Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, April 5th, and this is your FT News briefing.

The boom in Bitcoin mining is driving an already huge shortage in computer chips even further.

Plus, the US has hit China with sanctions over its treatment of weaker Muslims. But will corporate

America take a stand on this human rights issue? Companies are putting their head in the sand

because they're afraid to come out and say something publicly because they know that they will get

hit in China and there will be a huge dent in their profits from the Chinese market.

A Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day.

The pandemic has put a spotlight on global supply chains. Disruptions from the pandemic and from

extreme weather have come along with soaring demand for certain products, like computer chips.

Subsequent shortages have hit everyone from car makers to consumer electronics companies,

and adding to the shortage is the boom in cryptocurrency. The people who mine or acquire

a original Bitcoin need powerful computers or rigs to get the cryptocurrency. The massive

computations involved require advanced semiconductors. The FT's Lex writer June Yoon looked into this.

So how fast Bitcoin's our mind is directly correlated to how advanced the chips inside the rigs

or these computers are. So now that the price of Bitcoin is soaring, people of course want to

mine Bitcoin as fast as they can. So as the margins on mining Bitcoin grow, people are able to,

and they want to, spend more on the most advanced chips that they can find. The problem is that

these chips are the same chips that are used in consumer electronics. So because chips are

one of the most expensive components of consumer electronics like smartphones and PCs,

the higher costs are in the end going to be passed on to consumers.

So June, what kind of impact is this chip shortage having on other industries?

The shortage of chips has already forced car companies like Toyota and Ford and Nissan to cut production.

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