*By Carlo Versano*
China is responding to a revelatory [report](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/us/politics/trump-phone-security.html?module=inline) in The New York Times ー that said Chinese spies are allegedly eavesdropping on President Donald Trump during calls he makes on an unsecured iPhone ー by suggesting that the president use the device of a Chinese competitor instead.
"If they are very worried about iPhones being tapped, they can use Huawei," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying [told reporters in Beijing](https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/2170177/china-refutes-report-it-spies-trumps-iphone-suggests-he-get-huawei).
Roger Cheng, executive editor at CNET called that "an epic amount of shade" being thrown by the Chinese at the U.S.
It comes after Huawei products were banned from official U.S. government use over concerns they can be compromised by the Chinese government. Huawei phones are effectively useless in the U.S. because of those concerns ー they aren't offered by major retailers or carriers ー even though the handset maker is the second-largest in the world behind Samsung.
"It's a bit of irony that they would throw that [suggestion] out there," said Chen.
The Times reported Wednesday that Trump has dismissed his aides' instruction to use secured phone lines for his personal calls and opted instead to carry at least one iPhone, no different from any other on the market, that he uses to call friends and gossip ー and which Chinese and Russian spies routinely eavesdrop on in an effort to gauge how the president thinks.
But the ability to listen in on cellphone calls has less to do with the specific kind of phone and more to do with the fact that intercepting calls as they bounce around cell towers is a relatively simple element of spycraft "if you have the know-how and the resources," according to Chen. "And obviously the Chinese government has a lot of resources."
The Chinese government spokeswoman dismissed the report that Chinese spies were listening in on Trump as "fake news," using one of Trump's favorite phrases.
Trump called the Times report "soooo wrong!" in a tweet Thursday.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/roger-cheng).
California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election in about two weeks. Newsom was elected governor in 2018 with nearly 62% of the vote after working as lieutenant governor for eight years. However, his popularity took a hit after his handling of Covid-19 pandemic, although the White House is refusing to cite this as the direct reason for the September 14th recall election. There are 46 candidates running to be Newsom's replacement, and some are saying that California could end up electing a republican governor.
Jeremy White, California politics reporter and co-writer of daily California Playbook Newsletter at Politico, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss more about the election and its possible outcomes.
President Joe Biden says the United States will complete it's evacuation of Americans and others from Kabul, despite the attack that killed 12 U.S. service members and many Afghan civilians.
Crypto-enthusiasts are taking to social media to urge regular Afghans to adopt bitcoin in the face of considerable economic uncertainty.
The U.S. economy grew at a 6.6% annual rate last quarter, slightly faster than previously estimated, the government said Thursday in a report that pointed to a sustained consumer-led rebound from the pandemic recession.
The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant says it plans to build an undersea tunnel so that massive amounts of treated but still radioactive water can be released into the ocean about 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) away from the plant to avoid interference with local fishing.
Two suicide bombers and gunmen have targeted crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul’s airport, in the waning days of a massive airlift that has drawn thousands of people seeking to flee the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in five weeks even though the economy and job market have been recovering briskly from the coronavirus pandemic.
Secretary of State Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan.
Kathy Hochul became the first female governor of New York on Tuesday, vowing to bring new energy and urgency to solving immense challenges as she took over an administration criticized for inaction.
U.S military troops flying round the clock have managed their biggest day of airlifts out of Afghanistan by far.
