politics

If the US government is bent on bringing Huawei to its knees through trade laws, India's citizens are taking a different route to show their protest against China. A new app has landed on Google Play Store that singles out apps that originate from China as a response to a call for Indians to boycott software made by Chinese citizens. That call seems to have resounded strongly as the app gathered now over 5 million downloads in just two weeks.

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The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to much of the world's businesses and operations and it has only been recently that some have finally been able to reboot a small portion of their lives and work. But then a single even caused waves across the US and even the world, forcing companies like Amazon and Apple to scale back or even close their shops as the number of protests and violent incidents rise in the wake of George Floyd's death.

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The Trump administration have released an executive order to hold Twitter and social media platforms responsible for posts found on their sites. The executive order gives more power to federal regulators to argue that social media companies are violating free speech rights when they censor posts or limit user privileges.

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The US government's trade ban on Huawei was meant to bring the company to its knees both as punishment for its alleged cybersecurity crimes as well as a bargaining chip in trade talks with China. For the past 12 months, however, Huawei has found some ways to get around some of those restrictions to maintain its business. Over the weekend, the US Commerce Department dealt what could be the most crippling blow to the company, and, unsurprisingly, Huawei has responded with accusations that the US is attempting to strengthen its technology industry by crushing everyone else's.

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Some, especially governments, live by a "tit for tat" philosophy so it's really no surprise that China wants to hit the US back. The latter has not only extended Huawei's fate as part of the government's entity list, the US Department of Commerce has also made moves to deprive the phone maker of much-needed access to semiconductors for its processors. Since negotiations seem to have broken down, China is now threatening to respond in kind and put US companies on its own upcoming "unreliable entity list".

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Given everything that has happened in the past four months, it almost feels like Huawei's battle with the US government was so long ago. In reality, however, it was exactly last year that US President Donald Trump invoked a new law that empowered his government to ban US companies from doing business with Huawei. Given present circumstances, it's not surprising that the US is extending that ban for yet another year, putting Huawei's business as well as its customers in limbo yet again.

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Elections are one of the oldest sociopolitical activities of humanity and, given its rather sensitive nature, has been slow to change over the centuries. Attempts to modernize elections and the systems around them have always been met with suspicion and scrutiny due to fears of data and security breaches. In Israel, those fears materialized in what may be the worst case the country has faced, and it isn't even due to the election system itself and only a third-party app for managing voters.

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This week artist Banksy revealed a new piece of art that is both tiny in scale and large in concept. In the past, Banksy became well-known due to his large-scale artworks in the streets - graffiti works of many sorts. If you only know Banksy from his early years in street art, it's a good time to take a look at his accomplishments of late. Most recent of these is a nativity scene called Scar of Bethlehem.

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Mobile apps have helped changed our modern lives, often for the better but sometimes also for the worse. That's especially true for those apps that, in exchange for entertainment or free services, gather unknowing users' data for less conscientious purposes. The US government has taken a particular interest in that phenomenon, especially when it's the data of US citizens that is in question. Lawmakers are now asking if Apple and Google, the two largest mobile platform makers, require app developers to disclose their ties to foreign countries, in particular to China.

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It seems that Huawei may be able to breathe a bit easier even if it keeps on showing an unaffected and nonchalant public face. The company was recently granted another 90-day reprieve and the US Department of Commerce has started to grant or deny applications for temporary licenses to export American products to the embattled Chinese company. While the fate of its mobile business still isn't in the clear despite these developments, Huawei will at least now have access again to Microsoft software, at least until the temporary licenses are revoked again.

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It has been half a year since the US government practically declared it illegal for US companies to do business with Huawei but the Chinese giant's fate still remains uncertain. That would have been sealed by Monday but it seems that the US still wants to hold power over Huawei and is likely to give it yet another extension of its license to do business in the US. This time, however, it will only be for 14 days, probably to give time for the US and China to finally sign a "Phase 1" trade agreement.

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Huawei might receive an early Christmas gift in the next few weeks, presuming the US government makes good on President Trump's promise to grant a number of exceptions to US companies wanting to do business with Huawei. As many as 260 requests have been filed, asking a license to do trade with the Chinese manufacturer, one of which is believed to be Google. If granted, this could mean that Huawei phones will be able to ship Google Play apps and services again, at least for a short period of time.

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