China banned sale of these minerals to the U.S. It matters to all of us

China banned sale of these minerals to the U.S. It matters to all of us

The ban will challenge many semiconductor manufacturers in the coming months. After two years of flat consumer demand, exacerbated by the global semiconductor shortage, many companies are predicted to struggle to stay afloat. Access to critical raw materials like gallium, germanium, and antimony is becoming increasingly important due to the heightened demand for electronics due to AI.

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How is the US Convincing the Philippines to Destroy Itself?

As China rises, Asia rises with it. The Southeast Asian state of the Philippines stood to rise alongside the rest of the region until relatively recently as the United States successfully convinces the Philippines to do otherwise. 

How is the US Convincing the Philippines to Destroy Itself? (archived)

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PH’s PressONE is funded by several US front organizations:

The Philippine Fact-Checker Incubator was established with the financial backing of Facebook, in collaboration with VERA Files and Rappler. The incubated organizations include ABS-CBN News & Current Affairs, Manila Broadcasting Company, MindaNews, Philstar.com, PressONE.ph, and Probe Productions. They are accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network. – PFCIPoytner.

Poynter Institute has been funded by the Gates Foundation, the Koch Network, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Omidyar Network, and Open Society Foundations.  Other sponsors are CNN, the Scripps Howard Foundations, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation, TEGNA Foundation, etc..

Front Organizations

Trump and Biden, Republicans and Democrats all agree: affordable Chinese cars should be banned

Trump and Biden, Republicans and Democrats all agree: affordable Chinese cars should be banned

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Trump’s attacks on Chinese cars strike a chord — with both parties

“Ohio knows all too well how China illegally subsidizes its companies, putting our workers out of jobs and undermining entire industries from steel to solar manufacturing,” Brown said in a statement. “We can’t wait for China to run this same playbook in the auto industry — we need strong rules, including but not limited to tariffs, to stop a flood of Chinese electric vehicles that threaten Ohio auto jobs.”

He said the average price gap between a Chinese vehicle and its U.S.-made counterpart ranges from 44 percent to 179 percent. “That is a massive gap,” the executive said. “Tariffs alone aren’t going to take care of that.”

Reuters: Mexico yields to US pressure on incentives for Chinese car makers

He said that such incentives have declined during the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in late 2018, although they have been offered to large investors such as Audi.

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is the United States:

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Apple Now Supports A Federal Right To Repair Law (Its Lawyers Will Help Write)

Apple Now Supports A Federal Right To Repair Law (Its Lawyers Will Help Write)

Here’s the thing: most of these companies haven’t genuinely changed their stripes. They just know that the bipartisan popularity of these reforms make it impossible for them to continue actively opposing them. So what they’re doing is lending their support for state laws, provided said laws exempt most of the key industries engaged in the dumbest behaviors.

US tightens rules on AI chip sales to China in blow to Nvidia

US tightens rules on AI chip sales to China in blow to Nvidia

Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang told the Financial Times earlier this year that the 2022 controls had left the Silicon Valley company with its “hands tied behind our back” by barring sales of its most advanced chips to China. He has said further restrictions could seriously harm US chipmakers by eating into their ability to finance investment.

Related:

Updated US export controls could cover ASML’s workhorse machine, dealing China’s chip ambitions a heavy blow

China ups export curbs on key EV battery component, safeguarding graphite amid US tensions

Senator Warren accuses Pentagon appointees of using position for “personal profit”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the Pentagon Wednesday with ethics concerns with the office dedicated to private funding defense technology.

The OSC’s two special government employees work at WestExec Advisors* and New Vista Capital — two firms that work on defense and technology consulting.

Senator Warren accuses Pentagon appointees of using position for “personal profit”

Related:

WestExec Advisors LLC is a consulting firm founded in 2017 by Antony Blinken [State Department], Michèle Flournoy, Sergio Aguirre, and Nitin Chadda, all former Obama administration officials. Lisa Monaco, Robert O. Work, Avril Haines [DNI], David S. Cohen [CIA], and Jen Psaki have also been WestExec employees.

Wikipedia

How Biden’s Foreign-Policy Team Got Rich

Is China really buying up U.S. farmland? Here’s what we found

Is China really buying up U.S. farmland? Here’s what we found

A review by NBC News of thousands of documents filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, shows very few purchases by Chinese buyers in the past year and a half — fewer than 1,400 acres in a country with 1.3 billion acres of agricultural land. In fact, the total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%.