New York Times

The UK's Ofcom will be put in charge of regulating the internet, the government has announced, with a new range of powers intended to protect users from “harmful and illegal content” online. The regulations are broadly focused on two new sets of requirements. One, around illegal content, will see platforms hit with new targets to ensure that such content is removed quickly, ideally prevented from being posted in the first place, with a particular focus on terrorist and child sexual abuse content.

Although T-Mobile and Sprint still have one last hurdle to clear (the California Public Utilities Commission, which is still reviewing the merger), the companies will try to close the deal as early as April 1, creating a supersize carrier (called, wait for it, T-Mobile) with more than 100 million customers. When (or if) the deal closes, T-Mobile customers will remain with the service. It is unclear what, if anything, will change for them. For Sprint customers, it’s a little more complicated. The majority will transfer to T-Mobile plans as the brand is absorbed.

Judge Victor Marrero of the United States District Court in Manhattan ruled in favor of T-Mobile’s takeover of Sprint in a deal that would further concentrate corporate ownership of technology, combining the nation’s third- and fourth-largest wireless carriers and creating a new telecommunications giant to take on AT&T and Verizon. The decision concluded an unusual suit filed in June by attorneys general from 13 states and the District of Columbia. The challenge was brought after regulators at the Department of Justice and Federal Communications Commission approved the deal.