China imposed restrictions on exporting two metals that are crucial to parts of the semiconductor, telecommunications and electric-vehicle industries in an escalation of the country’s tit-for-tat trade war on technology with the US and Europe.
Gallium and germanium, along with their chemical compounds, will be subject to export controls meant to protect Chinese national security starting Aug. 1, China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement Monday.
It has been revealed that two Iranians from the covert action wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Quad Force, have been plotting to assassinate top officials who served in President Trump’s government.
John Bolton is one of those who the Iranians have plotted to kill. Similar threats have also been made against former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
However, Biden has resisted publicly indicating the men, for fear it will derail the nuclear deal talks currently underway in Austria.
The Russian Foreign Ministry is pointing to a 2014 article, described as “anti-Israel” for the invasion of Ukraine. The Foreign Minister tweeted: “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault” article by John J. Mearsheimer (@ForeignAffairs, 2014).”
The article in question was written for Foreign Affairs in late 2014 by Mearsheimer:
“According to the prevailing wisdom in the West, the Ukraine crisis can be blamed almost entirely on Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin, the argument goes, annexed Crimea out of a long-standing desire to resuscitate the Soviet empire, and he may eventually go after the rest of Ukraine, as well as other countries in eastern Europe…”
“But this account is wrong: the United States and its European allies share most of the responsibility for the crisis. The taproot of the trouble is NATO enlargement, the central element of a larger strategy to move Ukraine out of Russia’s orbit and integrate it into the West.”
President Trump has announced he plans to ban TikTok in the US. The social media app is highly popular with young people. However, there are concerns that the Chinese owned app is gaining access to US teens personal data, and is a security risk.
TikTok has also seen calls for its ban in other countries over safe guarding issues. Children have been targeted by paedophiles on the app. TikTok have been criticized for not doing enough to protect children from being groomed.