New York Times

Britain’s culture secretary said that 21st Century Fox should be allowed to bid for control of the satellite broadcaster Sky -- as long as Fox sells 24-hour news channel Sky News. The news from Britain sets up a potential bidding war with Comcast for a jewel of Europe’s media industry. The decision by the culture secretary, Matt Hancock, ends months of uncertainty over whether the British government would block Rupert Murdoch’s efforts to buy the 61 percent of Sky that his company does not already own.

For nearly a year, the denials from President Trump’s lawyers and spokeswoman were unequivocal. No, the president did not dictate a misleading statement released in his son’s name. But in a confidential, hand-delivered memo to the special counsel, Trump’s lawyers acknowledged that, yes, President Trump had dictated the statement, which attempted to deflect questions about a meeting with a Kremlin-tied lawyer at Trump Tower.

As Facebook sought to become the world’s dominant social media service, it struck agreements allowing phone and other device makers access to vast amounts of its users’ personal information. Facebook has reached data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 device makers — including Apple, Amazon, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung — over the last decade, starting before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, company officials said.

Forget Google versus Facebook. Forget Uber versus Lyft. Forget Amazon versus … well, everybody. The technology world’s most bruising battle for supremacy is taking place in China. And it could point to Big Tech’s future everywhere else, too.

[Commentary] In 2017, I predicted the government’s case to block the merger of AT&T and Time Warner would most likely be the antitrust case of the decade.

From Washington to Texas to California, politicians are road-testing their political messaging strategies, searching for the best way to reach voters in ways that often bypass the traditional media gatekeepers. These media methods have obvious appeal: Politicians can appear accessible but remain insulated from the press. They are also not altogether new. President Donald Trump eschewed traditional television advertising during the 2016 campaign and can now overshadow even his own party’s message at the drop of a tweet. And many politicians have long made a practice of ducking reporters.