by Tyler Durden

US Treasury Secretary went full judge, jury, and executioner on speculative yen shorts overnight with probably the most direct explicit jawboning we have seen in years...

“I am the house now, so when we intervene with the Japanese yen, I have pretty good insight into what the Japanese, what the Bank of Japan is going to do, what Japanese policymakers are going to do,” Bessent said at a Southern Methodist University event in Texas on Tuesday.

“And you can bet against me if you want.”

The United States and Japan are racing to build a new global supply chain for critical minerals, backing the effort with fresh government subsidies and industry support – but slow government-to-government dealmaking and simmering geopolitical disputes threaten to blunt their progress.

China’s export controls on rare earths and other critical minerals have strained manufacturers in the United States and Japan for much of this year, forcing companies to navigate new licensing rules, longer lead times and higher material costs for semiconductors, batteries and defense hardware.

Japan’s push for submarine-launched hypersonic weapons marks a major step toward a more survivable counterstrike posture — one that could eventually give it the foundations of a latent sea-based nuclear deterrent.

Japan’s rush to field interceptor drones marks a sharp break with its traditionally slow-moving defense procurement system as it prepares for a battlefield increasingly dominated by cheap, expendable unmanned weapons.

New GAO report says there is a $285 billion repair backlog behind toxic conditions in housing and facilities across the country

Stavroula Pabst, responsiblestatescraft.org

Erin Hale, aljazeera.com

United States allies in Asia are watching warily as Washington scales back some military assets in the region to meet demands in the Middle East, where the US-Israel war on Iran is dragging into its sixth month.