US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator John Cornyn are lobbying hard for a ban on government business with Chinese chipmakers, Politico reported on Thursday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
The senators want to get their amendment which blocks federal access to semiconductor products and services made by Chinese firms into the final version of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the report said.
The measure would broaden provisions in Section 889 that already prohibit government agencies from doing business with Chinese telecommunications companies or contractors who use their technologies, according to Politico.
Schumer and Cornyn got their proposal added to the Senate NDAA last month in the October managers package and are now working to convince their colleagues, the report added.
The fiscal 2023 NDAA must pass the Senate and House of Representatives later this year before it can be sent to the White House for President Joe Biden to sign into law.
Last month, the Biden administration published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut off China from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US tools.
US senators push to ban government deals with Chinese chipmakers — Politico
https://arab.news/5tgr6
US senators push to ban government deals with Chinese chipmakers — Politico
128 journalists killed worldwide in 2025: press group
- The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025
BRUSSELS, Belgium: A total of 128 journalists were killed around the world in 2025, more than half of them in the Middle East, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said Thursday.
The grim toll, up from 2024, “is not just a statistic, it’s a global red alert for our colleagues,” IFJ general secretary Anthony Bellanger told AFP.
The press group voiced particular alarm over the situation in the Palestinian territories, where it recorded 56 media professionals killed in 2025 as Israel’s war with Hamas ground on in Gaza.
“We’ve never seen anything like this: so many deaths in such a short time, in such a small area,” Bellanger said.
Journalists were also killed in Yemen, Ukraine, Sudan, Peru, India and elsewhere.
Bellanger condemned what he called “impunity” for those behind the attacks. “Without justice, it allows the killers of journalists to thrive,” he warned.
Meanwhile, the IFJ said that across the globe 533 journalists were currently in prison — a figure that has more than doubled over the past half-decade.
China once again topped the list as the worst jailer of reporters with 143 behind bars, including in Hong Kong, where authorities have been criticized by Western nations for imposing national security laws quashing dissent.
The IFJ’s count for the number of journalists killed is typically far higher than that of Reporters Without Borders, due to different counting methods. This year’s IFJ toll also included nine accidental deaths.
Reporters Without Borders said 67 journalists were killed in the course of their work this year, while UNESCO puts the figure at 93.
