** The chip powering the Mate 60 Pro phone of sanctioned Chinese company Huawei is not as advanced as American chips, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday, arguing that it shows U.S. curbs on shipments to the telecoms equipment giant are working.
** In 2018, Akron-based FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a Republican Governors Association-affiliated dark money group backing GOP nominee Mike DeWine of Ohio in a competitive race for governor. The previously undisclosed money reveals how invested FirstEnergy was in the outcome of the Ohio governor’s race between DeWine and Democratic challenger Rich Cordray.
** Tesla has announced aggressive price cuts in China and Germany, shortly after reducing prices in the United States, as the world’s largest maker of electric vehicles (EV) faces declining sales and growing competition in major markets.
** U.S. traffic safety officials have ordered Tesla to recall nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks due to a safety issue.
** A newly built LanzaJet factory in Georgia will be one of the first in the world to use ethanol to make commercial quantities of a cleaner jet fuel.
** A new report says Gulf Coast refineries are planning 10 new plastics production plants and 17 expansion projects over the next five years, undermining emissions targets and corporate efforts to reduce plastics use.
** NASA’s administrator is once again making outrageous claims about China’s space capabilities — and in the process, fueling the off-world rivalry between the two. “We believe that a lot of [China’s] so-called civilian space program is a military program,” Administrator Bill Nelson said during remarks on Capitol Hill this week, per The Guardian. “And I think, in effect, we are in a race.”
World
** Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported Monday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity.