The Justice Department brought 23 separate charges on Monday against Huawei, China’s dominant telecommunications equipment manufacturer. The indictments cover intellectual property theft, violations of sanctions on selling equipment to Iran, and obstruction of the investigation. Sabrina Meng, daughter of Huawei’s founder, who is being held at U.S. request in Canada, was charged with fraud in misleading banks about Huawei’s business with Iran.
Why it matters: The criminal charges help validate U.S. accusations that China systematically steals valuable technology and that its companies sell sensitive equipment to repressive regimes such as Iran. Although not unexpected, they come on the eve of high-level trade negotiations in Washington with China this week, and will probably slow down the Chinese effort to close a deal.
Apple reported quarterly financial results Tuesday that narrowly beat the expectations set when Apple issued a rare earnings warning at the beginning of the month. However, its outlook for the current quarter was even more disappointing than some analysts were anticipating.
Why it matters: Apple's warning sent shock waves through the financial world, both for what it meant for smartphone demand as well as business in China, which Apple singled out as responsible for much of the revenue shortfall.
Dan and Axios China's Bill Bishop dive into the new legal charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei, and how they might impact U.S.-China trade negotiations.
The allegations behind the Department of Justice's two new sets of charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei, announced Monday, had been discussed for years. But the U.S. made its move against Huawei at a critical moment for the Trump administration's high-stakes trade negotiations, as a Chinese delegation arrives in the U.S. for talks that begin tomorrow.
Why it matters: The trade talks are surrounded by a tightening knot of scandals for the world's largest telecommunications equipment provider. Even before yesterday's announcement, a growing number of countries had announced bans on Huawei's 5G wares due to allegations they were sabotaged for use in Chinese espionage.
In the era of on-demand video, consumers are still looking to engage with feature stories, mostly by listening to audiobooks, or in some cases by reading them through an app.
Why it matters: Like any traditional medium, books have needed to evolve in the digital era to meet consumers where they are. The popularity of books in digital formats speaks to a willingness from users to engage with written stories, even when the options are endless for them to consume videos or music more passively.
Bloomberg's TicToc, the 24/7 news network on Twitter, is launching an owned and operated digital video platform today, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: While Twitter is still core to TicToc, the launch serves as a big step for the venture to develop its own brand outside of the social platform.
Sir Nick Clegg — former U.K. deputy prime minister, now Facebook's new vice president of global affairs and communications — "acknowledges the company is in a bad place on a range of issues, [and] is casting himself as the adult who can make this young company grow up," BBC media editor Amol Rajan writes.
Why it matters: "These words ... are part of a more open and conciliatory tone the company wants, through him, to adopt."
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The influence network led by billionaire Charles Koch is watching a growing push to regulate Big Tech firms with alarm.
The big picture: For the libertarian-oriented network of political and philanthropic groups, regulation is the enemy, and even though many others on the right bristle at what they see as anti-conservative bias by Big Tech platforms, the Koch crowd is not ready to cheer government intervention.
Apple hopes to fix this week a bug that allows users to hear audio from someone they call via FaceTime before that person has answered a call. In the mean time, the company has temporarily disabled the group FaceTime service.
Why it matters: The bug comes at an unfortunate time, landing on Data Privacy Day and as Apple has been trying to differentiate itself from rivals with a pro-privacy stance.
