Good morning. Russia’s seizure of billions of dollars worth of foreign-owned planes has set off the biggest-ever brawl in the normally staid business of aircraft insurance.

• Insurer pushback: Some of the world’s biggest insurers are fighting back against claims by the aircraft’s owners. The insurers say the owners should have done more to grab planes before they were seized. And they are arguing in court filings that the U.S.’s support for Ukraine means that it is, in effect, at war with Russia. That would void some claims.
   
• What’s at stake: Billions of dollars, more than 400 planes, and hundreds of millions in legal costs. The legal fight, sprawling over two continents and dozens of companies, will likely affect coverage for future conflicts, analysts and lawyers said.
   
• Departures canceled: The planes, mostly Airbus and Boeing commercial jets leased to both Russian and foreign airlines, were worth more than $10 billion when they were stranded in Russia following its invasion of Ukraine just over two years ago.
   
• Big questions remain: Lawyers are still haggling over the most basic questions about who should pay. Is there any chance the jets could be returned to their owners? Were the planes stolen by the Russian airlines or seized by the state? Have the jets been so poorly maintained or so badly damaged that they are worthless?

Apple faces legal protest from Meta, Microsoft, X and Match.

Meta Platforms, Microsoft, X and Match Group filed a legal petition protesting Apple’s app store policies, objecting to how the tech giant has complied with a federal court ruling that ordered Apple to allow alternative payment methods.

The context: The briefing underscores the extent to which Apple’s rivals and other technology players intend to continue fighting to force the iPhone maker to loosen its tight controls over third-party software. Apple charges up to a 30% commission for purchases in the app store for services or one-time fees, a rate that developers say is too high.

Google fined roughly $270 million in France over dispute with news publishers.

France’s competition watchdog fined Google 250 million euros ($271.7 million), saying the search giant breached some commitments it made to negotiate fair license deals with an array of news publishers in the country.

The Alphabet unit has for years been in the cross hairs of the French competition authority over how it uses news publishers’ content in its search results and, in 2022, Google made binding commitments to negotiate license deals fairly, including a pledge to give publishers estimates of indirect revenue it generates when including news content in its search results.

• TKO Group Holdings has struck a deal to pay $335 million to settle a pair of class-action lawsuits filed by former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters over pay.
   
• A Europe-based trade group Tuesday asked regulators to intervene in pricing and business model changes made by Broadcom to VMware, a cloud-computing and virtualization company it acquired late last year.
   
• Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust reached a settlement with bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global that would return digital currencies now worth around $2 billion to roughly 232,000 Gemini customers whose assets were frozen by Genesis in late 2022, according to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy (subscription required). 
   
• A physicist who shot to fame with claims of the discovery of a room-temperature superconductor engaged in research misconduct, a committee tapped to examine his work has concluded after a monthslong investigation.
   
• It’s already been a rough 2024 for the organization tasked with rooting out sexual misconduct in sports in the United States.

Fed officials still see three interest-rate cuts this year.

The stock market rose to new highs Wednesday when a narrow majority of Federal Reserve officials reaffirmed projections to cut interest rates three times this year despite firmer-than-anticipated inflation in recent months.

Unchanged outlook: While the latest data hadn’t given officials the confidence they would need to begin rate cuts, Chair Jerome Powell said his outlook for inflation to continue declining hadn’t changed substantially in recent weeks. Projections were little changed from December and showed most of his colleagues expect two or three cuts this year.

Why Ben & Jerry’s will keep its progressive politics after Unilever divorce.

When Unilever won a bidding war for Ben & Jerry’s in 2000, its ownership of the progressive purveyor of whimsically named ice creams was seen as a coup. Now it plans to unload the brand, putting an end to one of the corporate world’s more unusual and torturous partnerships.

Culture war casualty: The move will relieve Unilever of what has been a weak-performing division in recent years. It will also rid Unilever of a brand that has taken its parent company on a number of unwelcome detours into the culture wars in recent years.

• Chinese nationalists have unleashed a wave of online attacks targeting China’s richest man, accusing him of being insufficiently patriotic and denting his business, a reminder of the risks facing entrepreneurs despite Beijing’s efforts to restore confidence among private investors.
   
• Companies are ramping up oversight of suppliers after major supply-chain cyberattacks have affected thousands of businesses and breached data on millions of customers.
   
• The European Central Bank will be able to lower its key interest rate in June if forthcoming data on inflation and wages comes in line with its projections, President Christine Lagarde said Wednesday.
   
• China’s youth unemployment rate rose in February, another data point signaling weakness in the country’s economic recovery.

• The U.S. Justice Department is considering whether to allow Julian Assange to plead guilty to a reduced charge of mishandling classified information, according to people familiar with the matter.
   
• The Biden administration enacted the strictest-ever rules for tailpipe emissions but also handed the auto industry a significant concession by giving them more time to comply.
   
• The U.S. government is granting Intel up to $8.5 billion to help fund new chip plants in four states.
   
• Legal turmoil over a Texas plan to arrest and deport migrants left state and border residents mired in confusion this week over whether the law would be allowed to take effect.
   
• Steward Health Care had gone on a dealmaking spree involving a big hospital landlord and a private-equity firm, but now the operator of 31 hospitals in eight states is in a deep cash crunch.

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