Our daily stroll around the world

🇨🇳 Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described her four-day trip to China as “productive.” The key takeaway from her meetings with top officials in Beijing over the weekend, Yellen explained, is that America is pushing for an economic relationship that's “mutually beneficial over the long-term,” despite competition and recent tensions between the world's two largest economies. China imposed export restrictions on two critical minerals used in computer chips last week, days after the US enacted similar limits on semiconductor exports to China.

🇫🇷 France approved a new law allowing police to remotely activate the cameras, microphones, and GPS systems of suspects’ phones, laptops, and cars. The law, first reported by Le Monde, permits such surveillance on any individual suspected of a crime punishable by at least five years in jail. However, any use of the provision must be approved by a judge, and the surveillance can’t target sensitive professions like doctors, lawyers, journalists, judges, or politicians. Some lawmakers and rights groups argue the new law is a violation of French citizens’ right to privacy, while lawmakers in favor of the bill say it will result in a safer country. It comes roughly a week after tens of thousands of youth protesters demonstrated across France for several days in a row; the country saw an estimated $1.1 billion in total property damage done over that period.

🇺🇦 Ukraine shouldn’t join NATO until its war against Russia is over, according to top US and German officials. In a CNN interview that aired Sunday, President Biden said it would be “premature” to admit Ukraine into NATO in the middle of an ongoing war, since the military alliance would then be obligated to join the conflict against Russia. Biden’s comments, which echoed similar remarks made last month by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, were published ahead of a two-day NATO summit featuring the heads of state from all 31 member-nations, beginning tomorrow in Lithuania.