Yttrium plays a critical role in everything from aircraft engines to semiconductors. China controls the vast majority of the market--and that's not changing anytime soon. The alarm hasn't yet reached the general public, but tension is beginning to build in the corridors of the aerospace industry, in microchip laboratories, and in government offices. For months, an element almost invisible to the world--yttrium--has become the silent center of a new global dispute. Supplies are thinning, prices are skyrocketing, deliveries are stalling.

Trump-Xi meeting: Who has the upper hand? Could Trump go for a third term? Is the US eyeing its next Latin American target? Why is Trump tearing down parts of the White House? United States President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping have agreed to a trade truce under which the US will ease tariffs and Beijing will restart imports of US soya beans, delay the introduction of export restrictions on some of its rare earth metals and intensify efforts to curb illegal fentanyl trafficking.

What is the Insurrection Act? Is Trump trying to dial back tensions with Brazil? Why was Letitia James indicted? Will a government shutdown hurt the economy? China tightened export controls for critical rare-earth metals on Thursday.

Donald Trump has flagged allowing Nvidia to sell chips in China that are more advanced than currently allowed, in another "deal" that would loosen export restrictions despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness US tech to harm national security. At a briefing on Monday, Trump was questioned over recent revelations that he had struck an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD to grant them export licenses to sell previously banned chips to China, in return for the companies giving the US government 15% of the sales revenue. The US president defended the deal, which analysts have likened to a "shakedown" payment, or unconstitutional export taxes, before adding that he was expecting further negotiations over another, more advanced Nvidia chip. Trump said Nvidia had a "super-duper advanced" new chip, the Blackwell, with which he would not make a deal, but it was possible he would make a deal with a "somewhat enhanced – in a negative way – Blackwell", suggesting it could be downgraded by 30-50%. "I think he's coming to see me again about that, but that will be an un-enhanced version of the big one," he added, in reference to Nvidia's chief executive, Jensen Huang, who has repeatedly met Trump about China export restrictions.

According to an SEC filing from NVIDIA, the US government now requires companies to obtain a license to export H20 integrated circuits and any other products that achieve the same performance benchmarks. The filing states that "the license requirement addresses the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China." Mainland China is not the only place targeted by this license; NVIDIA will also require permission to sell the H20 to the territories of Hong Kong and Macau as well as to nations with the D:5 designation as US Arms Embargo Countries. The H20 chips are currently the most advanced chips that can be sold to select international markets under present laws and they are powerful enough to be used for artificial intelligence applications. NVIDIA has wanted the ability to retain Chinese customers for these products and last week, it seemed like the company may have gotten a reprieve on new restrictions.

China has banned the export of rare but critical earth minerals used in the manufacture of important semiconductors to the United States in the latest move in an ongoing tech war between the two superpowers. Beijing's announcement on Tuesday came just one day after the US ramped up restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, which affects the country's ability to develop advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence. So why is a "tech war" brewing between China and the US, and why does it matter? For months, the two countries have been involved in tit-for-tat export restrictions. The US hopes to cripple China's military and artificial intelligence (AI) advances as well as hamper its ambitions to become a global leader in clean energy and other technologies.

NVIDIA really, really doesn't want to lose access to China's massive AI chip market. The company is developing three new AI chips especially for China that don't run afoul of the latest export restrictions in the US, according to The Wall Street Journal and Reuters. Last year, the US government notified the chipmaker that it would restrict the export of computer chips meant for supercomputers and artificial intelligence applications to Russia and China due to concerns that the components could be used for military purposes. That rule prevented NVIDIA from selling certain A100 and H100 chips in the country, so it designed the A800 and H800 chips specifically for the Chinese market. However, the US government recently issued an updated set of restrictions that puts a limit on how much computing power a chip can have when it's meant for export to the aforementioned countries.

As delegates from around the world and leaders from the tech industry gathered in the U.K. for the first ever AI Safety Summit, there appeared to be harmony between officials of historical rivals China and the U.S. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Chinese Vice Minister of Science and Technology Wu Zhaohui shared a stage at the opening plenary of the U.K. AI Safety Summit. Later that day, the U.S. and China were two of 29 countries to sign the Bletchley Declaration, which affirmed the risks AI poses and commits to international cooperation to identify and mitigate those risks, a crucial initial step to establishing regulation in the future. But simmering beneath these shows of cooperation is an undercurrent of increasing tension between the two AI superpowers. Tech supremacy has been a hallmark of the tensions between the U.S. and China in recent years. In 2017, on the heels of an impressive breakthrough in artificial intelligence by Google Deepmind, China made AI progress a priority with its New Generation AI Development Plan.

China has been on the receiving end of semiconductor export restrictions for years. On July 3, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced that the export of gallium and germanium, two elements used in producing chips, solar panels, and fiber optics, will soon be heavily restricted. Exports of the materials will need to be approved by the government, and Western companies that rely on them could have a hard time securing a supply. Even though the news immediately sent the price of gallium and germanium up, the curbs are not likely to hit the US as hard as American export restrictions have hit China. Zeyi Yang, our China reporter, explains why.

Former Director of National Intelligence joins'Life, Liberty & Levin' to discuss the Biden administration's foreign policy approach China is using high-end technology to oppress its own citizens and even erase its own history, which is why the U.S. needs to put tough restrictions on the export of artificial intelligence and other technology to Beijing, according to a lawmaker who has a bill designed to do just that. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital that China has managed to use technology to erase national awareness of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989, when hundreds and possibly thousands were killed and many more injured. "Despite the historical importance of Tiananmen Square, most people in China do not even know the massacre occurred," Green said. "This is because the CCP scrubbed these events from its heavily censored internet and has kept it out of books and out of school. Using its advanced technology, the CCP has erased its own history."