“Tech’s Big Tobacco moment”

Big Tech testifies before Congress; the UN is sending temporary shelters to the US-Mexico border. Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters. TOP NEWS Big Tech faces antitrust questions on Capitol Hill [Mark Zuckerberg testifies.]( Aurora Samperio/NurPhoto via Getty Images - On Wednesday, the CEOs of four of the country's biggest tech companies appeared before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee to testify as part of a long-running congressional investigation into the power of Big Tech. [[The Verge / Makena Kelly](] - It’s the first time all four CEOs — Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google’s Sundar Pichai — have appeared together, and the first time Bezos has testified at all. [[Wired / Gilad Edelman](] - The subcommittee’s 13-month investigation, which parallels similar probes by the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department, focused on potential anti-competitive or monopolistic practices by Big Tech. [[NYT / Cecilia Kang, Jack Nicas, and David McCabe](] - Though the investigation was bipartisan, a Tuesday memo ahead of the hearing made clear that the parties have very different complaints with Big Tech. While Democrats are primarily focused on antitrust concerns, Republicans are more worried about alleged anti-conservative bias in Silicon Valley. [[Politico / Betsy Woodruff Swan, Cristiano Lima, and Leah Nylen](] - All four CEOs opened the hearing with a defense of their respective companies, but lawmakers pressed them on a range of topics, including allegations of stifling competitors and stealing content. [[CNET / Ben Fox Rubin](] - In particular, Rep. Jerry Nadler, who chairs the full Judiciary Committee, produced emails from Zuckerberg suggesting that Facebook’s decision to buy Instagram may have been driven primarily by concerns about competition. [[The Verge / Casey Newton and Nilay Patel](] - As CNBC’s Lauren Feiner points out, Bezos took a different tack than the other CEOs throughout the hearing: Instead of denying, he “responded with surprise and concern to allegations made about Amazon.” [[CNBC / Lauren Feiner](] - According to subcommittee chair Rep. David Cicilline, a final report — informed by the investigation and by Wednesday’s hearing — will be forthcoming, potentially as soon as late August. [[Washington Post / Cat Zakrzewski](] - But ultimately, Recode’s Peter Kafka argues, Wednesday’s hearing, while historic, was more theater than anything. Change may come — but if it does, the partisan divide in Congress means it probably won’t be because of new legislation or rulemaking. [[Recode / Peter Kafka](] Trump and Covid-19 endanger asylum seekers - In response to the coronavirus pandemic and a growing backlog in the US immigration system, the United Nations on Monday announced plans to install temporary housing for asylum seekers along the US-Mexico border. [[NPR / Alana Wise](] - There are thousands of would-be asylum seekers waiting in Mexico for a decision on their asylum claims. Because of the coronavirus, however, many existing shelters along the border have stopped accepting new arrivals. [[Associated Press](] - As Vox’s Nicole Narea documented in June, the US asylum system has long been a target of the Trump administration. Trump’s "Remain in Mexico" program — premised on largely baseless concerns about asylum fraud — has stranded more than 60,000 migrants in often-unsafe conditions in Mexico. [[Vox / Nicole Narea](] - US treatment of asylum seekers is so poor in some cases that last week, a Canadian court ruled that Canada’s “safe third country” agreement with the US is unconstitutional because of potential human rights violations facing asylum seekers in the US. [[NYT / Dan Bilefsky](] - Separate from the Remain in Mexico program, the Canadian court found that some would-be refugees face imprisonment in the US, making it unsafe for Canada to turn them back at the US-Canada border. [[BBC](] - The Washington Post editorial board put it simply in an opinion published this Monday: “Not so long ago, asylum seekers turned to the United States, seeking refuge from repressive states,” it wrote in response to Canada's ruling, “Now the United States is one of those repressive states.” [[Washington Post / Editorial Board](] MISCELLANEOUS More than 150,000 people have now died of Covid-19 in the US. [[WSJ / Talal Ansari and Allison Prang](] - Rep. Louie Gohmert, an avid opponent of mask-wearing, has tested positive for the coronavirus. [[Politico / Jake Sherman](] - NASA is launching a new Mars rover, Perseverance, at 7:50 am ET Thursday, aiming to answer whether there was ever life on the red planet. [[Vox / Brian Resnick](] - Watch Axios’s Jonathan Swan press President Trump on reports that Russia placed bounties on US troops in Afghanistan. [[Twitter / Axios](] - On Tuesday, video emerged of the NYPD’s Warrant Squad pulling a homeless trans woman off the street and into an unmarked van. In June, Vox’s Katelyn Burns wrote about why police often single out trans people for violence. [[Vox / Katelyn Burns](] - “It is not safe to get between an emu and food”: A hotel in Australia has banned two misbehaving emus from the premises. [[NPR / Bill Chappell](] VERBATIM "Our anger didn’t just disappear when the news channels and trending hashtags did. I still go to the protests to this day, because nothing has changed. … As a Black woman, I am fighting for my life and my freedom right now. It’s not an option for me to just idly watch this happen." [[Activist Lindsay Kouyate on why she's still protesting / The Lily](] LISTEN TO THIS [Why Cornel West is hopeful (but not optimistic)]( How Black liberation theology, existentialism, and other philosophies can help us through these times. [[Spotify / Sigal Samuel](] [Read more from Vox](#) [“It’s ideologue meets grifter”: How Bill Barr made Trumpism possible]( [The GOP’s radical plan to shield business from Covid-19 lawsuits, explained]( [The choice for immigrant families in detention: Separate or risk Covid-19]( [Why it matters that TikTok wants to reveal its algorithms]( [America’s failures to test, trace, and isolate, explained]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( This email was sent to {EMAIL}. Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving all emails from Vox. 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