内容摘要：Biden and Trump’s clemency decisions reveal a justice system shaped by nepotism and spectacle, not fairness

Biden and Trump’s clemency decisions reveal a justice system shaped by nepotism and spectacle, not fairness

US officials had expected the Geneva talks to result in China easing its export restrictions on. So far, there have been few signs of that, however.

Rare earth minerals are a group of precious minerals required to manufacture a wide range of goods in the defence, healthcare and technology sectors.Rare earth metals, which include scandium and yttrium, are also key for producing components in capacitors – electrical parts which help power AI servers and smartphones.China processes some 90 percent of the world’s rare earth minerals and instituted export controls in April to counter Trump’s “

” tariffs in April, triggering alarm among US companies.Last week, for instance, Ford temporarily closed a factory in Chicago which makes utility vehicles after one of its suppliers ran out of a specialised rare earth magnet.

In most new cars, especially elevate vehicles (cars with robotic technology allowing them to “climb” over obstacles), these high-tech magnets are used in parts which operate brake and steering systems, and power seats and fuel injectors.

The restrictions on the supply of rare earth minerals provide Beijing with a strategic advantage in future negotiations, as it can limit supplies of crucial technologies for US industry.Pattni’s arch-rival in Zimbabwe’s gold-smuggling industry, Macmillan is loud and loquacious. He was first jailed for gold smuggling in the early 1990s, when he was just 21 years old. By his own account, he has been to prison on several occasions since then.

Now, he partners with the same Zimbabwean state machinery that once used to arrest him. Also known as Mr Gold, Macmillan is among a set of smugglers — including Pattni — who each work with Zimbabwe’s state-run refinery, Fidelity. He is also an acquaintance of Simon Rudland, a Zimbabwean millionaire who has been accused by South African authorities of money laundering.These smugglers have deals with Fidelity to deliver a quota of gold bought from small-scale miners to the refinery. They then export it to Dubai and provide hard currency for the Zimbabwean government. But like Pattni and Angel, this mechanism allows smugglers like Macmillan to also launder millions of dollars.

“There is an opportunity, a hell of a big opportunity to wash money here,” he told our reporters. “I can give my partner gold in Dubai and he can just pay you anywhere in the world.”Macmillan did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for a formal comment about the investigation. Rudland said that all allegations against him were false and formed part of a smear campaign by an unidentified third party.