US senators vow action after briefing on Chinese Salt Typhoon telecom hacking

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WASHINGTON — U.S. government agencies held a classified briefing for all senators on Wednesday on China’s alleged efforts known as Salt Typhoon to burrow deep into American telecommunications companies and steal data about U.S. calls.  The FBI, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, Federal Communications Commission Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, the National Security Council and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were among the participants in the closed-door briefing, officials told Reuters.   Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told reporters after the briefing he was working to draft legislation on this issue, while Senator Bob Casey said he had “great concern” about the breachmore

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From VOA Mandarin: Biden hits hard at China’s AI; Trump may pound harder

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The Biden administration issued what is likely its final set of export control rules against Beijing earlier this week. The rules forbid companies from exporting an important chip component crucial for training artificial intelligence to China. Experts say it will further constrain the Chinese supply chain for AI. They also expect the next Trump administration to further expand Washington’s strategic tech blockade against China in a more assertive way.  See the full story here.    …

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Australia urges greater internet user choice amid Google dominance, genAI

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Australia’s competition watchdog said there was a need to revisit efforts to ensure greater choice for internet users, citing Google’s dominant search engine market share and its competitors’ failure to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. A report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said that while the integration of generative AI tools into search engines is still nascent, Big Tech’s deep pockets and dominant presence give it an upper hand. The commission said it was concerned Google and Microsoft could integrate generative AI into their search offerings, including through commercial deals, which raises concerns about the accuracy andmore

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China bans exports to US of gallium, germanium, antimony in response to chip sanctions

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Bangkok — China announced Tuesday it is banning exports to the United States of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications, as a general principle, lashing back at U.S. limits on semiconductor-related exports.   The Chinese Commerce Ministry announced the move after Washington expanded its list of Chinese companies subject to export controls on computer chip-making equipment, software and high-bandwidth memory chips. Such chips are needed for advanced applications.   The ratcheting up of trade restrictions comes as President-elect Donald Trump has been threatening to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China and other countries, potentiallymore

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Airlines not switching quickly enough to green jet fuel, study says

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Most of the world’s airlines are not doing enough to switch to sustainable jet fuel, according to a study by Brussels-based advocacy group Transport and Environment, which also found too little investment by oil producers in the transition. The airline sector is calling for more production of the fuel, which can be made from materials such as wood chips and used cooking oil. “Unfortunately, airlines at the moment are not on the trajectory to have meaningful emissions reduction because they’re not buying enough sustainable aviation fuel,” Transport and Environment aviation policy manager Francesco Catte said. As it stands, SAF makesmore

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US unveils fresh export curbs targeting China’s chip sector

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Washington — The United States announced new export restrictions Monday taking aim at China’s ability to make advanced semiconductors — used in weapon systems and artificial intelligence  as competition intensifies between the world’s two biggest economies.   “The United States has taken significant steps to protect our technology from being used by our adversaries in ways that threaten our national security,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in a statement.   He added that Washington will keep working with allies and partners to “to proactively and aggressively safeguard our world-leading technologies and know-how.”   The latest rules include amore

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Interpol clamps down on cybercrime, arrests 1,006 suspects in Africa

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DAKAR, SENEGAL — Interpol arrested 1,006 suspects in Africa during a massive two-month operation, clamping down on cybercrime that left tens of thousands of victims, including some who were trafficked, and produced millions in financial damages, the global police organization said Tuesday. Operation Serengeti, a joint operation with Afripol, the African Union’s police agency, ran from September 2 to October 31 in 19 African countries and targeted criminals behind ransomware, business email compromise, digital extortion and online scams, the agency said in a statement. “From multi-level marketing scams to credit card fraud on an industrial scale, the increasing volume and sophisticationmore

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Foreign smartphone sales in China drop 44% in October, data show

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New data released Wednesday from a Chinese government-affiliated research firm showed sales of foreign-branded smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone, fell 44.25% year-on-year in China in October, while overall phone sales in China have increased 1.8%, Reuters reported. The data released by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology revealed sales of foreign-branded phones in China decreased to 6.22 million units last month, down from 11.149 million units a year earlier. The decrease of foreign phone sales comes in the wake of Chinese tech conglomerate Huawei’s rise to the top of the phone market in China. Huawei was widely popular inmore

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Microsoft faces antitrust investigation in US

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has opened a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft, including of its software licensing and cloud computing businesses, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The probe was approved by FTC Chair Lina Khan ahead of her likely departure in January. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, and the expectation he will appoint a fellow Republican with a softer approach toward business, leaves the outcome of the investigation up in the air. The FTC is examining allegations the software giant is potentially abusing its market power in productivity software by imposing punitivemore

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Cabinet nominees targeted with threats, Trump spokesperson says

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WASHINGTON — Several of Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees and appointees were targeted with “violent threats,” including bomb threats and “swatting,” a spokesperson for the U.S. president-elect said Wednesday. The threats were made Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, and law enforcement and authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those targeted, spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. Leavitt did not say who was targeted, and she did not elaborate on the nature of the apparent threats. Spokespeople for the FBI and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Leavitt said the attacks “ranged from bomb threatsmore

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Australia’s House of Representatives passes bill that would ban young children from social media

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Australia’s House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban children younger than 16 years old from social media, leaving it to the Senate to finalize the world-first law. The major parties backed the bill that would make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to $33 million for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts. The legislation passed 102 to 13. If the bill becomes law this week, the platforms would have one year to work out how to implement the age restrictions before the penaltiesmore

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 Trump announces picks for economic, health posts

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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced a set of economic advisers he wants to appoint for his administration, including international trade attorney Jamieson Greer as his pick to be the U.S. trade representative. Greer served in Trump’s first administration as the chief of staff to the trade representative, and Trump said Tuesday that Greer played a key role in both imposing tariffs on China and in the creation of a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico. Trump said Kevin Hassett is his choice to lead the White House National Economic Council. Hassett led the Council of Economic Advisers during Trump’smore

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Promise and peril for Southeast Asia in Trump’s tariff talk

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BANGKOK — Southeast Asia could see a new wave of factories moving in from China to evade the soaring tariffs U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has proposed to impose on the world’s second-largest economy, trade experts tell VOA. But the trade surpluses the region has built up with the United States and its heavy use of Chinese inputs for its own exports may blunt the benefits, they add. A number of firms with factories in China, both Chinese and foreign owned, moved their plants to Southeast Asia to skirt the tariffs Trump imposed on the country — as high as 25% onmore

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Google, Meta urge Australia to delay bill on social media ban for children

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SYDNEY — Google and Facebook-owner Meta Platforms urged the Australian government on Tuesday to delay a bill that will ban most forms of social media for children under 16, saying more time was needed to assess its potential impact. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left government wants to pass the bill, which represents some of the toughest controls on children’s social media use imposed by any country, into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday. The bill was introduced in parliament last week and opened for submissions of opinions for only one day. Google and Meta said in theirmore

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Google to build subsea cable linking Australia’s Darwin to Christmas Island

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sydney — Australia’s Indian Ocean territory of Christmas Island will be connected by subsea cable to the northern garrison city of Darwin, a project backed by Alphabet’s Google that Australia says will boost its digital resilience. Christmas Island is 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) west of the Australian mainland, with a small population of 1,250, but strategically located in the Indian Ocean, 350 kilometers (215 miles) from Jakarta. The cable announcement comes as the Australian and U.S. militaries upgrade airfields in Australia’s north, where a rotating force of U.S. Marines will be joined by Japanese troops next year. Google’s vice president ofmore

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Analysis: Trump’s win powered by improved performance across electorate

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Nearly three weeks after the 2024 election, with almost all of the votes counted, it has become clear that Donald Trump won his second term in the White House by orchestrating a nationwide rightward shift in voting patterns that largely persisted across most of the 50 states, whether their electoral votes went to Trump or to his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. The main force behind Trump’s victory was strong support from his base, which is generally made up of white Americans without a college degree. His win would not have been possible, however, had the president-elect not improvedmore

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US farm groups want Trump to spare their workers from deportation

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washington — U.S. farm industry groups want President-elect Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally.  So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan.  Nearly half of the nation’s approximately 2 million farmworkers lack legal status, according to the Labor and Agriculture departments, as well as many dairy and meatpacking workers.  Trump, a Republican, vowed to deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegallymore

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