President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to unveil its grandest plan yet to rebuild supply chains of critical minerals needed for everything from jet engines to smartphones, likely through purchase agreements with partners on top of creating a $12 billion U.S. strategic reserve to help counter China’s dominance.
Vice President JD Vance is set to deliver a keynote address Wednesday at a meeting Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations. The U.S. is expected to sign deals on supply chain logistics, though details haven’t been revealed. Rubio met Tuesday with foreign ministers from South Korea and India to discuss critical minerals mining and processing.
The meeting and expected agreements will come just two days after Trump announced Project Vault, or a stockpile of critical minerals to be funded with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital.
Here’s the latest:
Talks between Iran and the United States will be held Friday in Oman, Iranian media say
The semiofficial ISNA and Tasnim news agencies, as well as the Student News Network, all reported the talks would take place.
Oman didn’t immediately acknowledge it would host the talks. The sultanate hosted multiple rounds of earlier nuclear talks between Iran and the U.S.
The U.S. hasn’t acknowledge the talks would take place in Oman, though the White House said it anticipated the negotiations would take place even after the U.S. shot down an Iranian drone Tuesday and Iran attempted to stop a U.S.-flagged ship.
First lady Melania Trump to meet at the White House with former Hamas hostage
Hamas released Keith Siegel in February 2025 after 15 months in captivity as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Israel.
Melania Trump had met with Siegel’s wife, Aviva Siegel, in the weeks before Donald Trump opened his second term as president. She was released during a brief ceasefire in November 2023, shortly after the militant group launched a surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.
The first lady included footage of her meeting with Siegel’s wife in a documentary film that opened in theaters last week.
Prosecutors will seek life sentence for man who tried to shoot Trump at a Florida golf course
Ryan Routh is scheduled to appear Wednesday before U. S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Fort Pierce. Her courtroom erupted into chaos in September shortly after jurors found Routh guilty on all counts, including attempting to kill a presidential candidate and several firearm-related charges. Routh tried to stab himself in the neck with a pen, and officers quickly dragged him out.
Routh’s sentencing had initially been scheduled for December, but Cannon agreed to move the date back after Routh decided to use an attorney during the sentencing phase instead of representing himself as he did for most of the trial.
Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum filed last month that Routh has yet to accept any responsibility for his actions and that he should spend the rest of his life in prison, in accordance with federal sentencing guidelines.
Federal judge to hear arguments as court gives Trump another shot at nixing hush money conviction
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November ordered U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to reconsider his decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court, where President Trump can seek to have it thrown out on presidential immunity grounds.
A three-judge panel ruled Hellerstein erred by failing to consider “important issues relevant” to Trump’s request to move the New York case to federal court. They said they “express no view” on how he should rule.
Trump, a Republican, isn’t expected to attend Wednesday’s arguments in federal court in New York City, which were preceded by lengthy written submissions from Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case and wants it to remain in state court.
Trump was convicted in May 2024 of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels, whose allegations of an affair with Trump threatened to upend his 2016 presidential campaign. He was sentenced to an unconditional discharge, leaving his conviction intact but sparing him any punishment.
Trump denies Daniels’ claim and said he did nothing wrong.
The difficulty in reaching a bipartisan consensus on ICE funding
Despite rare negotiations between Democrats and President Donald Trump, a bipartisan agreement on new restrictions for federal immigration enforcement in the next two weeks will be exceedingly difficult — or even “an impossibility,” as Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
Congress is discussing potential new rules for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection after officers shot and killed two Minneapolis protesters in January. The negotiations come amid some bipartisan sentiment that Congress should step in to de-escalate tensions over the enforcement operations that have rocked Minnesota and other states.
But it’s unclear if the president or enough congressional Republicans will agree to any of the Democrats’ larger demands that the officers unmask and identify themselves, obtain judicial warrants in certain cases and work with local authorities, among other asks. Republicans have already pushed back.
Complaint accuses Gabbard of playing politics with intelligence, which spy agency rejects
A complaint made about Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard months ago relates to an allegation that she withheld access to classified information for political reasons, according to a memo sent to lawmakers by the Inspector General’s Office and obtained by The Associated Press.
That allegation in the complaint filed in May appeared to not be credible, according to the former watchdog for the intelligence community that initially reviewed it. It has become a flashpoint for Gabbard’s critics, who accuse her of withholding information from members of Congress tasked with providing oversight of the intelligence services.
Copies of the top-secret complaint are being hand-delivered this week to the “Gang of Eight” lawmakers — a group comprised of the House and Senate leaders from both parties as well as the top Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Gabbard’s office has denied the allegations and disputed that it withheld the complaint, saying the delay in getting it to lawmakers was due to an extensive legal review necessitated by the complaint’s many classified details, as well as last year’s government shutdown.
Trump looks to rebuild critical mineral supply chains for everything from jet engines to smartphones
President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to unveil its grandest plan yet to rebuild supply chains of critical minerals needed for everything from jet engines to smartphones, likely through purchase agreements with partners on top of creating a $12 billion U.S. strategic reserve to help counter China’s dominance.
Vice President JD Vance is set to deliver a keynote address Wednesday at a meeting that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting with officials from several dozen European, Asian and African nations. The U.S. is expected to sign deals on supply chain logistics, though details have not been revealed. Rubio met Tuesday with foreign ministers from South Korea and India to discuss critical minerals mining and processing.
The meeting and expected agreements will come just two days after Trump announced Project Vault, or a stockpile of critical minerals to be funded with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and nearly $1.67 billion in private capital.
