Florida-based steel traders John Unsalan and Sergey Karpushkin were sentenced to six years and 21 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in a scheme to help Russian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko violate U.S. sanctions, DOJ announced.

China’s trade remedy bureau chief met with the EU April 10 to express Beijing’s “strong dissatisfaction and firm opposition” to the bloc’s recent launch of an investigation on Chinese wind turbine suppliers (see 2404100010). “This is a protectionist behavior that harms a fair competitive environment in the name of fair competition,” the official told the EU in Brussels, according to an unofficial translation of a readout released by China’s Ministry of Commerce. China said it “urges the EU to immediately stop and correct its wrong practices.”

The FCC's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040) is an "unlawful exercise" of the commission's statutory authority "and may damage American students' health and diminish their educational achievement," said Michigan State University law professor Adam Candeub in a 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court amicus brief Friday (docket 23-60641).

China’s Ministry of Commerce criticized the Biden administration’s annual report released this week on foreign trade barriers, saying it “arbitrarily accused China of so-called ‘non-market’ policies and practices and barriers in agricultural products, data policies and other aspects.” A ministry spokesperson told reporters. in response to a question about the report, that “whether a country's trade policy constitutes a barrier should be judged based on whether it violates” World Trade Organization rules, according to an unofficial translation. “The United States should stop making false accusations against other countries, earnestly abide by WTO rules, and jointly safeguard a fair and just international trade order.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta's (D) answering brief March 13 in defense of AB-587, the state's social media transparency law, "does nothing to change the key facts and law that compel reversal" in X's favor, said the company's reply brief Wednesday (docket 24-271) in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court in support of that reversal.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel appears likely to circulate proposed net neutrality rules for a vote at the commission’s April 25 meeting, which would mean releasing a draft Thursday under current commission policy. A prime motivation for moving now would be avoiding having the order overturned by a Congressional Review Act vote, should Republicans take the House and Senate in the November elections, said industry officials supporting and opposing new rules.

China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry objected to cyber-related sanctions announced earlier this week by the U.S. and the U.K., calling them “groundless.”

State enforcers of net neutrality report no legal actions against ISPs more than five years after the laws took effect. A Communications Daily public records request showed that Washington state’s attorney general's office received 21 complaints related to net neutrality since enacting its first law in March 2018, but most were resolved informally. Half the states with such laws told us they hadn’t received complaints.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals should affirm the district court’s denial of X’s motion for a preliminary injunction to block California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) from enforcing the state’s social media transparency law, AB-587 (see 2401020002), said five First Amendment and internet law scholars in an amicus brief Tuesday (docket 24-271) in support of the law.

Pole owners and attachers squabbled this week over who should pay for replacing poles. The New York Public Service Commission posted comments about the New York Department of Public Service (DPS) staff’s Dec. 18 white paper that recommends one-touch, make-ready for simple attachments and other ways to update pole-attachment rules to speed broadband deployment through infrastructure process updates. Raising safety concerns, electric companies urged the PSC to reject the DPS staff’s recommendation of halting the blanket prohibition of alternative pole-attachment methods.