Pentagon Seeks Massive Cobalt Stockpile For First Time Since 1990
The agency responsible for the Pentagon’s supply chain, which organizes, buys, and stores critical materials ranging from rare earth minerals to fighter jet parts, is seeking to purchase a massive stockpile of cobalt for the first time in decades, as the world fractures into a dangerous bipolar state prone to supply chain disruptions. This comes as the U.S. moves to bolster domestic production of rare earths in an effort to reduce reliance on foreign adversaries such as China and Russia.
According to the System for Award Management (SAM) website, the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) issued a solicitation to purchase cobalt cut cathode/rounds – sheets of cobalt metal designed for storage – to stockpile up to $500 million worth of the industrial metal (or about 7,500 tons), which is used in numerous defense applications ranging from jet engine turbines to armor-piercing munitions to high-strength permanent magnets in rockets.
Here’s an excerpt of the solicitation from SAM’s website:
This acquisition is NOT set aside for small businesses. The applicable NAICS code is 331410 – Nonferrous Metal (except Aluminum) Smelting and Refining with a size standard of 1,000 employees.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) by and through DCSO-C3 intends to award a contract minimum of $2,000,000 and a contract maximum of up to $500,000,000 of cobalt cut cathode / rounds. The Government reserves the right to award less than the maximum dollar value. All cobalt to be delivered under any resulting contract shall have a form and packaging conducive to long-term storage in an enclosed Government warehouse per the Statement of Work (SOW).
A source familiar with DLA’s solicitation told Bloomberg this is the first time the agency has sought to purchase cobalt since 1990, marking a sharp reversal after decades of selling down stockpiles after the buildup during the Cold War.
With the world entering a period of heightened geopolitical risk and supply chain fragility, the move underscores Washington’s urgency to revive domestic supply chains – from semiconductors to rare earths – ahead of the 2030s, a decade widely expected to bring even greater geopolitical volatility.
At the moment, China dominates the global rare earths industry, including the processing of cobalt and other battery metals, and has built up massive strategic reserves. Meanwhile, the U.S. is signing deals with allies and domestic firms to bolster rare earth production and diversify away from China, with the latest example being the Pentagon’s deal with MP Materials.
A Color Revolution is a coordinated campaign to force political change (revolution) by mobilizing mass protests; undermining government legitimacy, authority, and capacity; and persuading citizens, elites, and institutions to withdraw their support – often backed by foreign funding, media, and training.
HAPPENING NOW 🚨 MULTIPLE SELF DRIVING WAYMO CARS SET ON FIRE AMID UNREST IN LOS ANGELES
Bottom Line Up Front: The anti-Trump resistance has adopted a Protest > Resistance > Revolution strategy that will take them through the 2026 midterms and into the 2028 presidential election season. The brunt of organized resistance is likely to occur after the midterms, with an often unstated option to transition from resistance to revolution coinciding with the outcome of the 2028 presidential election. – Mike Shelby, founder of Forward Observer
Last month, the nation’s largest anti-Trump resistance group announced its phased strategy to resist and ultimately end the Trump administration by any means necessary.
Efforts over the past six months have focused on local outreach and organizing, culminating in several “national days of action.” These protests have been symbolic and mostly toothless, but these groups have demonstrated an ability to sustain a national protest movement. At least two protests have mobilized roughly three million participants, with others numbering in the hundreds of thousands. This is an important metric, and we’ll come back to it later.
Broadly, this strategy is broken up into three phases: Protest > Resistance > Revolution.
Protest(You Are Here)
Phase 1 exhibits relatively low-risk actions such as protests at government buildings and other demonstrations against symbols of power. These pose no threat to a government, but are used to gauge popular support for the opposition movement, building legitimacy for passive and active resistance, and boost the confidence of actors for larger demonstrations in the future.
Selective Resistance (2025-2026)
After support and legitimacy are gained through symbolic protests, an organized resistance movement can begin engaging in selective political defiance. These actions include civil disobedience such as sit-ins and occupations, boycotts, and sustained, disruptive demonstrations that garner media attention, build support, and cause embarrassment for the authorities, often leading to government overreaction (which reinforces the Color Revolution narrative).
Mass Resistance (2027-2028)
When Selective Resistance achieves active support from a substantial portion of society (typically 15-30% or more), a resistance movement can begin coordinated, targeted, and nonviolent strategic action like national strikes and boycotts, large scale disruption to economic activity and civil society, and other forms of mass political defiance designed to damage a government’s legitimacy, authority, and capacity.
Revolution (2028-2029+)
Revolution — the active campaign to oust a leader from power — is not a foregone conclusion. Historically, failed or contested elections are the primary trigger for these Color Revolutions, which is to say that a revolution is much more difficult to execute following a clean and uncontested election. This is because of the perception of legitimacy, or the recognized right of a leader to be in power.
Leaders with weak claims of legitimacy are at higher risk, whereas those with firm legitimacy — like the 2024 election, where President Donald Trump won both the electoral college and popular vote — are virtually unassailable.
This is important because a Color Revolution movement actually needs a contested or highly unpopular outcome. Roughly 75% of all Color Revolutions over the past 25 years have coincided with disputed election results.
Otherwise, a resistance movement is left to de-legitimize a leader through other means, namely:
Media narratives and information operations
Defections of elites
Institutional noncooperation
International pressure
The methods above, when combined with mass resistance, are designed to weaken the “pillars of support” that keep a government functioning. This is key to the anti-Trump resistance strategy. These groups often cite two pieces of Color Revolution doctrine: The Six Pillars and the 3.5% Rule.
The Six Pillars
Noncooperation, also referred to as “strategic noncooperation” is the core of the strategy — you can erode a government’s legitimacy by reducing society’s cooperation with it.
The Six Pillars describe the underlying foundations that keep a government functioning. Taken from the training slide below, they are: Business, Labor, Faith, Education, Civil Service, and Military/Police. I’ll describe each of these in detail in a future brief, but for now, a quote from Gene Sharp — the godfather of Color Revolutions — will explain:
“By themselves, rulers cannot collect taxes, enforce repressive laws and regulations, keep trains running on time, prepare national budgets, direct traffic, manage ports, print money, repair roads, keep markets supplied with food, make steel, build rockets, train the police and army, issue postage stamps or even milk a cow. People provide these services… If people would stop providing these skills, the ruler could not rule.”
In short, a government — a dictator, an autocracy, even a legitimately elected president — depends on these lines of support to function. When a resistance movement convinces elements of these pillars with withdraw their support, the regime collapses.
The 3.5% Rule
In her book, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, researcher and strategist Erica Chenoweth claims that no regime has survived a resistance campaign that includes 3.5% of a country.
In other words, a study of over 300 violent and nonviolent resistance campaigns finds that every campaign that achieved the active and sustained participation of just 3.5% of the population succeeded in toppling a government.
So to put this into perspective: the anti-Trump resistance needs 3.5% of the United States, or roughly 12 million people, to participate. In two national days of protests, we’ve seen mobilizations of around three million protesters, or roughly 25% of what’s needed to achieve the 3.5% Rule.
Near-Term Assessment (2025-2026)
Anti-Trump protests have so far not been politically significant, but organizers have made substantial progress from a lackluster start. Inauguration Day 2025 protests were roughly a third — maybe as large as one-half — of the 2017 Inauguration Day protests. Since then, organizers have grown the movement rapidly, surpassing the previous largest single-day protest mobilization of the Trump era.
While progress had been steady, the movement does appear to have plateaued. Recent national days of protest have been muted (did you even hear about the last one on the news?), and this in the summer months when mobilizing capacity is at its highest. The lack of growth is a limiting factor, but it’s not a sign of weakness. The ability to repeatedly mobilize protesters in the low millions is indicative of a sustained protest movement able to transition into organized resistance.
This mid-decade redistricting plan by Texas, Ohio, and possibly other Red and Blue states, will likely encourage wider protest mobilization. Meanwhile, escalation from protest (Phase 1) into organized resistance (Phase 2) is almost certain if redistricting enables Republicans to keep a House majority after the 2026 midterms.
In the interim, anti-Trump organizers will likely spend the next roughly 14 months developing the human networks, communications infrastructure, and training/education to help Democrats win back the House.
Escalation after the midterms is a certainty, either way. If Dems break the Trump trifecta by regaining a House majority, resistance groups will gain legitimacy and use the “inside-outside” strategy to undermine the legitimacy, authority, and capacity of the Trump administration. If Republicans keep the House majority, especially through mid-decade redistricting, resistance groups will have the narrative they need to escalate through 2028. Pending anything else, it’s going to be a disruptive few years.
* * *
Mike Shelby, a former Intelligence NCO and contractor, with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2016, he founded Forward Observer, a private intelligence firm that focuses on domestic and international conflict. His team writes a daily Early Warning intelligence briefing, which is available through forwardobserver.com.
Trump Hits International Criminal Court With 2nd Round Of Sanctions
The Trump administration has expanded its punitive measures against the International Criminal Court (ICC) for its going after Israel, on Wednesday imposing sanctions on two judges and two prosecutors from the ICC. This is also based on the court’s past decision to investigate US officials over alleged war crimes committed by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the The Hague-based court a “national security threat” and accused it of being used for “lawfare” against the US and Israel – at a moment a warrant for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still active.
The sanctioned judges and deputy prosecutors have been identified as Nicolas Yann Guillou of France, Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji, Mame Mandiaye Niang of Senegal, and Kimberly Prost of Canada – as named by the Treasury and State Department.
The list of people have all have been involved in ICC cases related to the US or Israel – but Washington says they’ve been involved in the politicization and overreach represented in the court’s recent actions.
“United States has been clear and steadfast in our opposition to the ICC’s politicization, abuse of power, disregard for our national sovereignty, and illegitimate judicial overreach,” Rubio stated.
This is the second wave of sanctions in only less than three months – with the first involving action against four additional judges.
In reaction, the court condemned the new US sanctions, saying “These sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all regions.”
“They constitute also an affront against the Court’s States Parties, the rules-based international order and, above all, millions of innocent victims across the world,” it continued.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has prepared arrest warrant applications for Israeli ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich on charges of apartheid.
However, ICC sources are concerned they will not submit them for fear of sanctions. pic.twitter.com/wNq1wT4tfV
Additionally she statement published to the ICC website said, “The Court calls upon States Parties and all those who share the values of humanity and the rule of law to provide firm and consistent support to the Court and its work carried out in the sole interest of victims of international crimes.”
Trump intensified the effort shortly after resuming office in January 2025. Within days, he issued an executive order warning that sanctions would be imposed on anyone participating in ICC investigations concerning alleged war crimes by the US or Israel.
US “Pauses Issuance Of Worker Visas For Truckers” To Address Illegal Alien CDL Crisis Killing Americans
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking decisive action to address the non-domiciled commercial driver’s license (CDL) crisis, which has transformed America’s highways into both a public safety nightmare and a national security threat. Countless Americans have lost their lives this year at the hands of non-English-speaking migrants/illegal aliens operating 80,000-pound big rigs – yet they should never have been on the road, but were allowed to because rogue sanctuary states handed out CDLs like candy. Under the Biden-Harris regime, tens of thousands of these migrants flooded into the trucking industry, many unable to read road signs in English.
“Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers,” Rubio stated on X on Thursday evening.
He added: “The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.”
Effective immediately we are pausing all issuance of worker visas for commercial truck drivers.
The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers.
Rubio’s action at State comes days after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy addressed the horrific crash in Florida involving an illegal alien operating a big rig, who made an illegal U-turn, killing three Americans.
Duffy blasted “non-enforcement and radical immigration policies” for turning the trucking industry into a “lawless frontier,” allowing unqualified foreign drivers to operate massive 40-ton rigs.
This cannot happen again.
.@FMCSA is launching an investigation into both the driver and White Hawk Carrier.
Here’s what we know:
1. Washington State improperly issued the driver a full-term CDL. Asylum seekers or illegal aliens are NOT allowed to receive this!
Responding to Rubio’s action is American Truckers United’s (ATU) Shannon Everett, whose trucking advocacy group has been one of the main forces driving urgency in alerting the Trump administration to the non-domiciled CDL crisis killing innocent Americans, in some cases, wiping out entire families.
“At American Truckers United, we are forever grateful for the swift and decisive action taken by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who truly puts Americans first. We thank him for this bold step in pausing all work visas for commercial truck drivers, which we believe is the first occupation-specific visa restriction ever implemented by a Secretary of State to protect American workers,” Everett told ZeroHedge.
He continued, “Secretary Rubio has shut off the supply lines. Now it will be up to Secretary Duffy to clean house!”
ZeroHedge began covering the migrant CDL crisis in March, together with ATU, warning about the deadly consequences of open-border chaos.
Everett told us that ATU began working with the State Department in July to address the crisis and restore safety to America’s highways. Within a month, Rubio took decisive action, and now all eyes are on Duffy to see whether the DoT takes action against this public safety crisis and national security threat spurred by the Biden-Harris regime.
Accountability is coming. Rogue sanctuary states run by globalist Democrats have been put on notice: they will be held responsible for the death and destruction on U.S. highways. Also on notice are the globalist-controlled mega-corporations and major trucking firms that recklessly hired non-English-speaking CDL holders.
It’s a poster on the wall in his 1979 high school guidance counselor’s office that all these years later motivates Mike Rowe, the Emmy award-winning TV host, producer, narrator, podcaster, spokesman, bestselling author, and recording artist, on his quest to reinvigorate America’s enthusiasm, passion, and educational foundation for the skilled trades.
The poster’s caption – “Work smart, not hard” – underscored an image of “the happy graduate with his diploma and the poor schmuck who won a vocational consolation prize,” recalled Rowe in a recent interview with The Epoch Times.
All these years later, Rowe remembers his guidance counselor pointing to the poster and asking him, “Which one of these guys do you want to be?”
“It was a very powerful moment for me,” said Rowe. “I remember thinking, ‘I wanted to lean across the table and give him a slap because the punchline in that poster is my granddad—the embodiment of a skilled worker had been affirmatively caricatured and lampooned and marginalized.”
At the time, Rowe was wrestling with his own future.
“I was 17 and I’d taken some tests and done well, and he wanted me to go to the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Maryland, maybe James Madison. I didn’t have any money, and there was no way I was going to borrow. Debt was the only four-letter word that was truly off limits in my house. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My plan was to go to community college for 26 bucks a credit and figure it out.”
In the decades since that guidance counselor meeting, Rowe, who eventually did go on to a four-year college, has turned his visibility and success into the mikeroweWORKS Foundation. Launched in 2008, the foundation works hard to debunk the myths and misperceptions about the trades and help close the skills gap through job boards, corporate partnerships, and scholarships.
“The problem with the push for college when we were in high school wasn’t that college was a bad thing,” said Rowe. “It’s that the push came at the expense of all other forms of learning.”
Get Back to Hard Work
The disappearance of shop and home economics classes “turned out to be maybe the most boneheaded decision in the history of modern education,” said Rowe, who believes it’s the lack of opportunity for students to work with their hands in classes like those, along with the devaluing of skilled trades that has brought on the dramatic skills gap for the booming job market in the AI proof skilled trades.
The Towson University graduate turned opera singer turned QVC host turned “Dirty Jobs” legend tells the story of his “crooked, crooked path” nudged on by his former school teacher mother, Peggy Rowe—now a best-selling author and popular guest on Rowe’s podcast, “The Way I Heard It”—this way.
“Three years on QVC, and then eight years freelancing, probably 300 different jobs, and then a weird phone call from my mother—telling me that my grandfather was turning 90, and she had the perfect birthday present that I should get him,” recalled Rowe. “I said, ‘What?’ And she said, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if before he died, he could turn on the TV and see you doing something that looked like work.’”
To honor his grandfather’s legacy and “mostly to shut my mother up,” laughed Rowe, at that time a host of a local San Francisco CBS show “Evening Magazine,” he took his cameraman into the sewers of San Francisco and profiled a sewer inspector.
“My pop was an electrician, but he only went to the seventh grade,” said Rowe. “And by the time he was 30, he was an accomplished welder, pipe fitter, steam fitter, and HVAC. I saw him build additions on people’s homes without a blueprint. He just had that chip. He just knew mechanically how everything worked. He could take that clock apart behind you and put it back together, blindfolded.”
Rowe was surprised that the profile of the sewer inspector generated so much mail and viewer engagement that a new recurrent segment, “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” was born.
“We just kind of Forrest Gumped our way on the air,” said Rowe.
But then came the real work as Rowe discovered his true calling.
“MikeRoweWorks evolved very organically out of ‘Dirty Jobs’ in 2008,” acknowledged Rowe. As an apprentice on the TV series “Dirty Jobs,” Rowe traveled to every state and worked with plumbers, electricians, steamfitters, pipefitters, brick layers, farmers, fishers, and a bunch of other skilled workers who help keep our polite society humming along.
“And like the show itself, it was a tribute to Carl Knobel, my pop. It was a simple attempt at the time to shine a light on 2.3 million jobs that were wide open—good jobs. In 2009, the country was in a recession. There were 12 million people unemployed, but on “Dirty Jobs,” we just saw ‘help wanted’ signs all over the place. It seemed clear that there was another narrative going on that had nothing to do with the creation of jobs, but rather the creation of enthusiasm for the jobs that already existed. That was the skills gap. And that’s what got me on my soapbox on Labor Day 2008. We’ll be 17 this Labor Day.”
Rowe, who went on to narrate and host some of Discovery Channel’s most popular shows like “Deadliest Catch,” is just coming off awarding his foundation’s 2025 Work Ethic Scholarships to the tune of five million dollars to 526 men and women.
“We’ve given away, so far, 16 million dollars to over 2,600 recipients, supporting over 21 skilled trades in 46 states,” said Rowe.
Getting people interested in skilled trades—jobs AI can’t do—is helped by each and every one of these recipients who become shining examples of possibilities for potential workers.
“The workforce is out of balance,” said Rowe. “Five tradespeople leave and two replace them year after year.”
Hence, Rowe’s mission—“Work Smart and Hard”—“which began as an ad hoc PR campaign for a couple of million jobs,” turned into a lifelong commitment to the skilled trades.
“I went to Congress and I made some PSAs and stuff. The fans of “Dirty Jobs” were the ones who took it to the next level,” said Rowe.
“They helped me build an online trade resource center so anybody could go to MikeRoweworks.org and see thousands of jobs. That got the attention of Ford and Caterpillar, and a lot of other big, muscular companies that required a skilled workforce. They wanted to give me money, so I thought, ‘maybe work ethic scholarships’. That first year, we gave five hundred thousand dollars. The next year, we did 700,000. And the year after that, we did a million. It just kept building. We had 10 times the applicants this year as we did a year before. I can’t take a victory lap just yet. I’m not done.”
Walmart Still Undercuts Amazon On Food Prices As Last-Mile Grocery Race Intensifies
Amazon’s big move to roll out same-day grocery delivery across 1,000 new cities – on track for 2,300 by year-end – puts Instacart and traditional grocery chains squarely in the crosshairs. But the real shocker isn’t Amazon’s new expanded reach; it’s that Walmart still reigns supreme as the lowest-cost grocer, setting the stage for an intensifying last-mile grocery war.
News last week (read here) of Amazon expanding its same-day grocery delivery across a thousand more cities by the end of the year sent Instacart (CART) and DoorDash (DASH) shares tumbling. Goldman analysts forecast that millions of Prime members will flock to the service as it becomes available in their respective areas.
It’s increasingly clear that the last-mile grocery battlefield in the U.S. is shaping up as a two-horse race between Amazon and Walmart. There are other players, but none with the scale or firepower to compete seriously.
Goldman analysts, led by Eric Sheridan, forecasted last week that Amazon can capture a low single-digit percentage of its 129 million Prime members for weekly grocery orders, potentially creating a “potential gross revenue opportunity of ~$30–200 billion.”
Prime members new to ordering groceries on the platform will undoubtedly be hunting for deals … unless their priority is more convenience.
In a separate note, Goldman analyst Kate McShane ran a pricing survey across broadline retailers (BJ’s, Walmart) and grocery chains (Kroger, Sprouts) on select items.
The results: Walmart had the most affordability for shoppers, with prices 9.8% below the group average, followed closely by Amazon at -9.3%. Sprouts had the highest markups at +19.2% (limited SKU availability noted), while Kroger landed modestly above average at +2.2%. In a direct comparison, BJ’s undercut Amazon with prices averaging 7.9% lower.
Comparing AMZN, KR, SFM, and WMT
Comparing AMZN and BJ
Comparing delivery costs between AMZN, BJ, COST, KR, SFM, and WMT
The last-mile grocery race is already crowded, with most major retailers offering same-day delivery directly or through Instacart. Walmart holds a big advantage, with stores within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population, and now Amazon’s aggressive push into the space ensures the battle will only intensify.
The only issue for Amazon:Walmart still owns the pricing advantage.
Americans should “beware” of sunscreen products in mousse form as they may not be effective, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in an Aug. 12 X post, with the agency sending warning letters to five companies marketing sunscreen products.
The letters were sent on Aug. 6 to Texas-based Supergoop, Pennsylvania-based Fallien Cosmeceuticals Ltd., Israel-based K & Care Organics, Sweden-based Kalani AB, and Florida-based Vacation Inc.
According to the agency, the sunscreen products marketed by these companies are sold as drugs. However, based on section 505 of the FD&C Act, sunscreens can only be approved for marketing in oil, lotion, cream, gel, butter, paste, ointment, stick, spray, and powder forms—and not in mousse and foam.
As for specific products under these brands, FDA took issue with Supergoop’s Play SPF 50 Body Mousse; Fallien’s TiZOs Sheerfoam Non-Tinted SPF 30 Mineral Sunscreen; K & Care’s Botao Grow Naturally Kids Mineral Foam Spray; Kalani’s Sunwear Sun Mousse; and Vacation’s Classic Whip Broad Sunscreen Mousse, among a few others.
Vacation was also warned regarding the packaging of its sunscreen products, which the agency said resembled “metal canisters ordinarily used to package whipped cream products and similar dessert toppings.”
“Packaging drug products in containers that resemble food containers commonly used by adults and children can mislead consumers into mistaking the products for food, which is of particular concern as this increases the risk of accidental ingestion,” the letter said.
The FDA gave the companies 15 working days to address the violations.
The Epoch Times reached out to the companies for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Sunscreen Safety
According to an FDA post last updated August 2024, the agency regulates sunscreen “to ensure they meet safety and effectiveness standards” just as it does with other nonprescription drug items.
For instance, the FDA has recalled sunscreens due to benzene contamination. Benzene is a chemical used to manufacture industrial products such as chemicals and dyes, and used in items like sunscreens. Long-term exposure via inhalation and skin absorption can lead to cancers and blood disorders, the agency said.
A recall related to benzene took place back in July 2022, when the FDA announced that Edgewell Personal Care Company was withdrawing three batches of its Banana Boat sunscreens from the market. Samples of the products were found to contain trace levels of benzene.
Many sunscreens also fail to offer the expected protection, according to a May 20 statement from the Environmental Working Group (EWG).
The group evaluated 2,204 sunscreen products and found that more than 77 percent performed poorly in terms of skin protection or contained potentially harmful ingredients.
“Wearing any sunscreen is much more important and offers better sun protection for your skin than not applying anything,” said EWG acting chief science officer David Andrews. “But not all sunscreens are created equal.”
On the positive side, 63 sunscreens from 13 brands were found to qualify for EWG’s Verified mark, which is only granted to products meeting high standards.
According to EWG, a major shift in the sunscreen market is the increasing demand for mineral-based products containing zinc oxide and titanium dioxide for UV protection, which are the only active sunscreen filters “generally recognized as safe and effective” by the FDA.
Taxpayers On Hook For $3.5 Billion To Replenish Munitions US Used Defending Israel
Taxpayers are yet again on the hook for America’s supposed “closest Middle East ally” as the Pentagon is planning to allocate at least $3.5 billion to restock weapons used in defense of Israel.
A Bloomberg report issued this week has reviewed Department of Defense budget documents prepared through mid-May. Emergency expenditures are highlighted which include US combat operations “executed at the request of or in coordination with Israel for the defense of Israeli territory, personnel or assets during attacks by Iran” or its proxies.
The largest single portion of the funding is $1 billion that is earmarked for replenishing Standard Missile interceptors, specifically the SM-3 IB Threat Upgrade models made by Raytheon and deployed by US Navy ships to intercept ballistic missiles.
Each of these big missiles are estimated to be between $9 million and $12 million, and these were used in the initial April 2024 flare-up and brief round of fighting between Israel and Iran.
The US assisted Israel following the Netanyahu government’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus – which was the first such deliberate attack by a sovereign government on a foreign embassy in history (the lone precedent being the Chinese embassy strike in Belgrade in 1999, which the US apologized for as an ‘accident’).
The second-largest funding request in the documents is $204 million to restock THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) interceptors, produced by Lockheed Martin at a price tag of about $13 million each.
All of this will be pushed through despite recent polls showingpublic support for Israel being at a recent all-time low. The American public is also generally war-weary, given the now years-long conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, and the fact that Washington has sunk billions into supporting one side of each war.
The American Right has also begun to shift, with notable figures like Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene now actively pushing to cut all funds to Israel, being the first Republican to ever label what Israel is doing “genocide”.
On Aug. 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a temporary administrative injunction to halt a congressionally mandated land exchange that would have given control of a large tract of land in Tonto National Forest in Arizona to international mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP.
The court’s order stated that it was taking no position on the merits of the case but was acting to “preserve the status quo” as it expedites a review of the legal challenge brought by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other plaintiffs.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump criticized the delay, saying the project was needed to create 3,800 jobs and secure a vital resource.
“Our Country, quite simply, needs Copper—AND NOW!” he said in an Aug. 19 post.
“It is so sad that Radical Left Activists can do this, and affect the lives of so many people. Those that fought it are Anti-American, and representing other Copper competitive Countries.”
The ruling came shortly after Trump met with the CEOs of the two companies at the White House, a meeting that highlighted his administration’s support for the mine.
The United States Forest Service is listed as a defendant alongside Resolution Copper Mining LLC.
The appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments for the case in September.
On July 30, Trump signed an executive order creating a 50 percent tariff on imports of semi-finished copper products and intensive copper derivative products. The same order raised the possibility of further tariffs on imported copper in the future.
In a statement, Resolution Copper, a joint venture between Rio Tinto and BHP, called the injunction a temporary pause so the court can consider “eleventh hour motions” by the San Carlos Apache Tribe and other plaintiffs.
“We are confident the court will ultimately affirm the district court’s well-reasoned orders explaining in detail why the congressionally directed land exchange satisfies all applicable legal requirements,” the statement said.
The statement said the proposed mine has the potential to become one of the largest copper mines in the United States, “contributing $1 billion annually to Arizona’s economy and creating thousands of local jobs.”
In a statement he posted on LinkedIn on Aug. 19, BHP CEO Mike Henry thanked the Trump administration for its “strong leadership to reinvigorate mining and processing supply chains in and for America.”
The tribal leader at the center of the court case, San Carlos Apache Tribal Chairman Terry Rambler, responded directly to Trump’s comments in a Facebook post, saying that the tribe is “protecting America’s interests.” Rambler stated that the president’s comments “mirror misinformation” from foreign mining interests.
He said the project was a “rip-off” that would allow companies to extract billions in copper while paying “almost no royalties” to the federal government.
Rambler’s post also noted that Rio Tinto’s largest shareholder is a company owned by the Chinese government, and he alleged the copper would be shipped to China. The chairman reiterated the tribe’s primary concerns that the mine “will destroy a sacred area, decimates our environment, [and] threatens our water rights.”
On its website, Resolution Copper listed detailed responses to Rambler’s allegations.
“While both companies have operations and investors on nearly every continent around the world, Rio Tinto and BHP are committed to being transparent, ethical, and responsible corporations that provide the materials that shape modern society,” a statement posted on an undated “Myths and Facts” page states.
Rio Tinto is a British and Australian mining company traded publicly on multiple global exchanges. BHP is an Australian company publicly traded on that country’s Australian Securities Exchange.
The land transfer for the mining project was originally approved by Congress and signed off on by then-President Barack Obama in 2014. Various tribal interests and environmental groups have fought the transfer for years.
There is some good news in the lumber market: contracts have plunged more than 14% in recent weeks, reversing highs last seen during the pandemic shortages. The sharp reversal comes as bets on tariff-driven cost pressures and lower interest rates failed to lift demand. At the same time, disappointing housing data and weak earnings across the housing industry underscored the trouble festering.
Traders ramped up bets that U.S. tariffs on Canadian imports and lower interest rates would lift costs and demand, but housing activity has failed to deliver any demand tailwinds.
There has been weak builder confidence (hitting 13-year lows), disappointing housing permits, and earnings misses at Home Depot, James Hardie Industries, Builders FirstSource, and UFP Industries.
Canadian mills are operating at a loss, which will likely mean lumber supply cuts are just ahead. Even as tariffs doubled this summer, traders remained in “wait-and-see” mode on interest rates. Now the FOMC is preparing for an interest rate decision next month.
On Thursday, lumber futures for September delivery traded around $604 per thousand board feet, down about 14% from the settlement of $695.50 per thousand board feet on Aug. 1.
Greg Kuta, president and CEO of lumber broker Westline Capital Strategies, told MarketWatch that lumber demand is sagging, with possible stabilization next year after Canadian mills dial back production.
Prices “got ahead of themselves with some overbuying on the way up, and a very large and unsustainable futures premium” developed, according to Steve Loebner, vice president of forest products and risk management at Sherwood Lumber, adding that upward pressure in price was driven by tariffs and future supply levels.
