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In a landmark case, a California jury last week found social media companies Meta and YouTube liable for deliberately designing addictive products. The ruling came the day after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was ordered to pay $375m after a jury in a separate trial in New Mexico found it misled consumers about the safety of its platforms.
Meta, YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok are facing thousands of similar lawsuits in US courts, while governments around the world are starting to introduce measures to curb social media’s grip on children’s attention.
Guardian technology editors Dan Milmo and Robert Booth assess whether what has been called a “big tobacco” moment for the industry will lead to significant change. And in our opinion section, Jonathan Freedland argues that the court verdicts must be just the start of a global fightback.
This week’s cover, by Sébastien Thibault, captures this potentially pivotal point for big tech.
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Five essential reads in this week’s edition
The big story | A war of regression
Weeks into a war that was going to take days and has cost billions, Donald Trump has bombed the US into a worse position with Iran, writes Patrick Wintour
Science | ‘On the shoulders of giants’
Plant specimens and teaching materials that inspired Charles Darwin have been unearthed and will be used for the first time to teach contemporary students about botany, Donna Ferguson reports
Feature | Circuit training
After touring 11 Chinese companies making humanoid robots, Chang Che asks: just how close are we to a robotic future?
Opinion | Labour needs a thinker
Ed Miliband’s stock is rising in a party in need of an old-style intellectual heavyweight, argues Gaby Hinsliff
Culture | Gimme shelter
Catherine Slessor visits Henry Moore’s former countryside home Hoglands, now home to studios and a vast sculpture garden, to learn about a new exhibition of the drawings he made as a war artist, capturing people as they took sanctuary from the blitz
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What else we’ve been reading
This piece looks at a growing trend of some landlords choosing to ban children from pubs, with arguments about atmosphere, safety, what pubs are actually for. It’s a debate I’m very much living through with a two-year-old in tow, so I was reading with one eye on my future social life. For now, I’m just relieved my locals haven’t made any big decisions yet! Jade Lovitt, business manager
The Sopranos was, for many people, one of the greatest TV shows ever made. This interview reveals how its creator, David Chase, wrote the mob saga to get over the difficult life he had with his mother. And Chase offers a fascinating insight into his relationship with the show’s main star, James Gandolfini. Anthony Naughton, assistant editor
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Other highlights from the Guardian website
• Gallery | Sarah Lee captures the wonders of spring
• Audio | Did a prize-winning novelist steal a woman’s life story?
• Video | Father and son describe their coming-of-age pilgrimage from Australia to Italy on a Vespa
• Interactive | How a satellite-smashing chain reaction could spiral out of control
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Get in touch
We’d love to hear your thoughts on the magazine: for submissions to our letters page, please email weekly.letters@theguardian.com. For anything else, it’s editorial.feedback@theguardian.com
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