China's trade surplus surpasses $1 trillion as AI boom powers exports

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

Copyright AP Photo

By Angela Barnes

Published on 10 November 2026 - EURONEWS

China's trade surplus ballooned to more than $1 trillion in October, official data showed on Tuesday, reaching the milestone even earlier than last year's record-breaking sum.

Exports from the world's second-largest economy have surged in recent months, driven in part by soaring global demand for artificial intelligence-related products including computer chips, data centre servers and networking equipment.

The trade boom has offered Beijing a key economic lifeline as domestic activity is weighed by longstanding woes in the once-roaring property sector.

The figures come ahead of another high-stakes meeting between President Xi Jinping and US counterpart Donald Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in China next week.

Exports jumped 35.2% year-on-year to $412.3 billion last month, according to the General Administration of Customs, while imports expanded 41.6% to $307.1 billion.

The figures brought China's total trade surplus during the first 10 months to a towering $1.04 trillion, according to the GAC.

"Exporters have been the key driving force behind China's economy this year," Zhiwei Zhang, president and chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, wrote.

"I expect they will continue to perform well in the foreseeable future," he said, adding that he did not think "China's macro policy stance will change significantly for the rest of the year".

The country is well on track to surpass the record $1.2 trillion hit last year, when the $1 trillion mark was reached in November.

However, the export boom has fuelled tensions with several key trading partners, who worry that floods of lower-cost Chinese goods are crowding out local competition.

Xi-Trump summit

Exports to the United States surged 32.9% last month, the GAC data showed.

Xi and Trump have navigated a shaky truce to a fierce trade war since their meeting in October last year, agreeing recently to extend the arrangement ahead of talks that were held in Washington in September.

They are expected to hold another head-to-head at the APEC gathering, which runs from November 18 to 19 in Shenzhen and could also see Trump, Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold trilateral talks.

Trade tensions between Beijing and the European Union have been building in recent months.

Tuesday's data showed China's surplus with the 27-nation bloc had swelled to $310.7 billion in January-October - topping the $241.6 billion recorded during the same period last year.

The lopsided shipments have put increasing pressure on Brussels to defend local industries from what critics call unfair competition from Chinese exports.

Talks last month in Beijing between EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic and Chinese counterpart Wang Wentao ended with an agreement to limit exports of hybrid vehicles to Europe.

Analysts say Beijing is relying heavily on exports to achieve its official growth target for this year of 4.5-5.0%, its lowest goal in decades.

Domestic consumption has been sluggish for several years, with data Monday showing inflation was still well short of the official target of around 2%.

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

US Project Vault readies $1B loan blitz for industry

Staff Writer | October 16, 2026 | 

Trump addressing coal industry representatives. (Image courtesy of The White House.)

The US government-backed Project Vault is preparing to issue up to $1 billion in loans to American manufacturers seeking critical minerals, advancing Washington’s efforts to shield domestic industry from supply disruptions.

VaultCo, the entity managing the stockpiling initiative, is in discussions with more than 70 companies across the critical minerals supply chain, Bloomberg reported. The first round of financing is expected to cover more than a dozen original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), with another group to follow.

“What’s likely to happen is we’ll announce several hundred million dollars, maybe a billion dollars, of loans to OEMs who have requested use of the Vault facility,” VaultCo Executive Chairman Brett Lambert told the news outlet. “In the first tranche, we’ll have more than a dozen firms, followed by more than a dozen shortly after.”

The financing would mark a significant step towards making Project Vault operational as the US seeks to reduce its exposure to volatile critical minerals markets and strengthen manufacturers’ access to materials essential for industrial production.

Lambert said the recipients would not be publicly identified at this stage, although the announcement is expected to disclose the types of minerals they have requested.

Stockpile takes shape

Launched in February, Project Vault is structured as an independently governed public-private partnership backed by a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and nearly $2 billion in private investment.

Commodity trading giants Glencore (LON: GLEN) and Mercuria recently committed $500 million each, becoming the first commodity traders to join the initiative.

Mercuria has already delivered 12,000 tonnes of copper from the Democratic Republic of Congo, establishing a new destination for the African country’s metal within Washington’s supply security strategy.

The shipment comes amid growing US demand for Congolese copper. Imports reached a record 53,290 tonnes in July, driven by competitive prices, improved product quality and concerns over potential tariffs that prompted buyers to accelerate shipments.

Commercial imports and Project Vault serve different purposes. While conventional purchases meet immediate industrial demand, the reserve is intended to provide manufacturers with access to materials when normal supply channels become disrupted.

Tailored mineral demand

Unlike conventional government stockpiles, Project Vault is designed around manufacturers’ specific requirements rather than predetermined inventories of strategic commodities.

Participating companies have requested not only raw metals and minerals but also specialized magnets, powders, alloys and other processed materials tailored to their production needs.

“There isn’t any one mineral that stands out, but the specificity of the requests have surprised me,” Lambert told Bloomberg.

The demand-driven approach allows manufacturers to determine which materials are purchased and stored, potentially giving smaller buyers greater purchasing power in fragmented and often opaque markets.

It also distinguishes Project Vault from the US National Defense Stockpile, which the Defense Logistics Agency administers to secure materials required for national defence.

The next test will be whether the initial loans can translate manufacturers’ highly specific requests into reliable inventories, particularly for processed materials that may be harder to source than raw commodities.

STATE CAPITALI$M

White House Turns to Korean War-Era Law as Diesel Prices Stay Above $6

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Oct 14, 2026

• Trump invokes the Defense Production Act to expand Delek’s 74,000-bpd Texas refinery amid record-high U.S. fuel prices.
• 
  
• Gasoline remains above $4.30 per gallon and diesel near $6.30, with refinery expansion unlikely to provide relief before the midterms.
• 
  
• The U.S.-Russia diesel deal fails to calm markets, as global supply shortages push wholesale diesel prices toward $200 per barrel.
• 
  

The United States has used a 1950 authority to help boost fuel production at a small Texas refinery, Vice President JD Vance said on Tuesday, as the Trump Administration is running out of levers to lower record-high fuel prices.

“I am pleased to announce that the Trump administration, working with the refinery at Delek, has used the Defense Production Act and we’re going to expand the refinery right here in Tyler, Texas,” Vance said at a political rally in Texas.

“We want millions of gallons of commercial-grade and military-spec fuel to come out of this refinery, in addition to what it’s already producing,” the Vice President said.

The Defense Production Act, originally enacted in 1950 in response to the start of the Korean War, is a federal law granting broad authority to the President to direct private businesses to produce critical materials and services for national defense and emergency preparedness.

With the midterm elections looming, the Trump Administration has entertained in recent weeks various ideas to increase fuel availability in the United States. From a ban on diesel exports (now ruled out) to a deal with Vladimir Putin for Russian diesel deliveries (actually announced), no option has been off limits for the Administration facing record-high diesel prices and gasoline prices at their highest level for autumn ever.

At the Texas rally, VP Vance did not provide any timelines or volumes for the “millions of gallons” of additional fuel Delek’s 74,000-barrel-per-day refinery would produce. It is uncertain how much time the refinery expansion would take or if the Defense Production Act would be extended to other refineries in the United States.

It’s certain that additional output is unlikely to hit the market within three weeks and lower fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.

Despite slight declines in recent days, gasoline and diesel prices remain elevated. The U.S. national average price of a gallon of regular gasoline set a record for October, and this has been the first October ever to see the national average above $4 per gallon. As of Tuesday, the national average was $4.34 per gallon.

The national diesel average was at $6.28 a gallon, lower than $6.31 a week ago, but so much more than $3.65 at this time last year.

Diesel prices will remain high and above $6 per gallon for quite some time, analysts say, noting that the deal with Russia for diesel supply wouldn’t make much (or any) difference.

The global diesel market is exceptionally tight because of the Middle East conflict, with too little fuel making it out of the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a lack of supply from Russia, whose refineries are struggling to produce fuel amid Ukrainian drone attacks.

The U.S.-Russia “diesel deal” – if it is executed at all – is for 35.76 million barrels in total—volumes equivalent to about 10 days of U.S. domestic diesel demand or just over one single day of global demand, analysts say.

After an initial decline in wholesale diesel prices on Friday, diesel futures prices spiked again this week, with ULSD in New York and gasoil in London both rising to trade around $200 per barrel on Tuesday, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said.

Tom Kloza, chief energy advisor at Gulf Oil, noted on Tuesday, “Absolutely stunning price spikes in wholesale diesel today…Market clearly not believing that Russian oil is on the way.”

The U.S. retail diesel price record of $6.53 per gallon could be topped by the midterms, according to Kloza.

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said on Tuesday, “wholesale diesel prices not blinking over Russia/US ‘deal’”, and that “$6/gal diesel may be here to stay for now- truckers and farmers not going to see any relief anytime soon.”

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

How Bill Gates’ Billions Shape US Medical Research – OpEd


Image: Grok


September 23, 2026

By Paul Thacker

Key Takeaways:

On the eve of Bill Gates’s private congressional testimony, RealClearInvestigations cites NIH whistleblower emails arguing the Gates Foundation, via the Foundation for the NIH, has steered U.S. biomedical priorities since a 2003 $200 million gift and later joint workshops, trials, and grant alignment across multiple NIH programs. The foundation and NIH did not comment to RCI.

Documents describe Gates-first billing on federal-campus meetings, a 2015 Ebola alignment that hired McKinsey through FNIH, and a 2016 visit where Francis Collins escorted Gates past NIH police; Fauci moderated a panel and another covered gene-drive mosquito work Gates had seeded. FNIH later honored Gates (~$413 million) and Pfizer.

The piece also flags foundation investments (CureVac, a BioNTech stake later sold at a large gain) as blurring charity and profit, quotes an official on a “merging” of NIH and Gates, and notes Target Malaria’s Burkina Faso pause. Critics ask who elected Gates to set federal research direction.

Bill Gates has long been one of the most admired people in the world, especially since he stepped down from his role running Microsoft to devote himself and much of his fortune to philanthropy. That reputation has been tarnished recently, however, by revelations of the billionaire’s close relation with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and exposés on his own fraught relationships with women.

On the eve of Gates’ private testimony with Congress scheduled for tomorrow, a trove of federal whistleblower documents provided to RealClearInvestigations is renewing questions about how Gates money has bought what critics complain is an untoward influence on government health policy. For almost a quarter of a century, his main vehicle of power, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), allowing Gates to shape the direction of the country’s health strategy in ways that have benefitted his own priorities and pet causes while polishing his image as a benevolent global do-gooder.

At a time of growing concern about the power of billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Sam Altman, Gates’ efforts stand out. Instead of lobbying federal agencies for specific policies, Gates leveraged his wealth to work inside the government, partnering with high-ranking NIH officials to steer taxpayer research funding and design scientific policies for several federal programs.


The cache of several dozen emails and documents, made public for the first time by an NIH whistleblower, reinforces previous reports detailing Gates’s extensive influence over U.S. biomedical research. During the height of the COVID pandemic, Kate Elder, a senior vaccines policy adviser for Doctors Without Borders, complained to Politico, “What makes Bill Gates qualified to be giving advice and advising the U.S. government on where they should be putting the tremendous resources?”

Emails and internal plans, for example, show that the NIH – the world’s largest funder of biomedical research – gave the Gates Foundation first billing for the joint workshops and meetings held on federal property.

The Gates Foundation did not respond to repeated requests for comment. The NIH also declined to comment.

Leveraging Investments

Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation tries to grow its endowment through investments. Some of these efforts, especially its stake in vaccine companies, blur the lines between profit-seeking and the foundation’s mission to develop and deliver vaccines around the world. This symbiotic relationship between capitalism and charity also benefits Gates, whose power and position hinge in large part on the size of his foundation’s assets. Before the pandemic, The Nation magazine reported that the Gates Foundation had a $40 million stake in CureVac – this was not a grant but an investment. CureVac was one of many companies the nonprofit bought stock in that were working on COVID vaccines and therapeutics.

Around that same period, the Gates Foundation announced that it had begun to “leverage a portion of its $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund” to advance the nonprofit’s COVID work. The Gates Foundation also turned a $55 million investmentin Pfizer’s COVID vaccine partner, BioNTech, into over $550 million when it sold stock a couple of years later after the vaccine hit the market.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was established in 2000 with an initial endowment of $20 billion and a primary focus on reducing global health disparities. Rather than working exclusively through non-governmental agencies, the Gates Foundation began contributing to the NIH through the agency’s own nonprofit, the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). Congress created the FNIH in 1990 as a firewall between NIH officials and outside donors seeking to influence federal research.

That firewall is not ironclad. In 2018, for example, NIH officials, funded by beer and liquor companies through an FNIH grant, were in frequent contact with the alcohol industry while designing a study that seemed predetermined to find alcohol’s benefits but not potential harms, such as cancer. The NIH also declined money in 2018 from drugmakers to support a proposed $400 million research program to discover opioid alternatives and addiction treatments. Like the alcohol funds, that drugmaker money would have also been routed through the FNIH.

Major Grants to Government

In 2003, the Gates Foundation donated $200 million to the FNIH to fund NIH scientific programs, an unprecedented sum. Rice University researchers warned in 2008 that this Gates cash was shifting the NIH’s scientific priorities, even though the money was cycled through the FNIH. While FNIH manages and administers Gates money, they said, the Gates Foundation’s scientific board ultimately “oversees and selects the projects to be funded” at the NIH

After Gates gave an NIH lecture in 2013, NIH documents show that the agency began hosting Gates-NIH Workshops, eventually synchronizing federal research programs with Gates, to include coordinating grant funding and science policies across 10 NIH programs.

“Bill Gates, along with the NIH, the Wellcome Trust, it was this cartel,” the whistleblower, a former NIH official who requested anonymity, told RCI. “This is a globalist movement. And that’s something that I don’t think the public knows.”

The Gates Foundation held its second annual meeting with the NIH in July 2105, with both sides proposing new areas of teamwork, and later agreeing to cooperate on funding and research policies for global health. One area of overlap was the West African Ebola outbreaks. To align the Gates Foundation’s Ebola research with the federal agency, Gates routed money through the FNIH so that NIH employees could hire the McKinsey consulting firm.

According to the NIH’s summary of the 2015 workshop, McKinsey’s study of the Ebola field found 20 therapeutics, eight diagnostics, and eight different vaccines, concluding that the Merck and GSK vaccines were the most advanced.

At no point in the several dozen emails and documents provided to RCI did NIH officials appear to raise any concerns about conflicts of interest regarding their work with Gates, nor the hiring of McKinsey to shape federal research and development policies. McKinsey is a global consulting firm whose clients include dozens of foreign governments and some of the world’s largest corporations.

House Democrats released an April 2022 investigation that documented McKinsey’s conflicts of interest during the opioid epidemic that killed tens of thousands of Americans, finding that McKinsey provided consulting advice to both Purdue Pharma and the Food and Drug Administration from 2008 to 2019. In one example, the report surfaced emails with McKinsey employees congratulating themselves for influencing a 2018 speech on opioid safety by then-FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb.


When Congress brought McKinsey managing partner Bob Sternfels before cameras during a 2022 public hearing, he alleged that his firm did not have a conflict of interestwhen it gave simultaneous advice to both OxyContin’s manufacturer and the government agency that regulated OxyContin. Two years later, McKinsey paid a $650 million fine to resolve a criminal and civil investigation into the firm’s consulting work with Purdue Pharma.

“The NIH and BMGF have had a long history of interaction, particularly with respect to vaccines and drugs,” reads the NIH summary of the 2015 Gates-NIH meeting.

A longtime NIH official said that the agency’s leadership initially held Gates at arm’s length, but eventually gave in. “They were very suspicious at first,” said the official, who requested anonymity. “But they got caught up in, ‘Wow, he’s the richest man in the world!”

The NIH official added, “What I saw, which really, I think, extends until this day, is a complete merging of NIH and Gates. And I’ve never seen that written anywhere. I don’t think people realize this incredible symbiotic relationship.”
Bill Gates Is Coming!

Bill Gates added a bit of splendor to the Gates-NIH workshop series when he made his first personal appearance at the April 2016 meeting. As part of the meticulous planning for the event, NIH Director Francis Collins held a 45-minute teleconference10 days prior to hash out the meeting’s details with Trevor Mundel, a former pharmaceutical executive in charge of global health at the Gates Foundation.

According to a list of key “milestones and accomplishments” sent at the time to Collins, the Gates Foundation was by then firmly entwined within the NIH ecosystem to include dual workshops, joint clinical trials, combined research policies, and collaborative funding efforts. For example, NIH staff and Gates employees worked together on clinical trials for TB treatment in Africa. Both Gates and NIH employees also began a joint study for TB with support from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.

The night before the meeting, the NIH held a reception and a catered dinner, paid by the FNIH, for almost two dozen Gates executives at the Cloisters Mansion, a historic, stone castle in rural Maryland, where actor Will Smith married actress Jada Pinkett.

Emails show that the NIH continued scrambling that night to lock down the arrival of other attendees, which included Obama officials at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, Robert Califf.

To provide Bill Gates a luxury experience, NIH staff prepared Collins – a Nobel Prize-winning scientist – a minute-by-minute itinerary for the arrival of Gates and his retinue the following morning. NIH police were ordered to greet Bill at the facility’s entrance and then escort the billionaire’s three-vehicle convoy the final half mile to one of the main research centers, where the Director lingered in waiting. Such deference to power, said a senior Trump official when reading the Collins itinerary over the phone, is normally reserved for the president, first lady, or visiting dignitaries of state.



“Dr. Collins will meet Bill Gates after he exits the car and steps inside of the building,” the itinerary read. After posing for a photo, Collins was bidden to escort the billionaire into the main auditorium and welcome the audience for Gates.

The agenda shows Collins and Gates Foundation’s Trevor Mundel gave a joint introduction before stepping aside for Bill Gates’s opening speech. Moderated by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the man who would later lead the U.S. medical response to COVID, the first panel included a mix of NIH and Gates executives discussing microbial outbreaks and public-private partnerships to develop pandemic-preventive vaccines.

Collins then moderated a panel on “Research on Engineered Gene Drives and Vector-Borne Disease Control: Status and Next Direction.” Gene drive technology involves inserting specific genetic traits to spread rapidly throughout a population. Gates has long been a fan of gene drives to control mosquitoes, but the technology is highly controversial as it could also drive species to extinction and irrevocably alter ecosystems. The NIH’s scientific program to control mosquitoes with genetic technology was apparently started with seed money from Gates in 2003.

Beginning in 2012, a Bill Gates-funded nonprofit called Target Malaria began a gene drive technology study to eradicate malaria-transmitting mosquitoes in Burkina Faso. Last August, Burkina Faso’s government suspended Target Malaria’s project over safety concerns and worries about the excessive influence of Bill Gates on the country’s sovereignty.


Gates only stayed the morning of the 2016 meeting and left before lunch. “Bill Gates is escorted, by Dr. Collins, out of the building through the same hallway he entered,” reads Collins’ itinerary. “NIH Police escort Mr. Gates and staff to the exit gate.”

The meeting ended with a wrap-up and review of next steps, led by Collins and a Gates executive.

Later that year, the FNIH honored the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Pfizer with an award for supporting the NIH’s mission. Gates was recognized for $413 million dollars in donations and Pfizer for $73 million. In a press release announcing the honor, the NIH said, “Their gifts created cornerstone programs and paved the way for our partnerships with literally hundreds of other organizations dedicated to driving biomedical research worldwide.”



The FNIH continues to maintain close ties to pharmaceutical interests, a major NIH funder. The current CEO, Julie Gerberding, came to the FNIH during the COVID pandemic, having previously served as President of Merck Vaccines.

This article appeared at Brownstone Institute and republished from the author’s Substack

About Paul Thacker
Paul D. Thacker is an Investigative Reporter; Former Investigator United States Senate; Former Fellow Safra Ethics Center, Harvard University
View all posts by Paul Thacker →

MONOPOLY CAPITALI$M

Paramount on track to acquire Warner following a deal with US states

21.09.2026, DPA

Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa

The entertainment group Paramount has cleared a major hurdle in its takeover of Hollywood rival Warner Brothers.

Paramount reached an agreement on Monday with several US states that had sought to block the deal, worth more than $110 billion dollars, through legal action.

The agreement stipulates that the merged group will invest more money in the US and specifically in Hollywood, said California's Attorney General Rob Bonta. 

A new editorial oversight board has been agreed for the news channel CNN and Paramount's broadcaster CBS News, designed to safeguard their independence.

Paramount's commitment that the studios will release a combined total of 30 films a year in cinemas, at least for the first two years following the merger, has been reaffirmed, according to Bonta.

The financial news service Bloomberg reported that the screenwriters' union is also dropping its lawsuit against the Warner takeover following an agreement with Paramount. Among other things, the studio has agreed to contribute $17.5 million to a healthcare fund for the writers.

The states led by California argued in their antitrust lawsuit that the concentration of economic power at Paramount would harm Hollywood and the cinema business. 

US media reported that Paramount had threatened to begin the process of moving out of California from October onwards if no agreement is reached.

Paramount was taken over just over a year ago by the family of tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

The Warner group also owns the news channel CNN, whose fate has received particular attention in debates surrounding the takeover. CNN often reports critically on US President Donald Trump. Larry Ellison is known as a Trump supporter.

(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH

Paramount settles with US states, clearing path for Warner Bros. merger

Paramount has reached a settlement with California and 11 other states that clears a major legal hurdle to its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, with the deal imposing commitments on film production, jobs and editorial independence at CNN and CBS News.


Issued on: 22/09/2026 - 
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Wassim CORNET

Cover image: The Paramount Pictures water tower is seen in Los Angeles, 18 December 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. © Jae C. Hong, AP
01:24




Paramount has reached a settlement with a group of US states that clears the way for its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, officials announced Monday, creating a Hollywood empire spanning television, news and cinema.

Paramount, which is run by David Ellison, whose ultra-wealthy family has ties to US President Donald Trump, won a bidding war against Netflix in February for control of a stable of assets that includes Warner Bros. Pictures, CNN and the HBO Max streaming service.

The Trump administration approved the deal, one of the largest media mergers in years, in June without demanding a change to its business, before 12 US states sued to block the transaction.

Financing for the deal reportedly includes about $24 billion in equity from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. David Ellison's father, billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, also provided funding and a guarantee.


Opponents in the movie industry said the combined company would slash jobs in a Hollywood already under pressure and reduce the number of films produced every year, while news media groups feared CNN's independence could be compromised.

The deal includes several safeguards on these issues, including a board meant to protect CNN's editorial independence.

The news comes just days after Trump banned CNN, Politico and MS NOW from the White House. The outlets are suing the administration to have the decision reversed.

Paramount had threatened to move out of California if the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, did not negotiate an end to the lawsuit.

In their complaint, the 12 states argued the combined company would control roughly 27 percent of wide-release theatrical film distribution and a similar percentage of the basic cable channel industry.

California led the suit, joined by Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Washington, all Democratic-led.

'Facts of the law'

Four states -- Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut and Minnesota -- had held out but concluded that fighting on without California was not worth the expense, Bloomberg reported.

Bonta told reporters that protecting jobs was a major concern in his handling of the case and acknowledged that many people may be disappointed with his decision to strike a deal.

"My job as attorney general is to look at the facts and look at the law, weigh the options in front of us, and make the best decisions for the people of California," he said.

Bonta said the settlement includes a commitment that the merged studio would produce 30 movies in each of the first two years of the deal, and 32 movies in each of the following three years.

At least four of those films must be independent productions, and at least 20 percent must be blockbusters, Bonta said.

The terms include a financial penalty if Paramount fails to meet the targets.

According to a joint court filing, the deal also requires at least $300 million more in annual spending on US film production by Paramount and Warner Bros. than in 2025.

The companies must also keep both studios' production lots, honor labor agreements and commit funds to workforce training, the filing said.

It also creates a News Editorial Independence Board to set editorial principles for the combined company's news channels, including CNN.

Compliance would be overseen by an internal monitor, an independent trustee and a committee of five states, with the court retaining jurisdiction over enforcement.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

STATE CAPITALI$M BY ANY OTHER NAME

US government secures 10% stake in Trilogy Metals

Staff Writer | September 14, 2026 | 

Camp at one of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, in Alaska’s Ambler Mining District. (Image courtesy of Trilogy Metals.)

The US government has become a 10% owner of Trilogy Metals (TSX: TMQ) after closing a $35.6-million investment aimed at advancing the company’s critical minerals projects in Alaska.

The investment will support exploration and development of the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) in northwestern Alaska. The properties are held by Ambler Metals, a 50/50 joint venture between Trilogy and Australian miner South32 (ASX, LON, JSE: S32).

Trilogy and South32 are expected to split the proceeds and have committed to reinvesting the money in UKMP. Following the transaction, South32’s direct ownership of Trilogy has been diluted to 6% from 10.7%.

The investment deepens Washington’s involvement in a potential new US source of copper, zinc and other metals vital to domestic supply chains. 

The government is also backing infrastructure and permitting initiatives that could help unlock the remote Ambler mining district.

Arctic advances

The UKMP covers about 190,929 hectares and includes the high-grade Arctic polymetallic deposit and the Bornite carbonate replacement deposit.

Trilogy’s Arctic project was added in May to the US government’s FAST-41 program, which is designed to improve coordination among federal agencies and accelerate permitting for major infrastructure and critical minerals projects.

Trump revives Ambler Road; puts $35.6M into Trilogy

The latest technical report outlines a 13-year mine life averaging annual payable production of 149 million lb. copper and 173 million lb. zinc. The proposed operation would also produce 26 million lb. lead, 32,538 oz. gold and 2.8 million oz. silver a year.

Trilogy has submitted its Clean Water Act Section 404 permit application for Arctic to the US Army Corps of Engineers. The company says the Section 404 authorization is the project’s only key federal permit, with other approvals handled by state and local authorities.

Trilogy expects the federal permitting process to conclude in late 2028.

Development remains dependent on securing approvals and infrastructure for a remote region of Alaska. The projects have also faced environmental and indigenous opposition, particularly surrounding construction of an access route through the region.

Road backing

President Donald Trump has directed federal agencies to advance permitting for the proposed 340-km Ambler Road, which would provide industrial access to the UKMP and other mineral projects in the district.

The Biden administration had previously blocked the road over environmental concerns.

The Department of War said it is committed to working in good faith to help facilitate financing for the road in coordination with the State of Alaska and the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which is responsible for the project.

For Trilogy, federal ownership now puts Washington directly on its shareholder register while the government simultaneously works to advance the infrastructure and permitting needed to develop the company’s principal assets.

The investment highlights a broader US push to use government capital, faster permitting and infrastructure support to develop domestic critical mineral supplies and reduce reliance on foreign sources.

Pentagon backs $150M Blue Moon tungsten restart

Marina Meireles | September 14, 2026 |

(Image: The Elmet Group.)

The US Department of War (DoW) has agreed to invest $450 million in The Elmet Group (ELMT), with $150 million earmarked for Blue Moon Metals’ (TSXV: MOON; Nasdaq: BMM) Springer tungsten complex in Nevada, as Washington pushes to rebuild a domestic supply chain for the strategic metal.

Under a binding agreement with Elmet and Australia’s EQ Resources (ASX: EQR), Blue Moon would receive a $50-million tungsten concentrate prepayment facility and a $25-million equity investment, while Elmet would put another $75 million into a joint venture to restart Springer’s ammonium paratungstate, (APT) plant. Elmet and EQ have set aside a further $25 million if needed for the plant.

ELMT already supplies tungsten to US defense programs, including Patriot and Javelin missile systems, Trident II missiles, and Virginia- and Columbia-class submarines, as well as to aerospace, energy and medical applications. 

“This is a major validation event,” Haywood Securities analyst Pierre Vaillancourt said in a note Monday, maintaining his buy rating and $15 target for Blue Moon. Haywood said the financing substantially de-risks Springer while allowing Blue Moon to retain full ownership of the mine and mill.

Scotiabank analyst Eric Winmill also called the transaction positive and maintained a sector outperform rating and $14 target. He said the combination of strategic offtake, downstream participation and government support reduces Blue Moon’s financing and market-access risk while leaving it with the mine and mill and a 20% interest in the APT operation.

Shares in Blue Moon Metals were down 10.04% to $5.11 apiece by mid-day Tuesday in New York, valuing the company at $535 million.

Critical minerals rush 

The funding comes from the DoW’s newly established Economic Defense Unit, which coordinates defence-related economic initiatives aimed at accelerating production across the US defence industrial base. 

It is also part of a broader US government push to develop domestic sources of critical minerals and reduce reliance on China, which dominates global tungsten production and processing. 

“The Department is committed to empowering the American warfighter and workforce,” George K. Kollitides II, director of the Economic Defense Unit, said. “Strengthening the industrial might that powers and protects our way of life.”  

The DoW will initially invest $200 million at closing, followed by additional drawdowns. DoW will also receive a redeemable preferred equity, representing up to 19.9% of ELMT’s common stock, and the right to appoint one independent director to the company’s board and one non-voting board observer. 

Not just one project 

More than $165 million of the investment will go towards ELMT’s US manufacturing facilities in Maine, Michigan and Ohio, where tungsten and other advanced materials are produced, helping to expand production capacity and output and modernize critical defense infrastructure.  

Blue Moon’s Springer mine and mill are expected to restart production by the end of 2027, and the APT facility will begin operations by mid-2028, the company said.  

“This investment represents an important step toward securing a resilient supply of tungsten, a material that is critical to America’s defense, industrial, and economic future,” Elmet Group CEO Peter V. Anania said. 

ELMT will also launch Elmet Refining and Trading (ERT), a new division to coordinate sourcing, refining, and delivery activities across a diversified supply chain. ELMT aims to establish a reliable long-term access to tungsten for the US, Australia, Spain and other allied countries to further develop a supply chain for critical materials independent of China. 

ERT will oversee the $150 million investment in a network of key partnerships and deals, including the Mt. Carbine Mine in Australia and the Barruecopardo Mine in Spain. 

$2B contract 

Separately, Elmet Technologies, a subsidiary of ELMT, has also secured a US government contract worth up to $2 billion to strengthen the long-term resilience of the country’s tungsten supply chain. 

The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract with the Defense Logistics Agency has a ceiling value of up to $2 billion, including a guaranteed funded commitment of $150 million. It covers the supply of tungsten ores, concentrates and sodium tungstate to the agency’s Strategic Materials.  

ELMT does not plan to deliver material into the National Defense Stockpile until sufficient incremental supply becomes available through mining investments, offtake agreements and processing capacity expansions.  

The contract includes a five-year base ordering period through August 30, 2031, with a two-year extension option through August 30, 2033, providing a long-term framework to strengthen sources of tungsten.

 

Bitterroot doubles on $5.2M Pentagon funding

Staff Writer | September 15, 2026 | 

Bitterroot also holds a 49.9% interest in the Voyageur Lands nickel/copper exploration JV with Altius Minerals. (Image courtesy of Bitterroot Resources.)  

Shares in Bitterroot Resources (TSX-V:BTT) doubled on Tuesday after its US subsidiary secured $5.22 million in government funding to accelerate exploration at the company’s LM nickel-copper project in Michigan.

The stock doubled in price, reaching C$0.16 apiece at 9:45 a.m. in Toronto, before easing to a gain of 82% at C$0.15 later in the session. The US Department of War award will cover half the cost of eligible work, including exploratory drilling, geophysical and geochemical surveys, permitting, labour, equipment and travel.

Trans Superior Resources, Bitterroot’s subsidiary, operates LM and owns 51% of the joint venture, while privately held Below Exploration holds the remaining 49%.

“The non-dilutive funds will reduce our cost of capital and allow the LM project partners to finance and resume an aggressive drilling program,” CEO Michael Carr said in a statement.

The government support gives Bitterroot access to substantial exploration capital without issuing shares as the partners pursue the source of high-grade nickel-copper massive sulphide fragments encountered during earlier drilling.

Deeper drilling

Previous exploration at LM included 7,565 metres across 26 core holes reaching depths of 300 metres. Ten holes intersected disseminated, semi-massive or massive sulphide nickel-copper-platinum group metal mineralization within what the company interprets as a magma conduit.

Trans Superior plans to begin a 15- to 20-hole drilling program in the December quarter, with holes ranging from 500 to 700 metres. The campaign will test the interpreted conduit at depths of 400 to 700 metres, extending exploration well below the previous drilling.

Borehole electromagnetic work and other geophysical surveys will help refine targets as drilling progresses. The central objective is to locate the source of the high-grade massive sulphide fragments identified in earlier work, which could help determine whether a larger mineralized system exists at depth.

The LM project is in Michigan’s Baraga basin, a district that also hosts Talon Metals’ (TSX:TLO) Eagle nickel-copper mine.

Bitterroot Resources’ stock was up 81.5% midday Tuesday in Toronto. The company has a C$18.3 million ($13.1 million) market capitalization.

 

Milford Mining gets $25M funding to expand Utah facilities  

Staff Writer | September 14, 2026 | 

Milford mine in Utah. Image: MMCU.

Milford Mining Company Utah (MMCU) has received a conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development Business & Industry Loan Guarantee Program for $25 million in financing to support planned investments in the company’s mining and processing operations in Milford. 

MMCU operates a fully permitted mining and processing complex in Beaver County producing both copper cathode and copper concentrate. The company said its eponymous mine hosts diverse minerals including tungsten, antimony and other rare earth elements, adding that there are significant untapped exploration potential across its 62,000-acre property.  

The Milford mine was idled for years, but reopened under MMCU management in 2023.

The company said will invest the funds to expand its facilities, aiming to double its copper throughput by the end of next year. The expansion is anticipated to create approximately 100 new jobs in rural Utah, adding to the company’s current 180-person workforce. 

The proposed 16.5-year arrangement will be privately financed through a specialist division of Kentucky-based Magnolia Bank. On completion of the financing, the investment will support capital improvements designed to modernize processing equipment, remove operational bottlenecks, improve efficiency and double the company’s production capacity, it said. 

“This financing represents an important milestone for the long-term future of our operations in Utah,” MMCU chairman Roger Barris said in a news release. “…We will make significant investments that strengthen our ability to supply copper and other critical minerals to American industry. Just as importantly, we will support the creation of new jobs and continued economic opportunity.”