🌍 China imposes metal export curb

Hi there Intriguer. We love sports as much as the next fan… unless the next fan is Ochirvaani Batbold: he’s cycling 10,000km from his home in Mongolia to see Manchester United play for the first time. And he’s on track to be there smashing an Old Trafford pie by December.

Today’s briefing is a 5 min read:

• 🇨🇳 China restricts key metal exports in tit-for-tat.

• 🇸🇳 Senegal just stepped back from the brink.

• ➕ Plus: A major milestone in Indonesia, how the papers are covering Vietnam banning the Barbie movie, and why folks in Jakarta are googling ‘treasure’.

1. 🇨🇳 China: Beijing has cancelled next week’s visit by Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat. China didn’t immediately offer a reason for its decision.

2. 🇳🇴 Norway: Former Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will stay on as NATO Secretary-General for another year, pushing back a contentious decision on his successor. It’s the fourth time NATO members have extended his term.

3. 🇸🇧 Solomon Islands: Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare is seeking to review his country’s security pact with Australia, following a visit by Australia’s defence minister. The Australian minister’s visit came days before Sogavare’s planned trip to China this week.

4. 🇬🇹 Guatemala: A court has ordered the review of last month’s first round election results, following a petition by several parties. Some observers assess that local power brokers may be creating the conditions for an “electoral coup”.

5. 🇰🇪 Kenya: Oxford has presented 98 cows to two Maasai families during a traditional ‘cleansing’ ceremony, after a Kenyan man found Maasai artefacts in one of the university’s museums. The families welcomed the gesture, but said they expect compensation for the items they say were stolen.

🇨🇳 China | Tech

China restricts key metal exports

Beijing is restricting the export of niche metals used in semiconductors, citing national security grounds. Chinese firms looking to sell certain gallium and germanium products abroad will need a special licence from 1 August.

Been a while since you took chemistry?

• 📟 Gallium is a soft, silvery metal used in advanced circuitry, and

• 🔭 Germanium is a brittle, grey metal used in advanced optics

They’re the ‘special sauce’ in everything from semiconductors, LEDs, and niche comms gear, through to weapons-sighting and night-vision systems.

And China produces 98% of the world’s gallium and 80% of the germanium. So its new export curbs will be felt just about everywhere.

Why’d China do this?

• The official statement (in Mandarin) says it was to “safeguard national security and interests”, and

• State media then said the quiet bit out loud, linking the new measures to the West “relentlessly stepping up crackdowns on China's technological development”.

Intrigue's take: When the world’s two largest economies get into a trade war, collateral damage is inevitable. That explains some of the early reactions:

• 🇰🇷 South Korea has called an emergency meeting on the new rules

• 🇯🇵 Japan says it’s scrutinising China’s rules for WTO violations, and

• 🇪🇺 The EU was quick to express… “concern” (🔥🔥🔥🔥)

But the move will impact China, too: it risks vindicating concerns about China’s coercive economic policies, and accelerating the West’s “de-risking”.

For now, the new process is technically just a licensing requirement; a lot will depend on what China does with it. And that probably gives China leverage.

Also worth noting:

• Gallium and germanium are also used in solar panels and EVs.

• The Netherlands just expanded (on Friday) its own restrictions on the export of advanced machinery that produces semiconductors.

• Washington is reportedly looking to limit China’s access to cloud services provided by US companies such as Amazon and Microsoft.

📰 How newspapers covered…

Vietnam banning the upcoming Barbie movie

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🇸🇳 Senegal | Elections

Senegal steps back from the brink

In a highly anticipated speech, Senegalese President Macky Sall announced Monday that he won’t seek a controversial third term in February’s elections.

Why the controversy?

• ⛔ Senegal’s constitution says third terms aren’t even allowed, but

• 📜 A recent constitutional revision made each term shorter, and

• ⏲️ Sall’s supporters were arguing that this reset the clock for him

Sall himself was keeping pretty coy there for a while, dropping a “ni oui, ni non” (neither yes nor no) when asked if he’d run again. So when his fiercest critic was barred from office this year, it seemed something was up.

Intrigue’s take: Now that the president has ruled out a third term, there’s some relief that Senegal’s institutions will be spared this particular test.

But this saga is a reminder that democracies don’t rest on a constitution alone, nor are they defended by institutions alone. Much still comes down to people; whether it’s the thousands of recent protestors, or the president’s acknowledgement on Monday that "Senegal is more than me."

Also worth noting:

• Courts in Senegal have this year convicted firebrand opposition figure Ousmane Sonko of libel and “corrupting the youth”, effectively barring him from running for president next year.

• Protests broke out after Sonko’s convictions, leading to several deaths.

➕ Extra Intrigue

Here’s what people around the world were googling yesterday, Tuesday 4 July.

• Internet users in the 🇬🇧 UK were busy searching for ‘Kyle Richards’, to get the latest deets on the end of the reality TV star’s relationship.

• 🇮🇩 Indonesian K-pop fans inundated Google with searches about boy band ‘TREASURE’, which recently signed with Columbia Records.

• And folks in ​🇪🇬 Egypt searched high and low for information on ‘كاس مصر’ (Egypt Cup), a football league currently playing.

🗳️ Poll time!

📜 Today in history

On this day in 2004, Indonesians went to the polls to vote in the country’s first ever direct presidential election. Turnout hit 78% in the first round, and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (a retired general) ended up winning in the second round.

Monday’s poll: What's going on in France?

 🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ ⚖️ It's due to France's colonial history (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 📊 It's due to France's economic policies (5%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🚔 It's due to France's policing approach (17%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🏫 It's due to France's social policies (24%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🌍 It's due to France's immigration policies (31%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (6%)

Your two cents:

• ✍️ J.D: “Mix of France's colonial history, economic and social policies which have informed immigration policies…The police think they have impunity so that is also an issue. It's complex and shows signs of deep unrest and need for systems change.”

• ✍️ Many Intriguers wrote in with “all of the above” or similar.