Under pressure from the Trump White House, Google is cutting off the embattled Chinese mobile phone giant Huawei from some updates to the Android operating system.

It's a major blow to the world's second largest smart phone maker.  Huawei now has virtually no chance of eclipsing Samsung at the top spot, and may not be able to market its phone outside China by the end of the year.

The company says it's working on its own operating system, and will continue to provide software updates.  But Google apparently will not let Huawei phones get the latest updates from its play store, and new Huawei phones will not be sold with the latest versions of Android - and thus will be deprived of all of the best Android goodies like Google Maps, YouTube, and, most crucially, the full range of third-party Android apps.

In addition to this seemingly mortal blow, Bloomberg news reports that major US chip makers Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom have told workers they will no longer sell to Huawei.

All this started when US and Western intelligence agencies accused Huawei of working closely with Chinese state security, and suggesting the its products were susceptible to spying by Beijing.  Huawei denies this, but a major campaign to keep Huawei's kit from being used in the new 5G networks being built around the world is at least partially working - Australia joined the US and Japan in this, and other countries are considering are partially doing so or considering it.