When Google was founded 25 years ago, the startup was a small fish in a big pond of possible ways to search the web.

Fast forward to today, and Google controls 90% of the search engine market. Whether or not it achieved this monopoly status through illegal means is at the heart of a blockbuster antitrust trial that begins tomorrow.

U.S. et al. v. Google is the US government’s biggest monopoly trial since 1998, when Bill Gates’s Microsoft empire was taken to court over anti-competitive behavior. What happens in this trial could shake up the power dynamics of Silicon Valley, where tech companies are already figuring out how to manage the once-in-a-generation disruption of AI. Dramatic stuff!

The government’s argument

The Department of Justice’s case focuses on Google’s agreements with hardware companies like Apple that make Google search the default option on iPhones and other devices. The DOJ says such deals—worth billions of dollars each year—represent an illegal abuse of monopoly power by Google to quash rival search engines.

As any student of behavioral economics knows, it requires a lot of effort for someone to opt out of the default option.

• An exec at the privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo said an Android smartphone user would need to take 15 steps to select DuckDuckGo as the phone’s default search engine.

Still, Google claims that its agreements with other tech companies are not anti-competitive because, even though it may take a few clicks, a user is not blocked from selecting another default search engine.

What to expect

Over the 10 weeks of the trial, business A-listers such as Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple execs will dish piping-hot tech tea from the witness stand.

Even if Google ultimately defeats the government’s challenge (like Microsoft and IBM before it), don’t expect Pichai to wish anyone well following the verdict. The trial is a costly distraction that may dent Google’s long-term growth trajectory. Have you ever gotten a lot of work done with someone looking over your shoulder?

The gas-guzzling, overweight, costly motors we use today are quite literally your great-grandparents’ engines. In fact, they’ve been powering everything from vehicles to generators for over 150 years without substantial improvements.

So when LiquidPiston invented the X-Engine to deliver up to 10x the power-to-weight ratio of legacy engines while achieving up to 30% more fuel efficiency, the world got revved up.

In fact, this technology is such a breakthrough that LiquidPiston has already secured 82 patents, recent coverage from Forbes, and $30m in contracts to improve the mobility of power.

Plus, the X-Engine can run on low- to zero-carbon fuels like hydrogen. So as the world shifts toward lower-emission solutions, demand for LiquidPiston engines could go full throttle.

Get your motor running. Become a LiquidPiston shareholder today.

Death toll from Morocco quake surpasses 2,100. The search for survivors ramped up this weekend after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake struck Morocco Friday night, killing more than 2,100 people in the country’s deadliest quake in 60 years. Rescue efforts focused on remote mountain villages near the epicenter of the earthquake while in the historic city of Marrakech, many residents concerned about the safety of their damaged homes slept outside for three straight nights. Countries around the world said they were prepared to send aid.

Escaped murderer is still on the lam in Pennsylvania. The prison-break story captivating the nation took another turn this weekend when Pennsylvania State Police said the convicted murderer who escaped from prison last month stole a refrigerated van and changed his appearance to evade authorities, which he’s been doing successfully for the past 11 days. Despite a convicted murderer sneaking around the area, the famous Kennett Square Mushroom Festival went on as planned this weekend. Fun fact: Chester County, PA, accounts for half of US mushroom production.

Djokovic, Gauff take home US Open trophies. Novak Djokovic won his 24th major yesterday at Flushing Meadows, getting revenge on Daniil Medvedev, who beat him in the 2021 final. With his victory, Djokovic became the first player in the Open Era (beginning in 1968) to win 24 Grand Slams. On the women’s side, American teen sensation Coco Gauff lifted her first Grand Slam trophy with a come-from-behind win against Aryna Sabalenka. Watch an eight-year-old Coco dance in the same stadium where she would win the biggest match of her career 11 years later.

On his first visit to Vietnam on Sunday, President Biden was greeted by school kids waving American flags and flattery from General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trong, who told Biden, “You have nary aged a day.”

A lot has changed since the Communist Party’s victory in the Vietnam War in 1975 led to decades of ice-cold relations. These days, both countries see opportunity in becoming better friends and business partners: The US wants to strengthen its ties in Southeast Asia to counter China’s influence in the region, and Vietnam wants to sell more stuff to the US, which is already its biggest export market.

How we got here: Thanks to economic reforms in the 1990s, Vietnam has emerged as a global manufacturing hub. And with the US–China relationship looking like a late-stage Jenga game, American companies have started to shift production there. Apple, Nike, Google, Dell, and Microsoft are among the multinationals that are moving to or expanding in Vietnam to reduce their reliance on China’s factories.

So, don’t be surprised to see more “Made in Vietnam” tags. Annual trade between the US and Vietnam has more than doubled in just five years, per the WSJ.

Auto strike looms: On Friday, production at the Big Three Detroit automakers could come screeching to a halt if a new contract between the companies and the United Auto Workers union isn’t finalized by an 11:59pm Thursday deadline. Even a 10-day strike would likely send Michigan into a recession, per estimates from Anderson Economic Group.

Apple set to unveil the iPhone 15: At its big hardware event tomorrow, Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 15 (in four new models). The charger situation at your home could get complicated because these new phones will have a USB-C charging port instead of the Lightning port Apple used previously. On behalf of all Android users, I’d like to welcome Apple to the club.

Elon Musk hits bookstores. Walter Isaacson’s biography of the mercurial billionaire will be released tomorrow, and it’s sure to become a staple of fall book clubs. The book has already stirred geopolitical controversy from an excerpt about Musk’s involvement in Ukraine, but Isaacson tried to “clarify” this story on social media on Friday.

Everything else…

• Aaron Rodgers makes his debut for the NY Jets tonight. Spectrum cable subscribers may not be able to watch it.
• The MTV Video Music Awards are tomorrow night.
• Rosh Hashana begins Friday night. Shanah tovah!
• Lagers and dirndls will take over your Instagram when the 188th Oktoberfest festival starts Saturday in Munich.

Stat: ChatGPT is a literal thirst trap. OpenAI’s large language model consumes 500mm of water (about the volume of a 16-ounce bottle) for every series of 5–50 prompts or questions due to the vast amount of water needed to cool the supercomputers that train the chatbot. That finding from the University of California, Riverside, researcher Shaolei Ren largely explains why tech giants have been using so much more water recently: AI data center investments. Microsoft’s global water consumption jumped 34% between 2021 and 2022, and Google’s grew 20% in the same period, per the AP.

Quote: “We are aware of the pain that has been caused by the character letters that we wrote on behalf of Danny Masterson.”

Another day, another awkward celebrity apology video. Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, the power couple who starred alongside Danny Masterson in That ’70s Show, tried to tamp down public outrage over character letters they wrote for Masterson, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for rape last week. In an Instagram video, Kutcher and Kunis stressed that they support victims of sexual violence and wrote the letters defending Masterson’s character to a judge a “couple of months ago” at the request of Masterson’s family.

Read: The inside story of how the Navy spent billions on the “Little Crappy Ship.” (ProPublica)

Travel from your desk: With the Rare Earth channel on YouTube.

Watch: The real reason NFL stadiums have so many luxury suites.

Cook smarter: A library of food tips.

Cook even smarter: Here’s a visual guide to the cuts of beef.

Improve confidence in bed: MysteryVibe’s Tenuto 2 is a game changer for male sexual stamina and performance—and designed to stimulate her. Get 20% off.*

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Turntable: Cure your Week 1 NFL hangover (especially if you’re a Steelers fan) by playing today’s Turntable.

Common words

Someone asked Duolingo, “Are there any words that all languages have in common?” Researchers at the language app looked into it and identified two words that sound remarkably similar across all languages.

Can you identify those two words? Of course, even one would be impressive.

Coffee (originating from the Arabic word قهوة qahwah) and chocolate (based on a Nahuatl word or phrase for a drink made of ceiba and cocoa). Read the blog.

Word of the Day

Today’s Word of the Day is: on the lam, meaning “in flight, especially from the police.” Thanks for the suggestion, Janet from Springfield, MO. Submit another Word of the Day here.