A proposed U.S.-backed investment in a South African rare-earths project is emerging as an unlikely bright spot in relations strained by disputes over Israel, refugee policy and South Africa’s growing ties to China. Threat Status Special Foreign Correspondent Joseph Hammond analyzes the situation in an exclusive dispatch from Cape Town.

President Trump last year accused the South African government of standing by as a “White genocide” occurs in the country. The president subsequently disinvited South Africa from the Group of 20 meetings that the U.S. is slated to host in December.

The administration may pivot, however, given South Africa’s extensive reserves of platinum-group metals and other essential minerals that are becoming increasingly important to U.S. high-tech and national security-related manufacturing. American industry and policy leaders are specifically intrigued by South Africa’s Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project — an innovative operation focused on extracting metals from waste byproducts.

A recently unsealed FBI affidavit states that Thomas Pauken II, a U.S. citizen, was acting illegally as an agent of Chinese intelligence services. Mr. Pauken was an editor at the official Chinese news agency Xinhua and three other state-backed outlets. He is accused of also working with an official from China’s Ministry of State Security as an unregistered Chinese government agent, according to the affidavit written by FBI agent Timothy Healy.

National Security Correspondent Bill Gertz examines the case. According to the FBI, Mr. Pauken worked with a Chinese official described only as “Cathy” since 2019 in providing reports on American policy toward China that were sent to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Mr. Pauken is also accused of acting as a go-between with a U.S. government employee who had access to secrets and was sought as a recruited informant by the Ministry of State Security. The court document states that Mr. Pauken was required to take a polygraph test to confirm he did not work for the CIA because his information was being sent to Mr. Xi.

Iran’s top negotiator spent another day in Qatar on Tuesday hoping to finalize a deal with U.S. officials, even as Iran’s supreme leader vowed retaliation for Monday’s American military strikes, saying U.S. bases in the Middle East will no longer be safe.

“The hands of time do not turn backward, and the nations and lands of the region will no longer serve as shields for American bases,” the ayatollah said in a statement to mark the start of the Hajj pilgrimage to the Islamic holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Trump says U.S. officials remain determined to work with Middle East partners on a draft deal that would extend a ceasefire with Iran and give space for negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Tehran’s top negotiator, spent Monday and Tuesday in Doha as the Qataris try to facilitate talks and tamp down the prospect of a new escalation.

The South Korean-flagged tanker ship that was attacked while docked at a United Arab Emirates port this month was likely hit by Iranian missiles, authorities in Seoul said Wednesday. A previously conducted technical analysis concluded that the HMM Namu was likely struck by Noor-series advanced anti-ship missiles developed by Iran, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a briefing.

One of the two missiles that struck the ship had not detonated, according to the assessment, allowing investigators to inspect the warhead. The shape of the warhead was reportedly similar to that used in Noor- and Qader-series anti-ship missiles.

The Trump administration is publicly pressuring Seoul to provide military support for the U.S. blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. The South Korean government has resisted, but said earlier this month that it is considering “phased” participation in the U.S.-led multinational operation.

Brandon Farris, executive vice president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, writes that the organization commends Mr. Trump in the wake of the president’s visit to China for showing a “continued commitment to America’s steelmakers by taking on the global scourge of excess capacity.

“For generations, the steel mills of the American Midwest forged more than beams and bridges,” Mr. Farris writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times. “They forged the economic might of the U.S. Then came decades of shuttered plants, hollowed-out towns and a flood of artificially cheap foreign steel that left America dependent on rivals for one of its most strategic industries.

“Mr. Trump’s steel tariff upended that trajectory,” he writes. “By directly confronting China’s state-backed overproduction and putting American manufacturing at the center of America First trade policy, his administration helped ignite a long-awaited revival in domestic steelmaking, and with it, renewed hope across the Rust Belt and the rest of the country that America can still build, compete and lead.”

• May 28 — The Electrotech Stack at Risk: China, Artificial Intelligence and America’s Energy Supply Chains, Foundation for Defense of Democracies

• May 29 — A Framework for U.S.-Japan Cooperation in the Arctic, Atlantic Council

• June 2 — War at Arm’s Length: How America Can Build Effective Partners Through Military Assistance, Brookings Institution

• June 3 — Stolen Revolution: Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran, Brookings Institution

• June 12 — Winning the Innovation Competition (Featuring Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael), Hudson Institute

• June 18 — Deterring Russia and China: Securing America’s Nuclear Future, Hudson Institute

• June 24 — IndoPac 2026 | Naval Dominance: Shipbuilding, Autonomy & C2, Threat Status Events