U.S. issues supply order for recoverable critical minerals.
Today's events
Critical minerals.
A directive allocation order and additional requirements for recoverable critical minerals and materials were filed under the federal defense priorities system; the order publishes August 6.1Aug 4 · Fed. Reg.China tech investment.
A presidential notice extended for one year the national emergency behind U.S. curbs on outbound investment in countries of concern, declared in 2023 over military, intelligence and cyber technologies.2Aug 5 · Fed. Reg.Metals tariffs.
A Federal Register notice extends national-security duties on aluminum, steel and copper to additional derivative products; it publishes August 6.3Aug 4 · Fed. Reg.Quartz safeguard.
A presidential proclamation follows the trade commission's finding that imported quartz surface products seriously injure U.S. producers; Canada, Mexico and more than a dozen free-trade partners drew negative findings.4Aug 5 · Fed. Reg.DOJ v. OpenAI.
The Justice Department secured $3.2 million from OpenAI and its subsidiary Statsig for preferring temporary visa holders over U.S. workers in permanent-residency recruitment — $1.2 million in penalties, $2 million in back pay.5Aug 4 · DOJThree exploited flaws.
Three actively exploited vulnerabilities entered the federal catalog: code injection in IBM's Langflow, an authentication bypass in N-able's N-central, and missing encryption in Apache Tomcat.6Aug 4 · CISATrade deficit.
June's goods-and-services gap narrowed $4.4 billion to $73.3 billion as imports fell $7.3 billion to $388.0 billion; the year-to-date deficit is down 33.8 percent from 2025.7Aug 4 · BEAPakistan counterterrorism.
The fourth U.S.–Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue met August 4 in Washington, naming Islamic State–Khorasan, al-Qa'ida, the Pakistani Taliban and the Balochistan Liberation Army as shared targets.8Aug 5 · StateAI research hubs.
The National Science Foundation opened a $100 million program to fund up to ten state and regional consortia that pool university, state and private computing power for science.9Aug 4 · NSF
Allied Governments
Ukraine training command.
NATO's Ukraine assistance and training command changed hands in Wiesbaden, Lieutenant General Guillaume Beaurpere replacing Lieutenant General Curtis Buzzard; a European or Canadian officer is due to take over in about a year.aAug 4 · NATORoyal Navy torpedoes.
Britain awarded BAE Systems a £135 million, three-year contract to maintain and repair Spearfish and Sting Ray torpedoes, sustaining 315 UK jobs, 150 of them at the company.bAug 4 · UK MoDSentencing carve-out.
The prime minister barred rape, serious child sexual and grooming offences from upcoming sentencing changes, adding them to exclusions already covering 18,000 offenders, with new GPS monitoring for rapists.cAug 4 · UK No.10
Voices
“I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14105 with respect to the threat posed by the advancement by countries of concern…”
Presidential notice continuing Executive Order 14105 · Aug 52
“It is illegal to discriminate against U.S. workers by preferring temporary visa holders for jobs.”
AAG Harmeet K. Dhillon, DOJ Civil Rights · Aug 45
“[Quartz surface products are] being imported into the United States in such increased quantities as to be a substantial cause of serious injury to the domestic industry.”
Proclamation on quartz surface products, citing the U.S. International Trade Commission · Aug 54
“The United States and Pakistan affirmed their joint resolve to confront terrorist organizations that endanger the safety of their citizens and the stability of the region.”
Joint Statement, Fourth U.S.–Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue · Aug 48
“American scientists deserve the world's best tools to enable their most ambitious work.”
Michael Kratsios, Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy · Aug 49
“These types of vulnerabilities are a frequent attack vector for malicious cyber actors and pose significant risks to the federal enterprise.”
CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog alert · Aug 46
Sources
- Federal Register, “Defense Priorities and Allocations System Directive Allocation Order and Additional Requirements for Recoverable Critical Minerals and Materials,” filed August 4, 2026 (publishes August 6, 2026). federalregister.gov/…/dpas-recoverable-critical-minerals
- Federal Register, “Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to the Advancement by Countries of Concern in Sensitive Technologies and Products Critical for the Military, Intelligence, Surveillance, or Cyber-Enabled Capabilities of Such Countries,” August 5, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/eo-14105-emergency-continuation
- Federal Register, “Implementation of Duties on Additional Aluminum, Steel, and Copper Derivative Articles under Section 232,” filed August 4, 2026 (publishes August 6, 2026). federalregister.gov/…/section-232-derivative-articles
- Federal Register, “To Facilitate Positive Adjustment to Competition From Imports of Quartz Surface Products” (a Proclamation), August 5, 2026. federalregister.gov/…/quartz-surface-products-proclamation
- U.S. Dept. of Justice, “Civil Rights Division Secures Settlement with OpenAI for Discriminating Against U.S. Workers,” August 4, 2026. justice.gov/opa/pr/…/openai-settlement-us-workers
- CISA, “CISA Adds Three Known Exploited Vulnerabilities to Catalog” (IBM Langflow, N-able N-central, Apache Tomcat), August 4, 2026. cisa.gov/news-events/…/three-kev-additions
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, “U.S. International Trade in Goods and Services, June 2026,” August 4, 2026. bea.gov/news/2026/…/trade-goods-services-june-2026
- U.S. Dept. of State, “Joint Statement on the U.S. – Pakistan Counterterrorism Dialogue,” August 4, 2026. state.gov/releases/…/us-pakistan-counterterrorism-dialogue
- National Science Foundation, “New NSF State and Regional AI Infrastructure Hubs will power AI-enabled scientific research across the country,” August 4, 2026. nsf.gov/news/…/state-regional-ai-infrastructure-hubs
- NATO, “Change of Command at NATO Security Assistance & Training for Ukraine (NSATU),” August 4, 2026. nato.int/en/news-and-events/…/nsatu-change-of-command
- UK Ministry of Defence, “Hundreds of UK jobs supported with million-pound contract to secure Royal Navy torpedo weapons,” August 4, 2026. gov.uk/government/news/…/royal-navy-torpedo-contract
- UK Prime Minister's Office (No.10), “Rape, serious child sex and grooming offences barred from sentencing changes,” August 4, 2026. gov.uk/government/news/…/sentencing-changes-exclusions