Reuters World News - China’s critical minerals, metal tariffs, Dutch immigration and Spain’s ghost towns

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Global automakers have joined their U.S. counterparts to warn about the impact of China's restrictions on critical minerals. The U.S. tariff rate on most imported steel and aluminum has doubled, as President Donald Trump ratchets up a global trade war. Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders is gambling that his hardline immigration stance will propel him to power in a snap election. And how Madrid’s so-called "ghost towns" are being revitalized in an attempt to solve the Spanish capital’s housing crisis. Recommended read: plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠. Visit the ⁠⁠⁠Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement⁠⁠⁠ for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit ⁠⁠⁠megaphone.fm/adchoices⁠⁠⁠ to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, Trump wants to use emergency powers to boost rare earth mineral production domestically as China curbs its exports. How the Dutch government's collapse puts the spotlight on immigration. And Spain's housing crisis revives Madrid's ghost towns. It's Wednesday, June 4th. This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes every weekday. I'm Sharon Reich Garson in New Jersey. And I'm Tara Oaks in Liverpool. Reuters can reveal that US President Donald Trump

plans to use emergency powers to try and boost domestic production of rare earth minerals. China dominates the critical mineral industry and is restricting exports by demanding exporters get licenses from the central government. Carmakers, which rely on the minerals, are warning the shortage could shut down production Lewis Jackson is in Beijing. So Lewis, what exactly are these minerals? So they're a little bit of

misnomer. Rare earths, they're not actually particularly rare. They occur all around the world and the earth crust. But China does control most of the mining and most importantly the processing, so turning these into sort of goods. And in particular, what we care about and what people are really incensed about now, these rare earth magnets. So these are really high-powered magnets. and they're used in everything. The phone in your hand, your car motor, the F-35 fighter jet has them too. How much does China control? Yeah, so it's north of 90%. So there's a couple places outside China can get them, but there's really not many. So if you need these, you've got to go to China. So will it make a difference that Trump is looking at waiving some of the legal requirements to boost

mineral production domestically? Not immediately. So China has spent decades, building up this kind of capacity, the know-how to do this. And by effectively saying, well, we're going to, we're going to hold back. We're not going to export, as many of these as we might have previously, or we're going to make it much more difficult for people to get their hands on them. That's an immediate hit to supply. Getting a new mine going, even if you make the permitting easier, which the Trump administration is trying to do, is still a lengthy process. And the reality is, the economics hasn't stacked up for this in the US for a long time, which is why a lot of the mines went to China in the first place. It's not just trade in rare earths getting squeezed.

US duties on most imported steel and aluminum doubled today as President Trump ratchets up his global trade war. Kamal Krimmins has more. U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are now a staggering 50%. The hike is designed to light a fire under U.S. trade rivals. Trump wants them to submit their best offer for trade deals by today. The idea is that the proposals may help them avoid further hefty tariffs from taking effect in just five weeks. The US trade representative sent a letter to countries reminding them of the deadline, but not everyone got it. Japan, which is a major US trading partner, didn't receive the letter. And despite weeks of talks with countries, the US has only signed an agreement with the UK, and even that is just a preliminary framework.

for more talks. Elon Musk is ratcheting up his criticism of Trump's sweeping tax and spending bill. The billionaire wrote on X that this massive, outrageous pork-filled congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination, adding, shame on those who voted for it. The U.S.-backed Gaza humanitarian foundation is to pause aid deliveries as it presses Israel to boost safety around its distribution sites. On Tuesday, dozens of Palestinians seeking aid were killed. The family of the Colorado firebom suspect has been taken into ICE custody.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstie Knoem says Mohamed Sabri Soleimon's relatives live in Colorado Springs illegally. Ukrainian officials have been in Washington to seek U.S. support against Russia as Kiev accuses Moscow of dragging its feet at peace talks. On the battlefield, Ukraine has launched what appears to be, one of its biggest waves of coordinated attacks in recent days. It claims to have hit a key road and rail bridge that links Russia and Crimea, but the extent of the damage is unclear. The Dutch far-right leader, Gujarthe Vilders,

is gambling that a snap election focused on immigration will bring him victory at the polls, securing his decades-old ambition of holding the highest political office. Builders' resignation has toppled the Dutch government. But could his plan backfire? Anthony Deutsch is our bureau chief in Amsterdam. Anthony, Builders is betting that his hardline stance on immigration is now such a vote winner in the Netherlands that it's worth a snap election. Is he right? He's taking a gamble that by going to the polls now, he's going to be able to convince Dutch voters that his party is going to be the solution for what he says is an immigration crisis in the Netherlands. He's betting that they are. going to be focused on immigration. It's not positive that's going to be what they're looking at.

There's a lot of concerns among Dutch voters at the moment. There's a very uncertain international environment. The Dutch are concerned about security. The war of Ukraine, Russia is going to be a main topic ahead of a big NATO summit that's going to be held in just a couple weeks. So the Netherlands is heading into a period of political uncertainty at a time where people are looking for certainty on issues relating to cost of living and European security. He says he quit because when the coalition was formed, in his words, they agreed to become the strictest on immigration in Europe, but then he says that actually the Netherlands is trailing somewhere near the bottom. How true is this on immigration?

His party has always been calling for a much tighter immigration policy. In fact, this has been his main campaigning point for nearly 20 years now. And his party for the first time was actually in a power sharing coalition. It's lasted less than a year. But his policies have led a crackdown on immigration in the Netherlands for years. In fact, while he's saying there's an immigration crisis, the numbers don't really. stack up to back up that claim. The Netherlands doesn't really jump out when you compare it to other EU countries in terms of immigration numbers, which have slowed in recent years. Madrid is in the midst of an acute housing shortage. Last year, its population grew by 140,000 people, but it only registered permits to build 20,000 new homes. Demand is so high right now that real estate developers are looking to once abandoned ghost towns to fill the gap. Our story takes place in Sisenia, in the region made famous by Servantes and his hapless hero, Don Quixote. Our lead writer for Iberia, Charlie Deverex, is in Madrid.

So this was a development that began construction in the boom years in Spain, which were in the early 2000s. And essentially when the bubble hit in Spain, it essentially collapsed. And it was a development that became a kind of icon for corruption during that period because it was built really without any kind of facilities, no health facilities, no running water and really poor transport links. And the fact that it's filling up again with people shows the extent of the housing crisis in Madrid prices are rising so far. The housing shortage is very acute, especially in places like Madrid, because you're getting a lot of internal migration from the countryside.

And also, Spain has really been promoting immigration, especially from Latin America, to help fuel this economy fill in lots of skills gaps. And so Madrid is expanding very fast. And then there's also very onerous planning laws. and those factors causing house prices to rise very fast and rents to rise very fast both at the same time. And for today's recommended read, could dissolving plastic be the answer to ocean pollution? Researchers in Japan have developed a plastic

that dissolves in seawater in a matter of hours. And they say it breaks down much faster than other biodegradable plastics, leaving no residual trace. We'll drop a link to the story. in the pod description. For more on any of the stories from today, check out Reuters.com or the Reuters app.

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