Torbjørn Færøvik's Blog, page 60

How rare earth minerals could give China the upper hand in U.S. trade talks

China dominates the global supply chain for rare earths, mining about 70% and refining 90% of the materials used to produce everything from wind turbines and defense equipment to electric vehicles and car seats. The United States produces virtually none of the world’s rare earths, whose extraction can be devastating for the environment.That economic vulnerability has come into sharper focus since

China has a stranglehold on the world’s rare-earths supply chain. Can Australia break it?

Weeks after China retaliated against Donald Trump’s tariffs by suspending exports of a range of rare-earth elements and related high-powered magnets, Ford was forced to pause a production line in Chicago. Days later, executives from other major carmakers, including General Motors and Toyota, told the White House their suppliers faced an impending shortage of necessary materials that could shut

40 billion tons and the future of Earth ― It’s all in China’s hands

Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia represents the largest facility worldwide that produces rare earth elements from both extractable reserves and production perspectives. The mine operates as China’s vital resource foundation while being a fundamental asset for global technological applications since it governs access to multiple advanced technologies. The mining operation produces major

The Messy Reality of Philippine Democracy

On March 11, 2025, Police Major General Nicolas Torre III, chief of the Philippines’ Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, stood before former President Rodrigo Duterte and read out his Miranda Rights. “You have the right to remain silent,” Torre said, after he informed Duterte that the International Criminal Court had issued a warrant of arrest for crimes against humanity.  “You have

Torbjørn Færøvik: «Når det blir fred, skal jeg lage kyllingsuppe til barna mine»

«Når det blir fred, skal jeg kjøpe en kylling og lage kyllingsuppe til barna mine», sa en håpefull kinesisk mor i 1945. I Europa kapitulerte Nazi-Tyskland 8. mai, men i Kina fortsatte krigen de neste tre månedene. Japanernes invasjon hadde begynt så tidlig som i 1937. Åtte år senere lå nesten tjue millioner kinesere igjen på slagmarken. De som ennå levde, lengtet bare etter fred og kyllingsuppe.

AI hits an already weak jobs market

China’s eagerness to adopt artificial intelligence comes just as economic growth is slowing, putting millions of routine jobs at risk. “I’m planning to get rid of 360 [Security Technology’s] entire marketing department. This way the company can save tens of millions a year,” founder and chair Zhou Hongyi said in a Chinese-language video on Friday night, translated by CNBC. It’s since been

China, U.S. officials reach agreement for allowing rare-earth, tech trade. Now it’s up to Trump and Xi

The U.S. and China have reached an agreement on trade, representatives from both sides said after a second day of high-level talks in London, with the deal now awaiting a nod from the leaders of the two countries.“We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters. That echoed comments

Global economy on track for worst decade since 1960s, World Bank warns

Global economic growth is on track for its weakest decade since the 1960s, according to a new analysis by the World Bank, which cites President Donald Trump’s trade war as a major factor weighing on economies worldwide.The World Bank expects Trump’s barrage of new tariffs on America’s trading partners to whittle down global economic growth to its lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis when

US and China agree on plan to ease export controls after trade talks in London

The United States and China have agreed on a framework to implement their trade truce, officials on both sides said Wednesday, after concluding two days of talks in London to defuse tensions and ease export restrictions that threaten to disrupt global manufacturing.American and Chinese negotiators agreed “in principle” to a framework on how to implement the consensus reached by the previous round

Trump’s tariff fallout? It’s worse than we previously thought, says OECD

President Donald Trump’s trade war will wreak greater economic damage than previously expected, both in the United States and everywhere else, according to new forecasts by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. In a report Tuesday, the group of 38 mostly wealthy nations sharply downgraded its 2025 economic growth forecast for America to 1.6% from the 2.2% projected in