Vivendi SA’s plans for Telecom Italia SpA haven’t quite been dealt a sucker punch by Italian regulators. But they – and billionaire Vincent Bollore, who controls the firm – certainly received a blow. The focus should now shift to the carrier’s underlying business, and it needs to do so soon. The communications regulator said the plan, proposed by then-CEO Amos ...

This week, France’s data-protection regulator demanded that Google pay a record fine for violating Europe’s expansive new privacy rules. The tab? About $57 million. The purpose? Hmm. In its ruling, the regulator alleged that Google fails to adequately explain how it collects data to offer personalised advertising. Some information is “excessively disseminated” across different documents. Some requires more than one ...

At the moment, despite strong competition from the US, Britain leads the industrialised world in political breakdown. Prime Minister Theresa May’s plan for Brexit has been crushingly rejected by the House of Commons yet the government plods on robotically. As May explained: One, she has heard what Parliament just said and respects it; two, her deal with Europe is the ...