Stories from Abroad

Bowing to White House demands, Republican Senators have backed off their attempt to reimpose US sanctions on the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE. The retreat means ZTE, a company found guilty of selling US goods to Iran in violation of sanctions, will duck Commerce Department penalties that bar US companies from doing business with it. Chinese officials said those penalties would effectively put ZTE out of business.

Increasingly, African governments are looking at the internet as a threat and are using a motley of targeted shutdowns, surveillance, and arbitrary legislation to silence digital users. In the world’s least connected continent, dictators—and some democrats—are realizing they not only need the batons or bullets to stave off criticism but could also power off live feeds to undermine the vibrant conversations taking place online.

Even before the ink could dry on Europe’s record €4.3 billion ($5 billion) antitrust fine against Google, clashing interpretations rushed into the Brussels-created fray. The financial penalty would change everything for Google and Silicon Valley’s other tech giants — it was a European attack on a “great” American company, according to a tweet from President Donald Trump. Or it would change nothing. As usual, the reality is somewhere in between.

Project Loon, the Internet-delivering balloon system that grew out of Alphabet's Project X division, has announced its first commercial deal. Apparently, the recent Project X graduates will partner with Telkom Kenya to increase connectivity in the country. “Connectivity is critical. If you are not online, you are left out,” said Joe Mucheru, Kenya's information, communication, and technology minister.

President Donald Trump attacked the European Union for fining Google $5 billion for harming its competitors, tweeting that the incident proved the regional bloc has “taken advantage of the U.S., but not for long!” To President Trump, the fine appeared to serve as the latest evidence of Europe’s exploitation of the United States on a variety of matters, including trade and nations’ contributions to defense spending, and it came a day after he threatened “tremendous retribution,” particularly on European-made cars, if the EU doesn’t change its trade policies. The EU’s penalty stood in stark c

The cable and broadband giant Comcast said it was abandoning its bid to acquire a major chunk of 21st Century Fox but would continue its push to win control of the British satellite broadcaster Sky, a move that appeared to end a complex bidding war for Rupert Murdoch’s media company.

President Donald Trump lashed out anew at the news media, suggesting that reporters are slanting their coverage of his relationship with Russian President Vladi­mir Putin with the aim of provoking a possible war. “The Fake News Media wants so badly to see a major confrontation with Russia, even a confrontation that could lead to war,” the president wrote amid a series of morning tweets.

complying with the European Commission’s demand to loosen up requirements for handset makers to pre-install Google’s apps on their phones has the potential to raise the costs that have already been acting as a counterweight to the profit margins for Google’s lucrative search business. For example, the company pays Apple an undisclosed-yet-sizable sum to direct search traffic from its mobile Safari browser.

The European Commission has hit Google with a €4.3 billion (~$5.6 billion) fine, imposing a record penalty on the US group for abusing its dominant position in the Android operating system for mobile phones. The decision takes aim at a core part of Google’s business strategy over the past decade, outlawing restrictions on its Android operating system that allegedly entrenched Google’s dominance in online search at a time when consumers were moving from desktop to mobile devices. The commission found that Google had used illegal “tying” methods to force phonemakers to pre-install Google serv

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced new charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers accused of hacking the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton presidential campaign, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Rosenstein said the Russians involved belonged to the military intelligence service GRU. They are accused of a sustained cyberattack against Democratic party targets, including its campaign committee and Hillary Clinton's campaign.