Machines that make one kind of pill often have traces of others — an issue so serious it can jeopardize Olympic dreams — By Anna Edney Brady Ellison, a three-time U.S. Olympic medalist in archery, is going for gold in Tokyo, though he was almost disqualified. Pills he takes for a thyroid condition contained traces of a drug banned by anti-doping authorities. “I had absolutely no clue,” says Ellison, 32.

Dan Purcell — a former victim turned sleuth and enforcer — started a company that helps adult content creators when their content gets stolen — By Amy Thomson and Drake Bennett Dan Purcell’s transformation into a content protection vigilante began several years ago, with a moment of personal reckoning. The Irish computer programmer was living in California when his girlfriend at the time persuaded him to perform live on Chaturbate, a site that hosts adult…

Horacio Gutierrez has done more than almost anyone to push the narrative of the iPhone maker as an abusive monopolist — By Lucas Shaw Horacio Gutierrez made his name in U.S. corporate law two decades ago defending Microsoft Corp. against charges of anticompetitive behavior in the first major antitrust case of the internet age. As the tech industry is once again dominated by talk of monopolies, Gutierrez, now Spotify Technology SA’s…

The orbital economy goes way beyond the dreams of billionaire spacemen — By Ashlee Vance Richard Branson has been to space. Jeff Bezos will soon visit, too. Rich people have done this sort of thing before, but Branson and Bezos didn’t just pay for a ticket — they paid for the spaceships. …

The idea of a government-backed virtual currency has support in policy circles, but Wall Street sees a threat to its consumer-finance dominion — By Christopher Condon Imagine logging on to your own account with the U.S. Federal Reserve. With your laptop or phone, you could zap cash anywhere instantly. There’d be no middlemen, no fees, no waiting for deposits or payments to clear. That vision sums up the appeal of the digital dollar…

Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini are embracing regulation. “We’re playing the long game,” says Cameron Winklevoss — By Katherine Chiglinsky, Olga Kharif and Matthew Leising In the wild world of cryptocurrency exchanges, one strategy never seemed to pay off: embracing regulation. Take Gemini, started by twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. While it was plastering posters in New York subways a few years ago, declaring there was “Finally…

When Covid-19 struck, thousands of federal prisoners were released to home confinement. Now they’re in limbo, fearing the government will soon order them back. — By David Yaffe-Bellany The cafeteria at the federal prison camp in Fairton, N.J., is rarely the site of much celebration. But one afternoon in spring 2020, the room was buzzing. …

Elon Musk won advantages unheard of for Western businesses. Then came the reality check. — By Matthew Campbell Huang Jiaxue, a businessman in Wenzhou in eastern China, was thrilled when he got his Tesla Model 3 late last year. The car was good-looking, environmentally friendly, and even domestically built, having rolled off the line at California-based Tesla Inc.’s vast factory in Shanghai. But in May…

The company won’t change its ways without adopting new measures of success — By Sarah Frier Facebook Inc.’s critics have long pleaded with the company to revise its data-mining business model, tweak its algorithm to prevent misinformation and hate speech from going viral, and stop its practice of copying and acquiring competitors. But its investors have consistently delivered a different message: Keep up…