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The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against Apple, arguing that the company had violated antitrust laws by using practices designed to keep customers locked into iPhones.

The lawsuit accused Apple of preventing other companies from offering applications that compete with products such as its digital wallet; making it easier for iPhones to connect to other Apple products than to those of competitors; and undermining messaging on smartphone operating systems. (Read the file here.)

Apple, which is worth nearly $2.75 trillion, said these practices have made its iPhones more secure than other smartphones. But app developers and rival device makers said Apple had used its power to crush the competition.

The Justice Department has the right to demand structural changes to Apple’s operations, including a breakup, an agency official said, should the ruling go in the department’s favor.

It was unclear what consequences the lawsuit – which will likely drag on for years – would have for consumers.

Context: Every modern tech giant has faced a major federal antitrust challenge, and Apple has effectively fought off similar allegations in the past. Here are some of the other regulatory actions the company is facing.

Strikes this year in Germany have brought railways and airports to a standstill, pulled doctors from hospitals and led bank employees away for days.

By some measures, there have been more strikes in Germany in the first three months of 2024 than in 25 years, so many that a conservative parliament leader described them as “strike madness.” Such workers’ demonstrations are common in many European countries, but Germany has long prided itself on non-disruptive collective bargaining.

The German economy was for a long time Europe’s largest economy and is now the slowest growing of the twenty countries that use the euro. Last year the country experienced the highest inflation in fifty years. At the same time, Germany faces increasingly severe labor shortages and an aging population, with officials estimating that the country will need seven million additional workers by 2035.

The result is a unique opportunity for workers at a vulnerable time for the national economy.

Luis Rubiales, the disgraced former head of Spain’s football federation who was forced out after kissing a female player against her will, could soon be arrested as part of a wide-ranging investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering.

Investigators were examining contracts linked to the federation’s sale of lucrative rights to a prominent football tournament, the Spanish Super Cup, to Saudi Arabia. Seven people were arrested this week after raids by Spanish civil guards, but not Rubiales, who was in the Dominican Republic and expected to return to Spain in April.

Background: Rubiales, once one of football’s most prominent figures, saw his career collapse after he placed an unwanted kiss on the lips of Spanish midfielder Jennifer Hermoso after the country won the Women’s World Cup last year. Hermoso later filed a sexual abuse complaint, and a judge recommended that Rubiales stand trial. He is also under investigation for numerous other allegations.

You may have heard online that Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is dead. Or a body double. Or a clone.

Such rumors have spread as Catherine has laid low since Christmas as she recovers from abdominal surgery, Kensington Palace said. She joins a host of other celebrities about whom dozens of online detectives are spreading untruths.

International break: What are your favorite’s plans? Eredivisie club?

Khadija Shaw: The Manchester City striker, nicknamed Bunny, continues talking her play in her words.

Australian Grand Prix: Breaking the circuit Albert Park.

Hideaki Itsuno has spent his three-decade career adapting the hyper-violent DNA of fighting video games for increasingly larger, more ornate environments.

Now Itsuno is about to release Dragon’s Dogma II, his most ambitious game yet. In it, he converts the thrilling melee combat with which he made his name in games such as Street Fighter Alpha and the Devil May Cry series into a gigantic open world full of fantasy characters. The game arrives today.

That’s all for this week. Have a nice weekend and see you Monday. – Than

You can reach Dan and the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

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