Last year, a federal judge ruled that Google had illegally maintained a search monopoly, but allowed the company to keep paying to be the default search engine on Apple devices (with very few caveats). Now, the Department of Justice and a group of states are appealing the overall decision. Here are the details.

A bit of background

In August 2024, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google had resorted to illegal means to maintain its monopoly in the U.S. online search market.

Part of that decision involved Google’s exclusionary agreements with companies such as Apple, as they created steeper anticompetitive effects.

With that decision in the books, the case moved to a year-long remedies phase, during which multiple witnesses from all sides, including from associated companies such as Apple, tried to make their case as to what, exactly, should happen to Google.

Attention Pluribus fans: Season two is in the works but don’t expect The Pitt-level of swiftness in between seasons.

Vince Gilligan joined his star Rhea Seehorn and members of the ensemble Karolina Wydra, Carlos Manuel Vesga and Samba Schutte for a panel conversation during Apple TV’s inaugural press day at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar on Tuesday. Naturally, the Emmy Award-winning creator was asked the question “everyone’s dying to know” by a member of the press and fielded by Schutte, who moderated the lively discussion: “Where are you currently in the process of writing Pluribus season two?”

Shrinking just started rolling out episodes of its third season and a fourth has already been ordered so there’s no end in sight for the Apple TV series as of right now. But if for some reason, Harrison Ford’s career ended with the critically acclaimed hit show, the iconic actor would be cool with it.

Appearing Tuesday afternoon on a panel during Apple TV’s inaugural press day at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, moderator Ashley Nicole Black asked the cast to open up on the deeper questions they asked themselves after signing on for such a “thought provoking series,” which follows a grieving therapist who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks.

Spain has proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers as attitudes hardened in Europe against the technology, drawing personal insults against the prime minister from Elon Musk.

The government is preparing a series of measures including a social media ban for under-16s, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said, promising to protect children from the “digital wild west” and hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content.

Sánchez said on Tuesday that urgent action was needed because social media was a “failed state where laws are ignored and crimes are tolerated”.

He also took Musk to task for using X to “amplify disinformation” over his administration’s decision last week to regularise 500,000 undocumented workers and asylum seekers, pointing out that Musk was himself a migrant.