Policy “mistakes,” especially the Trump administration’s Section 301 tariffs on Chinese imports, “continue to be the biggest threats” to global economic growth in 2019, IHS Markit said in a study released Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. A “perfect storm” of economic developments “shook markets in late 2018,” including U.S.- China trade frictions, and the U.S. government shutdown, it said. “However, it’s important to note that the stock market is not a reliable predictor of recessions, and the probability of a recession in 2019 remains low.” IHS expects the global economy to grow at a rate of 3 percent in 2019 and 2.8 percent in 2020, “below the rates seen in 2017 and 2018,” it said.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., filed the Telecommunications Denial Order Enforcement Act Wednesday to require the president to bar export of U.S. telecom equipment to any China-based telecom company that violates U.S. export control laws. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona were lead Democratic sponsors. The bill cites Huawei and ZTE, which have drawn lawmaker ire over spying allegations, as potential violators of U.S. sanctions. The legislation would bar any “official of an executive agency” from modifying an export denial order against a violating Chinese telecom company unless the president certifies to Congress the company hasn't violated U.S. laws for at least a year and is cooperating in U.S.-led investigations into its activities. President Donald Trump in 2018 instigated a settlement that lifted the Commerce Department ban on U.S. companies selling telecom software and equipment to ZTE (see 1807130048), which also drew congressional pique. “Huawei is effectively an intelligence-gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party whose founder and CEO was an engineer for the People’s Liberation Army,” Cotton said. “If Chinese telecom companies like Huawei violate our sanctions or export control laws, they should receive nothing less than the [corporate] death penalty.”

Two Ukrainian men were charged with computer-related conspiracy for allegedly hacking into SEC computer systems and profiting from stolen data, DOJ said Tuesday. The 16-count indictment against Artem Radchenko, 27, and Oleksandr Ieremenko, 26, included securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, computer fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and computer fraud charges.

Norway could unseat South Korea as the nation most prone to deliberate GPS signal jamming by a neighboring country, the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation blogged Friday. It said since 2017, five major GPS/Global Navigation Satellite System jamming incidents have been reported in northern Norway, and Russia has been the cause whenever the source was tracked down.

Continued economic "prosperity" is no "foregone conclusion” amid the broadly held concern about the impact to the U.S. economy of the tariffs on Chinese imports on steel and aluminum imports and “corresponding retaliation against U.S. exports," said Americans for Free Trade in a “welcome” letter Wednesday to newly elected and returning members of Congress. “We agree that China must be held to account for its violations of our trade laws and the international trade obligations all nations share,” said the coalition, whose 150 members include CTA, the Information Technology Industry Council and other tech groups. “Imposition of a tariff of up to 25 percent on $250 billion worth of China products -- and the threat to impose a similar duty on $267 billion more of such products -- will not remedy the situation. We continue to see stories on a daily basis about companies, both large and small, who are being harmed.” The coalition urged Congress to “exercise its oversight role on trade policy matters to prevent further harm ... from both the existing and proposed tariffs.”

ICANN wants feedback on a proposed amendment to its IANA contract with Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), which manages operation of the Internet Assigned Number Authority functions, it said Monday evening. The change would allow the Customer Standing Committee (CSC), which reviews PTI's monthly performance against the IANA naming function service level agreements, and PTI/ICANN to modify SLAs without having to do a contract amendment each time. Instead, an SLA change would be subject to a process that would enable amendments in a timely fashion but still require consultations with IANA function naming customers -- such as generic top-level domain name registries or country code TLD managers -- and the broader ICANN community as appropriate. Once the IANA contract is amended, the table containing current SLAs will no longer be included in it but made available on pti.icann.org or iana.org. The table may then be changed only when the change process is followed. PTI/ICANN would consider feasibility and costs of any potential amendments before a broader consultation. Comments are due Feb. 18, and a staff report is scheduled for March 6.

TomTom announced autonomous driving collaborations with automotive product makers. TomTom and Denso teams will partner in Japan, with TomTom’s HD Map working with Denso in-vehicle camera and radar sensors on localization, perception and path planning, it said Friday. Delphi and TomTom are working toward powertrain systems that know what’s up ahead, they said.

American Doreen Bogdan-Martin started her job as director of the ITU Telecom Development Bureau Tuesday. Bogdan-Martin was elected to the post last year, making her the highest-ranking woman in ITU history and the first person from the U.S. in 30 years to get one of the five leadership positions there (see 1811010052). “I am excited at the opportunity to explore new ideas, new avenues 4 collaboration + a new direction to make a difference, improve lives and achieve [sustainable development] for all,” she tweeted Tuesday.

China won’t “officially comment” on reports that President Donald Trump will sign an executive order in January barring U.S. companies from using Huawei and ZTE telecom equipment on national security grounds because the reports have “not been confirmed,” said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson Thursday. “Despite not having any evidence, certain countries have politicized the normal exchanges and cooperation in science and technology and even obstructed and restricted the normal operations of Chinese businesses on unwarranted charges and under the pretext of national security,” she said. “This actually amounts to shutting their own door to openness, progress and fairness.”

Two state-linked Chinese hackers were charged with cybercrimes targeting intellectual property and confidential business information in at least a dozen countries, DOJ announced Thursday. For more than a decade, Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong, who remain at large, committed cyber intrusion with the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s Tianjin State Security Bureau, Justice alleged. “The defendants were part of a group that hacked computers in at least a dozen countries and gave China’s intelligence service access to sensitive business information,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein alleged, saying he hopes the defendants one day “face justice under the rule of law in a federal courtroom.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., lauded the announcement: “A truly effective response will require a coordinated approach with our allies and a comprehensive strategy to protect our national security and enhance U.S. competitiveness and resiliency.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen voiced concerns the activity violates 2015 U.S.-China cyber commitments by Chinese President Xi Jinping to “refrain from conducting or knowingly supporting” cybertheft.