The US Justice Department indicted two companies based in China and Taiwan and three individuals saying they conspired to steal trade secrets from US semiconductor company Micron relating to its research and development of memory storage devices. Source: Al Jazeera
Information Technology
A Japanese digital currency exchange has been hacked, and 6.7 billion yen ($60 million) worth of cryptocurrencies are gone. Source: The New York Times
Google says it has disabled dozens of YouTube channels and other accounts linked to an Iranian state broadcaster that it said was running a political influence campaign. Source: Radio Free Europe
Google was fined 4.3 billion euros ($5 billion) by the European Union and ordered to change the way it puts search and web browser apps on Android mobile devices, setting a global record for antitrust penalties. Source: Bloomberg
Apple launched a new $100bn share buyback scheme and lifted its dividend by 16 per cent, as it reported a 30 per cent jump in earnings and issued a confident outlook for iPhone sales in spite of concerns of a slowdown. Source: Financial Times
Cheaper Japanese cars and European cheese are on the way as the EU’s trade agreement after the European Commission announced on April 18 that it had cleared the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement with Tokyo. Source: New Europe
Russia’s state communications regulator on Tuesday said it had blocked IP addresses owned by Google and Amazon, saying they were being used by the Telegram messaging service which Moscow moved to ban this week. Source: CNBC
The ambassador was summoned on Monday after the “unacceptable and groundless” comments by Di Maio on Sunday, a source in the cabinet of France’s Europe Minister Natalie Loiseau told AFP on condition of anonymity. Source: France24
Russia has recognized the existence of a cruise missile system that has prompted Washington to say it will quit the 1987 INF disarmament treaty, but has denied that it violates the pact, U.S. officials and NATO diplomats said on Monday. Source: Reuters
Turkey is ready to take over security in Syria’s Manbij, where four U.S. citizens died in an Islamic State-claimed bombing last week, President Tayyip Erdogan told U.S. President Donald Trump in a telephone call on Sunday, the Turkish presidency said. Source: CNBC
The German government on Monday imposed sanctions against Iranian airline Mahan Air in connection to Iran’s illegal activities in Europe, including the discovery of a spy working as a translator for the country’s armed forces . Source: Deutsche Welle
China’s birth rate last year fell to its lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China 70 years ago, official data showed on Monday, with looser population controls failing to encourage couples to have more babies. Source: Reuters
The US has announced a new missile defense policy aimed at addressing the challenges posed by Russia and China, which seeks to displace America in the Indo-Pacific region and has adopted an assertive posture in disputes over territorial boundaries with its neighbours. Source: Economic Times
The Dutch journalist who was expelled from Turkey is suspected of forgery, sources report to Nieuwsuur. Ans Boersma would have falsified her ex-boyfriend’s papers, a Syrian who was recently arrested in the Netherlands for being a member of the terror organization Jabhat al-Nusra. Source: NOS
Vladimir Putin has said that Russia finds the Kosovo authorities’ decision to create their own army regrettable and sees it as another risk of destabilization of the situation in the Balkans.
“Regrettably, Kosovo’s authorities took a series of provocative steps lately, thus greatly aggravating the situation. In the first place I have in mind their decision of December 14 to form a so-called army in Kosovo,” Putin told a news conference. “It goes without saying that this is a direct violation of the UN resolution, which does not allow for the creation of any paramilitary forces except for the international UN contingent.”
“Such irresponsible steps by Kosovo’s authorities may cause destabilization in the Balkans,” he warned. Source: Tass
At a joint press conference in Ankara, Turkish President Erdogan and his Croatian counterpart both agreed that the 1995 agreement which ended the 1992-5 war in Bosnia is not working. Erdogan called on Wednesday for the revision of Bosnia’s 1995 Dayton Agreement in Ankara alongside Croatian President Grabar-Kitarovic who was paying an official visit. Source: Balkan Insight
According to a recent report, the use of the word “family” caused many Google employees to freak out, arguing that the term was homophobic. Source: Breitbart
The pages were linked to employees of Moscow-based Sputnik, Facebook said. In a statement, a spokesperson for Sputnik said Facebook’s decision was “practically censorship.” Source: Bloomberg
he International Monetary Fund said Monday that Italy’s financial situation was among the main risk factors for the global economy. “In Europe the Brexit cliffhanger continues, and the costly spillovers between sovereign and financial risk in Italy remain a threat,” the IMF said in an update of its World Economic Outlook. Source: Ansa
Talks held near the Swedish capital Stockholm on Monday that included representatives from North and South Korea and the United States were constructive, Sweden’s foreign ministry said.
Source: Channel NewsAsia
The bankruptcy of Yukos Oil in Russia will not be recognized in the Netherlands, the Dutch Supreme Court ruled on Friday, upholding a decision in 2017 by a lower appeals court. Source: The Moscow Times
The German government is debating whether to follow the United States and allies such as Australia in restricting China’s Huawei Technologies from accessing its next-generation mobile networks on national-security grounds.
Some Western countries have barred Huawei from their markets after US officials briefed allies that Huawei is at the beck and call of the Chinese state, warning that its network equipment may contain “back doors” that could open them up to cyberespionage. Huawei says such concerns are unfounded. Source: The Irish Time
- The bipartisan bills target firms supposedly in breach of US sanctions, and specifically cite Huawei and ZTE
- Republican Senator Tom Cotton branded Huawei ‘an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party’
The measures would require the US president to ban the export of US components to any Chinese telecommunications company that violates US sanctions or export control laws. Source: South China Morrning Post
Germany and China are working on ways to improve market access for each other’s banks and insurers, the German finance minister said on Thursday, and he welcomed plans by China and the United States to ease trade tensions through talks. Source: Euronews
Nokia is to cut another 350 jobs as part of efforts to achieve annual savings of €700 million by the end of next year. Source: TechRadar
The workforce in 2040 is projected to be 20 percent smaller than in 2017 due to overall population decline if the economy sees no growth and women and the elderly continue to have difficulty landing jobs, according to government study released Tuesday. Source: Japan Times
In 2018, Chinese FDI in the United States fell to just $4.8 billion — a massive decline from $29 billion in 2017 and $46 billion in 2016, according to independent researcher the Rhodium Group. Source: CNBC
German gross domestic product grew 1.5 percent in 2018, compared with 2.2 percent in 2017, the latest data from the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) showed. Source: CNBC
Angela Merkel’s replacement as leader of Germany’s Christian Democrats has criticised the country’s leading environmental organisations for leading “crusades” against diesel cars, as she attempts to put distance between herself and her predecessor. Source: The Guardian
