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President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese signed a critical-minerals deal at the White House on Monday as the U.S. eyes the continents rich rare-earth resources when China is imposing tougher rules on exporting its own critical minerals abroad. The two leaders described the agreement as an $8.5 billion deal between the allies. Trump said it had been negotiated over several months. Todays agreement on critical minerals and rare earths is just taking the U.S. and Australia’s relationship to the next level,” Albanese added. This month, Beijing announced that it will require foreign companies to get approval from the Chinese government to export magnets containing even trace amounts of rare-earth materials that originated from China or were produced with Chinese technology. Trump’s Republican administration says this gives China broad power over the global economy by controlling the tech supply chain. Australia is really, really going to be helpful in the effort to take the global economy and make it less risky, less exposed to the kind of rare earth extortion that were seeing from the Chinese, Kevin Hassett, the director of the White Houses National Economic Council, told reporters on Monday morning ahead of Trumps meeting with Albanese. Hassett noted that Australia has one of the best mining economies in the world, while praising its refiners and its abundance of rare earth resources. Among the Australian officials accompanying Albanese are ministers overseeing resources and industry and science, and Australia has dozens of critical minerals sought by the U.S. The prime minister’s visit comes just before Trump is planning to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month. For Albanese’s part, the prime minister said ahead of his visit that the two leaders will have a chance to deepen their countries’ ties on trade and defense. Another expected topic of discussion is AUKUS, a security pact with Australia, the U.S., and the United Kingdom that was signed during U.S. President Joe Bidens Democratic administration. Trump has not indicated publicly whether he would want to keep AUKUS intact, and the Pentagon is reviewing the agreement. Australia and the United States have stood shoulder to shoulder in every major conflict for over a century, Albanese said ahead of the meeting. I look forward to a positive and constructive meeting with President Trump at the White House. The center-left Albanese was reelected in May and suggested shortly after his win that his party increased its majority by not modeling itself on Trumpism. Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian waylooking after each other while building for the future, Albanese told supporters during his victory speech. By Seung Min Kim and Aamer Madhani, Associated Press
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Get ready to hurry up and wait. As delays and cancellations continue to pile up at the nations busiest airports during the weeks-long government shutdown, some travelers who have been anticipating extra headaches are hedging their bets with extra insurance protections. According to data shared with Fast Company from the price comparison service InsureMyTrip, 10% of travel insurance policies purchased in September and into October have included cancel for any reason (CFAR) coverage. Thats the highest percentage of the year so far and above the average of 8% seen from January through August, InsureMyTrip says. The additional protection, which can increase your insurance costs by upwards of 50%, according to NerdWallet, can be a kind of safety net for travelers who are willing and able to spend the extra cash. Travel delays are among the most visible impacts of prolonged government shutdowns, adding increased uncertainty and chaos as air traffic controllers who are being forced to work for partial or no pay call in sick or take leave. Over the weekend, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) confirmed that staffing shortages were causing delays at airports in Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, and Newark, according to Reuters. With no end in sight to the political impasse that led to the shutdown, the problem is likely to get worse as thousands of air traffic controllers are expected to miss their paychecks at the end of this month. A hedge against government dysfunction Travel disruptions caused by government regulations are not covered under standard insurance plans, according to InsureMyTrip. Additionally, travelers who had planned to visit one of Americas national parkswhich are only partially open or have reduced services during the shutdownmight find they have little recourse under a standard plan. CFAR coverage offers more protection against the unexpectedor against the expected, depending on your level of confidence in our governments ability to function the way its supposed to. The increased interest in CFAR coverage tracks with a recent report from the trade publication Insurance Business, which cited consumers seeking extra protections in a perpetually uncertain world. According to InsureMyTrip, travelers who opt for that extra coverage can be reimbursed up to 75% of their trips non-refundable costs, provided they cancel 48 hours before they actually leave. Would-be fliers may be considering doing just that. Data from flight tracking service FlightAware shows that delays and cancellations into, within, and out of U.S. airports spiked again this weekend, with some 7,806 delays on Sunday alone. window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}); Americas tourism industry was already facing headwinds before the shutdown, with the U.S. Travel Association expecting total inbound spending to fall 3.2% to $173 billion in 2025, its first decline since 2020. Still, domestic leisure travel had been a bright spot. It’s expected to grow 1.9% to $895 billion this year, according to the associations fall travel update. Whether or not it hits that number might yet depend on a number of possible outcomes, including the most unlikely of all: elected officials doing their jobs.
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E-Commerce
President Donald Trump responded to this weekend’s massive No Kings protests with an AI-generated video of him in a fighter jet, dropping what appears to be sewage (or poop) on American protesters, and told reporters on Sunday that the nearly 7 million people who attended the nationwide rallies “are not representative of the people of our country.” “The regime can’t decide if this was a violent insurrection or if it was such a bust that it never happened, but regardless, Trump is clearly pissed,” Ezra Levin, co-executive director of the protest’s organizing group, Indivisible, said in a statement emailed to Fast Company. In that 19-second video, which Trump posted on Truth Social, the president of the United States is pictured riding in the cockpit of a fighter plane, wearing a crown, in what appears to be a nod to the movie Top Gun as its iconic “Danger Zone” song by Kenny Loggins plays in the background. Loggins requested his music be removed immediately, according to Rolling Stone. This is an unauthorized use of my performance of Danger Zone, Loggins said in a statement. Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied . . . I cant imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance took to Bluesky in what also appeared to be an attempt to mock the protests, posting a black-and-white AI-generated meme of Trump wearing a crown and pulling out a shiny sword, as former House Speaker and current U.S. representative Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats bend down on one knee to him. (Some critics have said Trump and Vance’s posts only prove the protesters point that he is, in fact, acting like a King.) It’s not the first time this administration has used generative AI to mock Democrats. Amid the government shutdown, Trump posted a deepfake video on Truth Social with doctored audio of Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer saying, nobody likes Democrats, we have no voters because of our woke, trans b-shit,” and standing next to House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had a fake mustache and was wearing a fake sombrero. And according to NBC News, Trump has posted dozens of such AI-generated videos to his Truth Social account since the beginning of his second term, half of which appeared in August and September. Those videos came from other accounts and were then promoted by Trump. Looking back even further, to his campaign, Trump also posted on Truth Social a fake AI-generated image of musician Taylor Swift endorsing him for president along with other such “Swifties for Trump” memes. The original image depicted Swift as Uncle Sam, and read, Taylor wants you to vote for Joe Biden. The singer said Trump’s meme inspired her to endorse Kamala Harris for president.
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