US Pauses Israel Bomb Shipment, UK Military Hack & Huawei Chip Clampdown

Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.

On today's podcast:

(1) The US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel over worries about Israel nearing a decision to launch a wide-ranging military offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, which President Joe Biden opposes, according to a senior administration official.

(2) The US has revoked licenses allowing Huawei Technologies to buy semiconductors from Qualcomm and Intel, according to people familiar with the matter, further tightening export restrictions against the Chinese telecom equipment maker.

(3) Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Serbia on the second leg of his European tour as he sought to tighten Beijing’s embrace of the Balkan nation in contrast with a more difficult relationship with most of Europe.

(4) China-based ByteDance made clear it won’t comply with a new US law requiring it to sell its popular TikTok video-sharing app, setting up what likely will be a prolonged court battle pitting free-speech rights against national-security interests that could end up at the Supreme Court.

(5) China is likely using data from hacks of UK government institutions to build profiles of British military personnel and people in other sensitive roles as Beijing expands espionage against the US and its allies, government officials and cyber experts said.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.