USA

It isn't exactly a secret that the US government has a certain hesitancy when it comes to phones made by Chinese companies, but today, we're seeing some top security official state that apprehensiveness outright. Many top security officials have come out and recommended that Americans avoid buying phones made by Huawei and ZTE. Such a recommendation won't really come as much of a shock, and may even do something to solidify some recent rumors we've been hearing.

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Bitcoin prices fell quickly at a news break about US regulators issuing a subpoena for both crypto exchange Bitfinex and Tether. Tether is a cryptocurrency trade coin whose claim to fame is its tie to the US dollar. Bitfinex is a trading venue for cryptocurrencies of all sorts.

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Rumors can sometimes surface and then be quashed with an incredible amount of speed, and today, the best example we have of that kind of turnaround involves the future of the country's 5G networks. Over the weekend, rumors claiming that the National Security Council was considering building a nationalized 5G network began to surface. Now, the Trump administration has officially chimed in, putting those rumors to bed.

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By the time you read this article, the United States Air Force may well be testing their newest protocols involving GPS. As such, it's entirely possible that Pokemon GO doesn't work - or you're told you can't access GPS, and cannot play as a result. What happens when a game that depends entirely on GPS loses that one crucial component?

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Remember WannaCry? If you don’t or never even heard about it, this latest public statement coming from the US will probably make sure you won’t. The ransomware that plagued Windows computers in the first half of the year has been blamed for not a few outages of computer systems all over the country, including some life-critical ones in hospitals. And now, the mastermind behind WannaCry has been finally unmasked. At least according to the US. And, unsurprisingly, it is pointing the finger at North Korea.

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Get ready to fork up a few dollars to register that hefty but totally innocent drone of yours. The FAA’s requirement to have drones of certain weights registered is now back and this time it has some staying power. More than just an FAA rule, it has become part of the US law. That is partly due to the fact that the registration requirement is just a very small part of a larger, and more expensive, National Defense Authorization Act that US President Trump just signed into law.

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The past few years have been kind to space science in general and especially to NASA. Advancements in technology, monumental achievements, and historic phenomena has made being an astronaut and even a space scientist or engineer cool again. When Trump took the helm of the world’s largest superpower, there were worries that the outspoken president would de-emphasize the country’s space program. With a little indirect help from a rival, however, Trump signed a directive that would put Americans back on the moon and, in the future, on Mars as well.

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Speaking about Net Neutrality with your friends and family is your civic duty this week - today we're going to run down how to do it. Whether you're back to your parents house this holiday season or hosting Thanksgiving yourself, there's a few very simple arguments that you're honor-bound as a citizen of these internets to share with your fellow turkey-devourers. What better way to be thankful for your rights as a United States citizen then by informing your fellow citizens about the death of the internet as we know it?

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Not all smartphones are created equal or even priced equal. Not all smartphones even launch in all major markets. While some OEMs withhold some models in some markets for good reasons, some decisions may make you scratch your head a bit. None of those, however, may have anything on this latest tidbit about the Nokia 8. What is, so far, HMD’s and Nokia’s first actual flagship-level smartphone might not actually launch in the US, one of the world’s most important smartphone markets. Making it even weirder, however, is the possibility it might not even launch in China either.

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Today the robot-creators at MegaBots revealed their fully-built and painted battle robot: EAGLE PRIME! This Giant Robot Duel (the first of its kind) was scheduled earlier this year between the United States and China (AND JAPAN!), and MegaBots will represent with the most patriotic mecha-robot ever built. Today you get to see it, the first MK3-class MegaBot ever created.

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The US may have just put its controversial travel ban into effect but it s also relaxing its restrictions for at least one lucky Middle East city. Passengers from the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi will now be able to take their laptops with them in plane cabins. That is, as long as they're flying nonstop to the US aboard long-haul airline Etihad, which is the only carrier with direct flight to the US in Abu Dhabi anyway.

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Phone calls are being made this week - and for the next several week - by robots pretending to be the IRS. This is part of a scam that's been going on for at least a couple of years in this exact format. The phone call will come to any number - I just got a call on my mobile phone on an unlisted number, mind you - and it'll sound something like this: "Hello, we have been trying to reach you. This call is officially a final notice from the IRS, Internal Revenue Service."

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