USA

The US is about to undergo a rather historic political transition in a few days but it seems that the outgoing Trump administration is hastily doing all that it can before that day comes. While there is no clear assurance that president-elect Biden will reverse the US government's stance in relation to Huawei's sanctions, what is clear right now is that not only the company but its dozens of suppliers as well are being left in limbo after the Commerce Department denied en masse 150 license requests that have been pending for months.

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It was really wishful thinking that 2021 would magically be better when it came to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the availability of vaccines definitely gives some hope, new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus threaten to throw us into a loop again. Never having really gotten a hold of the situation, the US is now facing the threat of these new variants coming from countries. In an effort to at least stem the tide, the CDC is now requiring that everyone entering the US via air transportation prove to be negative from COVID-19 or else be denied even getting on a plane.

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Hulu announced a "students" plan this week with an apparent "65% discount valid as long as you're a college student." This price would be for the "ad-supported plan" for approximately $1.99 USD per month, where it'd otherwise be $5.99 USD per month. Just so long as student enrollment status remains verified, the price shall remain, as verified by SheerID.

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The US political landscape is again under a tense atmosphere as people count down the days before a critical change in government. Before that happens, however, the current administration under President Donald Trump seems to be making haste to implement orders and make new rules that have been in the making for months. The latest in that list is an executive order that finally does what Trump has long threatened to do and ban transactions with certain Chinese apps, including those used for money transfers like WeChat Pay.

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This week a new COVID-19 relief package is on the brink of passing in Washington DC. If the bill does pass as it's written right now, it would appear that each individual recipient of a "direct payment" will get about half of what they received in the first relief payment earlier this year. Not all Americans will be eligible for this payment. We'll know the full extent of the rules and regulations of this bill once it's been made public (via the internet) this afternoon.

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The year is far from over and, as far as the current US government is concerned, there is still plenty of time for actions that have long-lasting effects. One of those is expanding the US' notorious "Entity List" to include not just SMIC, China's largest chipmaker, but also, surprisingly, popular drone company DJI. That said, the latter was already rumored to be on the country's hit list, giving it time to make a bold response assuring customers in the country that they will still be able to buy DJI's products as normal.

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This week the United States government added the drone company DJI to their Entity List. The United States Bureau of Industry and Security for Commerce added DJI to this list alongside 76 other entities on Friday, December 18, 2020. DJI and the rest of the entities added to the Entity List were determined to be "acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.

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Today the United States Commerce Department added the drone company DJI to their trade restrictions blacklist. More specifically, this is the U.S. Commerce Department Entity List, making DJI subject to Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This is a move very similar to the U.S. government's move against other China-based companies like Huawei and ZTE.

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HMD Global literally has dozens of Nokia phones littering the global market, just like the Finnish giant of old. Almost ironically but unsurprisingly, it hasn't yet flooded the US market with those easy to forget models. It does have a few which you can get only through carriers or third-party retailers but it is now making it possible for US buyers to purchase a Nokia phone directly from HMD Global. Strangely enough, it doesn't yet include the Nokia 5.4 that it just launched in Europe.

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There has been a lot of coverage lately about the Chinese government's ability to use the likes of Huawei and ZTE to spy on the US but it seems that a different country may have successfully pulled that off instead. According to multiple sources, at least two US government agencies have had their emails snooped on by hackers who are believed to be backed by a nation-state, specifically Russia.

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It seems that the year won't be ending well for Huawei and ZTE even though the two's smartphone businesses remain somewhat stable for now. The Chinese companies' networking businesses, on the other hand, might be dealt with a rather devastating blow based on the FCC's latest orders. Removing Huawei's and ZTE's networking equipment will hurt rural carriers the most but the FCC promises help will be coming, provided the US Congress finally gets the funds needed to subsidize the costs.

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Uber and Joby Aviation just announced a deal that included an acquisition, "expanded partnership", and $75 million dollars. Uber will invest "a further $75 million" more than they'd previously invested in the aviation company - they'd previously invested $50 million as part of Joby's Series C financing round in the first month of 2020.

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