U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Nov. 2 that the United States is aiming to achieve supply chain independence from China on critical minerals within a year or two. “The U.S. has been asleep at the switch, and now this administration, we’re 
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth criticized China’s increasingly “destabilizing” actions in the South China Sea on Nov. 1, calling on Southeast Asian countries to work closely with the United States to face Beijing’s aggression. Hegseth made the remarks while Washington’s most effective weapon against Beijing’s deepest vulnerabilities is elevating religious freedom to a national security priority, according to Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Brownback, who served in