Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sparred with someone other than his jujitsu instructor yesterday. On the stand in a Los Angeles civil trial that accuses Meta and YouTube of deliberately addicting young users to their products, Zuckerberg responded to allegations that Instagram harms children—something he’d done before Congress, but never in front of a jury.

In his testimony:

• Zuckerberg claimed Meta doesn’t “give teams goals on time spent” anymore, when shown a 2015 email in which he said boosting users’ time spent by 12% was a goal for 2016. Plaintiffs’ lawyers also showed evidence that Instagram head Adam Mosseri considered boosting time spent as a goal for 2026.
• Questioned about his knowledge of underage users, Zuckerberg said that while children under 13 aren’t allowed, some kids lie, and that they are removed when identified. Plaintiffs’ lawyers showed an internal Meta email from 2015 that estimated 4 million kids under 13 used Instagram.

Honorable mention: The judge threatened to hold in contempt anyone using smart glasses in court—where recording is not allowed—after members of Zuckerberg’s team walked into the building wearing Meta Ray-Ban glasses.

What’s at stake

The trial centers around a 20-year-old woman who says her mental health deteriorated after she became hooked on social media as a young child. She accuses Meta and YouTube of intentionally designing features to be addictive to children. (TikTok and Snap were also named in the lawsuit, but they settled before trial.)

Zuckerberg’s testimony comes a week after Instagram’s Mosseri took the stand. When asked if he agreed that “there’s such a thing as being addicted to a social media platform”—which he said verbatim on a podcast in 2020—Mosseri testified that he disagreed. He continued: “Clearly I wasn’t being careful with my words.”

Zoom out: This is a bellwether trial, which means it could shape the outcomes of thousands of similar lawsuits filed against Meta and YouTube.—ML

US masses most airpower in Mideast since 2003 Iraq War. Pentagon and Trump administration officials told the New York Times the buildup of force could enable strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend and sustain a broader air campaign if ordered. President Trump has reportedly not decided whether to strike the nation or seek a diplomatic solution. Military options include the US further damaging Iran’s nuclear program, which the US struck last June, or removing the current regime. A retired general said the move may be a show of force designed to pressure Iran into a nuclear agreement. Diplomatic talks continue after US and Iranian representatives met in Geneva this week. The White House said the meeting produced “a little bit of progress” but added, “We’re still very far apart on some issues.”—HVL

Rate cuts likely months away, Fed minutes show. The nation’s central bankers held interest rates steady at their meeting last month, and now that the minutes of their discussion have been released, it looks like they might stay where they are for a while. The minutes show that Fed officials are divided over what should trigger rate cuts in the future. Some said a cut could come as long as inflation declined, while others wanted a clear indication that progress taming inflation was back on track before bringing borrowing costs down. Such evidence of lower inflation is unlikely to emerge for months.—AR

The Super Bowl champion Seahawks are finally up for sale. The team said yesterday that the sales process has begun. And when it happens, it could break the NFL’s record for a franchise purchase—an unnamed team executive told ESPN last month the team could be worth as much as $8 billion. The organization has been in limbo since Paul Allen, its owner and Microsoft CEO, died in 2018. Following his death, the Seahawks were placed in a trust overseen by his sister, Jody Allen, with a directive that his sports assets be sold and the proceeds must go to charity. Allen paid $200 million for the team in 1997.—DL

Government regulatory bodies can change their minds, too. Pharma giant Moderna said yesterday that the Food and Drug Administration will review its new flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology, a flip from the shocking refusal the FDA announced last week.

Moderna said it tweaked its application after meetings with regulators, specifically regarding its trials for older adults. The FDA will issue its decision on the new flu shot in August, ahead of this year’s flu season.

Why so much drama? At the heart of the back and forth is the White House’s beef with mRNA vaccines. The technology was used successfully in the Covid-19 vaccine and has been widely celebrated as a scientific breakthrough, but Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has questioned its safety (doctors overwhelmingly say it is safe). Some vaccine researchers using federal funds said they were told to remove any references to mRNA on grants last year. RFK Jr. has also canceled $500 million in mRNA vaccine development.

Big picture: Moderna’s stock jumped over 6% after the reversal. The company is hoping to break even by 2028—a goal that hinges on smooth approval of its new drugs, including a Covid–flu combo shot.—MM

At the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi yesterday, a professor tried to pass off a robot dog as her university’s own creation, but it came back to bite her. The artificial canine was revealed to be already commercially available in China, resulting in the school being ejected from the event.

This was just one of several unwelcome hiccups at the five-day conference meant to position India as an AI leader—marking the first time a country in the Global South has hosted the annual gathering of tech and government leaders:

• The event went into a security lockdown on Monday when Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived, stranding hundreds of attendees without food or water for hours.
• That same day, presenters posted on social media that their personal belongings and items on display were stolen (organizers said they were recovered and returned).

India as the future: Infrastructure deals around data centers are expected to be announced this week, per CNBC.

An alternative to the US? The US currently dominates the AI chatbot market, but American companies like OpenAI and Perplexity are offering their products for free in India to acquire more data for training. One Swiss professor told Bloomberg that India could be a more reliable data-sharing partner because of fears over how American companies will use (or misuse) user data.—DL

If you want to get into NYC’s most exclusive hotspot, you’ll have to work—not to get past an intimidating bouncer, but to crunch numbers for Jamie Dimon. Morgan’s, the employee-only English pub on the 13th floor of JPMorgan’s new Park Avenue headquarters, has become so popular that younger staffers are making reservations weeks out to score one of its coveted tables, the Wall Street Journal reports.

You don’t need an analyst to spot the problem with the pub’s fundamentals: ~10,000 people work in the HQ and Morgan’s has 55 seats, per the WSJ. And even though it doesn’t permit day drinking, those seats are in demand. To alleviate the crush, the bank changed its policy so reservations aren’t required—but you’ll probably still need one (and an employee friend) to cross “splitting the G” at a table surrounded by finance titans off your bucket list.—AR