Katie Zacharia, who briefly served as White House press secretary before being fired, was named in a June 24 press release as joining the advisory board of NRED Intelligent Mining alongside former DHS secretary Kristi Noem. Zacharia now says the announcement was fake and never consented to it, with an associate claiming the release was issued without her approval even though discussions about her joining had occurred.
wired.com
· 2026-10-16
A joint Foreign Policy/IEEE Spectrum report details how China's dominance in rare-earth elements relies heavily on monazite ore, much of it from the Bayan Obo mine near Baotou, Inner Mongolia. The report notes that decades of processing monazite for rare earths produced the Weikuang Dam tailings lake, a highly polluted, radioactive site, and that China now bans stand-alone monazite mining due to the environmental damage it caused.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-10-15
A joint report from Foreign Policy and IEEE Spectrum examines efforts by mining firms and governments in North America, Australasia, and Europe to challenge China's roughly 90 percent control of rare-earth oxide and metal markets. The report highlights monazite, a radioactive ore, as a resource that some rare-earth experts believe could help build alternative supply chains outside China's dominance.
spectrum.ieee.org
· 2026-10-15
President Trump begins two days of meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, even as years of tariffs, tech restrictions and pressure on allies have failed to isolate Beijing. China's global trade surplus is on track to hit a record $1.2 trillion in 2025, and it has expanded trade ties and rare-earth leverage worldwide while exports to the U.S. fell. Meanwhile, Trump's disputes with traditional U.S. allies over tariffs and defense spending have left some countries more hesitant to align firmly with Washington against China.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-23
Ahead of a Washington summit between Trump and Xi, analysts say the trade truce reached in May is being fulfilled unevenly across its three main commitments: China's soybean purchases, its pledge to buy 200 Boeing jets, and the resumption of rare earth magnet exports after a 12-month suspension of export controls. Delivery on some commitments remains difficult to verify, according to analysts tracking the deal.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-23
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York to discuss economic and trade issues, including AI, tariffs and rare earths, ahead of a planned summit between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer also joined the discussions, which Bessent described as laying the groundwork for the leaders' meeting.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-20
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