Good morning. The Trump administration is developing a roughly $12 billion stockpile of critical minerals aimed at helping U.S. manufacturers navigate future supply shortages and overcome future reliance on China for rare earths and metals.

• Project Vault: A White House official said the expected stockpile—called Project Vault—will be the fruition of roughly $1.67 billion in private capital along with a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank to assemble the minerals from automakers, manufacturers and tech companies.
   
• Industry squeezed: President Trump’s move comes after the Chinese government has used its dominance over the supply chain for critical-minerals processing to squeeze key U.S. industries. Last year, Beijing imposed licensing requirements for U.S. companies to purchase rare-earth magnets made with critical minerals, allowing it to limit the supply of the critical components for the defense and automotive sectors. China currently controls about 90% of the processing capability for rare-earth minerals, according to the International Energy Agency.
   
• Company participation: More than a dozen companies have agreed to participate in the project, the White House official said, including General Motors, Stellantis, and Alphabet’s Google. A GM official declined to comment, and officials with Stellantis and Google didn’t immediately comment.
   
• 15-year loan: Ex-Im is an independent executive-branch agency that helps facilitate the export of U.S. goods and services through loans. Ex-Im’s board was set to vote Monday to authorize the 15-year loan to establish the project. Trump was expected to meet with GM’s chief executive officer, Mary Barra, and Robert Friedland, the founder and executive co-chairman of Ivanhoe Mines. An Ivanhoe official declined to comment ahead of the meeting. An Ex-Im official didn’t immediately comment on the coming vote.

White House meets with banks, crypto industry to advance bill.

White House officials met with crypto industry executives and bank trade associations on Monday to help break an impasse holding up a bill to regulate crypto markets.

Last month, the Senate Banking Committee intended to vote on a bill that would set rules around digital asset trading. Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R., S.C.) scrapped that plan hours after Coinbase Global withdrew its support.

• Prediction market platforms taking sports bets could run afoul of New York gambling law, the state’s top prosecutor said. Attorney General Letitia James issued a warning to the industry on Monday, alongside a notice to consumers that the platforms could put them at financial risk.
   
• The Securities and Exchange Commission has paused much of its work, citing the partial government shutdown.
   
• Malaysian authorities detained two oil tankers suspected of conducting an illegal ship-to-ship transfer of crude oil valued at more than $130 million off Penang Island, the official Bernama news agency reported.
   
• Top Justice Department officials have narrowed the role of a lawyer who had been tasked with pursuing matters of interest to President Trump and his allies, people familiar with the matter said.

Around 43% anti-financial-crime experts said they are “very focused” on sanctions and export control evasion in 2026, down from 47% in 2025, according to an ACAMS study. Monday’s big number incorrectly said this was an increase.

U.S. will cut tariffs on India to 18% in trade deal.

The U.S. has agreed to reduce tariffs to 18% on India, which in turn will stop buying Russian oil, President Trump said Monday, in a deal aimed at easing trade tensions between the two countries.

Trump last year levied a 25% tariff on India for its purchases of Russian oil, on top of a 25% “reciprocal” tariff that Trump imposed on the nation.

In a social media post, Trump said Modi “agreed to stop buying Russian Oil, and to buy much more from the United States and, potentially, Venezuela.” That commitment will mean that the 25% tariff on India over the oil purchases will be dropped, a White House official said, making the final tariff number 18%.

U.S., Iran poised to meet for talks.

Senior U.S. and Iranian officials are poised to meet in Turkey this week, amid efforts by regional powers to craft a diplomatic alternative to a clash that risks sparking broader turmoil.

U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were expected to join talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Istanbul on Friday, people familiar with the matter said.

• Elon Musk said his Starlink had stopped “unauthorized use” of the satellite internet terminals by Russian drones, after Ukraine appealed for help disabling the communication technology that it said was proving a dangerous tool assisting Russian drone attacks.
   
• U.S. weapons makers are fighting a battle on two fronts: ensuring strong returns for investors and trying to satisfy their biggest customer—the Pentagon.
   
• The European Union needs to improve how it tracks supplies of raw materials essential for building batteries and solar panels to address its vulnerability to having access cut off by foreign governments, according to a new report by the bloc’s auditing body.

Join us in New York on March 4 for the inaugural Dow Jones Risk Journal Summit.

Speakers include Kaitlin Asrow, acting superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services; Erika Brown Lee, head of global data privacy legal, Citi; Beth Collins, chief compliance officer, Walmart; Indrani Franchini, chief compliance officer, IBM; and Kevin O’Connor, general counsel, Lockheed Martin.

Request a complimentary invitation here using the code COMPLIMENTARY. Attendance is limited, and all requests are subject to approval.

• A U.S. intelligence official has alleged wrongdoing by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard in a whistleblower complaint that is so highly classified it has sparked months of wrangling over how to share it with Congress, according to U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter.
   
• Dozens of people have died and thousands of customers are still without power nearly a week after a sprawling winter storm blanketed much of the U.S. with extreme cold, ice and snow.
   
• British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is pressuring the U.K.’s former Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson to provide evidence to American authorities over Jeffrey Epstein, after a cache of emails appeared to show that Mandelson leaked confidential British government correspondence to the disgraced financier.
   
• The Rafah border crossing connecting Gaza with Egypt reopened on Monday, a long-awaited step that got off to a rocky start with only a few Palestinians able to leave and enter the war-torn enclave.
   
• Oracle said it plans to raise between $45 billion and $50 billion this year to fund its artificial-intelligence infrastructure buildout, seeking fresh capital to satisfy growing demand from clients.

Follow us on X at @WSJRisk. Send tips to our reporters Max Fillion at max.fillion@dowjones.com, Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com and Richard Vanderford at richard.vanderford@wsj.com.

You can also reach us by replying to any newsletter, or by emailing our editor David Smagalla at david.smagalla@wsj.com.