it is accusing the tech giant of monopolising the smartphone market. apple denies the claims and has vowed to fight the lawsuit. it is the third time the company has been sued by thejustice department since 2009. the bbc�*s michelle fleury has more from new york. more than a billion of us around the world own an iphone. for many people, it's almost unthinkable that they would use any other sort. for me, apple works a little bit better than android. i have had an android before. it didn't do too well with me. it's just what my parents always got me and it'sjust like, easy to stick with it. but i've never really| looked into anything else, which is the main reason why i've never switched. - i think having an iphone is i practical because like i have, like the rest of my- family also has iphones. and so it's they're i just very compatible. all of which makes it one of the most successful companies. last year, sales ofjust the iphone

made it more than £150 billion in revenues. and that much profit, as well as so many customers, tends to attract the attention of government officials. and now the us department ofjustice, along with 16 different states, has filed a lawsuit against apple. has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market not simply by staying ahead of the competition saying in a statement this lawsuit threatens who we're in the principles that set apple products apart. it is successful it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from apple. we believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts on the law and will vigorously defend against it. leaving apple and the us government for a lengthy argument in court over whether the tech giant is protecting its customers or making it difficult for them to leave. even very popular companies

that make stuff that we care about have to compete for that loyalty that we have and that apple isn't doing that. and i think this is the last in four major lawsuits that we're seeing against american tech companies. and it is a deliberate attempt to kind of reinvigorate antitrust law enforcement in america. apple argues this case will hurt its ability to create the kind of technology people have come to expect from it. a court will now decide. michelle fleury, bbc news, new york. let's bring in maribel lopez. thank you so much forjoining us on the programme today. what do you make of this lawsuit? is not the first time apple has been sued. do you think the doj can actually win this? the been sued. do you think the d0] can actually win this?— can actually win this? the d0] is treading — can actually win this? the d0] is treading over _ can actually win this? the d0] is treading over the _ can actually win this? the d0] is treading over the same - is treading over the same ground they've treaded over the past. there's nothing really new in this lawsuit. can the doj when it? it's hard to prove antitrust when apple doesn't own more than 55 or 60% of the market. one would argue it's

much closer to 50. how are they in an antitrust position when there's so many more smartphones are out there there resumes in the past? but i think were really seeing is the department ofjustice think were really seeing is the department of justice saying hey, we've been hard on national come companies, against tiktok in the sale request and our initial we can be hard on all us companies that we think also have unfair advantages. that we think also have unfair advantages-_ that we think also have unfair advantages. that's interesting because the — advantages. that's interesting because the us _ advantages. that's interesting because the us government . advantages. that's interesting i because the us government has been going off the hallway, apples rival. how would you differentiate monopolising the market versus being just a very successful company? i think they have to prove - successful company? i think they have to prove that - successful company? i think| they have to prove that there is active blocking at every point they made in terms of the imessage, though wallet. applicant part two alternatives

on all of those. and whether or not those alternatives are fully optimised to work in the apple environment. the answer to that is, no. people going over to the android environment, things are optimised to work with android and not iris devices. i don't see how they're going to be able to prove that re—optimizing as apple, my product from a user is antitrust. what they're going on is blocking. they're trying to prove things like imessage has degraded features for the apple essay we have things like rcs universal profile which makes it better for cross—platform messages. it will be a very heated battle but it really that do] will be a very heated battle but it really that d0] will have to step up what they say is antitrust. it's not a case we can say 895% of smartphones in the us are apple smartphones. in the us are apple smarthones. �* ,, smartphones. apple has said that this will— smartphones. apple has said that this will make _ smartphones. apple has said that this will make it - smartphones. apple has said that this will make it very - that this will make it very difficult for the company to

come up with tech cutting—edge technology do you agree with that and do you expect the lawsuit to have a wider impact on the tech industry? fine on the tech industry? one thin , on the tech industry? one thing. the _ on the tech industry? one thing. the doj _ on the tech industry? one thing, the d0] is - on the tech industry? one thing, the d0] is saying i thing, the d0] is saying they're not negated. if you look at the reason vision pro announcement you could say that's a faulty accusation on half of the gfj for the the second whether apple can innovate on the same level if they are forced to try to optimise for everyone, that's optimising for the mediocre experience and not the winning experience. that is core to apples values. they want to build the best users and seamless user for that that's very difficult to do if you try to make it work on an version of an android phone, for example. thank you forjoining us today. reddit has ended its first day of trading

in new york up 48%. investors have been drawn to backing the social media platform, despite it having never turned an annual profit since launching in 2005. reddit said it plans to diversify its revenue streams and invest in artificial intelligence. we're just getting some figures in now. japan's inflation is up 2.8%, around what experts projected. this week, its central bank raised interest rates for the first time in 17 years. the bank ofjapan abandoned its negative rates policy, which has been in place since 2016, as inflation finally rears its head in the country. japan didn't get inflation because of stronger domestic demand or wage growth, it got better inflation because energy and food prices picked up. the

hope is now that that will stick, that will shake japan out of the stagnation and leave it with enough escape velocity to sustain inflation domestically were seeing signs of that happening, very positive result for the wage negotiations. we do not yet have a guarantee that this will actually translate into better economy wide wage gains a better economy wide consumption, which is really what that doj needs to tighten interest rates, to raise interest rates, to raise interest rates, to raise interest rates further. you mentioned _ interest rates further. you mentioned wages. - interest rates further. you mentioned wages. salaries in japan have been somewhat flat for almost three decades now. we're starting to see big companies raising salaries. what about smaller companies? the shorter results showed wage negotiation results that we got last week. they weigh large companies a little bit more. as time goes on that number will

go down because small and medium—size firms will release their results. they are typically not able to quite keep up with the pay games that large firms are getting for their employees with that we need them to keep up with these good pay games that we see in large companies because only then are we going to have certainty that inflation domestically is going to stick. this is all the prerequisite doj needs to see in order to tighten interest rates further. we need to bring smes along, they account for two thirds of output and two thirds of employment. they need to come to the party. india is one of the fastest growing major economies in the world. its minting new millionaires every month. but with growing prosperity ? asia s third largest economy is also battling historic levels of inequality, according to a new report. nikhil inamdar has the details from mumbai. well, this new study from the world inequality lab says income

inequality is at a 100 year high here in india. and the share of wealth of india's top i% at a0.i% is also at its highest historical levels, beating even developed economies such as the us. the paper has been published by noted economists, including thomas piketty, the french nobel laureate. the researchers point blame towards india's income tax system, which might be regressive when viewed from the lens of net wealth, they say. so what can be done? the authors have proposed a super tax of 2% on the net wealth of the wealthiest 167 families in india to fight this inequality. it could yield up to half a percent of national income in revenues, which they say can be used for public investments in health, education and nutrition. the distribution of economic growth in india has significant implications for global inequality dynamics, according to the lab. given india's massive

size and population. let's take a quick look at the markets before we go — wall street's three major stock that is it for this edition of the programme. thank you so much for watching.

hey, i'm zof with the catch up tonight. dodgy fillers in scotland. another rent price increase and snow leopards at chester zoo. our top story — fillers gone wrong. experts are warning that scotland is now the worst country in europe for unqualified beauticians injecting customers with cosmetic treatments. sarma has more on this. health care professionals say that people are coming to harm because there are no laws to stop

anyone from advertising on social media offering treatments like fillers. and in scotland, there is no ban on under 18 getting these treatments. in 2021, it became illegal in england to get botox orfillers under 18. so people from outside of scotland travel there together, cosmetic treatments done under 18 with no questions asked. the scottish government says it's looking at the rules but there's no set date for a change. next to rent prices, where the average cost of rent in the uk has increased by 9% over the past year. this is the highest annual increase since records began in 2015 and this increase is in all parts of the uk. london renters saw increased the most, though, taking the average rent price to two grand a month. time now to leave you with 10 seconds of chester zoo welcoming the first ever snow leopards there.

they said they hope yashin and newborough would have cubs together in the future. i mean, that has to happen. just imagine how adorable the babies would be. and you're all caught up now. see you later.

hello there. and welcome along to sports day. i'm gavin ramjaun. wales got the job done

against finland, but there's one more hurdle before they can seal their spot