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This article Former IDF soldiers are challenging the normalization of the occupation  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

A tour group stood on Hebron’s Al-Shuhada Street, listening as a former Israel Defense Forces soldier pointed out, on a map, the nine roads in the West Bank city that Palestinians are restricted or prohibited from accessing. 

Once a bustling market hub, Al-Shuhada Street was now quiet and devoid of pedestrians, aside from a nearby guard post from which three or four soldiers were coming and going, watching the group. 

The visitors were taking part in a guided tour run by Breaking the Silence, or BTS, an organization founded by former IDF soldiers. BTS uses soldiers’ testimonies, political tours and advocacy to expose how Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories functions on the ground and to challenge Israelis to confront the moral cost of maintaining it.

As the group listened to their guide explain the separation policy in Hebron, a private tour passed by. “That’s Breaking the Silence. They spread lies about Israel, about us,” their guide said loudly.

Joel Carmel, the BTS advocacy director and guide that day, nodded in the man’s direction without pausing his explanation. 

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“Our right-wing detractors accuse us of not showing both sides [of the occupation],” Carmel said, speaking on the phone a few days after the tour. “It’s ironic, because what we’re showing is the Israeli side — whether our detractors like it or not.”

“We want to show what the occupation looks like, from the perspective of the perpetrators,” he continued. “What the commands were and what the interactions look like between soldiers and Palestinians.”

BTS publishes anonymous testimonies from soldiers who have served in the occupied Palestinian territories on its website in collections, such as “Occupying Hebron: Soldiers’ Testimonies from Hebron 2011-2017.” 

“The point of the testimony collection is not to draw out specific incidents and say, ‘Look how terrible this soldier was,’” Carmel said, “it’s to show that what we’re being sent to do is a policy that comes from above.”

He explains that each testimony is like a puzzle piece. “Put them all together [and] you get a good sense of what it actually means to be an occupying force over millions of people, subjected to a military regime.” 

On Breaking the Silence’s website, thousands of testimonies detail soldiers’ experiences in the military, from the routine to the extreme. They reveal explanations of code names, warfare tactics, operation objectives, recollections of conversations with officers, and often the moments that led soldiers to testify.

Testimonies are categorized under headings that range from “law enforcement,” “patrols” and “checkpoints” to “desecration of bodies,” humiliation” and “human shields.” 

Founded in 2004, BTS initially set out to collect testimonies from soldiers who served during the Second Intifada of 2000-2005. Since then, more than 1,500 former soldiers have come forward.

An entire category is dedicated to the genocide in Gaza: Since it began, BTS has seen an influx of new testimonies, especially from reservists.  

Carmel believes that the older age of reservists explains this increase in testimonies. “They are sent to do unbelievable things at a stage in their life when they have kids, a job, when they’ve made up their minds politically,” he said. “They stop and think ‘What am I doing here?’ in a way that maybe an 18 or 19-year-old doesn’t.”

Young Israelis have few spaces where conversations about the occupation are held — not even schools. 

Carmel notes that, before joining the military, he had little opportunity to hear from Israelis who were critical of the occupation. “In our education system, the word occupation doesn’t feature at all.” 

In addition to limited public discourse, many Israelis are too young to remember a time before the occupation. “So many people can’t even imagine a reality without constant war, constant fighting,” Carmel said. “For my generation and for my parents’ generation, we don’t know a time when we weren’t an occupying force.”

As a result, occupation has become a permanent part of Israeli identity. It also makes military actions taken in the name of “security” easy to justify to the Israeli public.

BTS sees tours and testimonies as tools to disrupt this normalization and raise the question: “To what extent should security justify the occupation and abuse of another population?”

“They’re meant to be wake-up calls, like — ‘do you realize how not normal this is?’” Carmel explained.

BTS runs two political tours: one in Hebron’s H2 area, the section of divided Hebron that is under Israeli military administration, and a second in the South Hebron Hills, focusing on the village of Masafer Yatta, where Palestinians face near-daily settler violence, home demolitions and displacement. 

Breaking the Silence at a public advocacy event in Israel. The group works to educate the Israeli public about military operations and conditions under occupation in Gaza and the West Bank. (Breaking the Silence)

Tours trace how Israeli policies target Palestinians businesses, limit their movement and steadily push residents out of the area, while protecting Israeli settlers and the expansion of illegal settlements. 

“If Hebron is the occupation at an urban level,” Carmel said, “Masafer Yatta provides the rural perspective.”

Participants also have the opportunity to meet with local Palestinians and hear their experiences of life under occupation. In Hebron, groups meet with Issa Amro, a Palestinian nonviolent activist and the founder of Youth Against Settlements, an organization based in H2 that seeks to end the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and the end of occupation.

Amro explains that the Israeli military is everywhere in H2. “The city is full of surveillance and facial recognition cameras. It’s a violation of our privacy.” 

On his Instagram account, Amro publishes videos and photographs of soldiers and settlers assaulting Palestinians. He says he sees BTS as an important voice in Israel, speaking out against the occupation. “I’ve been collaborating with Breaking the Silence for more than 20 years,” Amro said. “I feel we are partners in the same goal: to make peace and to make the occupation costly.”

For Amro, the collaboration offers a chance to speak with Israelis and international Jews directly. “I tell [Israeli visitors] to be changemakers, to be peacemakers,” he said. “I tell them to not stay silent about what’s going on around them or to be on the side of occupation. I remind them that ending the occupation is the only way for security for all.”

BTS’s tours attract tourists, diplomats and journalists, but recent protest movements within Israel have also brought new local participants, says Carmel. The mass protests that broke out in 2023 against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform proposals are leading more Israelis to open conversations about power and democracy. “People are beginning to think a little bit more critically,” Carmel said.

The consequences of ignoring the reality of occupation are already visible in Israeli society, Carmel says during the Hebron tour, from rising unemployment to increased alcoholism and domestic violence. “You can see how [being an occupying force] has been so toxic for Israeli society. There’s so much violence in our society, there’s so much aggression,” he said.

Beyond the social damage, BTS argues that the occupation is failing to fulfill its own stated claim of security, with considerable resources spent on protecting settlers and settlements over citizens. 

A group of Israel Defence Force soldiers in H2, Hebron. (WNV/Michael Friedrich)

Between 1,000 and 1,500 soldiers patrol the streets of H2, where 700 Israeli settlers live at the heart of the city. That’s one or two soldiers for every Hebron settler, according to Amro. 

Hamas’s attack on Israel also exposes the imbalance of resources. Israeli government officials confirmed media reporting that on the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, there were more than 30 battalions of infantry and combat soldiers in the West Bank, yet only two and a half positioned across the entire Gaza border. 

“Israel’s security policy for decades now, has been to ‘manage the conflict,’” BTS wrote in a report published days after the October attack. 

“Apart from the unfathomable violation of human rights, we’ve created a massive security liability for our own citizens,” the report continued. “Our country decided — decades ago — that it’s willing to forfeit the security of its citizens in our towns and cities, in favor of maintaining control over an occupied civilian population of millions, all for the sake of a settler-messianic agenda.”

Despite these failings, organizations like BTS are sidelined as extreme, radical left, unpatriotic or traitors.

Carmel described representing BTS at mechinot, pre-military preparatory academies, where gap year students are offered programs on leadership and national identity, and presented with different viewpoints from Israeli society. 

“[The students] have a tour or a lecture with us and then immediately after that they’ll meet with settlers, or hardcore right-wing groups,” he said. “It’s always so mind-blowing. They’ll have me, and then they’ll have [Itamar] Ben Gvir. It’s a testament to the way Israeli society perceives us.”

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Anger towards BTS’s message has led right-wing groups to attempt to discredit the organization’s work, which have included attacks on the veracity of testimonies, attempted infiltration and even physical threats. 

In 2020, right-wing Israeli activist organisation Ad Kan petitioned the attorney general of Israel to open an investigation into BTS’s testimony collection for endangering national security. The criticism has caused many “middle-of-the-road” Israelis to not want to interact with a group considered radical, Carmel said.

The Israeli government has also sought to constrain the organization through legislation. In December 2025, the Israeli Knesset held its first reading of a bill targeting Israeli organizations receiving donations from foreign state entities. 

Over half of BTS’s funding comes from foreign governmental entities, the organization’s website reads. The bill, which is worded to affect left-wing groups while protecting right-wing organizations, would make it impossible for BTS to do its work if it passes, Carmel said.

In 2016, the Israeli State Attorney sought a warrant for the disclosure of documentation regarding the identity of BTS testifiers who served in Gaza in 2014. 

At the same time, opposition has raised BTS’s international profile and encouraged more Israelis to speak out about their military service.

For BTS, the current Netanyahu government’s methods — from the judicial overhaul to the funding bill — indicate that occupation policies are being replicated in Israel, with little public resistance.

“Israelis have become used to the idea that it’s somehow legitimate to have groups of people who simply aren’t eligible for democratic rights,” Carmel said. “Once that’s become normalized with regards to Palestinians from the occupied territories, it’s not a big leap to imagine that logic being rolled out here in Israel too.”

There’s a lot more work for BTS to do, such as continuing to collect testimonies from those who served in Gaza and drawing attention to what BTS calls a ‘Gaza-fication’ of the West Bank. 

“A lot of what we saw in Gaza has already been translated into action in the West Bank,” Carmel said, pointing to the standards that became normal during the war in Gaza, the rules of engagement, the weaponry used and the military mindset from Gaza.

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In Gaza, the October 2025 ceasefire and U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan have been framed as the end of fighting and the wider conflict. 

Instead, BTS sees that the situation in Gaza has defaulted to how it was before Oct. 7, with Israel continuing to control the enclave. However, humanitarian conditions in Gaza are far more dire. Despite the ceasefire, Israeli strikes have killed at least 477 Palestinians in the past three months, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. With much of the enclave flattened by airstrikes, around 1 million Gazans lack adequate shelter and 1.6 million face high levels of acute food insecurity, the UN has reported.

“It’s just another form of managing the conflict, and it’s the same recipe that led us to October 7, and there’s no guarantee that it won’t happen again,” said Carmel. “It’s not a solution at all. We have to be clear with the Israeli public and the international community [that] there won’t be peace or security for Palestinians or Israelis until the occupation ends. That’s really our goal.”

This article Former IDF soldiers are challenging the normalization of the occupation  was originally published by Waging Nonviolence.

Canadian cleantech firm EnviroGold Global (CSE: NVRO) is set to begin trading on the TSX Venture Exchange on Wednesday, Feb. 4, following exchange approval. Its ticker symbol will remain unchanged.

The TSXV listing is expected to provide increased access for institutional and international investors, improved trading liquidity, and broader market visibility, consistent with the company’s growth strategy, it stated in a press release on Monday.

EnviroGold is currently developing a hybrid acid leaching solution known as NVRO to recover gold and other metals from mine waste and tailings. The technology is designed to operate at low temperatures and atmospheric pressure to break sulphide bonds and recover valuable metals.

According to the company, its NVRO process is able to recover gold and silver at above 95%, with strong performance on copper and other base metals as well. The process is also expected to result in 70% reduction in plant footprint and capital requirements due to pre-concentration integration.

Compared to traditional methods, NVRO could reduce carbon emissions by up to 96%, EnviroGold said.

CEO Grant Freeman said the TSXV listing represents an “important milestone” for the company as it continues to advance its NVRO technology.

“A TSXV listing will provide an opportunity for institutions and international investors to participate in our growth, while supporting our mission to deliver scalable, lower-impact metal recovery solutions that complement traditional mining operations,” he said.

EnviroGold’s shares currently trade at C$0.11 apiece on the CSE with a market capitalization of C$51.5 million ($37.6 million).

Audubon staff at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary have been using remote cameras equipped with motion sensors to study the different species and numbers of mammals on Sanctuary land for over a decade. This...

Bang for your buck: Lip gloss JR Culpepper February 2, 2026

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Finding a lip gloss that delivers the perfect glass-like finish shouldn't require a compromise on your health — or your budget.

Whether you’re preparing for a date or just touching up your look, the right lip gloss will leave your lips looking refreshed, healthy and youthful. But crowded shelves and confusing ingredient labels can make finding the ideal product difficult. 

This winter, EWG is here to help. We combed through our Skin Deep® database to find options that are not only $22 or less but also carry a rating of 2 or lower, meaning they’re low hazard.

Products that are EWG Verified® have been vetted by our scientists and meet our strictest standards of safety and transparency. 

Want to explore on your own? Scan products on the go with our Healthy Living App to see their hazard rating and other information. 

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Nyx Professional Makeup Fat Oil Lip Drip, My Main Fold

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Areas of Focus Personal Care Products Cosmetics February 3, 2026

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: February 2, 2026
Contact: Anja Semanco | 724-967-2777 | anja@alaskawild.org 

As Trump Administration Opens Arctic Refuge to Oil Industry Nominations, Alaska Wilderness League Warns: “Smart Companies Won’t Bid on a Losing Bet” 

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Trump administration announced it is opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas nominations, the next step toward another lease sale in one of the most iconic and ecologically important landscapes in the United States. 

Alaska Wilderness League is urging energy companies and their investors to sit this one out. 

“Serious companies don’t gamble their future on the most remote, expensive, and controversial oil on Earth from one of the most unparalleled ecosystems left on this planet,” said Kristen Miller, executive director at Alaska Wilderness League. “If companies are still looking to drill the Arctic Refuge in 2026, it’s a sign that they can’t read the writing on the wall: smart money has already walked away.” 

The Refuge lease program has already proven to be a market failure. Previous Arctic Refuge lease sales attracted virtually no industry interest, generating minimal bids and leaving taxpayers holding the bill. Meanwhile, major oil companies and financial institutions have publicly backed away from Arctic drilling, citing high costs, legal risks, and growing investor concerns about stranded assets. 

A Bad Bet in a Changing Market 

Arctic drilling faces steep financial and logistical hurdles: 

• Some of the highest production costs in North America 
• Extreme weather and infrastructure challenges 
• Ongoing legal and regulatory uncertainty 
• Growing global competition from cheaper renewables 
• Escalating reputational and climate risks from rapid warming for companies and investors 

Energy analysts increasingly warn that long-term, high-cost oil projects like those in the Arctic risk becoming stranded assets as markets shift toward cleaner, cheaper energy sources. 

Wildlife Refuge, Not Oil Field 

The Arctic Refuge is home to the Porcupine caribou herd, polar bears, migratory birds, and the coastal plain that the Gwich’in people call “the sacred place where life begins.” The coastal plain serves as the primary calving grounds for the Porcupine caribou herd, which sustains Indigenous communities and supports one of the longest land migrations on Earth. It also provides denning habitat for threatened polar bears and nesting and breeding grounds for millions of birds that migrate to every U.S. state and six continents each year. 

For decades, Americans across the political spectrum have supported protecting the Refuge from industrial development, recognizing it as one of the last intact ecosystems of its kind left on the planet. 

### Photo Credit: Courtesy of Florian Schulz / protectthearctic.org

Last week, Gov. Lujan Grisham issued a legislative message for House Bill (HB 207), sponsored by five Republican legislators and one Democrat, calling for the discharge of produced water to our state’s rivers, streams, and ground water. Produced water is a highly toxic wastewater byproduct of oil and gas operations. The governor’s message allows the bill to be considered by the legislature, even though it had been ruled non-germane to this 30-day budgetary session.

The bill would mandate the Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) allow the discharge of oil and gas industry wastewater, as well as its use for irrigation of crops, on rangeland, and for manufacturing and other industrial uses, such as data centers. The bill also requires use of treated produced water for dust control on roads, and for hydrogen production. According to the proposal, the WQCC would be mandated to allow these various uses and discharge by the end of 2026.

The bill is yet another attempt by Big Oil at an end-run around sound science and protecting public health and the environment. In May 2025, after an 18-month science- and evidence-based legal proceeding, the WQCC promulgated a rule – proposed by the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) – that would prohibit discharge of treated and untreated produced water into our streams, rivers, and groundwater for five years. After hundreds of pages of testimony and thousands of pages of evidence from NMED scientists, industry witnesses, and experts from environmental non-profits, the WQCC ruled that there is insufficient evidence that the toxin-laden and potentially radioactive wastewater can be treated to standards that are safe for public health and the environment. The WQCC’s rule does, however, allow non-discharging “pilot projects” to research and evaluate the toxicity of produced water and the efficacy of treatment technologies and to allow the science to move forward.

“Data is lacking from sufficiently scaled pilot studies operated for required durations to determine the capabilities and limitations of treatment technologies to treat produced water,” said Dan Mueller, PE, and member of the New Mexico Produced Water Consortium. “In short, there is currently insufficient information on the efficacy, reliability, and economics to assess the feasibility of beneficial reuse of treated produced water. Progress is being made to narrow the critical knowledge gaps and pilot studies are being conducted, but there is still work to be accomplished. Water is a big deal but it is important to get this right – not to rush a potential solution to one problem only to create others.”

“Big Oil’s relentless drive to discharge treated produced water risks New Mexico’s most precious resource,” said Tannis Fox, senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center. “Protection of human health and the environment must be based on sound science, not profit-driven industry spin. The best science tells us the technology to effectively treat oil and gas wastewater at scale does not exist. Discharging treated produced water is a false solution to our state’s water scarcity challenge. However, the rule currently in place allows scientific research to move forward. Treated produced water should not be introduced to New Mexico’s surface and ground water resources unless and until the scientific evidence demonstrates it’s safe.”

Big Oil now wants to overturn a science-based decision, and won’t settle for anything less than being given license to discharge its waste to New Mexico’s water resources. Big Oil already tried to push the WQCC to undo its recent rule, but its efforts failed after an exposé in the Santa Fe New Mexican revealed the governor’s office pressured her cabinet to get a new, industry-sponsored rule “across the finish[ed] line.”

“Don’t be fooled by the allies of industry that say that treated produced water is a solution to the state’s water scarcity problems,” said Haley Jones, Citizens Caring for the Future. “New Mexicans are not fooled by this attempt by industry to profit off their own waste while putting our rivers, streams, and groundwater at significant risk. ”

“Industry still uses far too much water from our aquifers for fracking,” said Sarah Knopp, Policy Specialist with Amigos Bravos. “Oil and gas should focus first on recycling its own wastewater. Further, the energy costs and carbon footprint from the treatment processes the industry is proposing are exceedingly high. Industrial scale treatment of produced water will accelerate our sprint toward catastrophic climate change.”

A partner memorial to HB 207, Senate Memorial 11, introduced by Sen. Bobby Gonzales from Taos County, echoes recent messaging from the oil and gas industry heard around the state. The memorial presents produced water as necessary to support data centers and AI, and includes unsubstantiated representations about the efficacy and safety of produced water treatment.

The memorial asks the Senate to “affirm the scientific evidence enabling the beneficial reuse of treated produced water and the importance of produced water as an asset for economic development, reducing poverty in rural communities and protecting freshwater resources in Taos county and throughout the state.” That would be hard for the Senate to do, given that NMED scientists have evaluated the treatment technologies for the toxins in produced water and determined there is insufficient evidence to support its safe discharge to surface and ground water.

At issue in the WQCC rulemaking was, first, whether all toxins and contaminants in produced water had even been identified. The WQCC determined they had not. The next issue was whether existing treatment technologies could effectively remove all contaminants to a level where discharge to New Mexico water resources would be safe. The WQCC determined they could not. None of the peer-reviewed literature published since the hearing record closed changes these conclusions. Finally, the WQCC considered whether standards, or levels of safe exposure, had been put in place for the 1,000+ potential contaminants in produced water. Such standards had not been put into place and are not in place now for all potential contaminants. The state of New Mexico does not currently have surface water quality standards for at least 180 potentially toxic chemicals found in oil and gas wastewater.

Contacts:

Tannis Fox, Western Environmental Law Center, 505-660-7642, fox@westernlaw.org

Sarah Knopp, Amigos Bravos, 505-795-2106, sknopp@amigosbravos.org

The post House Bill 207 would require discharge of oilfield wastewater to New Mexico waters, crops, industrial applications appeared first on Western Environmental Law Center.

RNs at MedStar Washington Hospital in Washington, D.C. voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract on January 31, winning protections to improve patient safety and nurse retention.

BHP (ASX: BHP) has selected its largest intake for the annual Xplor program aimed at supporting companies involved in early stages of mineral exploration.

On Monday, the Australian miner announced that the 2026 cohort will feature 10 companies — the most ever — with a total seed funding of $5 million. These include six early-stage exploration companies and four technology companies, signaling the growing importance of data analytics in the discovery process.

According to BHP, this is a reflection of a “more connected approach to early-stage exploration, where geological insight, data and emerging technologies increasingly intersect, and where collaboration across disciplines is becoming central to how discovery evolves.”

The tech start-ups to receive funding are Australia’s RadiXplore, Canada’s Mineural and Discovery Genomics, and US-based VectOres Science. The first three are developing technologies designed to support the discovery of copper, a mineral that is expected to have an outsize role in the energy transition.

The remaining cohorts include: Canadian uranium miner FrontierX; Australia’s Litchfield Minerals, which is exploring for copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver; South Africa-based copper-zinc miner Orion Minerals; Otrera Resources, which has copper projects in South America; Indonesian copper-gold explorer PT GeoFix; and the Utah Geological Survey (USA), which is the state’s primary geoscience organization.

“The 2026 cohort reflects how broad and dynamic early-stage discovery has become. We’re seeing exciting ideas emerge across exploration, data, and technology, often at the same time and in the same places,” head of BHP Xplor Marley Palin said in a press release.

Launched in 2023, the BHP Xplor program has supported 21 companies across its first three cohorts. Each selected participant is eligible to receive $500,000 in equity-free cash, along with access to mentoring and networking with BHP specialists.

Kazatomprom (LSE: KAP), the world’s top uranium producer forecasts output will rise about 9% to 71.5 to 75.4 million lb. this year compared to last year.

The increase is mostly due to ramp up at the Budenovskoye joint venture in southern Kazakhstan, which Kazatomprom holds with Russia, the company said in a release on Monday.

That uranium oxide (U3O8) production range is 5% lower than its state-granted amount but 6% higher than BMO Capital Market estimates, analyst Alexander Pearce said in a note.  

“The update could see some modest pressure on uranium prices via a slightly reduced supply deficit near-term,” Pearce said.

The Kazakh state-owned miner forecasts sales guidance in 2026 of 50.7 million to 53.3 million lb. U3O8, which is close to BMO’s forecast of 52 million lb. of uranium.

Spot price up 5%

The guidance rise positions Kazatomprom to take advantage of rising spot uranium prices, which grew about 5.5% over the full year to close at $63.50 per lb. U3O8 at the end of December. Sitting at $99.25 per lb. on Monday, the spot price is at its highest level in two years. The price movement last year was in contrast to 2024, when it fell by about 14%.

Increases in the spot price help incent uranium exploration, nuclear energy development and physical holdings of the energy metal, with the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (TSX: U.U for USD; U.UN for CAD) last week buying 500,000 lb. of U3O8. That, along with several other uranium purchases in the quarter marked its highest first-quarter buy in three years.

Uranium entering multi-year structural bull market: report Output up 10%

In last year’s fourth quarter, the miner booked 9.6 million lb. of U3O8 in attributable output, 10% higher than in the previous quarter and 6% higher than BMO estimates, Pearce said. 

However, Kazatomprom’s average realized price of $64.18 per lb. for the quarter was 9% under BMO estimates and came at a 20% discount to the average spot price of about $80 per lb. in the quarter.

“This likely partially reflects timing of shipments and volatility of spot in the quarter,” Pearce said.

Kazatomprom’s shares were down about 4% to $78.60 apiece on Monday afternoon in London, for a market capitalization of $22.7 billion.

The Wall Street Journal revealed new details on an unprecedented business deal where foreign leaders from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) bought a massive stake in Trump’s World Liberty crypto company, a few months before the Trump administration approved the sale of America’s most advanced AI chips to the UAE. These chips were previously withheld from the UAE due to national security concerns. But since then, the deal with UAE royals has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars directly into the pockets of the Trump family.

In response to this news, Robert Weissman, co-president of Public Citizen, issued the following statement:

“The jaw-dropping Wall Street Journal report reveals that through a complicated, secret deal, a United Arab Emirates (UAE)-linked company effectively deposited $187 million directly into the bank accounts of the president and his family, and is now primary business partner with the president’s family.

"There’s no precedent for this in American history. This deal contravenes the Constitution’s Emoluments Clause, the most basic ethics standards and plain common sense. It fundamentally and unavoidably compromises U.S. foreign policy, raising the question of whether Trump is conducting foreign policy to advance American interests or his own bottom line.

“The White House says the deal poses no conflict of interest for the president. The administration is making a regular practice of asking the American public not to see what is right before their eyes. The American people aren’t having it.

“And, if the administration actually believed there was no conflict, why was the deal kept secret?

“Among other matters involving the UAE, the Trump administration has approved the sale of advanced AI chips to the country, despite fears from national security officials that the technology may be diverted to China. Perhaps the administration would have reached the same decision authorizing the chip sale in the absence of the president’s business arrangement, but we’ll never know – precisely why business deals like this should not exist.”

JPMorgan is maintaining a bullish outlook on gold prices by setting an end-of-year price target of $6,300 an ounce amid a broader shift towards hard assets.

In a note published late Sunday, the bank’s analysts cited the “ongoing diversification” trend that has driven gold to record highs in recent weeks. Gold has “further to run amid a still well-entrenched regime of real asset outperformance vs paper assets,” they wrote.

The forecast follows gold’s biggest decline in decades last week, with the yellow metal cratering by more than 10% during Friday’s trading session after setting a record of nearly $5,600 an ounce a day earlier.

Gold price craters in worst decline since 80s, silver drops 36%

In the same week, JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said prices could push towards $8,000 an ounce by the end of this decade if private sector investors allocate more funds into gold.

Alongside private sector investment, central banks are also expected to remain major buyers of gold to keep prices elevated, the bank highlighted. In its note, analysts see central bank gold purchases reaching 800 tons again in 2026.

Gold prices continued to decline on Monday, down 4% by midday to around $4,600 per ounce. Still, the metal remains up 12% year to date.

Silver riskier

Meanwhile, JPMorgan analysts offered a cautious stance on the more-volatile silver, which skyrocketed to records last week before crashing down from $120 an ounce to $70 an ounce in just two days.

“The drivers of the continued rally have become harder to pinpoint and quantify, making it more cautious,” they wrote.

“Without central banks as structural dip buyers as in gold, there remains the risk for a further move back higher in the gold-to-silver ratio in the coming weeks,” the brokerage added.

For now, analysts see a floor of $75-$80/oz. for silver prices, which is higher than previous expectations, but warned that the metal is “unlikely to fully relinquish its gains.”

For centuries the Elwha River on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula supported some of the West Coast’s most impressive salmon runs. The river’s cold waters, fed by alpine glaciers on the surrounding mountains, flowed 45 miles from the heart of what is now Olympic National Park to the Salish Sea.

Ten distinct runs of salmon and oceangoing trout, including all five North American Pacific salmon species, spawned in the Elwha watershed — until a pair of dams built in the early twentieth century blocked salmon from 90% of the river.

More than a century later, advocacy by the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and conservation groups led to the dams’ removal. With the Elwha flowing free again and other habitat restoration in progress, the Olympic Peninsula is regaining its status as a salmon hotspot. Olympic National Park lies at the center.

“Olympic is probably the greatest salmon sanctuary in the national park system outside of Alaska,” says Colin Deverell, acting Northwest regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “We’re talking over 3,000 miles of rivers and streams in an area bigger than Rhode Island — most of it wilderness.”

 

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The future of salmon in this vast region is far from assured, however. In fact staff and funding cuts at the National Park Service have jeopardized habitat restoration work in the Elwha and other park watersheds at a crucial time. Olympic Park’s fisheries team has dropped from five staff at the beginning of the second Trump administration to one intern by the start of this year.

“There’s no way one person could possibly fulfill all the responsibilities the national park has toward its fish and communities who rely on healthy fisheries,” says Deverell.

This hollowing out of staff has meant salmon returning to the Elwha go uncounted, hindering work to establish sustainable fisheries. Efforts to end illegal fishing in the Quillayute River are languishing, while a restoration project on the park’s Ozette Lake is in danger of being put on hold. Tribal nations and nonprofits who partner with the Park Service are struggling to fill the gaps.

“The near obliteration of Olympic Park’s fisheries program means it’s all but impossible to do the science that supports restoration work,” Deverell says. “It makes managing fish for people and communities that much harder.”

Staffing Exodus

When Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in 1992, it set in motion a long process meant to restore Elwha salmon to something like their former glory. The law authorized the Department of the Interior to acquire and decommission the river’s Elwha and Glines Canyon dams, a project completed in 2014. This was only the beginning for salmon recovery, however.

 

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The newly freed Elwha transported sediment that had been trapped behind the dams for a century downstream, where it replenished the river delta. Restored river and estuary habitat supported not just returning salmon, but other species from Dungeness crabs to lampreys.

In 2023, for the first time since the dams came down, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe held a ceremonial and subsistence fishery for coho salmon on the Elwha. Supporting treaty-protected Tribal fishing rights is a major objective for salmon recovery. However, setting science-based parameters for fishing requires reliable data about salmon numbers — data the Park Service is best equipped to provide.

“There are now almost no fisheries staff left to do this work,” Deverell says.

The federal hiring freeze of 2025 put seasonal additions to Olympic Park’s fisheries staff on hold. Though the freeze expired in fall, uncertainty over possible future hiring directives from the administration continues to pose challenges. Budget cuts compound the problem.

“The freeze may be technically over, but there’s still very little hiring going on,” Deverell says. “Writ large, the reason comes down to budget issues and personnel directives from the Trump administration.”

Last year Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” cancelled $267 million in funding for staff at the already chronically underfunded Park Service. The departure of all Olympic National Park’s permanent fisheries biologists follows a larger pattern of staff exoduses caused by lack of funding and untenable conditions.

“These are experienced biologists we’re losing,” says Tim McNulty, a board member of Olympic Park Advocates, one of the organizations that pushed for removal of the Elwha dams. “They’re people who have spent years working with the park’s many important salmon streams.”

The void left behind may not be visible to most visitors, but it puts Tribal nations and others who collaborate with the Park Service on fisheries in a difficult situation.

“It’s a predicament, because we share the load of conducting certain salmon and steelhead surveys with the Park Service and Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife,” says Frank Geyer, natural resources director for the Quileute Tribe.

For centuries the Quileute have fished in the Olympic Peninsula’s Quillayute watershed, which includes the Sol Duc, Calawah, and Bogachiel Rivers. The watershed is one of the few places that supports year-round salmon and steelhead fishing, thanks to the Tribe’s sustainable stewardship.

“Going into last fall, we were trying to figure out how to cover work the park would normally do,” Geyer says. “Soon we’ll be starting winter steelhead surveys. If the park doesn’t have staff to help, it’ll be up to the comanagers — Quileute Tribe and WDFW — to cover the gap.”

With basic monitoring of salmon runs barely getting done, many habitat restoration efforts have fallen by the wayside. Most of these projects are far less visible than removal of the Elwha River dams. However, they are part of the same legacy of restoration — one that’s now in danger of faltering.

Struggling Restoration

For the past few summers, Liz Allyn has worked to restore the edges of Olympic National Park’s Ozette Lake, home to a population of Endangered Species Act-listed, genetically distinct sockeye salmon.

Logging near the lake in the 20th century caused erosion that led to sediment building up in the shallows, burying gravel beds where sockeye once made their spawning nests, called redds. Plants took root, further changing the environment in ways that made life harder for salmon.

“Huge areas that used be spawning sites are now covered in native vegetation,” Allyn says. “It’s not an invasive species situation, but it’s a human-caused impact that negatively affects salmon.”

 

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Removing the vegetation would allow sediment to wash away, restoring spawning opportunities. It’s a relatively simple project with big payoffs that is currently being spearheaded by the Makah Tribe with support from the Coast Salmon Partnership, where Allyn works. However, with almost no park resources going toward it, the effort is in danger of collapsing.

“The park has been underfunded for a long time, so their engagement was always limited,” Allyn says. “But in the past, park staff were there to handle permits and certain logistics. Last summer we didn’t even have that.”

Throughout the park similar examples of restoration falling through the cracks amid short staffing abound. In a tributary of the Quinault River, efforts to remove a pile of rubble from a dilapidated bridge that impedes salmon swimming upstream have been delayed. Along the Sol Duc River, Tribal elders can’t access traditional fishing grounds because of a washed-out road.

Even more worrying, there’s often no one on hand when a crisis hits.

Disaster Response

On July 18 a petroleum tanker truck ran off U.S. Highway 101 on the northern Olympic Peninsula, overturning and spilling 3,000 gallons of diesel into a tributary of the Elwha. While the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Washington’s Department of Ecology rushed to respond, the ability of the Park Service to assist was hamstrung by lack of staff.

Thousands of salmon fingerlings died in the disaster. A more robust initial Park Service response wouldn’t have prevented this, but it could have helped provide vital information as multiple agencies struggled to assess the damage and calculate penalties for the company involved. It’s yet another example of how Trump administration cuts are impeding continued salmon recovery in a dynamic landscape.

At more than 922,600 acres, Olympic National Park is a big place. Ninety-five percent is Congressionally designated wilderness, much of it consisting of steep mountains and valleys. Keeping tabs on salmon throughout such a vast area, let alone outside the park boundaries, is an enormous undertaking that requires deep understanding of the watersheds involved.

When long-time fisheries staff depart, they take years of valuable experience and institutional knowledge with them. This means any new hires will have a lot of catching up to do before they can fill the same roles.

“The decisions we’re making today are built on decades of science that’s given us a picture of how salmon populations are succeeding or failing over time,” Deverell says. “All of that is informed by data from the park. But now we’re at a point where the Park Service can no longer fill that function.”

Republish this article for free! Read our reprint policy. Previously in The Revelator:

The Monumental Effort to Replant the Klamath River Dam Reservoirs

 

The post Trouble on the Elwha: Trump’s Budget Cuts Undermine Iconic Salmon Restoration Project appeared first on The Revelator.

Drilling rig with hundreds of homes in Brighton, Colorado in the background

Late last year, Save the Aurora Reservoir (STAR), a community group based in Aurora, Colorado, celebrated a significant victory over the oil and gas industry at a hearing in front of the Energy and Carbon Management Commission (ECMC). After days of testimony, the ECMC voted 4-1 in STAR’s favor and stayed an application submitted by Civitas to drill 32 wells on its proposed State Sunlight/Long well pad, which would be located just over 3000 feet from hundreds of homes in eastern Aurora. 

Civitas argued that the proposed location complied with all relevant rules, including the state’s 2000 foot setback for oil and gas development, and was protective of public health. Even still, the ECMC sided with STAR in directing Civitas to consider alternative locations that would be more protective by being located further away from nearby homes. 

This decision signifies an important milestone. It also acknowledges something that Coloradans have continued to stress even after the state adopted new rules five years ago to mitigate the impacts of drilling and fracking on impacted communities: 

The 2000 foot setback should be seen as the minimum to protect public health AND Negative impacts from drilling and fracking activities are still experienced by thousands of Coloradans every year.

Hydrocarbon emissions from gas combusting engines on a well pad outside Aurora during fracking activities in 2025. The emissions from these sources are not directly regulated by the Air Pollution Control Division

Colorado’s rules are some of the strongest in the nation, but there are still significant gaps in regulatory oversight of harmful emissions from the oil and gas sector, particularly during drilling and fracking activities. During the hearing, we testified in support of STAR by sharing our findings showing that air quality monitoring conducted by operators during drilling and fracking misses harmful emissions events. 

We also shared relevant examples from our OGI surveys showing that even when emissions during drilling and fracking are identified, meaningful action to hold operators accountable for these emissions is limited because the state does not directly regulate most sources of emissions on pads during these activities. 

Additionally, recent health studies continue to demonstrate that negative health impacts from oil and gas development are strongly correlated with proximity, and that 2000 feet may not be the most protective distance.

Using Colorado data, studies published since the adoption of the statewide setback show increased risk of certain health impacts up to 4000 feet and, for childhood leukemia, even at over 3 miles away from oil and gas development. Studies also show that health risks are exacerbated by cumulative exposures, especially as the Front Range continues to suffer from one of the worst ozone crises in the nation, fueled in part by oil and gas development.

Finally, while the oil and gas industry continues to reassure Coloradans that they operate the safest and cleanest facilities in the nation if not the world, the reality on the ground suggests something different.

Just last year, a well pad owned by Chevron near the rural community of Galeton, Colorado suffered a major failure that led to a geyser of toxic compounds spewing from a well for days and blanketing nearby homes and the playground of Galeton’s elementary school in dangerous chemicals. While Chevron’s onsite air quality monitoring detected no concerning levels of air pollutants during the event, researchers from Colorado State University detected elevated levels of airborne benzene over a mile away from the pad.

Despite all this evidence suggesting ongoing impacts and concerning gaps in current regulations, STAR still faced an uphill battle in convincing the ECMC to take their arguments seriously, as the Commission is inclined to approve proposals from industry unless there is an egregious violation of a relevant rule.

Homes in Lochbuie, Colorado with a drilling rig in the distance

It would also be a disservice to STAR and the community members they represent to not highlight the significant time, energy, and resources they dedicated to achieving this outcome, particularly because it was almost entirely on a volunteer basis. While Colorado has made strides to decrease barriers to public participation and community input on industry proposals, many communities realistically do not have the capacity to mount organized opposition. 

It begs the question: How many well pad proposals have been approved over the last few years despite local concerns and opposition simply because nearby impacted individuals did not have the ability to confront a multibillion dollar oil and gas company in a formal hearing setting?

For these reasons, we should join STAR in celebrating this win. This was a hard-earned outcome that offers hope for other community efforts to oppose residential drilling.

It is important to be clear however that Civitas may still be able to get the original location approved if they convince ECMC that no other locations are feasible. Even if this unfortunate outcome awaits, it does not diminish the significance of what STAR was able to accomplish and the example it sets as Coloradans continue to fight for clean air and a healthy environment.

The post A Community Victory in the Fight Against Residential Drilling appeared first on Earthworks.

In virtual briefing, clean energy advocates highlight California’s ‘balcony solar’ bill to cut electric bills for millions Iris Myers February 2, 2026

SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and clean energy advocates last week outlined how a bill he introduced would make it easier and more affordable for millions of Californians to lower their electricity bills by generating their own solar power.

During a January 29 virtual press briefing, supporters of the bill, SB 868, explained how it would expand access to safe, plug-in solar systems, also known as “balcony solar.” If enacted, the legislation would cut unnecessary red tape and establish clear statewide safety standards for the systems. 

SB 868 aims to expand access for renters, apartment dwellers, and residents of small homes currently paying some of the highest energy bills in the U.S.

Plug-in systems are small, portable panels that plug into a standard wall outlet. They can be mounted on apartment balconies, patios or fences, and use a home’s existing wiring to immediately power everyday household essentials, like air conditioners, computers and refrigerators.

 The Environmental Working Group is sponsoring the legislation.

The briefing featured remarks from Wiener; EWG’s Senior Vice President for California Bernadette Del Chiaro, Utah State Rep. Raymond Ward, author of Utah’s 2025 balcony solar law and Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver.

“California’s sky-high electricity rates are putting real pressure on household budgets across the state,” said Del Chiaro. “By allowing simple, affordable plug-in solar, this proposal would help families save money immediately while strengthening California’s clean energy leadership.”

If enacted, SB 868 would help to deliver immediate savings on energy bills by allowing Californians to safely generate electricity using portable solar panels that can be set up and plugged in without lengthy permitting or costly installation.

NOTE:  The full virtual webinar can be found here, and Del Chiaro is available for media interviews by contacting the communications department at: press@ewg.org

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The Environmental Working Group (EWG) is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action.

Areas of Focus Energy Federal & State Energy Policy Renewable Energy California Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 February 2, 2026

The sprawling grasslands of western India are, in the popular imagination, the remains of woodlands that were leveled under British rule — areas to be reforested, rather than conserved. But a recent analysis of stories, songs, and poems from centuries past reveals that western grasslands predate British colonization.

Read more on E360 →

Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) (NYSE: EGO) has agreed to buy fellow Canadian miner Foran Mining (TSX:FOM) (OTCQX:FMCXF) in a transaction that values the copper-focused developer at about C$3.8 billion ($2.8 billion).

The acquisition will expand Eldorado’s copper footprint while adding a second near-term growth project as demand for the metal rises alongside electrification and clean energy investment.

The deal brings Eldorado’s Skouries gold-copper project in Greece and Foran’s McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan into one portfolio, both targeted for commercial production in mid-2026. Eldorado said the enlarged group could produce about 900,000 gold-equivalent ounces in 2027.

Once combined, the company’s asset base is expected to have roughly 77% exposure to gold and 15% to copper, with operating mines and development projects in Canada, Greece and Turkey.

Eldorado expects the merged business to generate about $2.1 billion in core profit and $1.5 billion in free cash flow in 2027. The miner also plans to increase exploration spending across the portfolio, including at Foran’s Tesla zone in Saskatchewan.

Shares in Eldorado closed 8.9% lower in New York while Foran Mining was down 5.2% at the Toronto close.

Deal insights

Under the terms of the agreement, Foran shareholders will receive 0.1128 Eldorado shares plus $0.01 per share, giving them about 24% of the combined company. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2026.

“This transaction gives McIlvenna Bay the scale and financial strength to fully realize its potential, including the ability to accelerate phased expansion opportunities over time,” Foran chief executive Dan Myerson said in the statement.

The combined company will remain headquartered in Vancouver under the Eldorado Gold name. 

McIlvenna Bay is expected to become a cornerstone Canadian asset alongside Eldorado’s Lamaque Complex in Quebec, supporting long-term employment and economic activity in Saskatchewan and across Canada, the company said. 

The project has been recognized by the federal government as a critical minerals development and referred to the new Major Projects Office as a project of national interest.

Both boards have unanimously approved the transaction, and shareholder votes are scheduled by April 14, the companies said.

Fred Pearce is a freelance author and journalist writing on behalf of Wetlands International Europe.

Everybody knows that saving the Amazon rainforest is critical to our planet’s future. But the Pantanal? Most people have never heard of Brazil’s other ecological treasure, the world’s largest tropical wetland – let alone understood its importance, as home to the highest concentration of wildlife in the Americas, while keeping a billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere, and protecting millions of people downstream from flooding.

Hundreds of millions of euros are spent every year on protecting and restoring the world’s forests. Wetlands are just as important, yet don’t get anything like the same recognition or investment. That, scientists insist, has to change. And Europe can lead the way.

For forests, the EU already provides financial and technical assistance for a series of Forest Partnerships with non-EU countries, as part of its Global Gateway strategy for investing globally in environmentally and socially sustainable infrastructure. Such partnerships operate in Guyana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mongolia and elsewhere.

I believe the time is now right to establish a parallel EU Wetland Partnerships, framing wetlands as a strategic, cost-effective investment offering high financial, environmental and social returns.

Wetlands store a third of global soil carbon

Wetlands come in many shapes and sizes: freshwater peatlands, lakes and river floodplains, as well as coastal salt marshes, mangroves and seagrass beds. They are vital natural infrastructure, maintaining river flows that buffer against extreme weather events such as floods and drought, as well as protecting biodiversity, and providing jobs and economic opportunities, often for the most vulnerable nature-dependent communities.

Wetlands cover just six percent of the land surface, but store a third of global soil carbon – twice the amount in all the world’s forests. Yet they have been disappearing three times faster than forests, with 35 percent lost in the past half century.

A just agricultural transition takes root in Brazil

Their loss adds to climate change, causes species extinction, triggers mass exoduses of fishers and other people whose livelihoods disappear, and depletes both surface and underground water reserves. Continued wetlands destruction is estimated to contribute five percent of global CO2 emissions – more than aviation and shipping combined.

EU Wetland Partnerships can be critical to unlocking finance to stem the losses and realise the benefits by promoting nature-based economic development, such as sustainable aquaculture, eco-tourism, and forms of wetlands agriculture known as paludiculture, while contributing to climate adaptation by improving the resilience of water resources.

Pantanal faces multiple threats

The Pantanal would be a prime candidate for a flagship project. The vast seasonal floodplain stretching from Brazil into Paraguay and Bolivia, is home to abundant populations of cayman, capybaras, jaguars and more than 600 species of birds. It is vital also for preventing flooding on the River Paraguay for some 2000 kilometres downstream to the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pantanal faces multiple threats, from droughts due to upstream water diversions and climate change, invasions by farmers setting fires and a megaproject to dredge the river and create a shipping corridor through the wetland.

But EU investment to achieve partnership targets agreed with Brazil on restoration, conservation and sustainable management could reinvigorate traditional sustainable land use – including cattle ranching that helps sustain the Pantanal’s open flooded grasslands.

A delegation from the Pantanal Association for Organic and Sustainable Livestock Farming, pictured in the Pantanal wetland, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. (Photo: Wetlands International Brazil office) A delegation from the Pantanal Association for Organic and Sustainable Livestock Farming, pictured in the Pantanal wetland, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. (Photo: Wetlands International Brazil office) Accounting for wetlands carbon in national emissions targets

Africa, a main focus of the Global Gateway, has abundant potential for early partnership initiatives. They include the Inner Niger Delta in Mali, which sustains some three million inhabitants, but is threatened by upstream dams and conflicts over resources between farmers and herders.

Another is the Sango Bay-Minziro wetland, a region of swamp forests, flooded grasslands and papyrus swamp straddling the border between Uganda and Tanzania on the shores of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake.

The two countries have agreed to cooperate in pushing back against illegal logging, papyrus extraction and farming, and Wetlands International has been working with local governments to encourage community-based initiatives. But an EU partnership could dramatically expand this work, helping sustain the wider ecology of Lake Victoria and the Nile Basin.

Deep in the Amazon, forest protection cash must vie with glitter of illegal gold

National pledges to bring wetlands to the fore of environmental action are proliferating rapidly, especially since the 2023 global climate stocktake at COP28 in the UAE emphasised the importance of accounting for wetlands carbon in national emissions targets.

Since then, more than 50 countries have signed up to the 2023 Freshwater Challenge to protect freshwater ecosystems; more than 40 governments with 40 percent of the world’s mangroves have endorsed the 2022 Mangrove Breakthrough that aims to protect and restore 15 million hectares by 2030; and the newly established Peatland Breakthrough aims at rewetting at least 30 million hectares and halting the loss of undrained peatland by 2030.

Such ambition will almost certainly be endorsed at the 2026 UN Water Conference to be hosted by the UAE and Senegal in December this year. But the key to turning targets into reality on the ground lies in finding the billions of Euros needed to deliver on the ambition. EU Wetlands Partnerships could help seal the deal.

The post The EU should partner with Global South to protect carbon-storing wetlands appeared first on Climate Home News.

US President Donald Trump is preparing to launch a strategic stockpile of critical minerals backed by $12 billion, aiming to protect manufacturers from supply disruptions as the US accelerates efforts to reduce dependence on Chinese metals.

The White House confirmed on Monday the start of “Project Vault,” which would combine $1.67 billion in private capital with a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank to buy and store minerals for automakers, technology companies and other industrial users. 

The model mirrors the country’s emergency oil reserve but focuses instead on materials such as gallium and cobalt used in products ranging from smartphones to jet engines.

The project spans the automotive, aerospace and energy sectors and underscores Trump’s broader push to rewire US supply chains away from China, the world’s dominant producer and processor of critical minerals.

More than a dozen companies have reportedly signed on, including General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Boeing Co., Corning Inc., GE Vernova Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Commodities traders Hartree Partners LP, Traxys North America LLC and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. will handle purchases to fill the stockpile.

“Project Vault is a clear signal that US critical‑mineral policy has moved to deployment,” US Critical Materials chairman, Harvey Kaye, told MINING.COM. “It says unequivocally that secure supplies of rare earths and heavy minerals like gallium are now treated as strategic infrastructure for our economy and defense industrial base, to establish US sovereignty.”

Kaye noted that for companies like US Critical Materials, it confirms that high-grade domestic supply is no longer optional.

“The project is exactly the kind of serious, industrial-strength action America needs right now,” Adam Muellerweiss, President of the Responsible Battery Coalition, said in an emailed statement. “Even two years ago, this idea would have been unthinkable. The Trump Administration has made this a national security priority.”

Analyst Dmitry Silversteyn at Water Tower Research said that while the announcement is a step in the right direction, is not a quick solution to China’s control of critical materials. “[I see] continuing to encourage development of domestic and friendly nations’ critical elements resources and metal processing capabilities and infrastructure, as the ultimate and required goal to end, or at least significantly reduce, dependence on China’s goodwill,” he wrote.

Baker Botts lawyer Rebecca Seidl said that for mining and minerals companies, the move is not simply a one-time stockpile but rather a broader shift in federal posture. 

“The federal government is preparing to behave like a repeat buyer, market stabilizer, and strategic counterparty, particularly where China’s dominance in mining and processing creates price and availability risk,” Seidl wrote. “As such, projects able to demonstrate reliable production, domestic or allied processing, and credible clean supply-chains will have an easier path to financing and offtake.”

Beyond defence 

Trump is scheduled to meet Monday with GM chief executive officer Mary Barra and mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland, representing both consumers and producers of critical minerals. 

While the US already maintains a national stockpile for defence purposes, it lacks a comparable reserve for civilian industry. That gap has taken on urgency as the Pentagon ramps up its own accelerated stockpiling campaign, targeting up to $1 billion in mineral acquisitions in the near term.

The drive is supported by Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocates $7.5 billion for critical minerals, including $2 billion to expand the national stockpile by 2027, $5 billion for supply-chain investments and $500 million for a Pentagon credit program to encourage private projects.

US agrees to buy 10% of USA Rare Earth in $1.6B deal

The administration has also taken the unusual step of investing directly in domestic mining companies to boost US rare earths production and processing.

Last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced a bill to create a $2.5 billion stockpile of critical minerals, a move aimed at stabilizing market prices and encouraging domestic mining and refining.

Senior administration officials told Bloomberg News Project Vault was oversubscribed, citing investor confidence in the credit quality of participating manufacturers, their long-term purchase commitments and the backing of the US export-credit agency. Under the plan, companies can draw down their allotted materials as long as they replenish them, with full access permitted during major supply disruptions.

Manufacturers that commit to buying set quantities at fixed prices will also agree to repurchase the same amounts at the same cost in the future, a structure the administration says will help stabilize prices and dampen market volatility.

Bloomberg News was the first to report the creation of the critical minerals strategic reserve.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently launched a US$700 million Regenerative Pilot Program. It aims to help farmers adopt practices that improve soil health, enhance water quality, and boost long-term productivity, while strengthening America’s food and fiber supply.

“Protecting and improving the health of our soil is critical not only for the future viability of farmland, but to the future success of American farmers,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. Alongside U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, Rollins framed the project as a part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.

The pilot is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). It will fund two existing conservation programs that pay farmers to implement conservation practices, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and the Conservation Stewardship Program. USDA is aiming to streamline the application process, enabling farmers to bundle multiple practices into a single application, reducing barriers to entry for both beginning and advanced producers.

The program also emphasizes whole-farm planning to address soil, water, and natural vitality concerns as part of a holistic management approach. And it will leverage private investment through public-private partnerships, which the USDA says will stretch taxpayer dollars further and bring new capacity to producers interested in adopting regenerative practices.

NRCS Chief Aubrey J.D. Bettencourt is currently assembling a Regenerative Agriculture Advisory Council which brings together producers, consumer advocates, and supply-chain and corporate partners. “By including voices from across the food system, the council helps ensure the Regenerative Pilot Program is aligned with real market needs and buyer expectations, strengthening connections between farmers and the markets seeking regeneratively grown products,” USDA tells Food Tank.

The program’s focus on soil health is a welcome investment among groups that have long been advocating for regenerative agriculture on American farms. “This moment reflects a growing federal recognition that healthy soil is foundational to a secure food system, climate resilience, and human health,” says Jeff Tkach, CEO of the Rodale Institute.

But significant staffing cuts at the NRCS raise concerns about the agency’s ability to implement the program. The NRCS has lost nearly one in four of its staff in 2025, according to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

Sarah Starman, Senior Food & Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, calls the pilot project “a step in the right direction.” But she says the program “will only be effective if USDA reverses the past year of massive cuts to on-the-ground conservation staff.”

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Photo courtesy of Andrew Gaz, Unsplash

The post USDA Launches $700 Million Regenerative Pilot appeared first on Food Tank.