OUR PICKSAmerica Just Hit the Lithium Jackpot | Electricity Grid Becomes a Target for Domestic Extremists | Mesh Networks Come to the U.S. Border, and more
· Politicians Charge Millions to Send Migrants to U.S. Through Darién Gap
The Biden administration vowed to “end the illicit movement” of people through the Darién jungle. But to some Colombian leaders, the profits are too good to pass up.
· GOP Lawmakers Call for Heavier Sanctions Against China’s Huawei, SMIC
The two companies displayed a domestically manufactured advanced smartphone chip, circumventing U.S. export controls and triggering Washington’s ire
· America Just Hit the Lithium Jackpot
The world’s largest-known deposit was just discovered in Nevada. What does that mean?
· Airports Increase Resilience to Power Outages as Electricity Grid Becomes a Target for Domestic Extremists
The Federal Aviation Administration is offering new and expanded grant programs to help fund power resilience projects
· Can You Hear Me Now? Mesh Networks Could Become Standard at the U.S. Border
Customs and Border Protection will spend $99 million on technologies to make it easier to communicate where there’s no signa
Politicians Charge Millions to Send Migrants to U.S. Through Darién Gap (Julie Turkewitz, New York Times)
Hundreds of thousands of migrants are now pouring through a sliver of jungle known as the Darién Gap, the only land route to the United States from South America, in a record tide that the Biden administration and the Colombian government have vowed to stop.
But the windfall here at the edge of the continent is simply too big to pass up, and the entrepreneurs behind the migrant gold rush are not underground smugglers hiding from the authorities.
They are politicians, prominent businessmen and elected leaders, now sending thousands of migrants toward the United States in plain sight each day — and charging millions of dollars a month for the privilege.
GOP Lawmakers Call for Heavier Sanctions Against China’s Huawei, SMIC (Eva Dou, Washington Post)
Ten Republican lawmakers are calling on the Commerce Department to impose heavier sanctions against China’s Huawei Technologies and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., after the two companies displayed a domestically manufactured advanced smartphone chip, circumventing U.S. export controls.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) and nine other lawmakers signed the letter dated Thursday, which suggested seven measures to tighten sanctions against China’s chip industry and punish Huawei and SMIC for allegedly violating U.S. export controls. The letter was addressed to Alan Estevez, undersecretary of Commerce for Industry and Security.
Earlier this month, Huawei unveiled a smartphone running an advanced processor made by SMIC, timed to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to Beijing. The phone launch made waves in U.S. policy circles, as an apparent sign that a four-year campaign in Washington had failed to prevent China’s state-supported tech champions from making the jump to the 5G era of chips.
Huawei’s new phone, the Mate 60 Pro, sent lawmakers scurrying to try to understand if SMIC had violated U.S. sanctions to make the chip.
