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☆ China to restrict exports of some aviation and space components
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-31 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Beijing (Reuters) — China will control exports of some aviation and space components from July 1, its Commerce Ministry announced on Thursday, citing a need to protect the country’s national security and interests. Beijing brought in its Export Control Law in late 2020, amid an escalating trade war kicked off by Trump-era tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese goods in 2018. The United States and European Union, for example, also control the export of various aerospace components over concerns such parts might find “dual-use” application by hostile states. “China has learned from international practices and implemented export controls on relevant items according to its own needs,” an explanatory note from the Commerce Ministry said. Exports will be licensed if they comply with the relevant regulations,” it added.

Persons: “ Organizations: Reuters, Commerce Ministry, China’s Customs Administration, Central Military Commission, State Council, Ministry of Commerce, Export Control Law, Trump, European Union Locations: Beijing, China, United States

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has seized a Boeing 747 cargo plane that officials say was previously sold by a sanctioned Iranian airline to a state-owned Venezuelan firm in violation of American export control laws. The Justice Department said Monday that the American-built plane had arrived in Florida and would be disposed of. The plane was detained in June 2022 by Argentine law enforcement, and U.S. officials moved several weeks later to take possession of it. The Justice Department has identified the registered captain of the plane as an ex-commander for the Revolutionary Guard. Mahan Air has denied any ties to the aircraft, and Venezuela has demanded that Argentine authorities release the plane.

Persons: Mahan, Matthew Olsen, ”, Nicolas Maduro, Regina Garcia Cano Organizations: WASHINGTON, Boeing, Justice Department, Air, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Quds Force, Officials, Revolutionary Guard, Justice, Argentine, The, Mahan Air, Associated Press Locations: U.S, Iranian, Venezuelan, Florida, United States, Argentine, Argentina, Emtrasur, Moscow, Caracas, Tehran, Venezuela

SpaceX logo and Elon Musk silhouette are seen in this illustration taken, December 19, 2022. U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera in Brownsville, Texas said in a written order late Wednesday that administrative judges at the Justice Department who hear cases involving anti-immigrant bias were not properly appointed. Olvera blocked the department's case, which was filed in August, from moving forward pending the outcome of SpaceX's September lawsuit claiming the administrative case violates the U.S. Constitution. The Justice Department and SpaceX did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday. In its lawsuit, the company claims that administrative judges are appointed by the U.S. attorney general but have powers that should be reserved only for officials appointed by the president.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon, Rolando Olvera, Olvera, Musk, Daniel Wiessner, Jan Harvey Organizations: SpaceX, Elon, REUTERS, U.S . Department of Justice, U.S, District, Justice Department, . Constitution, The Justice Department, U.S . Senate, Thomson Locations: U.S, Brownsville , Texas, ., Albany , New York

At issue is RISC-V, pronounced "risk five," an open-source technology that competes with costly proprietary technology from British semiconductor and software design company Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F). RISC-V can be used as a key ingredient for anything from a smartphone chip to advanced processors for artificial intelligence. The RISC-V technology came from labs at the University of California, Berkeley, and later benefited from funding by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Its executives said in August they believe RISC-V will speed up chip innovation and transform the tech industry. Jack Kang, vice president of business development at SiFive, a Santa Clara, California-based startup using RISC-V, said potential U.S. government restrictions on American companies regarding RISC-V would be a "tremendous tragedy."

Persons: Florence Lo, Joe Biden's, Marco Rubio, Mark Warner, Mike Gallagher, Biden, Michael McCaul, McCaul, " Rubio, Warner, Jack Kang, Kang, Kevin Wolf, Akin Gump, Barack Obama, Wolf, Max A, Cherney, Stephen Nellis, Will Dunham, Kenneth Li Organizations: REUTERS, U.S ., Arm Holdings, Republican, Democratic, Reuters, Commerce Department, People's, CCP, Chinese Communist Party, House Foreign Affairs, of Industry, Security, Commerce, University of California, Pentagon's Defense, Research Projects Agency, DARPA, HUAWEI, Huawei Technologies, Qualcomm, Google, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Beijing, People's Republic of China, Communist China, Swiss, Berkeley, United States, SiFive, Santa Clara , California, San Francisco

☆ FAA closes investigation into SpaceX Starship rocket that exploded, outlines ‘corrective actions’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Kristin Fisher | Jackie Wattles | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The Federal Aviation Administration announced Friday it has closed its “mishap” investigation into the April SpaceX Starship test flight that ended after the rocket exploded over the Gulf of Mexico. The FAA says the investigation “cites multiple root causes” and “63 corrective actions SpaceX must take to prevent mishap reoccurrence,” the agency said in a statement. SpaceX has said it is ready to try to launch Starship again. But the FAA must issue a launch license, and one of the holdups has been the mishap investigation. “You can think about that launch date slipping probably into ’26.”In August, Free told CNN “my level of concern is the same” after a trip to visit SpaceX’s launch site a month earlier.

Persons: Elon Musk, WjENkdudo9 — Elon, Artemis III, Jim Free, he’s, ”, Free Organizations: CNN, Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX, FAA, Boca Chica, U.S . Export Control, Boca, Fish and Wildlife Service, NASA, NASA’s, Systems, ”, Aeronautics, Space Engineering Board, Space Studies, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine Locations: of Mexico, Boca Chica , Texas, Boca Chica

Export control laws restrict companies from sharing sensitive information and technology with certain individuals from other countries. Rebecca Bernhard, a Minneapolis-based labor lawyer who represents companies, said employers subject to export control laws often ignore the ban on citizenship-based bias in the federal Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), exposing them to legal action. Out of more than 10,000 hires, SpaceX only hired one asylee during that period, according to the lawsuit. The DOJ did not directly cite its guidance in the SpaceX lawsuit, but used nearly identical language to describe the company's alleged violations. "Export control laws and regulations do not prohibit or restrict employers from hiring asylees and refugees; those laws treat asylees and refugees just like U.S. citizens," the department said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon Musk, Rebecca Bernhard, Bernhard, aslyees, Musk, asylees, Daniel Wiessner, Amy Stevens, Deepa Babington Organizations: SpaceX, Elon, REUTERS, Space Exploration Technologies, U.S . Department of Justice, DOJ, General Motors Co, Immigration, INA, Justice Department, Companies, Thomson Locations: Minneapolis, U.S, United States, Albany , New York

SpaceX logo and Elon Musk silhouette are seen in this illustration taken, December 19, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday sued Elon Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX for allegedly discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees in hiring. The Justice Department also pointed to online posts from the company's billionaire owner Musk as example of "discriminatory public statements." SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington, additional reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Paul Grant and Susan HeaveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon, Musk, Kanishka Singh, David Shepardson, Paul Grant, Susan Heavey Organizations: SpaceX, Elon, REUTERS, Rights, U.S . Justice, Thursday, Elon Musk, Justice Department, The Justice, Thomson Locations: Washington

☆ US sues SpaceX, alleges hiring discrimination against asylum recipients, refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Kanishka Singh | Thomson Reuters | Kanishka Singh Is A Breaking News Reporter For Reuters In Washington Dc | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department sued Elon Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX on Thursday for allegedly discriminating against asylum recipients and refugees in hiring. The Justice Department also pointed to online posts from the company's billionaire owner Musk as example of "discriminatory public statements." Musk described the Justice Department lawsuit against SpaceX as "weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes." Clarke also said SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials "actively discouraged" asylum recipients and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company. The United States seeks fair consideration and back pay for asylum recipients and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination, the Justice Department said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon, Musk, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, Kanishka Singh, David Shepardson, Chandni Shah, Paul Grant, Susan Heavey, Frances Kerry, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: SpaceX, Elon, REUTERS, Rights, U.S . Justice Department, Elon Musk, Justice Department, The Justice, Justice, DOJ, United, Thomson Locations: United States, Washington

☆ DOJ sues SpaceX, alleging hiring discrimination against refugees and asylum seekers
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Michael Sheetz | In Michaeljsheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A Falcon 9 rocket is displayed outside the Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) headquarters on January 28, 2021 in Hawthorne, California. The U.S. Department of Justice sued SpaceX on Thursday, alleging Elon Musk's space company discriminated against refugees and asylum seekers in its hiring practices. The lawsuit says between 2018 and 2022, SpaceX "wrongly claimed" that export control laws limited its hiring to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. The DOJ has been investigating SpaceX since June 2020, when the department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section received a complaint of employment discrimination from a non-U.S. citizen. Fabian Hutter, whose complaint about SpaceX led the DOJ to open its discrimination probe, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.

Persons: SpaceX, Elon, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, asylees, IER, Fabian Hutter, Hutter Organizations: Space Exploration Technologies Corp, SpaceX, The U.S . Department of Justice, DOJ, Civil Rights Division, CNBC Locations: Hawthorne , California, The, U.S, Austria, Canada

☆ DOJ sues SpaceX alleging hiring discrimination against refugees and asylum recipients
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Michael Sheetz | In Michaeljsheetz | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The U.S. Department of Justice sued SpaceX on Thursday, alleging Elon Musk's space company discriminated in its hiring practices against refugees and people granted asylum in the U.S. The lawsuit says between 2018 and 2022, SpaceX "wrongly claimed" that export control laws limited its hiring to U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. Clarke added that the DOJ's investigation found "SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company." That lone hire came about four months after the DOJ notified SpaceX of its investigation. Read the DOJ's lawsuit below:

Persons: SpaceX, Elon, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, asylees, IER, Fabian Hutter, Hutter Organizations: Space Exploration Technologies Corp, SpaceX, The U.S . Department of Justice, U.S, DOJ, Civil Rights Division, Immigration, CNBC Locations: Hawthorne , California, The, U.S, Austria, Canada

"SpaceX's discriminatory hiring practices were routine, widespread, and longstanding, and harmed asylees and refugees," Justice Department lawyers wrote in the lawsuit. AdvertisementAdvertisement"Export control laws and regulations do not prohibit or restrict employers from hiring asylees and refugees; those laws treat asylees and refugees just like U.S. citizens," the lawsuit says. The Justice Department's civil rights division, which brought the lawsuit, informed SpaceX in 2020 that it had initiated its investigation. SpaceX initially refused to hand over employment records and fought a Justice Department subpoena in court. "SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials took actions that actively discouraged asylees and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company," Clarke said.

Persons: Elon Musk, asylees, Musk, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, SpaceX didn't, Tesla Organizations: SpaceX, Elon Musk's, Service, Justice, Defense, State, Justice Department, Twitter Locations: Wall, Silicon

The department scheduled a press conference for 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) to make an announcement regarding the strike force's work but did not provide details. 2 official, said in February that the new group was a joint effort with the U.S. Commerce Department to safeguard American technology from foreign adversaries and other national security threats. Monaco said at the time that the United States would "strike back against adversaries trying to siphon off our most advanced technology, and to attack tomorrow's national security threats today." The strike force includes 14 U.S. attorney offices across the country working to target illicit actors, strengthen supply chains and protect sensitive technologies from being acquired or used by foreign adversaries. The Justice Department in recent years has increased its focus on bringing criminal cases to protect corporate intellectual property, U.S. supply chains and private data about Americans from foreign adversaries, either through cyber attacks, theft or sanctions evasion.

☆ Seagate hit with $300 million penalty for continuing $1 billion relationship with blacklisted firm Huawei, despite U.S. export controls
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Rohan Goswami | In Rohangoswamicnbc | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Computer storage company Seagate will pay a $300 million penalty for allegedly continuing an unauthorized $1.1 billion relationship with Chinese technology firm Huawei after the company was added to a U.S. trade blacklist in 2020. Seagate shipped over 7.4 million HDDs to Huawei from Aug. 2020 to Sept. 2021, federal regulators said. Neither Huawei nor Seagate made an apparent effort to hide their relationship, according to federal charging documents. Those lines of credit allowed Huawei to order an "increasing volume" of HDDs, federal regulators said, that Huawei wouldn't have been able to pay for otherwise. Even after export controls were imposed, a senior Seagate executive publicly justified the continued relationship with Huawei, regulators alleged.

April 19 Reuters) - Seagate Technology Holdings (STX.O) has agreed to pay a $300 million penalty in a settlement with U.S. authorities for shipping over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to China's Huawei in violation of U.S. export control laws, the U.S. Department of Commerce said on Wednesday. Seagate sold the drives to Huawei between August 2020 and September 2021 despite an August 2020 rule that restricted sales of certain foreign items made with U.S. technology to the company. Seagate shipped 7.4 million drives to Huawei for about a year after the 2020 rule took effect and became Huawei's sole supplier of hard drives, the Commerce Department said. The other two primary suppliers of hard drives ceased shipments to Huawei after the new rule took effect in 2020, the department said. Even after "its competitors had stopped selling to them ... Seagate continued sending hard disk drives to Huawei," Matthew Axelrod, the Commerce Department's assistant secretary for export enforcement said in a statement.

China and U.S. flags are seen near a TikTok logo in this illustration picture taken July 16, 2020. Florence Lo | ReutersBEIJING — China says it would "strongly oppose" a forced sale of TikTok, making clear the government's involvement with the social media giant that's trying hard to distance itself from Beijing authorities. ByteDance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Chinese Commerce Ministry's remarks. But the commerce ministry's claim of control over a TikTok sale or spinoff indicates Beijing wants to be involved. When asked about the commerce ministry's remarks Thursday, TikTok's CEO said the app isn't available in mainland China and is based in Los Angeles.

☆ U.S. alleges Seagate broke export rules to sell Huawei hard drives -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Karen Freifeld | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Seagate, a Dublin-based company that also operates in California, said it was cooperating with the Commerce Department and attempting to resolve the matter. The company paused its shipments to Huawei a year ago, the person said. The company hopes to make its case in an upcoming meeting with the Commerce Department, the source said. At issue is a U.S. regulation that governs the way certain foreign-made items destined for Huawei become subject to U.S. export regulations. The hard disk drives are made in China and Thailand and also do not have enough U.S. content to make them subject to U.S. export rules, the person said.

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