BRICS gets more powerful despite Trump's bloc ‘Dead' declaration Algeria
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
9 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
China Is Choking Supply of Critical Minerals to Western Defense Companies
China is limiting the flow of critical minerals to Western defense manufacturers, delaying production and forcing companies to scour the world for stockpiles of the minerals needed to make everything from bullets to jet fighters. Earlier this year, as U.S.-China trade tensions soared, Beijing tightened the controls it places on the export of rare earths. While Beijing allowed them to start flowing after the Trump administration agreed in June to a series of trade concessions, China has maintained a lock on critical minerals for defense purposes. China supplies around 90% of the world's rare earths and dominates the production of many other critical minerals. As a result, one drone-parts manufacturer that supplies the U.S. military was forced to delay orders by up to two months while it searched for a non-Chinese source of magnets, which are assembled from rare earths. Certain materials needed by the defense industry now go for five or more times what was typical before China's recent mineral restrictions, according to industry traders. One company said it was recently offered samarium—an element needed to make magnets that can withstand the extreme temperatures of a jet-fighter engine—for 60 times the standard price. That is already driving the cost of defense systems higher, say suppliers and defense executives. The squeeze on critical minerals highlights how dependent the U.S. military is on China for much of its supply chain—giving Beijing leverage at a time of rising tensions between the two powers and heated trade negotiations. Defense manufacturers supplying the U.S. military rely on minerals that are mainly produced in China for microelectronics, drone motors, night-vision goggles, missile-targeting systems and defense satellites. While companies have tried to find alternative sources of these minerals in recent years, some of the elements are so niche that they can't be economically produced in the West, say industry executives. China's Foreign Ministry didn't respond to a request for comment. In addition to the more recent export controls on rare earths, China has since December banned sales to the U.S. of germanium, gallium and antimony—which are used for things like hardening lead bullets and projectiles, and to allow soldiers to see at night. Some companies now warn of looming production cuts if more minerals aren't forthcoming. On Wednesday, the chief executive of Leonardo DRS said the U.S.-based defense firm is down to its 'safety stock' of germanium. 'In order to sustain timely product deliveries, material flow must improve in the second half' of 2025, CEO Bill Lynn said on a conference call. The company is the U.S. subsidiary of Italian defense giant Leonardo. Germanium goes into the company's infrared sensors, which are used in missiles and other equipment. Lynn said that the company is looking at diversifying its supply chain while also finding ways to replace it in its products. The Pentagon is requiring defense contractors to stop buying rare-earth magnets that contain China-sourced minerals by 2027. As a result, some companies have sizable stockpiles of magnets. But suppliers and defense companies often hold less than a year's worth—some just a few months—of many other critical mineral stockpiles. Drone manufacturers are among the most vulnerable, because many are small startups and have very limited revenue or supply-chain savvy, and never got around to acquiring large stockpiles of rare-earth magnets and metals, say some in the defense industry. A drone flies overhead during a military parade in Washington, D.C., in June. 'I can tell you…we talk about this daily and our companies talk about it daily,' said Dak Hardwick, vice president of international affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. defense and commercial aerospace trade group. More than 80,000 parts that are used in Defense Department weapons systems are made with critical minerals now subject to Chinese export controls, according to data from defense software firm Govini. Nearly all of the supply chains for key critical minerals used by the Pentagon rely on at least one Chinese supplier, Govini said, meaning restrictions from Beijing can cause widespread disruptions. Since stepping up export controls earlier this year, China has begun requiring companies to provide extensive documentation of how they will use the rare earths and magnets they import. Chinese regulators often demand sensitive information, such as product images and even photos of production lines, to ensure none of the materials go to military use, say Western buyers. One Western company that supplies Chinese-made rare-earth magnets to both civilian and defense companies says its requests for imported magnets have recently been approved for many civilian purposes—but rejected or delayed for defense and aerospace. In May, New Hampshire-based ePropelled, which makes propulsion motors for drones, received unsettling questions from its Chinese magnet supplier. The supplier sent Chinese government forms demanding drawings and pictures of ePropelled's products and a list of buyers. It also asked for assurances that the rare-earth magnets China would supply ePropelled wouldn't go toward military applications. 'Of course we are not going to provide the Chinese government with that information,' said Chris Thompson, vice president of global sales for ePropelled. The company has about 100 customers, including large American defense contractors and drone manufacturers in Ukraine. So its Chinese suppliers paused shipping, and ePropelled had to delay some customer orders by one or two months—double the amount of time it usually takes to deliver its motors. The company sought alternative suppliers in the U.S., Europe and Asia, including buying magnets from vendors in Japan and Taiwan, although they too rely on rare earths from China. The company also struck deals with startup magnet producers Vulcan Elements in North Carolina and Oklahoma-based USA Rare Earth. However, those startups won't have supply ready for ePropelled until at least the end of this year and will need to build up alternative sources of Chinese-dominated minerals as they scale up production. Metal traders say that because China demands to know the end user of rare-earth magnets and metals, it isn't approving licenses for traders to stockpile. The Department of Defense has awarded grants to expand production of niche materials, including $14 million in funding last year to a Canadian company to produce germanium substrates used in solar cells for defense satellites. In July, the Pentagon took an even bigger step when it agreed to pay $400 million for 15% of MP Materials, the operator of the largest rare-earths mine in the Americas, which is rapidly scaling up its magnet manufacturing capacity. The Pentagon didn't respond to a request for comment. Reporters gather outside the London venue of U.S.-China trade talks in June. On an earnings call last month Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet called the MP Materials agreement groundbreaking and said it would help ensure the supply of magnets needed in its F-35 jet fighters and cruise missiles. But building up new supply will take time. The Defense Department early last year established the Critical Minerals Forum, an effort in part to spur more mineral supply-chain projects in the U.S. and allied countries, including helping metals miners secure funding to increase their output of critical materials like antimony and germanium. Defense companies that traditionally outsourced the purchase of critical minerals to sub-suppliers are now using their market heft to try to acquire sources of key materials themselves. Major defense companies 'are starting to get more and more panicked as they go, because they recognize that they're just not going to get the magnets, no matter what happens, unless they get involved,' said Nicholas Myers, the CEO of Phoenix Tailings, a Massachusetts startup that produces rare-earth metals. Beijing is signaling that it takes its mineral export bans very seriously. Earlier this year, one U.S. defense supplier, the United States Antimony Corporation, tried to ship 55 metric tons of antimony mined in Australia to its smelter in Mexico. The load transited via the Chinese port city of Ningbo—until recently a routine practice. But in April, while the shipment was being transloaded in Ningbo, China customs detained it for three months, prompting United States Antimony to ask the State Department and White House for help. The Chinese released the shipment in July, on the condition that it be sent back to Australia and not to the U.S. When it arrived in Australia, United States Antimony learned that product seals had been broken. It is currently working out whether the antimony has been tampered with or contaminated. 'The shipping company, everyone who was involved, they'd never seen this happen before,' said company CEO Gary Evans. Neither the White House, the Defense Department nor the State Department provided comment. Write to Jon Emont at Heather Somerville at and Alistair MacDonald at
Hindustan Times
9 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Home by Home, Russia Is Selling Occupied Ukraine to Russians
In a brochure, the property developer touts the 'majestic style' of the building's architecture and its prime location just a 15-minute walk from the sea, adding a caveat: It was damaged during 'military events.' The building that once stood there was in fact demolished by developers after Russia conquered Mariupol in a brutal onslaught that killed thousands of people and devastated the Ukrainian port city's housing stock. Residents of the Clock House counted themselves lucky to survive, but are now excluded from the redevelopment of the building, which has been sold largely to newcomers from Russia. 'We, the previous owners, don't have the right to be there,' said Elena Pudak, whose mother owned a spacious apartment in the building but now lives in Germany. Once a landmark of Mariupol's unique heritage, the Clock House now stands as a monument to Russia's transformation of the city for both profit and its own political designs. Across occupied territory, Russia-backed authorities have seized thousands of apartments after declaring them 'ownerless,' leaving the Ukrainians who fled faced with growing barriers to return and prove their ownership or claim compensation. Newcomers from Russia, meanwhile, enjoy a range of perks, such as 2% mortgage rates on new building developments. The strategy of replacing the people who once lived in conquered territories with ethnic Russians is one that Moscow has long pursued. The eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, for example, was flooded with Russians in the 1930s as the Soviet Union industrialized the region while starving millions of Ukrainian peasants to death in what the Ukrainian government and many historians consider a genocide. Mariupol is a symbol of Russian brutality and Ukrainian resistance during a siege in the early weeks of the war that destroyed swaths of the city, including the smoke-billowing Azovstal steel works. Real-estate agents tout the city's newly-clean air. Russia conquered Mariupol in a brutal onslaught that killed thousands of people and devastated the Ukrainian port city's housing displacement and destruction has thrown open Mariupol's real-estate market. One new arrival, a Russian woman from Siberia, said she was dazzled by the bright orange of the sun when she first visited last year. She bought an apartment there needing only minor repairs and intends to retire there, fulfilling her husband's dream of living by the sea. For now, she said she would rent it out to a tenant—a woman from Moscow who now lives and works in Mariupol. Oleksandr Nosochenko, a former Mariupol resident, said a Russian military service member had taken over his summer cottage by the seaside on the city's outskirts. As a man of military age, Nosochenko couldn't make the journey back to Mariupol to claim compensation himself, and his wife, who had endured Russia's siege of the city, refused to return there on principle. The Clock House, built in the 1950s, was one of the most coveted addresses in what had been a thriving city. A new clock was installed during repairs to the building's roof and facade in 2021, with a light show that then-mayor Vadym Boychenko hailed as a symbol of 'the era of Mariupol's rebirth.' Months later, residents found themselves huddling in the basement as Russian forces besieged the city. In March 2022, a missile tore a hole in the Clock House, killing several residents. 'That's when we realized we had nowhere to go back to,' said Pudak, who had escaped the city with her husband and three children days before, leaving the keys to her mother's apartment with a neighbor. Mass displacement and destruction threw open the real-estate market. While workers started clearing rubble, realtors snapped up property on the cheap from fleeing residents. Residents of the Clock House scattered across Ukraine, Russia and Europe, but some remained in the building's basement until a leak appeared in the summer. Despite the damage, residents hoped the building's historic value would ensure its preservation. In a master plan for Mariupol's redevelopment approved by Putin in 2022, the Clock House was marked for restoration. The bulldozers arrived toward the end of 2022. Residents watched helplessly as the building was torn down. Three diggers broke in the process, according to the head of the residents association Maria Tikhovskaya. 'The house itself was fighting the demolition,' she said in a video posted online. Satellite images show most of the building had been leveled by early 2023. Still, residents expected to receive apartments in the new building. A 2022 decree entitled them to be rehoused on the site of their former home. Unknown to them, however, the building had been allocated for redevelopment by a subsidiary of a company called Roskapstroy, which is owned by Russia's construction ministry. The reality began to sink in when they saw the floor plans and computer generated images of the new building on a Telegram channel that popped up in July 2023. It was several stories higher than the building they knew, and had a completely different layout. Instead of spacious two-bedroom apartments, it had been subdivided mainly into studios. Residents attempted to contact the developer, RKS Development, but were ignored. The developer instead opened a sales office near the site. Among the buyers was a real-estate agent from Mariupol, who reserved three apartments in the new Clock House. 'There was a lot of interest,' said the 28-year-old. Most of the other buyers he encountered were from Russia, he said. As for the former residents, he knew of their grievances but had little sympathy. If they wanted to keep living there, they could have put down a deposit like everyone else, he said. Nevermind that the price was about three times what residents say they were offered in compensation for their apartments. 'It's barely enough to buy a burial plot,' said one resident. Even if they could have afforded it, many former residents objected on principle: Why should they pay the price for the destruction of Mariupol? Within a week, the apartments had sold out, the real-estate agent said. The bulk of the planned construction cost of 850 million Russian rubles, or around $10.5 million, was covered by future owners, according to a project disclosure statement from the developer. The U.S. sanctioned Roskapstroy and its subsidiaries for operating in occupied Mariupol later in 2023. The developer didn't respond to a request for comment. The central avenue of Mariupol in the early months of the war, as Russian troops intensified a campaign that destroyed swaths of the a strategic port city, is a symbol of Russian brutality and Ukrainian resistance during a siege in the early weeks of the war. As construction work began, residents mobilized, appealing to official bodies in the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian name for the government it installed in eastern Ukraine. In response, they were told the law had changed: Residents were no longer entitled to be rehoused on the site of their former homes, but anywhere within the city limits. Meanwhile, Elena Pudak's mother attempted to travel back to Mariupol to claim compensation for her apartment. She was denied entry at Russia's Sheremetyevo airport—the sole legal entry point for Ukrainians seeking to return to occupied territories. There was no explanation, but Pudak suspects the authorities are trying to keep people with property claims out. With dwindling options, Clock House residents filed a lawsuit against the Donetsk People's Republic, arguing that their rights as newly minted citizens of Russia had been violated. In a letter addressed to Putin, they pleaded their case. There was no response, and late last year, the court ruled against them. Home by Home, Russia Is Selling Occupied Ukraine to Russians Home by Home, Russia Is Selling Occupied Ukraine to Russians Home by Home, Russia Is Selling Occupied Ukraine to Russians Home by Home, Russia Is Selling Occupied Ukraine to Russians
Hindustan Times
40 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Trump's Warm Embrace of India Turns Cold
WASHINGTON—In just a matter of months, President Trump has gone from praising India as a major strategic partner to saying he wouldn't care if its economy implodes. The Trump administration still values the U.S.-India partnership, officials say. But ties between Washington and New Delhi have steadily soured over disputes about trade, Russia and whether Trump deserves credit for brokering a cease-fire following a four-day conflict in May between India and its rival Pakistan. The standoff, fueled by the president's public broadsides against India, threatens to sink a key but complex geopolitical relationship and break the bonds Trump has forged with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The fractures have appeared as U.S. ties with Pakistan have grown in recent months, culminating in a White House meeting between Trump and the country's powerful army chief, Asim Munir, in June. Modi 'must be very, very unhappy,' said Manoj Joshi, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation, an Indian think tank. India, viewed by the U.S. as a bulwark against China, has rankled Washington with its persistent relationship with Russia. New Delhi purchases Russian oil and weapons, propping up Russia's economy, and along with Moscow is part of a loose, five-nation grouping of nations known as the Brics. As Trump has turned against Russian President Vladimir Putin for not ending the war in Ukraine, he has vowed to impose tariffs on countries that do business with Moscow. India, Trump said Wednesday, would incur a 'penalty' for its continued purchases of Russian goods. 'I don't care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care,' Trump added in another social-media post Thursday. President Trump hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House in February. Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told reporters Friday that the U.S.-India relationship 'has weathered several transitions and challenges. We remain focused on the substantive agenda that our two countries have committed to and are confident that the relationship will continue to move forward.' Still, Trump's comments are a stark shift from the early days of the administration, when officials in both Washington and New Delhi hoped to build on the Trump-Modi relationship established during the president's first term. Mike Waltz called ties between the two countries 'the most important relationship of the 21st century' before Trump tapped him as national security adviser. Trump hosted Modi at the White House in February and praised him as a 'much better negotiator,' while Modi mirrored Trump's campaign catchphrase and said he wanted to 'make India great again.' High-profile visits to New Delhi by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance followed. Yet the warm glow faded in the following months, when efforts to swiftly clinch a bilateral trade deal foundered. Trump, current and former officials said, is deeply frustrated by the lack of progress with New Delhi. A point of contention in tariff negotiations is the U.S.'s push to open India's agricultural markets, which employs over 40% of the country's workforce. Opening up the sector, which has long been protected by New Delhi, would anger India's farmers, a powerful voting bloc. That presents a perilous political risk for Modi, who abandoned an effort in 2021 to deregulate the agricultural sector after facing nationwide protests from farmers. Trump said the U.S. and India are still negotiating a trade deal even after the Aug. 1 deadline for an agreement. A screen at the Bombay Stock Exchange building in Mumbai showed a news broadcast Thursday on Trump's tariffs. Credit for a cease-fire U.S.-India ties hit another snag in May when India and Pakistan, both nuclear powers, clashed over a four-day stretch. The conflict started after a militant attack in the Indian-administered Kashmir region that Modi's government blamed on Pakistan. Pakistan denied any role in the assault. As the conflict raged, the U.S. received intelligence that India launched the Brahmos cruise missile to strike targets in Pakistan, according to Trump administration officials. The U.S. assesses that the weapon, produced in partnership with Russia, can carry nuclear warheads, current and former officials said, though India says it is solely a conventional missile. Trump feared that India might decide to equip one of the missiles with a nuclear bomb if the crisis spiraled out of control, officials said, or that Pakistan could decide to launch a nuclear device of its own, leading Trump to encourage Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to call their counterparts. Trump posted on social media that his team brokered a deal that led to a cease-fire on May 10. Pakistan embraced the announcement, praising Trump and nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. India, by contrast, bristled at Trump's assertions and insisted no outside power dictated the cease-fire. India's insistence that the U.S. role was overblown has privately angered Trump, who has told aides he's upset with Modi for not thanking him. A White House official said Trump leveraged his relationships with both India and Pakistan to secure a cease-fire that the administration insists could have gone nuclear without his involvement. The official wouldn't comment on India's use of the Brahmos missile as the reason for Trump's concerns. Officials at the Indian Embassy in Washington said India has a no-first-use nuclear policy, so its use of the Brahmos missile should have caused no alarm in the U.S. about a nuclear escalation. Trump strained ties even further by offering to mediate the longstanding Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan. 'That was embarrassing for India. India has always rejected the idea of third-party mediation, something that Pakistan has always sought,' said Lisa Curtis, a former senior National Security Council official who oversaw South Asia policy in Trump's first term. 'If there had just been one or two tweets on May 10, the two sides could have recovered from it. However, Trump has talked multiple times about the U.S. bringing about the cease-fire.' Russian ties Trump's embrace of Pakistan and pressure on India over its ties with Russia and trade could backfire at just the moment when India was warming up to defense ties with the West. 'It's going to push India increasingly into the hands of Russia,' said Derek Grossman, a former U.S. intelligence official and professor on Indo-Pacific security affairs at the University of Southern California. In recent years, India has sought to pivot away from relying on Russia for military equipment, especially after the Ukraine war cut off the ready flow of Russian-made weapons. From 2020 to 2024, India imported 36% of its military hardware from Russia, its largest supplier, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. That was a shift from the 2006-10 period, when 82% of India's military equipment was imported from Russia. The U.S. has previously targeted Indian businesses for allegedly helping Russia evade sanctions by selling dual-use technology that could bolster Moscow's military production. In announcing that the U.S. would place 25% tariffs on Indian goods, Trump also criticized India for purchasing large quantities of Russian oil. India has taken advantage of discounted oil prices from Russia after many Western countries stopped buying or curbed their purchases. In the last quarter of 2024, India accounted for one-third of Russia's oil exports, according to ORF. 'It is most certainly a point of irritation in our relationship with India—not the only point of irritation,' Rubio said in a Fox News interview on Thursday. 'With so many other oil vendors available, India continues to buy so much from Russia, which in essence is helping to fund the war effort and allowing this war to continue in Ukraine.' The newfound U.S. attention to the matter has put India in a bind. 'Abruptly dropping Russian oil will have consequences for the relationship. On the other hand, the promised U.S. sanctions will have their own impact,' said ORF's Joshi. 'Just how to square this circle is a tough one.' Write to Alexander Ward at Robbie Gramer at and Shan Li at Trump's Warm Embrace of India Turns Cold
