Pence Dismisses Idea of US Buying Nokia, Ericsson to Challenge Huawei

Trump: Congress Should Expunge Impeachment, ‘Terrible’ to Rip up SOTU Speech

President Donald Trump said that Congress should expunge impeachment from his record after he was acquitted Wednesday in the Senate trial, while telling reporters that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) move to rip up his State of the Union speech on Tuesday was “disrespectful to the country.” “I thought it was a terrible thing,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “It’s illegal what she did. She broke the law.” Legal experts, however, have said that ripping up the speech wasn’t illegal because it was a copy and not an official record. The president said Friday that he didn’t know Pelosi ripped the copy of his speech until members of Congress spoke to him about it as he left the chamber. “I didn’t know that she did it until I was walking…

WASHINGTON鈥擴.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Feb. 7 declined to endorse a suggestion from U.S. Attorney General William Barr that the United States consider taking control of two major foreign rivals of China-based Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.

Barr, a former general counsel at Verizon Communications Inc., said on Thursday the United States and its allies should consider taking a “controlling stake” in Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson to counter Huawei’s dominance in next-generation 5G wireless technology.

Pence suggested an alternative approach when asked by CNBC for his response.

“Great respect to Attorney General Barr, but we believe the best way forward is what Ajit Pai announced just over the last several days,” Pence said, referring to the Federal Communications Commission’s chairman’s efforts to free up more spectrum for 5G wireless use.

“That’s the plan the president has endorsed and will be carrying forward,” Pence said, adding that the United States can expand 5G “by using the power of the free market and American companies.”

A spokeswoman for Barr declined to comment. The White House and a spokesman for Pai did not immediately comment.

Shares in Nokia rose 4 percent and Ericsson shares were up nearly 5 percent on Friday. Both companies declined to comment.

Nokia and Ericsson have a combined market capitalization of about $53 billion and it is unclear what source of funds the U.S. government could potentially tap to take stakes in the firms or if foreign regulators would approve.

In a remarkable statement underscoring how far the United States may be willing to go to counter Huawei, Barr on Thursday disclosed proposals “by the United States aligning itself with Nokia and/or Ericsson.”

Barr said the alignment could take place “through American ownership of a controlling stake, either directly or through a consortium of private American and allied companies.”

Barr said that “putting our large market and financial muscle behind one or both of these firms would make it a far more formidable competitor and eliminate concerns over its staying power, or their staying power.”

“We and our closest allies certainly need to be actively considering this approach,” he added.

By David Shepardson

This article is from the Internet:Pence Dismisses Idea of US Buying Nokia, Ericsson to Challenge Huawei

Man Pleads Guilty to Running Dark Web Service Hosting Millions of Child Pornography Images

A man who operated a web server that hosted multiple websites that allowed users to view and share child exploitation material has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. Eric Eoin Marques, 33, a dual citizen of the United States and Ireland pleaded guilty to conspiracy to advertise child pornography in a court in Maryland on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). He faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years, but with his plea agreement, he hopes to ask the federal judge to sentence him to 15 to 21 years in prison—something the judge is not bound by. Federal prosecutors say that Marques from Dublin, Ireland, was operating a free anonymous hosting service located on the “dark web”—a part of the internet that requires…