*By Justin Chermol*
The newly appointed vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), said he is "absolutely" concerned that Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei poses a threat to national security in an interview on Cheddar Tuesday.
"I do have that concern," Castro told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin. He noted that he helped push a bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act last year to prevent government grants or loans being used to pay for Huawei services.
The Department of Justice unsealed two separate indictments on Monday against the company and its CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in December. The cases claim the company and its leaders attempted to steal trade secrets from rival T-Mobile, promised bonuses to employees in exchange for intel on competitors, and sought to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran.
"With China, our overarching strategy has to be to respect them when they compete, but also to stop them when they cheat," he said.
Castro is particularly disturbed by prospect of Huawei lifting T-Mobile's technology for its own gain.
"What you see with China is the outright theft of trade secrets and technology and then taking that technology, in this case from T-Mobile, and using it for the benefit of Chinese companies without ever doing any of the innovation or the hard work ー or spending the money in terms of research or development to understand it themselves," he said.
The indictments may coincide with trade talks between the U.S. and Chinese officials, but Castro said that the meetings scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday are unrelated to the charges leveled against Huawei.
"We should be able to separate out some sort of cheating or malfeasance from what we do in terms of talking about trade," he said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/rep-joaquin-castro-talks-mueller-probe-huawei-charges-and-more).
Senator Jon Tester of Montana joined Cheddar to discuss movement on a new stimulus deal in Congress after talks paused in August. Tester also discusses how Joe Biden can win back rural voters this November.
An Associated Press review found growing allegations that a gynecologist performed surgeries and other procedures that detained migrant women never sought or didn’t fully understand.
Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Washington, said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the U.S. Postal Service.
College towns across the U.S. have emerged as virus hot spots in recent weeks as schools struggle to contain the virus.
As the U.S. treks into the 7th month of the coronavirus pandemic, trust in government agencies and top medical officials is dropping among Republican voters. Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, joined Cheddar to discuss how people can navigate advice from medical professionals as some guidances are deemed political.
The Federal Reserve adjusted its inflation target to seek price increases above 2% annually, a move that will likely keep interest rates low for years to come.
The federal government is outlining a sweeping plan to make COVID-19 vaccines available for free to all Americans.
This week Jon Stewart helped bring forth new legislation aimed at providing financial relief for burn pit victims. Stewart said the battle with congress is just a continued fight in getting first responders aid in the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Cheddar's JD Durkin reports.
Less than five weeks after the conference announced it would push football and other fall sports to spring because of the pandemic, the conference changed course.
President Donald Trump is presiding over the signing of historic diplomatic deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that could herald a dramatic shift in Middle East power dynamics.
