*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).
President Donald Trump says he's ordered the Navy to “shoot down and destroy” any Iranian gunboats found to be harassing U.S. ships. Trump made the announcement on Twitter but provided no details.
Main Street America, a network of 1,600 commercial districts covering 300,000 small businesses, has conducted a survey offering some sobering statistics on the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
President Donald Trump announced what he described as a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States” on Tuesday. But he said the executive order he plans to sign as soon as Wednesday would apply only to those seeking permanent residency and not temporary workers.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is speaking out against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's plan to reopen businesses such as gyms, nail salons, barbershops, and bowling alleys this Friday, April 24.
The Senate has approved a $483 billion coronavirus aid package after Congress and the White House reached a deal. The measure, passed Tuesday by the Senate, would replenish a small-business rescue program, provide hospitals with $75 billion more and implement a nationwide virus testing program to facilitate reopening the economy.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he had a “functional and effective” Oval Office meeting on Tuesday with President Donald Trump in which he pressed for more federal help as states try to increase testing for the coronavirus.
Oil prices are continuing to collapse, and U.S. stocks dropped to their worst loss in weeks as worries sweep markets about the economic damage caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
Rep. Nino Vitale (R-Ohio 85th District) joined hundreds of protesters at the Ohio state capitol over the weekend, making him one of the few lawmakers to give his tacit support for the small but vocal group of people who are arguing against stay-at-home orders.
Tom Prendergast, the former chairman of the MTA, spoke to Cheddar to offer advice and possible solutions to the paradox of how to run the country's largest public transit network at levels that would help NYC "reopen," while also keeping the millions of daily riders safe.
JetBlue Chairman Joel Peterson said he hoped to avoid furloughs and pay cuts that have been announced by other airlines such as United that would take place after a federally imposed deadline as a stipulation of the airline bailouts.
