Google must sell its Chrome browser to restore competition in the online search market, US prosecutors have argued.

The proposed breakup has been floated in a 23-page document filed by the US Justice Department.

It also calls for lawmakers to impose restrictions designed to prevent its Android smartphone software from favouring its own search engine.

If the rules were brought in, it would essentially result in Google being highly regulated for 10 years.

Google controls about 90% of the online search market and 95% on smartphones.

Read more:
School smartphone ban will not become law after MP drops proposal
Grieving parents tell Ofcom to ‘step up’ over social media content

Court papers filed on Wednesday expand on an earlier outline for what prosecutors argued would dilute that monopoly.

Google called the proposals radical at the time, saying they would harm US consumers and businesses and shake American competitiveness in AI.

The company has said it will appeal.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and a coalition of states want US District Judge Amit Mehta to end exclusive agreements in which Google pays billions of dollars annually to Apple and other device vendors to be the default search engine on their tablets and smartphones.

Google will have a chance to present its own proposals in December.

A trial on the proposals has been set for April, however President-elect Donald Trump and the DoJ’s next antitrust head could step in.

Donald Trump has chosen TV host Dr Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Celebrity heart surgeon Dr Mehmet Oz rose to prominence working on Oprah Winfrey’s leading daytime television show before getting his own long-running series.

But how has he gone from TV personality to Donald Trump’s choice for overseeing a massive government agency?

The 64-year-old, who started out as Professor of Surgery at Columbia University, became a household name during 13 seasons of The Dr Oz Show, which ran from 2009 to 2022.

He was popular, though his promotion of alternative medicine, faith healing and various paranormal beliefs earned him criticism from a number of medical publications and physicians.

The critics accused him of blurring the lines between medical advice and advertising, failing to make clear to his audience just how closely he worked with the companies he pitched.

Despite the controversy, Dr Oz’s show was a hit and his net worth sat between $100m (£79m) and $315m (£249m) in 2022, according to a federal financial disclosure he filed that year.

Beyond being an Emmy-winning TV show host, he is also an author of New York Times bestsellers, radio talk show host, founder of a national nonprofit to educate teens about healthy habits, and self-styled ambassador for wellness.

He was also a regular Fox News commentator, and a champion of unproven treatments for COVID including hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug whose use against the disease was also backed by Trump.

He became a fierce critic of Joe Biden’s government during the COVID pandemic, challenging its policies on social media.

Moving into politics

Dr Oz played a lesser part in the first Trump administration from 2016, when he was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition.

But it was in 2022, after his show concluded, when Dr Oz really transitioned into politics by running for US Senate as a Republican in Pennsylvania.

The campaign leaned heavily into his celebrity status, with his campaign logo almost identical to his TV show logo.

During his campaign rallies, he would talk up his “number one health show in the world,” give the odd piece of medical advice to supporters and spend a lengthy amount of time signing autographs and posing for photos.

Following a court battle that went all the way to the US Supreme Court, Dr Oz narrowly won the primary over Dave McCormick by 951 votes, becoming the Republican candidate, but lost to Democrat John Fetterman in the general election.

His relationship with Trump

The surgeon has had a long, personal relationship with the president-elect spanning back to the early 2000s.

He said in an interview during his Senate campaign that the pair first met in 2004 or 2005, when Dr Oz asked Mr Trump to use his golf course for an event for his children’s charity.

Mr Trump agreed and, after that, they saw each other intermittently at social events before Dr Oz interviewed him about his health during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Mr Trump appeared on his show, where he also said his wife Melania was “a big fan” of the doctor.

The pair then worked together when Mr Trump won the election and put Dr Oz on the President’s Council.

Then in 2022, Mr Trump was integral to Dr Oz’s push for Senate, giving him his eagerly sought-after endorsement.

Read more:
Who does Trump want in his top team?
Trump and Musk watch shaky rocket launch

“Women, in particular, are drawn to Dr Oz for his advice and counsel. I have seen this many times over the years. They know him, believe in him, and trust him,” Mr Trump said when he first backed him.

“You know when you’re in television for 18 years, that’s like a poll,” added the billionaire, who himself starred on 14 seasons of The Apprentice US.

“That means people like you.”

What will his role be?

If confirmed by the Senate to take the role, Dr Oz would oversee Medicare, Medicaid, children’s health insurance and the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare”.

The programmes cover more than 160 million people, from new-borns to nursing home residents.

CMS also plays a central role in the nation’s $4.5trn health care economy, setting payment rates for hospitals, doctors, labs and other service providers.

“Dr Oz will be a leader in incentivising disease prevention, so we get the best results in the world for every dollar we spend on healthcare in our great country,” the president-elect said in a statement.

“He will also cut waste and fraud within our country’s most expensive government agency, which is a third of our nation’s healthcare spend, and a quarter of our entire national budget.”

Dr Oz said he was “honoured” to be nominated for the role and looked forward to “serving my country to Make America Healthy Again”.

He, like all of Mr Trump’s picks, must be questioned by members of the Senate before it votes on his appointment. Even with the Republicans in control, some of the picks could be blocked.

Alec Baldwin’s Western film Rust has premiered at a festival in Poland, three years after the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set.

The movie debuted at the Camerimage Festival in Poland, an event focusing on achievements in cinematography, to an audience of a few hundred – a more low-key affair than the typical fanfare of Hollywood releases.

Director Joel Souza, who was wounded in the shooting, said he hoped the completed film would now be a tribute to Ms Hutchins – who died after a prop gun held by Baldwin went off during filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in October 2021.

Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter and went on trial in July – but the case was dismissed in dramatic fashion during the hearing after the prosecution was accused of concealing ammunition evidence.

The star did not attend the premiere in Poland.

Speaking beforehand, Souza said it “wasn’t an easy decision by any means” to continue the film after Hutchins’s death, “but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work”.

The church scene they were working on when Hutchins was shot has gone from the film, he said.

“It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”

Cinematographer’s mother criticises Baldwin

Bianca Cline, the cinematographer who completed the film, also attended the event.

Ms Hutchins’s mother Olga Solovey, who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin, did not attend and criticised the star for allegedly “unjustly” profiting from the tragedy.

In a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred, she said she had always hoped to watch her daughter’s “work come alive on screen” alongside her.

However, this opportunity was “ripped away”, she said.

Ms Solovey said Baldwin had not apologised to her and that her pain was increased by his “refusal to take responsibility”. She said there had been “no justice” for her daughter.

Read more:
Fans warned not to sing along to Wicked
Dictionary’s word of the year revealed

Rust’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez, who was in charge of weapons on the set, was jailed for 18 months earlier this year, after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter during a trial separate to Baldwin’s. She is appealing the sentence.

Rust is billed as the story of a 13-year-old boy who, left to fend for himself and his younger brother following their parents’ deaths in 1880s Wyoming, goes on the run with his long-estranged grandfather after being sentenced to hang for the accidental killing of a local rancher.

The Polish festival’s ticketing website reportedly crashed on Tuesday morning due to high demand for tickets to the world premiere.