Huawei

Special Report: For months, Australia warned the United States about the destructive capacity of 5G technology. Now, America is aggressively campaigning against Chinese telecom champion Huawei, fearful that Beijing’s domination of 5G could be used for espionage and sabotage.

The United States has temporarily eased trade restrictions on China’s Huawei to minimize disruption for its customers, a move the founder of the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker said meant little because it was already prepared for U.S. action. On Monday, the Commerce Department granted Huawei a license to buy U.S. goods until Aug. 19 to maintain existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones. The Chinese company is still prohibited from buying American-made hardware and software to make new products without hard-to-obtain licenses.

Highlights

President Trump warned Iran would be met with “great force” if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle East, and government sources said Washington strongly suspects Shi’ite militias with ties to Tehran were behind a rocket attack in Baghdad’s Green Zone. “I think Iran would be making a very big mistake if they did anything,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. “If they do something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that they will.”

A U.S. judge ruled in favor of a U.S. House of Representatives committee seeking Trump’s financial records from his accounting firm, dealing an early setback to the Trump administration in its legal battle with Congress. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington also denied a request by Trump to stay his decision pending an appeal.

Foreign investors remained enthusiastic about China, the foreign ministry said, following Trump’s claim that his tariffs are causing companies to move production away from the world’s second largest economy. No further trade talks between top Chinese and U.S. trade negotiators have been scheduled since the last round ended on May 10 - the same day Trump raised the tariff rate on $200 billion worth of Chinese products to 25% from 10%.

After two years of breakneck growth, property markets in provincial cities like Zhengzhou finally reached a turning point in late 2018. That has presented a policy challenge for the Chinese government, which has been attempting to spread wealth beyond the country’s rich coastal regions to the interior.

Austrian motor racing great and three-times Formula One champion Niki Lauda, who survived fiery crash, dies at 70 https://reut.rs/2HFkSZk

4:50 AM - May 21, 2019

World

In Emmanuel Macron’s hometown of Amiens, it’s hard to find enthusiasm for either the French president or the European Union, less than a week before European parliament elections. Blue-collar workers on its outskirts are tempted by protest votes, while a disillusioned, conservative middle-class in its pretty center is contemplating other right-leaning candidates or not even voting at all, spelling bad news for the president in his battle against the far-right.

Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Bodo Ramelow, premier of the eastern state of Thuringia, thinks it might be time for a new national anthem for a reunited Germany. The proposal is radical, but with most of the former East Germany voting in regional elections this year that will test Chancellor Angela Merkel’s fractious coalition, the eastern Germans’ feelings are uppermost in many politicians’ minds.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo comfortably won re-election in last month’s poll, an official count showed, throwing the spotlight on his opponent Prabowo Subianto who has refused to concede defeat after claiming widespread cheating. The General Election Commission confirmed counts issued by private pollsters that showed incumbent Widodo won the April 17 election by 11 percentage points. Independent observers and analysts have said the poll was free and fair, but Prabowo and his campaign team have alleged “massive cheating and irregularities” during the vote and vote-counting. Here is a look at how a dispute over Indonesia's election is likely to unfold.

An international trade fair in North Korea this week may be the largest such event on record, analysts said, with hundreds of Chinese and other foreign vendors taking part despite sanctions pressure. The 22nd Pyongyang Spring International Trade Fair opened on Monday with a ceremony hosted by top economic officials, North Korean state news agency KCNA reported. More than 450 companies from North Korea, China, Russia, Pakistan, Poland and “other countries and regions” showcased a range of products at the fair, KCNA said.

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