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China temporarily bans helium exports as US-Iran tensions flare again

China announced on Friday a temporary ban on helium exports, effective immediately, as renewed military conflict in the Middle East threatens to trigger fresh shortages of the gas, which is critical for semiconductor manufacturing. Earlier this year, the US-Israeli war on Iran caused helium shortages, disrupting companies worldwide, including in China, where the artificial intelligence industry increasingly relies on domestically produced chips to train and run AI models. Helium is essential for heat management during semiconductor production. The export ban is the latest example of Beijing seeking to prevent domestic shortages of critical materials by restricting overseas shipments. China has previously imposed similar export curbs on fuel, fertilisers and sulphuric acid. China is also seeking to expand domestic semiconductor manufacturing capacity and reduce the industry's reliance on advanced Nvidia chips that are subject to US export controls. China re-exports helium ...
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Iran to bury slain supreme leader in culmination of mass funeral

Iran buries its slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday at the country's holiest shrine, with ​his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei still hidden from public view after being disfigured in the strike that killed his father. The burial ‌in Mashhad in northeast Iran follows a week of mass funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies that have coincided with a renewed burst of conflict with the United States following weeks of truce. Read: US military carries out fresh strikes on Iran, prompting Iran attacks on Kuwait and Bahrain Crowds marched through Mashhad on Thursday morning, the golden dome and minarets of the Shrine of Imam Reza glinting in the morning sun, as they waved Iranian flags, photographs ​of the late Khamenei and placards with revolutionary slogans. As Khamenei's body was transported around Iran and Iraq over the past week, the Islamic Republic's ​clerical leaders encouraged huge crowds to attend in an effort to vaunt the might and ideological fire of their ⁠state. However, despite it having survived a months-long blitz by its strongest enemies, the United States and Israel, Iran faces internal challenges and the legacy of Khamenei's ​37-year rule is bitterly disputed. 'Kill Trump' placards appear at burial ceremony The whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei, proclaimed supreme leader by a clerical assembly a week after his ​father's death, have remained a mystery to Iranians. He has not appeared in public since the war began with the strike that killed Ali Khamenei on February 28, and while he has issued written statements, no image or video or voice recording of him has been issued. He suffered debilitating injuries in that same strike, his face disfigured and limbs badly wounded. Senior sources in ​Tehran have said he is recovering but that he has not yet been well enough to manage public appearances and state security services are also trying ​to limit his exposure in case of more US attacks. As crowds jostled in Mashhad awaiting Khamenei's funeral cortege, the crowd chanted slogans demanding revenge on US President Donald Trump for ‌his murder. “I ⁠swear by the blood of the supreme leader, Trump, we will kill you!” they shouted, with women holding up placards reading "Kill Trump". Khamenei's remains, along with those of four family members killed alongside him, have already been paraded through Tehran, the clerical centre of Qom, and the Iraqi shrine cities of Najaf and Karbala. At each event, huge crowds have thronged the streets to the mournful accompaniment of sung laments and chanted revolutionary slogans. Martyrdom holds a central place in Islamic theology, ​and Khamenei's death at the hands ​of foreign enemies has played into ⁠a religious and political tradition that runs deep through the Islamic Republic. Khamenei's long rule and legacy The funeral comes at a critical moment for Iran, turning the page of nearly four decades of Khamenei's rule and months after the latest ​round of foreign-fuelled and funded mass nationwide protests against the Islamic Republic. Security forces put down that unrest, sparked by anger over the ​sanctions-throttled economy and fanned along by Israeli and US support, which resulted in the deaths of many protesters. While analysts see Iran as having emerged from the war strategically strengthened, with its grip over the vital Strait of Hormuz intact, it has suffered widespread damage due to the US and Israel's bombing of civilian and oil infrastructure, which has added to internal economic woes. The late Khamenei was appointed supreme leader ⁠in 1989, a ​decade after the Islamic revolution, and over the decades he consolidated political, economic and military ​power in his office. That effort, which increasingly marginalised the elected president and parliament, was conducted in concert with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which grew in influence throughout Khamenei's rule. Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed ​with the backing of the Guards, who are now seen as the dominant force in Iranian political and strategic thinking.

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