Golden Dome is a Trillion Dollar Gambit | These Materials Could Cripple America’s Defense Industrial Base | Artificial Intelligence Ushers in a Golden Age of Hacking, and more

In July 2025, the Department of Defense and MP Materials structured a package comprising equity in the company, a 10-year price floor for certain rare earth elements, long-term magnet offtake, and project financing. This represents a major departure from previous investments to support the defense industrial base. It also appears successful in attracting sizable private capital.
But exposure remains acute because China dominates many device-grade processes and has layered export license controls on almost a dozen critical materials since August 2023. Although a new trade framework resumed shipments for rare-earth magnets, licensing discretion remains in China’s hands.
Washington should act now.

With Calls for Retribution Over Kirk, Some See Rise of a “Woke Right”  (Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times)
Conservatives have pressed for consequences for those who make negative comments about Charlie Kirk.
But a few on the right say they worry about limits on speech:
Ben Shapiro, who has one of the highest rated podcasts in the country, told listeners that while he was no fan of Mr. Kimmel, he did not like the idea of the F.C.C. threatening broadcasters over content that the agency deems false. “Why? Because one day the shoe will be on the other foot,” Mr. Shapiro said on Thursday.
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, on Friday compared Mr. Carr’s comments to a mob shakedown. “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It’d be a shame if something happened to it,’” the senator said on an episode of his podcast.

The U.S. Is Quietly Pausing Some Arms Sales to Europe  (Vivian Salama, The Atlantic)
As part of the “America First” agenda, the Department of Defense is stockpiling weapons.
If the hold is long-term, it risks creating new rifts with allies, weakening their defenses at a time when Russia poses an imminent threat, and diminishing U.S. military influence across the continent. The change would also mean the loss of billions of dollars of government and private revenue, reducing the number of jobs in the defense industry, limiting product expansion, and curtailing research and development.
Officials and observers of the Trump administration say the change is on brand with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby’s belief that China is the only country that has the ambition, resources, and military might to knock the U.S. off its pedestal as the world’s leading superpower. The only way to stop its bid for global dominance, Colby has argued, is for the U.S. to pour everything it can into securing the Western Pacific—albeit, potentially, at the expense of European security.

Artificial Intelligence Ushers in a Golden Age of Hacking, Experts Say  (Joseph Menn, Washington Post)
Hackers are using AI’s immense capabilities to find ways into more networks —and turn their victims’ AI against them.