USA

(Reuters) - Chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (2330.TW) $12 billion investment in the United States will increase U.S. economic independence from China, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement early on Friday.

TSMC, a major supplier to Apple Inc (AAPL.O), announced on Friday it will build a $12 billion chip factory in Arizona, in what the company called a “strong partnership” with the U.S. government. Pompeo said the investment will strengthen U.S.-Taiwan ties.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action that could ramp up tensions with China.

The U.S. Commerce Department said it was amending an export rule to “strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology.”

The department added the “announcement cuts off Huawei’s efforts to undermine U.S. export controls.”

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five US sailors have been evacuated with coronavirus from an aircraft carrier despite extensive screening as the warship prepares its return to sea following a major outbreak, a US official confirmed.

After testing positive but asymptomatic, the five spent two weeks in quarantine in Guam where the nuclear-powered USS Theodore Roosevelt is docked, the official said.

After each registered negative twice in subsequent tests, they were permitted back aboard the ship.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US Senate approved legislation calling on President Donald Trump’s administration to toughen its response to China’s crackdown on its Uighur Muslim minority, the latest push in Washington to punish China as Trump blames Beijing for worsening the covid-19 pandemic.

The Republican-led Senate passed the bill by unanimous consent, without a roll-call vote.

WASHINGTON, May 15 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Donald Trump further hardened his rhetoric towards China on Thursday, saying he no longer wishes to speak with Pres Xi Jinping and warning darkly he might cut ties over the rival superpower’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tensions have ratcheted up between Washington and Beijing as they trade barbs over the origin of the pandemic – which first appeared in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and which Trump has dubbed the “Plague from China.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out Thursday at Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans seeking to slow work on a fresh round of coronavirus relief. The White House responded minutes later with a threat that President Donald Trump would veto the $3 trillion economic package Democrats have proposed.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Kingdom urged Myanmar’s military Thursday to extend its recently announced cease-fire to include the escalating conflict in northern Rakhine and Chin states where civilians are suffering a heavy toll at the time of the coronavirus pandemic.

The UK Mission to the United Nations made the appeal after a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council that it called because of growing concern about fighting in the two states between government forces and the Arakan Army, a well-armed guerrilla force representing the Buddhist Rakhine minority.

ATLANTA (AP) — Democratic candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that if he wins the presidency, he would not use his power to pardon Donald Trump or stop any investigations of Trump and his associates. “It is not something the president is entitled to do, to direct a prosecution or decide to drop a case,” Biden said on MSNBC.

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he intends to prepare for future pandemics by replenishing the national stockpile and bringing manufacturing of critical supplies and equipment back to the U.S. His comments came the same day a whistleblower told Congress the Trump administration had failed to properly prepare for the current pandemic.

“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Trump said Thursday during a visit to a Pennsylvania distributor of medical equipment. “My goal is to produce everything America needs for ourselves and then export to the world, including medicines.”

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two weeks into the reopening of Texas, coronavirus cases are climbing. New outbreaks still crop up. And at Guero’s Taco Bar in Austin, which offers the occasional celebrity sighting, a log of every diner and where they sat is begrudgingly in the works.

“It seems like a huge invasion of privacy,” said owner Cathy Lipincott, who is nonetheless trying to comply with Austin’s local public health guidelines by asking, but not requiring, customers to give their information.