60 Minutes (US) S58E22 - Elemental Crisis | Turning the Ship Around | The Dog Aging Project
Summary:
Elemental Crisis – In what might be the ultimate front of the U.S. trade war with China, correspondent Jon Wertheim reports from the only active rare earth mine in the U.S., deep in the Mojave Desert near the California-Nevada border. Today, China holds a near-monopoly over the strategic metals that are key components in smartphones, robotics and EVs, but also fighter jets, drones and radar technology. Wertheim looks at the private company, now partly owned by the federal government, that is ramping up rare earth mining, processing, and magnet-making in response to China's threats to cut off rare earth exports. Graham Messick is the producer.
Turning the Ship Around – Shipbuilding in the United States has been decimated over the decades by shortsighted policies and neglect. Today, the U.S. builds about three large cargo ships a year while China rolls out around 1,000. The Trump administration has called this a national security crisis and is making it a priority to revive the American shipbuilding industry. One solution comes from our ally, South Korea. Hanwha, the Korean ship-making giant, is hoping to help resurrect the industry in the U.S. by buying and reviving the Philadelphia shipyard. Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports from Hanwha's shipyards in Korea and Philadelphia. Shachar Bar-On and Jinsol Jung are the producers.
The Dog Aging Project – Progress in treating diseases of aging, such as Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, has been difficult, and a new research initiative finds that dogs could help change that. Scientists are discovering that the biology of aging in our canine companions has striking parallels to human aging. Our dogs develop many of the same diseases we do and have remarkably similar brain structures. Correspondent Anderson Cooper reports on the Dog Aging Project that is collecting data on more than 50,000 dogs across the country in hopes of providing insight into both canine and human disease and revealing pathways to help humans and our four-legged friends live longer, healthier lives. Denise Schrier Cetta is the producer.
