Administration cracks down on employees of Huawei

The Trump administration said Wednesday it will impose travel bans on employees of the Chinese technology giant Huawei and other Chinese companies the U.S. determines are assisting authoritarian governments in cracking down on human rights, including in China’s western Xinjiang province.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said the administration is finalizing plans to minimize data theft from the popular Chinese video streaming app Tiktok, although he stopped short of saying it would be banned outright.

Pompeo made the announcements a day after the British government said it would ban Huawei from its 5G networks over concerns that sensitive data could be compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

It is not clear how many Huawei employees would be affected. Huawei says on its website that it has more than 194,000 employees in more than 170 countries and regions.

At a later event sponsored by The Hill newspaper, Pompeo said the administration also is looking at how to prevent data theft from Tiktok and other Chinese companies.

Ivanka Trump’s endorsement of Goya may violate federal law

First daughter Ivanka Trump posted a photo of herself on Twitter posing with a can of the Latino food product company Goya’s iconic black beans.

“If it’s Goya, it has to be good. Si es Goya, tiene que ser bueno,” Ivanka Trump wrote on Twitter.

Ivanka Trump’s unusual endorsement sparked an instant backlash, as federal law prohibits White House officials like her from using “their Government positions to suggest that the agency or any part of the executive branch endorses an organization, product, service, or person.”

In addition, Goya CEO Robert Unanue sparked boycott threats by progressives last week after he effusively praised Trump during a White House visit.

The president weighed in Wednesday. “Goya is doing GREAT. The Radical Left smear machine backfired, people are buying like crazy!” Trump tweeted.

Actress’ former assistant testifies for Depp’s side

Amber Heard’s former personal assistant claimed Wednesday that she told the model-actress about a violent sexual assault she had endured, only for Heard to “twist” the story for her own use.

Kate James gave dramatic testimony at Johnny Depp’s libel trial against a British tabloid newspaper that accused the actor of abusing ex-wife Heard during their relationship.

James, who worked for Heard between 2012 and 2015, gave evidence in support of Depp, saying she had told Heard that she was raped at machetepoint in Brazil about 25 years ago. She said she was shocked to learn that in a witness statement, Heard misrepresented and exploited the incident.

Heard, 34, has made 14 allegations of violence by 57-year-old Depp between 2013 and 2016, in settings including his private island in the Bahamas, a rented house in Australia and a private jet. He denies them all.

Heard is due to testify this week.

Nothing found yet in search for Tulsa massacre remains

A third day of excavation began Wednesday at a Tulsa cemetery for remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with no human remains yet found and the search area being expanded, according to state Archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck.

Stackelbeck said Tuesday after the search ended for the day that items such as household trash, animal bones and a shell casing have been found, adding that there is no indication the shell casing is related to the massacre.

Researchers on Monday began opening an area in Tulsa’s Oaklawn Cemetery where ground-penetrating radar earlier this year determined there was an anomaly consistent with mass graves.

On May 31 and June 1 in 1921, white residents looted and burned Tulsa’s black Greenwood District, killing as many as 300 people, with many victims