Tag: United States Politics and Government

Biden Plans to Harden Protection Against Cybersecurity Threats to Ports

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President Biden is expected to sign an executive order on Wednesday that will strengthen the government’s ability to respond to maritime cybersecurity threats, amid heightened concerns that China could seek to hobble crucial infrastructure systems within the United States. Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, previewed the executive order for reporters on Tuesday evening, saying it would broaden the powers of the Department of Homeland Security. She said that the order would also allow the U.S. Coast Guard to outline rules for establishing minimum…

U.S. Disrupts Hacking Operation Led by Russian Intelligence

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The F.B.I., working with other countries, disrupted a Russian hacking operation that infiltrated more than 1,000 home and small-business internet routers in the United States and around the world, the Justice Department announced on Thursday. Russian intelligence, collaborating with cybercriminals, created a botnet, or a network of private computers infected with malicious software, to spy on military and security organizations and private corporations in countries like the United States. Using a court order, the F.B.I. secretly copied and deleted stolen data and malware from hacked routers. Doing this stopped Russia’s…

Biden’s First TikTok Post Jokes About Super Bowl Conspiracy Theory

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Did President Biden cunningly rig the Super Bowl so the Kansas City Chiefs would win? “I’d get in trouble if I told you,” Mr. Biden joked in his campaign’s inaugural post on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media platform that has 170 million U.S. users but few high-level American politicians. The video then cut to an image of the “Dark Brandon” meme — another attempt from the campaign to flip a right-wing conspiracy theory on its head. Mr. Biden’s arrival to TikTok, and the lighthearted nature of his post, pointed to…

American Firms Invested $1 Billion in Chinese Chips, Lawmakers Find

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A congressional investigation has determined that five American venture capital firms invested more than $1 billion in China’s semiconductor industry since 2001, fueling the growth of a sector that the United States government now regards as a national security threat. Funds supplied by the five firms — GGV Capital, GSR Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Walden International — went to more than 150 Chinese companies, according to the report, which was released Thursday by both Republicans and Democrats on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. The…

United States Spurns China for Mexico and Other Allies, Trade Data Shows

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In the depths of the pandemic, as global supply chains buckled and the cost of shipping a container to China soared nearly twentyfold, Marco Villarreal spied an opportunity. In 2021, Mr. Villarreal resigned as Caterpillar’s director general in Mexico and began nurturing ties with companies looking to shift manufacturing from China to Mexico. He found a client in Hisun, a Chinese producer of all-terrain vehicles, which hired Mr. Villarreal to establish a $152 million manufacturing site in Saltillo, an industrial hub in northern Mexico. Mr. Villarreal said foreign companies, particularly…

Trump’s Tariffs Hurt U.S. Jobs but Swayed American Voters, Study Says

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The sweeping tariffs that former President Donald J. Trump imposed on China and other American trading partners were simultaneously a political success and an economic failure, a new study suggests. That’s because the levies won over voters for the Republican Party even though they did not bring back jobs. The nonpartisan working paper examines monthly data on U.S. employment by industry to find that the tariffs that Mr. Trump placed on foreign metals, washing machines and an array of goods from China starting in 2018 neither raised nor lowered the…

Flush With Investment, New U.S. Factories Face a Familiar Challenge

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The Biden administration has begun pumping more than $2 trillion into U.S. factories and infrastructure, investing huge sums to try to strengthen American industry and fight climate change. But the effort is facing a familiar threat: a surge of low-priced products from China. That is drawing the attention of President Biden and his aides, who are considering new protectionist measures to make sure American industry can compete against Beijing. As U.S. factories spin up to produce electric vehicles, semiconductors and solar panels, China is flooding the market with similar goods,…

The Next Front in the U.S.-China Battle Over Chips

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NASA has chosen the technology to help it land future spacecraft on unmapped planets. Meta uses the technology for artificial intelligence. Chinese engineers have turned to it to encrypt data. And it could represent the next front in the semiconductor trade war between the United States and China. The technology is RISC-V, pronounced “risk five.” It evolved from a university computer lab in California to a foundation for myriad chips that handle computing chores. RISC-V essentially provides a kind of common language for designing processors that are found in devices…

From Lebanon to the Red Sea, a Broader Conflict With Iran Looms

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President Biden and his top national security aides believed last summer that the chances of conflict with Iran and its proxies were well contained. After secret talks, they had just concluded a deal that led to the release of five imprisoned Americans in return for $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds and some Iranian prisoners. The militants that Tehran finances and arms — Hamas in the Palestinian territories, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen — seemed relatively quiet. Iran even slowed enrichment of uranium at its underground nuclear…

Should Trump Be on the Ballot? And Other 2024 Sticky Wickets

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Listen to and follow ‘Matter of Opinion’Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Is Donald Trump an insurrectionist who should be barred from the ballot? On this episode of “Matter of Opinion,” the hosts discuss who should get to decide if the former president can try to return to the White House. Plus, the hosts lay out what other stories are on their 2024 political bingo cards. (A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.) Mentioned in this episode: Thoughts? Email us at matterofopinion@nytimes.com.…