Good morning. Apple has faced complaints for years about the tight control it maintains around its popular devices—exactly what the Justice Department is challenging in its landmark lawsuit.

So far, the courts have mostly sided with the iPhone maker over critics of its fees and scrutiny of how apps and outside hardware interact with its ecosystem.

• What's the case against Apple? The Justice Department, which sued Apple on Thursday, took a broad swipe at the iPhone maker by alleging that it has protected its monopoly in smartphones by thwarting innovative apps and accessories that would make people less dependent on Apple’s pricey technology.
   
• DOJ strategy: In the lawsuit, antitrust officials avoided theories previously rebuffed by federal courts. Still, the government has an uphill climb to convince a court that Apple’s policies result in higher prices and hurt consumers—rather than protecting them, as Apple says.
   
• How strong is their complaint? “The whole notion here is that things that make Apple distinctive are also things we should be attacking under the antitrust laws,” said Herb Hovenkamp, an antitrust expert and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania law school. “It strikes me as a fairly weak complaint.”

Also see: Ghost of Microsoft Stalks Apple as DOJ Takes Its Shot

Real-estate broker Compass agrees to pay $57.5 million to settle antitrust claims.

Real-estate firm Compass said it reached a $57.5 million settlement over allegations that it was part of a conspiracy to keep real-estate commissions high, the first big brokerage to reach such an agreement since the National Association of Realtors’ landmark settlement last week.

Compass is the fourth major brokerage to settle the litigation since last year. Re/Max Holdings and Anywhere Real Estate, which owns brands such as Corcoran and Century 21, settled the same claims last fall for about $140 million combined. Keller Williams Realty reached a $70 million settlement in February.

Former Lordstown Motors CEO settles charges of misleading investors.

Former Lordstown Motors Chief Executive Stephen Burns will pay $175,000 to settle fraud charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.

Regulators alleged Burns had made misleading statements to investors about the electric vehicle-maker’s customer base and its number of pre-orders.

• U.S. air safety regulators are stepping up scrutiny of United Airlines following a spate of safety issues in recent weeks.
   
• In a big shift, the European Union is planning to impose tariffs on Russian grain, part of an effort to curb Moscow’s export revenue and appease European farmers who are angry about imports of cheaper agricultural products.
   
• The Treasury Department has made it easier for offshore developers to qualify for credits to "energy communities," broadly defined as areas at risk from the shift away from fossil fuels.

Corporate criminal cases on the rise amid Justice Department crackdown.

Criminal prosecutions involving corporations are trending upward amid a push by the Justice Department to crack down on business misconduct. According to new figures from an arm of the federal judiciary, prosecutions in 2023 rose to 113 from 99 the previous year.

Prosecutions have been rising since 2021, when they fell to their lowest level since 1993, but it remains to be seen how successful a series of new department policies will be in helping to increase cases against corporate offenders. “We cannot ignore the data showing overall decline in corporate criminal prosecutions over the last decade,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said last year. “We need to do more and move faster.”

The latest numbers drew muted praise from advocacy group Public Citizen, which collects data on white-collar crime. In a letter to the attorney general last month, the group called for the Justice Department to revisit a controversial $2.5 billion settlement prosecutors struck with Boeing in 2021 over safety issues that led to two deadly crashes of the company’s 737 MAX aircrafts.

The data, published by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, doesn't capture settlements such as deferred prosecution agreements like the one struck by Boeing, or the number of prosecutions of corporate executives. The department has made the prosecution of individual executives a priority in recent years, arguing it is the best way to deter business crimes.

For a further breakdown of this year’s Sentencing Commission data, click here.

—Dylan Tokar

In the conflict between the West and authoritarian foes, Islamic State sees all sides as targets.

The U.S. and its liberal democratic allies may be facing off with authoritarian powers Russia, Iran and China as wars in Ukraine and Gaza inflame global rivalries. But to Islamic State, they’re all enemies of the Muslim faith that should be annihilated.

Targets worldwide. Friday’s assault on a concert hall outside Moscow that killed at least 133 people, the worst terrorist attack in Russia in decades, drove home that point. Two months ago, Islamic State claimed responsibility for the deadliest strike in Iran in decades, a bombing in the city of Kerman that killed more than 80 people.

• Death Toll Tops 130 as Suspects Detained
• Attack Threatens Putin’s Strongman Image

Foreign direct investment in China continues to fall.

Foreign direct investment in China dropped in the first two months of the year, continuing a fall that started after economic growth plateaued amid a prolonged property downturn and weak domestic demand.

The numbers. China attracted 215.1 billion yuan ($29.88 billion) of foreign direct investment in the first two months of the year, down 19.9% from a year ago, the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday.

• Why China’s Middle Class Is Losing Its Confidence

• The Senate approved a $1.2 trillion package funding federal agencies in the early hours of Saturday morning, missing its midnight deadline but averting a partial government shutdown.
   
• Israeli forces are fighting in a growing number of places in the Gaza Strip that they previously took and withdrew from, showing how Israel is struggling to eliminate Hamas and bring the Palestinian enclave under its control.
   
• The artificial technology boom is fueling an insatiable appetite for electricity, which is creating risks to the grid and the transition to cleaner energy sources.
   
• Young adults in India who came of age on TikTok are still angry at their government for banning the app, providing a case study in what happens when the wildly popular service goes away.
   
• Tehran is pitched its military products, including its new "Gaza" drone, to the international market at an arms fair in Doha this month.
   
• Pakistan’s political and economic turmoil is chipping away at the gains in living standards that families have worked hard to achieve, leaving middle-class people struggling and the poor battling to survive.

• When Republicans won control of the House in November 2022, the big question was whether they would be able to govern with one of the smallest majorities in history. The answer so far is no, at least not by themselves—and that has put their leaders in a perilous bind.
   
• NBC News’s Chuck Todd sharply criticized the news organization over its hiring of former Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, the latest sign of the backlash within the company over the high-profile hire.
   
• The world’s largest, most-important financial market is growing by leaps and bounds. On Wall Street, that is making people nervous.
   
• When a Swedish startup launched a new material made from recycled textiles in late 2022, the fashion industry hailed it as a game changer in its efforts to lessen its environmental impact. Last month, the company, Renewcell, filed for bankruptcy.
   
• Ever since Henry Ford roamed factory floors to improve industrial efficiency a century ago, CEOs have concocted their own schemes to remake the modern company. Bayer Chief Executive Bill Anderson is next in line. His idea: Fewer bosses, fewer rules.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Follow Risk & Compliance editor David Smagalla @DSmagalla_DJ and reporters Mengqi Sun @_MengqiSun, Dylan Tokar @dgtokar and Richard Vanderford @VanderfordRich.

You can reach us by replying to any newsletter, or email David at david.smagalla@wsj.com.