Washington takes on search, phones and the lab that wrote its own rules.

Facebook’s Libra. Congress should neither strangle Libra nor wave it through, but test whether Facebook will submit to the rules that bind everyone else who handles other people’s money. Read more on Make Libra obey the money rules ›

Microsoft and OpenAI. Microsoft’s $1bn bet on OpenAI is less a punt on thinking machines than a prepaid order for its own cloud, and that makes it a shrewd one Read more on Microsoft’s OpenAI bet is a cloud order ›

Transatlantic data. Europe’s court was right that American surveillance law fails its tests, and Washington should change that law rather than patch up a third doomed deal. Read more on America should change its surveillance law ›

America v Google. The Justice Department’s case against Google is narrower than its critics fear and better aimed than its fans realise, and its target should be the price of the default. Read more on Feeling lucky ›

Salesforce and Slack. Regulators should wave through Salesforce’s $27.7bn purchase of Slack, which adds a serious rival to Microsoft; the price is a matter for Salesforce’s shareholders. Read more on Let Salesforce buy Slack ›

Gitanjali Rao. The interesting thing about TIME’s first Kid of the Year is not her gadgets but the method behind them, which any adult with a budget could copy and few do. Read more on Gitanjali Rao’s method is the lesson ›

America v Facebook. The government has a fair case that Facebook bought a rival it feared, but a break-up is the wrong cure, and its own past clearance of the deals is its weakest point. Read more on Face value ›

Platform power. Twitter and Facebook were within their rights to cut off Donald Trump, but a power this large needs published rules and an appeal, not a decision made on a Friday evening Read more on Deplatforming needs rules and an appeal ›

Amazon’s succession. Jeff Bezos has picked the man who built the firm’s profits, and the choice says more about where Amazon earns its money than about who will run it. Read more on Amazon’s succession follows the money ›

Young retail traders. The GameStop frenzy is told as a morality play about reckless youth, but young traders are neither a mob nor sages, and regulators should look at the app before the user. Read more on Look at the app, not the teenager ›

Australia v Facebook. Australia was right that platforms hold too much power over news, but pricing links is clumsy, and other countries should copy the leverage, not the mechanism. Read more on Copy Australia’s leverage, not its law ›

Privacy and power. Apple’s tracking prompt is good for users and better for Apple, so regulators should insist that the firm lives under the same rule it imposes on everyone else Read more on Apple should obey its own privacy rule ›

Lina Khan at the FTC. Lina Khan is right that antitrust has grown too fond of low prices, but she will do more by winning cases under existing law than by rewriting it. Read more on Lina Khan should enforce the law first ›

Epic v Apple. Judge Gonzalez Rogers was right to clear Apple of monopoly and to let developers steer customers elsewhere, which does more for competition than a monopoly ruling would have. Read more on Steering committee ›

The Digital Markets Act. Europe’s new rulebook for tech gatekeepers is right to demand choice, but it should stop short of dictating how rival products are built. Read more on Europe should demand choice, not designs ›

Broadcom and VMware. Broadcom’s $61bn price for VMware is hard to earn back without raising bills, so regulators should ask whether customers can walk away. Read more on VMware’s customers will pay for Broadcom ›

Twitter and Elon Musk. Mr Musk has paid full price for a loss-making firm whose customers can leave at will, and no change of ownership will fix that. Read more on No owner can fix Twitter’s business ›

America v Microsoft. The FTC is right to worry about a console maker hoarding games, but a binding promise to share Call of Duty is a better remedy than a ban on the deal. Read more on Make Microsoft share Call of Duty ›

America v Google, again. The Justice Department is right that Google should not run both the auction and the biggest bidders in it, and a break-up of the ad exchange is the remedy to press. Read more on Break up Google’s ad exchange ›

Meta’s year of efficiency. Investors have rewarded Meta for spending less, which is sensible, but efficiency is a means and the firm has yet to say what it is for. Read more on Meta’s efficiency still lacks a purpose ›

America v Amazon. The government’s case against Amazon is strongest where it targets the penalty for cheap prices elsewhere, and weakest where it treats a popular service as a crime. Read more on Prime suspect ›

OpenAI’s governance. OpenAI’s board did what it was built to do and lost within five days, which shows that competition and the law, not a charity, must steer the lab. Read more on A charity cannot steer OpenAI ›

Epic v Google. A jury has found that Google rigged Android’s app market, and the right remedy is more competition for the Play Store, not a court-drawn design for the phone. Read more on Open the Play Store to rivals ›

Microsoft’s market value. Investors have priced Microsoft as the winner of the AI race, yet the prize still depends on customers paying $30 a month for a chatbot. Read more on Microsoft’s valuation rests on a chatbot ›

Acqui-hires and merger review. Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection’s leaders and staff should be reviewed as the merger it resembles, because a deal that moves a company’s people but not its shares is still a deal Read more on Review acqui-hires as mergers ›

America v Apple. The Justice Department’s suit is strongest where Apple’s gatekeeping protects its services profits, and it should resist the temptation to ask a court to design the iPhone. Read more on Target Apple’s tolls, not its phone ›

Alphabet’s capital return. Alphabet’s first dividend says less about a maturing firm than about a cash pile that outgrew its owner’s ideas for it. Read more on Alphabet’s cash outgrew its ideas ›

Alexandr Wang. Scale AI’s founder built a billion-dollar firm on the unglamorous fact that machine intelligence needs human labour, and its next test is whether that remains true. Read more on Scale AI runs on human labour ›

The CrowdStrike outage. The CrowdStrike outage shows that firms with deep access to everyone’s computers should be regulated as infrastructure, with staged updates and liability, not as vendors who can disclaim everything. Read more on Blue screen of debt ›

Teen spending. Piper Sandler’s teen survey shows a generation whose tastes are remarkably stable, and investors who read every wobble in it as a trend should be more sceptical of the headline numbers. Read more on Teenage tastes barely change ›

Finfluencers. Regulators are right to pursue finfluencers, but the better target is the firm that pays them, because the young investor’s trust is real and will outlast any single prosecution. Read more on Pursue the firms that pay finfluencers ›

America v Google. Judge Mehta was right to leave Google its browser and phone software, and America should now make the data-sharing order work rather than appeal for a break-up. Read more on Spare the Chrome ›