities should he choose to move forward with an attack on Iran.
   
• New European Union restrictions on Russian diplomats came into force Sunday, Risk Journal reports, requiring they provide advance notice when traveling from their base to another Schengen country, as the bloc seeks to counter intelligence operations it says are conducted under diplomatic cover.
   
• Nike is laying off about 775 workers as it ramps up its use of advanced technology and automation. The cuts will primarily affect workers at its distribution centers across Tennessee and Mississippi, and amount to about 1% of its overall workforce. Nike employed about 77,800 workers worldwide as of its latest annual filing.
   
• Decades of spending increases have helped China build one of the world’s most substantial militaries, stirring fears that it could seize Taiwan or provoke a clash over territorial disputes with neighbors such as Japan or the Philippines.

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• The Trump administration is proposing roughly flat rates for Medicare insurers next year, an update that falls well short of Wall Street expectations.
   
• A sprawling winter storm that battered southern, central and eastern U.S. states with heavy snow and frigid temperatures over the weekend has left several people dead and continued to snarl air travel and power grids.
   
• Israel recovered the body of the last hostage taken into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, the military said Monday, paving the way for Israel​ to reopen the Palestinian enclave’s only international border crossing and removing an obstacle that had kept a fragile peace deal from advancing.
   
• Nvidia is pouring an additional $2 billion into CoreWeave in a vote of confidence in the artificial-intelligence data-center company that uses Nvidia’s chips.