Biden administration hobbles China’s access to computer chip tech
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration Friday announced sweeping new limits on the sale of semiconductor technology to China, a step aimed at crippling Beijing’s ability to access critical technologies that are needed for everything from supercomputing to guiding weapons.
The moves are the clearest sign yet that a dangerous standoff between the world’s two major superpowers is increasingly playing out in the technological sphere, with the U.S. trying to establish a stranglehold on advanced computing and semiconductor technology that are essential to China’s military and economic ambitions.
The package of restrictions, which was released by the Commerce Department, is designed in large part to slow the progress of Chinese military programs, which use supercomputing to model nuclear blasts, guide hypersonic weapons and establish advanced networks for surveilling dissidents and minorities, among other activities.
Alan Estevez, undersecretary of commerce for industry and security, said his bureau was working to prevent sensitive technologies with military applications from being acquired by China’s military, intelligence and security services.
Companies will no longer be allowed to supply advanced computing chips, chipmaking equipment and other products to China unless they receive a special license. Most of those licenses will be denied, though certain shipments to facilities operated by U.S. companies or allied countries will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, a senior administration official said in a briefing Thursday.
It also remains to be seen whether the Chinese government will take action in response.
Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at Yale Law School who studies technology policy in China, said the new rules could push Beijing to impose restrictions on American companies or firms from other countries that comply with U.S. rules but still want to maintain operations in China.
Haiti chaos: Haiti’s government has agreed to request the help of international armed forces as gangs and protesters paralyze the country and basic supplies including fuel and water dwindle, a top-ranking Haitian official said Friday.
The official, who was not authorized to speak about the issue publicly, said a formal request in writing had not yet been submitted.
It wasn’t clear if the request would mean the activation of United Nations peacekeeping troops, whose mission ended five years ago after a troubled 11 years in Haiti.
U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Friday that the U.S. is considering a request for a humanitarian corridor to restore the distribution of fuel within Haiti and coordinating with Haiti’s prime minister and other international partners to determine how best to provide additional support.
Haiti’s National Police has struggled to control gangs, with only some 12,800 active officers for a country of more than 11 million people.
Protesters and increasingly powerful gangs have helped plunge Haiti into an unprecedented level of chaos, with the country paralyzed for nearly a month after gangs surrounded a large fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince,
refusing to budge until Prime Minister Ariel Henry steps down.
NYC migrants: New York City’s mayor declared a state of emergency on Friday over the thousands of migrants being sent from southern border states since the spring, saying the demand being put on the city to provide housing and other assistance is “not sustainable.”
“A city recovering from an ongoing global pandemic is being overwhelmed by a humanitarian crisis made by human hands,” Mayor Eric Adams said. “We are at the edge of the precipice . ... We need help. And we need it now.”
By the end of its fiscal year, Adams said the city expected to spend $1 billion helping the new arrivals, many of whom are heavily reliant on government aid because federal law bars them from working in the U.S.
Between five and six buses of migrants are arriving per
day, Adams said, with nine on Thursday alone. Many of those buses have been chartered and paid for by Republican officials in Texas and Arizona.
Ohio abortion law: An Ohio law that bans virtually all abortions will remain blocked while a state constitutional challenge proceeds, a judge said Friday in a ruling that will allow pregnancy terminations through 20 weeks’ gestation to continue for now.
Hamilton County Judge Christian Jenkins announced the permanent injunction from the bench after a daylong hearing where courthouse guards screened spectators and one abortion provider testified to wearing a Kevlar vest for fear her safety might be at risk.
Jenkins said it is “simply wrong” to argue that a “right does not exist because it is not specifically listed in the (U.S.) Constitution.”
The law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike
DeWine in 2019, prohibits most abortions after the first detectable “fetal heartbeat.” Cardiac activity can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. The law had been blocked through a legal challenge, briefly went into effect when the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned, and then was again put on hold in court.
Tropical weather: Tropical Storm Julia, moving through the southwestern Caribbean Sea on Friday, was on track to strengthen into a hurricane this weekend as it bears down on the Colombian islands of San Andres and Providencia and the coast of Nicaragua, forecasters said.
The storm was about 150 miles north-northeast of the seaport city of Barranquilla in northern Colombia, with maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, the National Hurricane Center said in a 2 p.m. advisory Friday.
The government of Nicaragua issued a hurricane
watch, meaning a hurricane was possible within 48 hours, from Bluefields to the border with Honduras. The government of Honduras also issued a tropical storm watch stretching west from the border with Nicaragua.
Julia is expected to reach the coast of Nicaragua on Sunday morning before turning west-northwest and traveling across Central America through Monday, the center said.
Record-breaking diamond:
A pink diamond sold for $49.9 million in Hong Kong on Friday, setting a world record for the highest price per carat for a diamond sold at auction.
The 11.15-carat Williamson Pink Star diamond, auctioned by Sotheby’s Hong Kong, was originally estimated at $21 million.
The Williamson Pink Star is the second-largest pink diamond to appear at auction.
Pink diamonds are among the rarest and most valuable of the colored diamonds.