This week, China banned exports of a number of vital minerals to the US, marking the most recent transfer in an escalating sequence of tit-for-tat commerce restrictions between the world’s two largest economies.
In explicitly reducing off, quite than merely proscribing, supplies of strategic significance to the semiconductor, protection, and electrical automobile sectors, China has clearly crossed a brand new line within the long-simmering commerce battle.
However on the identical time, it chosen minerals that gained’t cripple any industries—which leaves China loads of ammunition to inflict higher financial ache in response to any additional commerce restrictions that the incoming Trump administration could impose. Learn extra about what drove China’s determination, the way it impacts local weather tech and what’s prone to occur subsequent.
—James Temple
This story is a part of our MIT Expertise Evaluate Explains sequence. Let our writers untangle the advanced, messy world of expertise that can assist you perceive what’s coming subsequent. You’ll be able to learn extra from the sequence right here.
3 issues that didn’t make the ten Breakthrough Applied sciences of 2025 record
Subsequent month, MIT Expertise Evaluate will unveil the 2025 record of 10 Breakthrough Applied sciences. Yearly, our newsroom appears to be like throughout the fields we cowl for applied sciences which might be having a real breakthrough second. This annual bundle highlights the applied sciences that we expect matter most proper now.
Within the meantime, listed below are three applied sciences that we thought of together with on the 2025 record however in the end determined to go away off. And though these nominees didn’t make the lower this yr, they’re nonetheless value keeping track of. Learn the complete story.