Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday denied in court that his company bought rival services Instagram and WhatsApp to neutralize them, as his testimony in a landmark antitrust case came to a close.The case could see the Facebook owner forced to divest itself of the two apps, which have grown into global powerhouses since their buyouts.During his third and final day on the stand in a federal courtroom in Washington, Zuckerberg took aim at the Federal Trade Commission’s main argument — that Facebook, since renamed Meta, devoured what it saw as competitive threats.The co-founder of Facebook responded “No” when asked by Meta attorney Mark Hansen if his intent was to eliminate rivals with the purchases of photo sharing app Instagram and messaging service WhatsApp.He explained that Instagram, purchased in 2012, was attractive for “its camera and photo sharing experience” but added that he “didn’t view it as a broad network really competitive with where we were.”As for WhatsApp, bought two years later, Zuckerberg testified that he saw the app as technically impressive but its founders as “unambitious” in terms of “maximizing the impact that they could potentially have.””I basically ended up pushing to add things,” he told the court.Zuckerberg testified that Facebook put its scale and resources to work building Instagram and WhatsApp into apps now used by billions of people.Former Meta chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg testified after Zuckerberg, echoing much of what he told the court.Meta has had to take on an array of rivals including internet colossus Google as internet competition has become increasingly competitive, according to Sandberg.”Every time you go on your computer or phone, you have a choice of what you spend your time on,” Sandberg said.”That’s what all these producers are competing for: your time and attention.”- TikTok as new threat -A key part of the courtroom battle is how the Federal Trade Commission convincingly defines Meta’s market for the judge.The US government argues that Facebook and Instagram are dominant players in apps that provide a way to connect with family and friends, a category that does not include TikTok and YouTube.Meta’s defense attorneys counter that substantial investments transformed these acquisitions into the blockbusters they are today. They also highlight that Meta’s apps are free for users and face fierce competition.The case was originally filed in December 2020, in the last days of President Donald Trump’s first administration.Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person, has made repeated visits to the White House as he has tried to persuade the president to choose settlement instead of fighting the trial.As part of his lobbying efforts, Zuckerberg contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and overhauled content moderation policies. He also purchased a $23 million mansion in Washington in what was seen as a bid to spend more time close to the center of political power.Zuckerberg wrapped some 12 hours of testimony on Wednesday with an assessment of TikTok, which he said has emerged as perhaps the biggest competitive threat for Instagram and Facebook.Meta has seen the growth of its apps slow as the China-based video-snippet sharing sensation has boomed, so the US tech titan added a TikTok-like Reels feature to fire back in the marketplace, according to Zuckerberg.”That said, TikTok is still bigger than either Facebook or Instagram, and I don’t like it when our competitors do better than us,” he told the court.And as video has evolved into a favorite form of online media, particularly on smartphones, YouTube has become serious competition for Meta, the chief executive testified.

A US judge said Wednesday he had found “probable cause” to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in contempt in a deportation case, raising the stakes in the White House’s confrontation with the justice system.The White House said it planned an “immediate” appeal to the decision by District Judge James Boasberg, who had ordered the government to halt flights of more than 200 alleged gang Venezuelan members to El Salvador.Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order on March 15 to halt the deportations, which were carried out under an obscure wartime law, the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which strips away the usual legal due process.In a written opinion, the judge cited evidence that the government had engaged in “deliberate or reckless disregard” of his order when it proceeded with the flights.”Defendants provide no convincing reason to avoid the conclusion that appears obvious… that they deliberately flouted this Court’s written Order and, separately, its oral command that explicitly delineated what compliance entailed,” he wrote.The administration’s actions were “sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg wrote.The judge said the government would be offered a final chance to “purge such contempt” or face further court action.Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has flirted with open defiance of the judiciary following setbacks to his right-wing agenda, with deportation cases taking center stage.”We plan to seek immediate appellate relief,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement after the judge’s ruling.”The President is 100 percent committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country.”- ‘Administrative error’ -In invoking the Alien Enemies Act — which had only been used previously during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II — Trump said he was targeting transnational gangs he had declared foreign terrorist organizations.That included the Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua, but lawyers for several of the deported Venezuelans have said that their clients were not gang members, had committed no crimes and were targeted largely on the basis of their tattoos.Trump has routinely criticized rulings that curb his policies and power, and attacked the judges who issued them, including Boasberg.The Republican president said Wednesday that US courts are “totally out of control,” writing on his Truth Social platform: “They seem to hate ‘TRUMP’ so much, that anything goes!”His administration is also under fire over its admission that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador due to an “administrative error.”A judge has ordered Trump to “facilitate” his return, an order upheld by the Supreme Court, but his government has said the court did not have the authority to order it to have him returned.Trump has alleged that Abrego Garcia is “an MS-13 Gang Member and Foreign Terrorist from El Salvador,” while Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that he was “engaged in human trafficking.” The man has never been charged with any crimes.

A Democratic senator said Wednesday that El Salvador had denied his request to release a US resident whose wrongful deportation triggered a political firestorm over President Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.Chris Van Hollen said he had also been refused a visit or phone call with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is imprisoned in his native country despite a US federal judge’s order, backed by the Supreme Court, for his return to the United States.The White House condemned Van Hollen’s trip to the Central American country and invited the mother of a woman killed by another migrant from El Salvador — but in an unrelated case —  to speak as a “special guest” at a hastily arranged news briefing.Van Hollen said he had asked Vice President Felix Ulloa when they met why Abrego Garcia was still locked up in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) if he had committed no crime and El Salvador had no evidence that he was a member of street gang MS-13.”His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at CECOT,” Van Hollen, who represents Abrego Garcia’s home state of Maryland, told reporters during a visit to the Central American nation.The Trump administration has paid President Nayib Bukele’s administration several million dollars to keep deportees in detention.”I’m asking President Bukele… to do the right thing and allow Mr Abrego Garcia to walk out of prison, a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime, and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Van Hollen said.A legal US resident, Abrego Garcia was protected by a 2019 court order determining that he could not be deported to El Salvador, but he was sent there around a month ago.The Trump administration has admitted an “administrative error” and has been ordered by the Supreme Court to “facilitate” the 29-year-old father’s return.But the White House — pressed on what action it was taking to remedy its error in lower court hearings — has not announced any efforts toward Abrego Garcia’s return.Bukele said during a White House visit on Monday he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. – ‘Protecting our children’ -The Trump administration has mounted an increasingly aggressive pushback, accusing Abrego Garcia of gang links and domestic violence without providing any conclusive evidence.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday brought out Patty Morin of Maryland — whose daughter Rachel was beaten, raped and strangled in an unrelated 2023 case in which the Salvadoran murderer had been deported three times — to speak at a briefing.”This is about protecting our children. It’s more than just politics or votes or just anything,” Morin told journalists. Leavitt slammed the “appalling and sad” visit by the Democratic senator and accused him and the media of prioritizing Abrego Garcia’s case over that of Rachel Morin’s.US Attorney General Pam Bondi meanwhile released what she called “additional information” including a police report that said his Chicago Bulls baseball cap indicated he was an MS-13 member.He denies gang membership and has never been charged with crimes in either country.But Trump’s critics have warned that his defiance of the courts has placed the country on the cusp of a constitutional crisis.”It’s a short road from there to tyranny,” Van Hollen said earlier.The issue has become a growing policial football.West Virginia Republican congressman Riley Moore posted on X Tuesday that he had also traveled to El Salvador to see the prison where immigrants deported by the Trump administration are being held.He declared himself supportive of Trump’s actions, however.Another Democratic senator, Cory Booker, and two Democratic members of the House of Representatives are also mulling a trip to the country.burs-dk/tgb

Concern over the economic fallout from US President Donald Trump’s global tariffs mounted Wednesday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s warning of higher inflation sending stock markets tumbling.Trump remained upbeat, posting on social media that there’d been “Big Progress!” in talks with Japan on a trade deal.He is banking that his strategy, in which tariffs are meant to lead to multiple individual country agreements, will lower barriers to US products and shift global manufacturing to the United States.But those negotiations are running parallel to a deepening confrontation with top US economic rival China — and concern over widespread disruption.Powell said tariffs are “highly likely” to provoke a temporary rise in prices and could prompt “more persistent” increases.He also noted the “volatility” on the markets in a “time of high uncertainty.”That volatility was visible on Wall Street where the Nasdaq at one point plummeted more than four percent, the S&P more than three percent and the Dow Jones more than two.Leading the downward charge was Nvidia, which momentarily dropped more than 10 percent after disclosing major costs due to new US export restrictions on semiconductors imposed as part of Trump’s tussle with China.World Bank chief Ajay Banga echoed Powell, telling reporters that, “uncertainty and volatility are undoubtedly contributing to a more cautious economic and business environment.”- China says ‘no winner’ -While the rest of the world has been slapped with a blanket 10 percent tariff, China faces levies of up to 145 percent on many products. Beijing has responded with duties of 125 percent on US goods.”If the US really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop exerting extreme pressure, stop threatening and blackmailing, and talk to China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.”There is no winner in a tariff war or a trade war,” Lin said, adding: “China does not want to fight, but it is not afraid to fight.”China said on Wednesday that it saw a forecast-beating 5.4 percent jump in growth in the first quarter as exporters rushed to get goods out of factory gates ahead of the US levies.But Heron Lim from Moody’s Analytics told AFP the impact would be felt in the second quarter, as tariffs begin “impeding Chinese exports and slamming the brakes on investment.”World Trade Organization head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the uncertainty brought by the tariffs “threatens to act as a brake on global growth, with severe negative consequences for the world, the most vulnerable economies in particular.”- Japan test case? -Ahead of the Japan talks, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he hoped “something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!”Japan’s envoy said he was optimistic of a “win-win” outcome for both countries.South Korea, a major semiconductor and auto exporter, said Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok would meet US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent next week.”The current priority is to use negotiations… to delay the imposition of reciprocal tariffs as much as possible and to minimize uncertainty for Korean companies operating not only in the US but also in global markets,” Choi said on Tuesday.But Stephen Innes at SPI Asset Management called the discussions with Japan the “canary in the tariff coal mine.””If Japan secures a deal — even a half-baked one — the template is set. If they walk away empty-handed, brace yourself. Other nations will start pricing in confrontation, not cooperation,” he wrote in a newsletter.The Daiwa Institute of Research warned on Wednesday that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs could cause a decline of 1.8 percent in Japan’s real GDP by 2029.Although popular among Republicans, the tariffs war is politically risky for Trump at home. California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom announced he was launching a new court challenge against Trump’s “authority to unilaterally enact tariffs, which have created economic chaos, driven up prices, and harmed the state, families, and businesses.”burs-sms/dw