[NPR] A federal judge has ordered China's largest wind-turbine firm, Sinovel, to pay $59 million for stealing trade secrets from a Massachusetts-based technology company.
Last January, Sinovel was found guilty of stealing trade secrets in federal criminal court in Madison, Wis. The company paid an Austria-based employee of American Superconductor Corp. to steal its source code for software that powered wind turbines.
This kind of intellectual property theft has been highlighted by the Trump administration as a reason for levying 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods entering the U.S., which began on Friday. China retaliated with tariffs on $34 billion worth of U.S. goods.
Sinovel was the largest customer of American Superconductor Corp. And then the Chinese company suddenly began rejecting shipments of American Superconductor's electronic components in 2011.
The Massachusetts tech company learned that Sinovel was using a pirated version of the software it made in the wind turbines it installed.
The ordeal left American Superconductor in perilous financial shape, and Wall Street analysts wrote it off as dead. The U.S. Department of Justice said that the company lost more than $1 billion in shareholder equity and 700 jobs.
Earlier this week, American Superconductor announced it had agreed to settle the lawsuit against the Chinese company for $57.5 million in restitution. U.S. District Judge James Peterson said Sinovel has a year to pay the restitution and it must also pay a fine of $1.5 million.
[Wash Examiner] Federal immigration agents stationed in Laredo, Texas, uncovered approximately $43 million of counterfeit clothing and accessories in a single bust in June.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency largely known for deporting illegal immigrants, said its Homeland Security Investigation agents found more 181,615 fake designer items that were being moved by a criminal organization in Laredo.
The same unnamed organization was busted in May for attempting to export to Mexico $16 million worth of goods that violated trademarks.
In mid-June, a large shipment of boxes from China arrived at an international terminal in Laredo. HSI was alerted because the shipping labels on the boxes were made out to addresses that don't exist.
After three days of watching packages being moved and stored, HSI moved in and seized 795 boxes worth of nonbrand goods meant to imitate Apple, Chanel, Coach, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Nike, Sony, and Under Armor products. The June bust was the largest-ever in Laredo, one of Border Patrol's nine sectors on the Southwest border.
"Criminal elements use every and any opportunity to sell substandard and counterfeit goods to the American public," acting deputy special agent in charge of HSI operations in Laredo, Jesus Adrian Flores, said in a statement.
ICE said the goods likely got into the U.S. by finding a way to "bribe Mexican cartels who often extort Mexican regulatory and law enforcement officials so that the merchandise passes without being inspected or paying import duties."
[Red Ice.tv] Velaphi Khumalo called for white South Africans to be subjected to what 'Hitler did to the Jews'. He has been told to issue a public apology.
The SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) argued that a public apology from Velaphi Khumalo will suffice as punishment for his racial utterances. Khumalo appeared before the Equality Court for a Facebook comment in which he called for the massacre of white South Africans.
The SAHRC settled with Khumalo ordering the accused to apologise publicly, as that would deter other South Africans from making racial utterances. Khumalo was also ordered to pay R30 000 to charity.
Blacks must do to whites what “Hitler did to the Jews” – Khumalo
[PRESSTV] The United States has imposed sanctions on three senior Nicaraguan officials, including the country’s police chief, accusing them of attacking anti-government protesters, human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. abuses and corruption.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement on Thursday that the sanctioned individuals included Francisco Javier Diaz Madriz, a commissioner with Nicaragua’s National Police, a man associated with violence perpetrated by pro-government groups and a governing party official.
The sanctions were imposed on the officials because of concerns over the "ongoing crisis in Nicaragua," including "violence perpetrated by security forces and others that have resulted in the death of at least 220 demonstrators, and nearly 1,500 injured," the statement said.
Under the sanctions, assets belonging to the targeted officials in the US are blocked and American citizens are prohibited from engaging in transactions with them or entities they own or control, according to the Treasury statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2018 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Just move to LA or Chicago. Your undocumented workers there will still vote for you.
[PRESSTV] US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has arrived in North Korea to press Pyongyang for a “more detailed commitment” to denuclearization following Kim Jong-un’s historic summit with President Donald Trump.
The top US diplomat met with Kim Yong-chol, a senior North Korean official who, along with Pompeo, played a key role in arranging last month’s meeting in Singapore.
Pompeo is accompanied by North Asia experts from the State Department, CIA spy agency and National Security Council and is due to hold talks with senior officials in Pyongyang on Friday and Saturday over denuclearization as well as return of the remains of US troops missing during the Korean war in 1950s.
Ahead of his visit, Pompeo tweeted: “Looking forward to continuing our work toward the final, fully verified denuclearization of #DPRK, as agreed to by Chairman Kim. Good to have press along for the trip.”
Posted by: Fred ||
07/07/2018 00:00 ||
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Via Drudge. Brought to you by Wall Street and the American consumer.
[Express] CHINA’s military reforms have been revealed by leaked internal documents, which indicate Beijing intends to expand its military might offshore so that the country will be allowed to "manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war" and overtake the United States in military strength.
The leaked documents were published by the Central Military Commission in February for the purpose of spreading President Xi Jinping’s "thought on strengthening the armed forces".
If the reforms go ahead, they will lead to heightened tensions with China’s neighbouring countries, including Japan, in the East and South China Seas and the US.
The documents read: "As we open up and expand our national interests beyond borders, we desperately need a comprehensive protection of our own security around the globe."
The report adds a military expansion will allow China to "more effectively create a situation, manage a crisis, contain a conflict, win a war, defend the expansion of our country’s strategic interests in an all-round fashion and realise the goals set by the party and Chairman Xi".
It also makes clear from the start that the People’s Liberation Army is in line with the "core" leader Xi Jinping and agrees and adheres to his thought on socialism for a new era.
According to Newsweek, the authors argue a "strong military might is important for a country to grow from being big to being strong," indicating that the US, Russia and Japan are the example of it.
The document gives particular importance to avoiding the Thucydides Trap, which is when a rising power comes into conflict with a more established enemy.
The report said a strong military is the best way to "escape the obsession that war is unavoidable between an emerging power and a ruling hegemony".
A direct confrontation with the US is referred to as "a slower vehicle on a curve", which means it is in decline but it also claims the aim of the reforms is to surpass the American military might.
Posted by: Fat Bob Gleager4645 ||
07/07/2018 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
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#1
Not suprising. The sea trade lanes in the South China Sea and near Indonesia are the busiest in the world. Who ever controls them controls a lot of the economies of the world. Currently the US keeps them open and anyone that wants to seize control has to deal with the US.
China wants this control, hence the artificial islands and the bullying of neighbors in that region.
[McClatchy] After 18 months of Donald Trump's "America First" presidency, European leaders meeting with him next week fear the United States may change its traditional course and begin to bring American troops home from the continent.
It comes as nations, especially in Eastern Europe, are lobbying the United States to increase the number of troops on the continent as they worry about combating an increasingly aggressive Russia. Makes sense to move them east as that is now where the threat is. France/Germany... not so much except for maybe the hospital.
Trump has talked about bringing U.S. troops home from around the globe since he was on the campaign trail espousing a strategy he dubbed "America First" but he has yet to act.
Continued on Page 49
#2
President Trump will help those who help themselves. Freeloaders need not apply. In major policy issues like these, Trump means what he says. He is not in the nuance business.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/07/2018 2:10 Comments ||
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#3
In major policy issues like these, Trump means what he says.
This is one thing that freaks people out about Trump. They can't decide if he actually means what he says or whether he is just savagely trolling them. (hint: the answer is yes)
#4
EUropean leaders don't worry about Muslims settlers in their countries. And they don't worry about their own populace - that is treated by Muslims as prey - raising against them. They do worry about "Palestine". Let them worry about Trump.
#6
Someone tell me why a continent of wealthy democracies can't fund their own defense? Of course they can. They just don't want to. Why should they when they have a sucker to do it for them?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
07/07/2018 5:51 Comments ||
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#7
Someone tell me why a continent of wealthy democracies can't fund their own defense?
Where's the graft in that? I bet that if the Euros put their minds to it they could scam and skim their own defense budgets just fine.
#8
Given that so many American ancestors spent the 18th and 19th Century being kicked out or escaping the place, I all can say is Bye. Basically a big fail along side Justinian's attempt to resurrect the old Roman Empire. They avoided Moscow's hard Marxism to take Brussels' soft Marxism. Yeah, great.
#9
The issue could be approached from a business development standpoint. Each country receiving U.S. protection, submits compensation to (TBD) to the U.S. based on the number of citizens and geography to be protected. Pay as you go, multi-year contract.
[ABC] A proposed plan to rescue the boys soccer team trapped in a partly flooded cave in northern Thailand could launch as soon as this weekend, ABC News has learned.
According to an internal U.S. government report obtained by ABC News, the Royal Thai navy, supported by divers from the United Kingdom, the United States and other nations, has briefed Thai military leadership, interior ministry officials and the provincial governor on a proposed operation to evacuate the 12 boys and their coach from the miles-long cave in Chiang Rai province, alongside experienced divers in what is being called a "buddy dive." Thailand’s prime minister will be briefed on the proposal Saturday morning local time.
Despite the risks, the accelerated timeline would take advantage of the children still having high oxygen levels within the cave complex, their relatively good health and also the fact that this would occur before the heavy rains are forecast to hit the region Sunday, which could raise water levels inside the cave and make a rescue mission even more precarious, according to the document.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
But then who will install your gov't housing solar panels? How will you watch the Boks or charge your cellie? Think man, THINK ! 
[BBC] A self-styled traditional healer in Nigeria has died after one of his clients tested his "bullet-proof" charms on him.
[McClatchy] After 18 months of Donald Trump's "America First" presidency, European leaders meeting with him next week fear the United States may change its traditional course and begin to bring American troops home from the continent.
