Why the U.S. government is embracing crypto
Earlier this year, President Trump launched a government-backed crypto reserve—funded by crypto seized from criminals. Experts Les Borsai and Chen Arad explain what this could mean for investors and the future of digital finance.
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News.com.au
23 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Donald Trump's huge AUKUS call could change everything
ANALYSIS It is Australia's most ambitious construction project ever. It was never going to be easy. Just four years after the AUKUS agreement to share the production of a new generation of nuclear-powered submarines was signed to much fanfare in the presence of then Prime Ministers Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson and President Joe Biden, it's facing its first existential crisis. US President Donald Trump has launched a review to ensure the partnership conforms with his Make America Great Again (MAGA) dogma. His expectations are high. AUKUS, however, is already a big ask. Australia must produce nuclear engineers out of nowhere. It must reinvent its industrial base after abandoning any pretence of being a manufacturing nation with the cancelling of the car industry two decades ago. This must be capable of scaling the pinnacle of manufacturing technology, naval submarine building, before the 2040s. And Australia must somehow stump up the cash to do so. AUKUS is a rare example of long term thinking from Canberra. It was always going to take an even rarer commitment for cross-government continuity. But it was never going to be solely Australia's problem. Britain has to be on board. And it has yet to overcome its own budgetary, workforce, and industry hurdles. The United States is central to the plan's success. But it's also struggling with decades of shipbuilding neglect. Not to mention intensely polarised party politics. And now its 47th President is applying his trademark volatility to the fragile agreement. 'The Department is reviewing AUKUS as part of ensuring that this initiative of the previous Administration is aligned with the President's America First agenda,' a US Defence Department spokesperson said this morning. 'As Secretary Hegseth has made clear, this means ensuring the highest readiness of our servicemembers, that allies step up fully to do their part for collective defence, and that the defence industrial base is meeting our needs. 'This review will ensure the initiative meets these common sense, America First criteria.' Art of the deal 'THE GOLDEN RULE OF NEGOTIATING AND SUCCESS: HE WHO HAS THE GOLD MAKES THE RULES,' Trump posted to his personal social media service Truth Social in April. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles made Australia's first $US500 million down payment on a $US3 billion contribution to upgrading US shipbuilding capacity in a February visit to the Pentagon. It's just a drop in the ocean of the $368 billion needed to deliver eight submarines by the 2050s. But Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth last month relayed a demand that Australia up its defence spending to 3.5 per cent of the national budget 'as soon as possible'. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declined, pointing to the massive AUKUS outlay as evidence of Canberra's commitment to do its bit. But is it enough to satisfy Trump? His administration is reviewing every decision of the past President, Joe Biden, as a matter of partisan principle. AUKUS has not escaped its attention. Trump wants allied defence money spent on US-designed and manufactured military equipment. Even if it comes with significant strategic, resilience and alliance benefits, outsourcing construction to Australia is not his style. So, the appointment of AUKUS sceptic and Under Secretary of Defence Elbridge Colby to lead the review has raised fears about his true intentions. Last year, Colby called the idea of selling US submarines to Australia 'crazy'. He stated the move would weaken the US Navy's ability to put powerful assets where needed in times of crisis. He softened this tone a little during his confirmation hearing earlier this year. 'If we can produce the attack submarines in sufficient number and sufficient speed, then great,' he said. 'But if we can't, that becomes a very difficult problem. 'Because we don't want our servicemen and women to be in a weaker position and more vulnerable, and, God forbid, worse because they are not in the right place in the right time.' Australia faces precisely the same problem. John Bolton survived as Trump's former national security advisor for more than a year. He believes the move is about scaling back, or abandoning, the pact. 'It's more a question of how much of a downsize they are looking at, including potentially total cancellation — which would be catastrophic, a huge mistake for the US with enormous consequences for Australia and the UK.' Clear and present danger Defence Secretary Hegseth last month told the Shangri-la Dialogue of defence ministers in Singapore that war with China was 'imminent'. Beijing was openly practising its invasion plans for Taiwan, he said. The US - and Australia - aren't ready. Decades of on-again, off-again defence procurement plans have thrown navies, air forces and armies into disarray. And all the while, their ships, aircraft, tanks and equipment were approaching - and passing - their useful lives. Beijing, however, has been building big. It now has the world's largest navy. Its air force is both significant in size and technological capability. Its army has been reformed and retrained. And there's a new spanner in the works. Donald Trump. He wants to annex ally and next-door neighbour Canada. He wants to seize NATO partner Denmark's self-governed protectorate of Greenland. He wants to send in his troops to take control of the Panama Canal. Mostly, though, he wants his allies to do what he says. Overnight, his Secretary of State Marco Rubio condemned Canberra, London, Ottawa and Oslo for daring to impose sanctions on Israel's far-right coalition government partners Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. 'We reject any notion of equivalence: Hamas is a terrorist organisation that committed unspeakable atrocities, continues to hold innocent civilians hostage, and prevents the people of Gaza from living in peace,' Rubio said in a statement. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, however, have repeatedly called for the weaponization of starvation, the occupation of Palestinian land, and the forced deportation of Arabs from Gaza and the West Bank. Calling out this behaviour is a sovereign geopolitical stand taken by Canberra. It's bound to generate pushback from the White House. 'If AUKUS falls over it is Australia that pays the price,' Shadow Defence Minister Angus Taylor said this morning. 'We would face a dangerous gap in capability at a time when we lack the capacity to go it alone.' With friends like these... 'When the AUKUS submarine deal was agreed to in 2021, an understandably angry French foreign minister said, 'Australia has sacrificed sovereignty for the sake of security. It is likely to lose both',' former Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull stated in an essay published last week. 'AUKUS may be a cautionary tale for other allies. Sovereignty and autonomy are more important than ever. Compromise them at your peril.' Trump's America First agenda is not just economic. It's strategic. And personal. He's launched a global trade war against friends and enemies (except Russia and North Korea). He's dismantling international trade, corruption, climate and humanitarian agreements. He's lambasted Europe and the NATO alliance for failing to carry its weight. He's threatened to 'leave them to Russia' in the face of looming conflict. 'The reality of Trump's administration—the contempt for law both at home and abroad, the bullying, the abrogation of agreements and treaties, the threats against allies, and the cuddling up to tyrants—is plain to see. But it still seems incredible,' Turnbull writes. However, like NATO, Australia is totally dependent on US military support. Without it, it doesn't have an air force, an army, or a navy. For example, US-built F-35 stealth fighters are reliant on ongoing US support. Computer services, software patches, spare parts, and rare materials… are all subject to Washington's whims. Then there's satellite surveillance, navigation and communications. The Albanese Government has abandoned plans to build up a sovereign satellite manufacturing and launch capability. That leaves the military and emergency services totally reliant on US and other foreign suppliers. They're powerful coercion cards Trump is clearly willing to play. 'In recent years, Australia has become more dependent on the United States even as the United States has become less dependable,' Turnbull adds. 'This dynamic is most glaring when it comes to the formation of AUKUS.' But former Australian Prime Minister and Chinese state-run China Development Bank board member Paul Keating says any move by Trump to terminate the AUKUS deal would 'save Australia from itself'. 'AUKUS will be shown for what it always has been: a deal hurriedly scribbled on the back of an envelope by Scott Morrison, along with the vacuous British blowhard Boris Jhonson and the confused President, Joe Biden.' Heart of the matter Under the AUKUS agreement, Australia would receive its first second-hand Block IV US Virginia-class attack boat no sooner than 2032. Australia has committed to purchasing another old Block IV and a new Block VII by 2038. And it holds an option on a further two. Delivery of new, collaborative next-generation designs - from both the UK and a new submarine assembly facility in Adelaide - is not expected until well into the 2040s. Secretary Hegseth, however, believes Beijing will be ready to move on Taiwan by 2027. On Tuesday, Hegseth sought to reassure London and Canberra that he was committed to honouring the AUKUS deal despite a growing US shipbuilding crisis. He told the US House of Representatives that the Pentagon was talking 'every day' to US shipbuilders to ensure 'their needs are being met and their shortfalls are being addressed so we can close that gap in real-time.' Critics argue that the US should not sell even second-hand submarines to Australia while its fleet is struggling to make up its numbers. 'There is a gap,' Hegseth admitted, 'but we believe we are closing it.' But the Pentagon has moved to further delay construction by pushing $US3.1 billion worth of work on new Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile carrying submarines back by one year. And US attack submarine shipbuilders are already working near maximum capacity while struggling against workforce shortages and supply chain challenges brought about by growing international trade tensions. Australia, however, has put itself in a position where it faces a future without submarines. 'If you don't stick to a plan, you will never acquire the capability,' Defence Minister Marles said this morning. Canberra should know. Successive Liberal and Labor governments have handballed, delayed, and abandoned every plan for a Collins-class replacement for the past two decades. 'So our focus is on sticking to this plan and on seeing it through … because chopping and changing guarantees, you will never have the capability,' he added. But that's not his call. London has a say. As does Washington. Meanwhile, the implications for defence remain stark: 'You just need to look at the map to understand that Australia absolutely needs to have a long-range submarine capability,' Marles concluded.
News.com.au
34 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Resources Top 5: Resolution Minerals stands tall on back of US antimony buy
RML is acquiring a drill-ready antimony, gold and tungsten project in the well-endowed Stibnite Mining District of Idaho ACM is acquiring a pipeline of high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru DTR has received further high-level US government support for development of its Colosseum project Your standout resources stocks for Thursday, June 12, 2025. Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) Standing tall above the pack of ASX juniors was Resolution Minerals after climbing 78.95% to a new 18-month high of 3.4c on volume of more than 204m. The strong support came after the company announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring a drill-ready antimony, gold and tungsten project in the Stibnite Mining District of Idaho – next to the largest known antimony resource in the USA. The Horse Heaven project shares its eastern boundary with A$2bn market cap Perpetua Resources and its Stibnite gold-antimony project, which hosts a 4.8Moz gold reserve and a 148Mlb antimony reserve. Once reopened, Stibnite will be the only domestically mined source of antimony in the US, supplying around 35% of the country's demand. Horse Heaven has strong gold, antimony and silver mineralisation in two prospects – the Antimony Ridge Fault Zone (ARFZ) and the Golden Gate Fault Zone (GGFZ) – and includes past-producing antimony and tungsten mines. Past rock chip results include up to 5.99g/t gold, 367g/t silver and 19.15% antimony, with past drilling returning up to 1.459g/t gold. Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) said the brownfields project was a transformational acquisition, with the highly encouraging past results indicating large tonnage mining potential. It is expected to begin drilling the antimony prospects at Horse Heaven in the near-term. Horse Heaven is also eligible for fast-tracking under FAST-41, just like Stibnite which was fast-tracked for approval in April, and on May 19, 2025, obtained final approval to be re-opened. The company said Horse Heaven complemented its recently acquired Australian gold-antimony-copper projects – Drake East antimony-gold project (NSW), Neardie antimony project (Qld) and Spur South gold-copper project (NSW) – to create a portfolio highly leveraged to gold and antimony. 'The acquisition of the Horse Heaven project is a company transforming event for RML,' executive director Aharon Zaetz said. 'As many governments around the world look to onshore their supply of critical minerals, such as antimony, we have secured a commanding ground position with known antimony occurrences and next to what will soon be the largest antimony producer in the USA.' Australian Critical Minerals (ASX:ACM) Becoming the latest seeking to exploit the copper-gold riches of the coastal belt along the Andes in South America is Australian Critical Minerals, which has entered a binding share purchase agreement to acquire Circuit Resources. This transaction, which the company describes as transformational, includes a pipeline of high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru, with silver, base metals and lithium as a secondary focus. Circuit Resources owns or has the option to acquire the concessions associated with the Blanca, Riqueza, Flint, Cerro Rayas, Liro and Kamika projects with the first two, Bianca and Riqueza, representing the primary targets for ACM. Investors share the company's enthusiasm with shares up as much as 27.5% to a daily high of 7.9c before closing at 7.3c. Blanca is a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz vein gold system encompassing the Cruz Vein and is within a copper-gold-silver porphyry-epithermal metallogenic belt that also hosts Alta Copper's Canariaco and Rio Tinto's La Granja porphyry copper deposits. Cruz vein outcrops at surface and was partially explored by Inca Pacific Resources in 1996 and 1997 with further trenching and rock sampling carried out in 2010 and 2018 by St Elias Mining. Drilling and trenching delivered strong gold hits including 1.5m at 52.8g/t gold within a 9.5m intersection at 11.27g/t; and 4m at 3.97g/t gold including 1.75m at 7.5g/t. ACM plans to prioritise exploration of Blanca and will immediately start the approvals process for twinning, infill and extensional drilling. Riqueza is a district-scale, intermediate-sulphidation vein system extending over a 10km strike length and southwest of several deposits including Minera IRL's Corihuarmi gold-silver project, Kuya Silver Corp's Bethania silver project and Lara Exploration's Kenita polymetallic project. It has undergone substantial previous exploration with copper grades from 1% to 8.7% and silver assays to 2238g/t in historical rock chip samples. A review and prioritisation of historical drill targets based on extensive surface sampling, mapping and geophysics is underway with ACM aiming to start drill permitting in the second half of 2025. 'The acquisition of Circuit Resources is a significant opportunity for ACM, delivering a pipeline of high-impact exploration projects across gold, copper, silver, zinc and lithium in Peru,' ACM managing director Dean de Largie said. 'The scale and quality of these assets – spanning over 25,000 hectares – give us immediate drill-ready targets and exceptional scope for new discoveries. 'Projects like Riqueza, with high-grade copper-silver veins over several kilometres and proximity to majors like Anglo American, offer Tier-1 potential. 'Blanca has already demonstrated strong gold mineralisation, while Cerro Rayas and the Salar projects provide exposure to critical metals with potentially strong demand tailwind.' Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) Dateline Resources has welcomed further high-level US government support for expediting the development of its Colosseum project in California. On Sunday, US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum highlighted the national significance of the Trump Administration's reopening of the Colosseum mine during an interview on Fox News. He emphasised that restarting the mine was a pivotal step towards bolstering America's supply of critical minerals and reducing US reliance on overseas sources for REEs. The mine, to be clear, has not yet been reopened and does not yet have a rare earths resource. It contains an offically reported resource of around 1.1Moz of gold. Drilling for rare earths was announced on April 5, with the project thought to "share the same mineralising system as Mountain Pass", the only operating rare earths deposit in the States. In a meeting on Monday at the US Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, DC, Dateline Resources says its MD and CEO Stephen Baghdadi met with Secretary Burgum to discuss the next steps in developing REE extraction at Colosseum. Baghdadi highlighted the mine's potential to contribute to the US REE supply chain, essential for advanced technologies and national security, sooner than any other known deposit in the US. Secretary Burgum, joined by senior appointees from the Department of the Interior and President Donald Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, reaffirmed his commitment to bolstering US rare earth production, expressing specific enthusiasm for Colosseum, the company said. The hope is more government support and funding could come with that. Investors welcomed the news, with shares reaching 10.2c, a 29.2% increase on the previous close with more than 196m changing hands. Meeka Metals (ASX:MEK) With commissioning of the processing plant underway at the Murchison gold project, Meeka Metals reached a 10-year high of 18.5c, an increase of 15.63% on the previous close, as it transitions to producer status. Dry commissioning (system and equipment testing) has progressed successfully and ore is being fed into the plant while wet commissioning (full operational commissioning) is underway. The first gold pour from gravity gold is planned for June 2025 while first gold sales and cash flow are expected in early July. 'It rounds out a period of consistent delivery against our development timeline and reflects our focused actions to bring the project online,' Meeka's managing director Tim Davidson said. "We are now focused on maximising the expanded open pit mining opportunity following the success we are having with the drill bit. 'Additionally, first ore is expected from our first underground mine at Andy Well in the September 2025 quarter.' The Murchison project hosts a 1.2Moz at 3g/t gold mineral resource on granted Mining Leases. Ausgold (ASX:AUC) New high-grade gold results have extended the Datatine high-grade shoot by 240m down-plunge and reinforced its potential as a high-grade underground prospect within Ausgold's Katanning gold project (KGP) in WA. Results of up to 6.6m at 3.40g/t gold from 362m, including 3.8m at 5.80g/t from 364.85m, also support the outlook for future resource growth at Katanning. RC and diamond drilling also returned 2m at 3.67g/t from 297m along with 11.3m at 0.96g/t, including 4.2m at 1.81g/t from 333.83m, and resulted in AUC shares reaching a new three-year high of 77c, a 6.22% increase on the previous close. The company will now utilise funding of up to $180,000 through the Geological Survey of WA Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for further drilling. This will target sections where high-grade mineralisation is interpreted to have been missed and test for further high-grade mineralisation up to 150m beyond the current down-plunge extent. 'With both Datatine and the Central Zone remaining open down-plunge, we see clear opportunities to increase resources at the KGP,' executive chairman John Dorward said. The company is on track to complete a feasibility study in late June considering the development of a large-scale, long-life open pit gold project.
West Australian
an hour ago
- West Australian
Opposition leader Sussan Ley accuses Penny Wong of overstepping in ‘unprecedented' Israeli minister sanctions
Opposition leader Sussan Ley has accused the Albanese Government of overstepping by slapping 'unprecedented' sanctions on two Israeli Government ministers. She accused Penny Wong of acting 'unilaterally' in imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The Albanese Government joined the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Norway to sanction the pair, accusing them of 'inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank'. 'It is unprecedented to, as a government, take actions, sanctions on members of a democratically elected government. It appears that Penny Wong acted unilaterally on this,' Ms Ley told Sky New on Thursday. 'The Magnitsky sanctions were never designed to be used in this way, but to take action against terrorist regimes and bad actors.' The Magnitsky legislation allows governments to impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes and travel bans, on foreign individuals responsible for serious human rights abuses or corruption. Australia has only selectively deployed the sanctions, mostly on Russian individuals, since they first came into effect in December 2021 with the first set handed down in March 2022. The Foreign Minister and Labor colleagues have defended the measure, with Ms Wong saying the duo had 'extremist rhetoric' including 'appalling and dangerous' calls for the forced displacement of Palestinians and the creation of new Israeli settlements. Former Labor defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon also openly labelled them 'extremists.' However when asked whether the Government had 'overstepped the mark', Ms Ley bluntly responded: 'Yes we do. Yes we do'. Ms Ley's criticism of the collective move was echoed by her Coalition team on Thursday, with many calling for a briefing on the decision which they warned could have broader implications. 'We want to understand more deeply the rationale behind the government's decision making,' Nationals Senate Leader Bridget McKenzie said on Thursday. 'I think these sanctions do go against the intent of the Magnitsky sanction regime.' Opposition legal affairs spokesman Julian Leeser has warned if the standard for triggering Magnitsky sanctions had been weakened it could impact Australia's standing abroad. 'This is a very serious step. When you read the government's statement, it suggests that it's actually lowered the threshold for applying sanctions,' he told the ABC on Thursday. 'Because these sanctions are being applied because of public comments of the two Israeli ministers and the big question here is whether this is a new standard that will be applied to the public comments of officials from other countries.' Shadow foreign minister Michaelia Cash called the sanctions a 'very serious development' and said they should meet 'a very high threshold.' While backing the sanctions and defending them as 'carefully considered', Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said he hoped Australia and Israel would 'continue our friendship'. 'I mean we want to continue our friendship with Israel, let me be clear about that,' he said. 'We've worked very carefully in relation to taking this step over a period of time. 'We've done this in combination with the United Kingdom in combination with Canada and with other nations.' His shadow counterpart Angus Taylor went as far to question whether Ms Wong's call teamed with Labor's refusal to lift the defence budget after US pressure had prompted the Trump Administration to review the AUKUS partnership. But Marles hit back at his 'breathless press conference' and said the Coalition needed to 'take a breath' on the AUKUS probe which he downplayed as a 'natural' decision of any new government. Former Liberal politician and ex-US ambassador Arthur Sinodinos also rejected any link, noting Marles had publicly said he'd been aware a review was coming for weeks. Both sides of politics have said ultimately they wanted to see a ceasefire and long-term end to the Gaza conflict.
