The US Department of War (Pentagon) is preparing its military bases to operate for 90 days without external support, anticipating the prospect of a global war that could paralyse power grids, cut supply lines, and target critical infrastructure on domestic soil.

According to documents reviewed by Fox News, the preparations are being carried out under a military plan dubbed FORTRESS.

The plan aims to ensure that American forces can sustain operations without interruption even if civilian infrastructure collapses.

To this end, every major military installation on the US mainland is projected to remain fully autonomous for at least 90 days across all essential needs, including water, fuel, electricity, and communications.

In remarks to the television network, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell stated that the military can no longer remain dependent on municipal utilities, saying: “We do not want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to ensure national defence. We cannot do that; it is an unacceptable risk.”

Parnell pointed out that electricity is the cornerstone of modern conflict, stressing that when power is severed, communications, water supplies, logistics, assembly lines, and even fundamental command structures cease to function.

The FORTRESS concept incorporates microgrids capable of decoupling military facilities entirely from the civilian grid, large-scale battery storage systems, and portable nuclear reactors. This infrastructure is intended to allow military bases to operate independently even during extended blackouts.

Spokesman Parnell noted that a prospective war would not remain confined to a single region, remarking: “The next conflict will likely take place across multiple fronts. Look at the geopolitics of major wars; when this happens, global supply chains will break.”

During a crisis, the Pentagon aims to redirect civilian factories toward defence production, establish alternative supply routes, and build strategic stockpiles to guarantee the flow of weapons and fuel.

To prevent disruptions to operations should a supplier be lost, the goal is to establish at least two independent production or distribution channels for the most critical requirements.

Another pillar of the plan involves hardening military communications, satellites, and navigation systems against jamming. The US military is stepping up precautions against scenarios in which GPS signals are jammed or space infrastructure is disabled.

Two-ocean doctrine abandoned

Parnell said the US approach to defending its homeland relied for many years on the premise that two oceans protected the country, but that this mindset is now obsolete.

Explaining that the Pentagon now bases its assumptions on simultaneous conflicts arriving from multiple directions and the potential collapse of global logistics, Parnell said: “You cannot try to make these decisions in the middle of a multi-front global conflict. We must have a plan.”

In its National Defence Strategy published in January, the Washington administration characterised Russia as a “manageable threat” to NATO, pointing to the nuclear arsenal held by Moscow.

While the document aimed to re-establish strategic stability with Russia and prevent unintended wartime escalation, Moscow assessed the omission of its label as an adversary, contrary to previous documents, as a positive step.

According to an August report by NBC, the Pentagon is continuing work on an updated nuclear strategy that encompasses the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons and provides the president with new military options.

By defeating Trump ally Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula became the first candidate in Brazil to come from behind in the first round and triumph in the run-off.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva won re-election on Sunday, reversing his first-round deficit in the presidential run-off.

With 99.83% of the ballots counted, the Superior Electoral Court announced that Lula had secured 51.76% of the valid votes, while right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro received 48.24%. Since Brazil adopted its two-round electoral system in 1989, no candidate who finished behind in the opening round had ever won the presidency in the run-off.

Far-right challenger Flavio Bolsonaro declared that he did not recognize the results and would seek judicial intervention to annul the election.

According to national media reports, Bolsonaro cited a decision by Federal Supreme Court Justice Cristiano Zanin to extend voting hours by two hours as the basis for his challenge.

The ruling was issued by Justice Zanin, who served as Lula’s defence lawyer before his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2023. Zanin intervened after Lula’s campaign lodged a complaint alleging that buses were kept in depots across cities governed by Flavio Bolsonaro’s allies in the state of Bahia, preventing low-income voters from reaching polling stations.

Flavio Bolsonaro’s legal team had also submitted a separate petition to the electoral court requesting an extension of voting hours in 17 flood-hit municipalities across three states.

By the time Zanin’s ruling reached polling stations, voting machines at many precincts had already been shut down. The electronic system did not permit deactivated machines to be reopened. Consequently, the Superior Electoral Court instructed regional electoral courts to allow voting until 19:00 only at stations that remained open. Zanin narrowed the scope of his order accordingly.

While some electors were turned away without voting at 17:00, others were permitted to cast their ballots until 19:00. Both campaigns could cite these discrepancies to demand the annulment of the election. Any such petition would be reviewed by the Superior Electoral Court, presided over by Kassio Nunes Marques, the first justice appointed to the Supreme Court by Jair Bolsonaro.

The outcome prevents Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy and the top global destination for Chinese outbound capital, from joining a bloc of pro-Trump administrations that includes Argentina, Chile, and Colombia. It also deals a blow to Washington’s efforts to curb China’s footprint across the Western Hemisphere.

Negotiations with the US over tariffs and critical minerals will proceed under an administration that offers American companies access to rare earth elements while rejecting preferential treatment.

Election platforms

Lula’s platform calls for developing a regional strategy to map and process critical minerals, as well as advancing the BRICS agenda, which Trump has threatened to penalize with additional tariffs.

At 80, Lula is the oldest serving president in Brazil’s history. More than two decades after first taking office, he will begin his fourth presidential term in January.

Lula, who governed the country between 2003 and 2010, returned to power in 2023 after narrowly defeating Senator Flavio Bolsonaro’s father, Jair Bolsonaro, in the 2022 election. Following that defeat, Jair Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting to overturn the election results, a term he is currently serving.

Flavio Bolsonaro built his campaign around his ties to the Trump administration. Received in the Oval Office in May, Bolsonaro pledged to join a US-led security alliance in the Americas and offered Brazil’s rare earth reserves to Washington as an alternative to Chinese supply chains.

Lula was viewed as the favourite throughout most of the year. In January, a survey by polling firm Quaest showed Lula holding a seven-point lead over his rival in a hypothetical run-off.

Six of the seven pollsters publishing research before the first round showed Lula ahead. However, Lula finished the opening round trailing his rival by 2.2 million votes.

Most surveys conducted ahead of the run-off indicated that Flavio Bolsonaro held a narrow lead or that the two contenders were tied within the margin of error. Lula’s campaign focused on reinforcing negative voter perceptions of his rival while mobilizing electors who abstained in the first round.

Lula directed his political attacks at Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and Flavio Bolsonaro’s links to Daniel Vorcaro, a banker who is currently imprisoned.

Senator Bolsonaro had solicited $24 million from the banker to finance a biographical film about his father’s life, months before the central bank shut down the financial institution over suspected fraud.

Flavio Bolsonaro countered by highlighting a police investigation into Lula’s son, Fabio Luis.

In July, a Supreme Court justice authorized an investigation into whether Fabio Luis lobbied public officials on behalf of a company tied to an alleged scheme that illicitly deducted funds from pensioners’ paychecks. During a televised debate this month, Lula stated that the fraudulent scheme had originated under Jair Bolsonaro’s administration.

Sovereignty and Washington

Lula attempted to manage relations with Trump during a White House meeting lasting nearly three hours in May, as Brazil sought to avert a new wave of tariffs.

Washington had imposed tariffs of up to 50% on Brazilian goods the previous year to protest the prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro.

During the meeting, Lula told the US president that Brazil’s critical minerals were open to any nation willing to process them domestically.

“Americans, Chinese, Germans, Japanese, French… Anyone who wishes to extract, refine, and generate the wealth offered by these rare earth elements alongside us is welcome,” Lula said in remarks following the meeting.

However, the talks failed to prevent Washington from levying 25% tariffs on most Brazilian goods in July. Lula placed the blame on the Bolsonaro family. Last year, the senator’s brother, Eduardo, lobbied in Washington for sanctions against Brazilian officials over their father’s prosecution.

Lula placed national sovereignty at the heart of his campaign. In a televised address in September, he declared that those willing to surrender Brazil’s rare earth reserves to foreign powers were “the true traitors to the homeland.”

Brazil holds the world’s second-largest reserves of rare earth elements after China.

“There are those abroad eyeing these resources, and those here ready to hand everything over on a silver platter,” Lula said. “This time, we will not merely export rocks and buy back technology.”

Two weeks later, Lula signed legislation establishing a national critical minerals policy that encompasses rare earth elements.

In the final week of the campaign, he accused the US government of interfering on behalf of Flavio Bolsonaro. Lula’s campaign also petitioned the Superior Electoral Court to revoke the senator’s candidacy, citing allegations that Meta Platforms artificially boosted Bolsonaro’s online reach.

Relations with Beijing

Lula travelled to Beijing in April 2023 in what his government described as an effort to revive bilateral ties that had cooled during Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency.

During a tour of Huawei Technologies’ research centre in Shanghai, Lula called for the use of an alternative currency to the US dollar in bilateral trade.

Chinese President Xi Jinping reciprocated with an official visit to the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, in November 2024. During that visit, the two governments signed 37 agreements and elevated their bilateral relationship to a “community with a shared future.”

Brazil avoided formal accession to China’s global Belt and Road Initiative, opting instead to align the initiative with its own domestic investment programmes.

Lula returned to Beijing in May of last year for a summit with Latin American leaders, securing 27 billion reais ($4.7 billion) in total investment pledges from companies including Great Wall Motor and Meituan.

Chinese firms invested more capital in Brazil last year than those from any other nation, according to data from the Brazil-China Business Council. Spanning 52 projects, total investment reached a record $6.1 billion.

Bilateral trade hit a record $143 billion in the first nine months of this year, propelled by a surge in Brazilian oil sales after war in Iran disrupted crude shipments from the Gulf region.

The Brazilian Treasury is also preparing its debut issuance of yuan-denominated bonds in China, aiming to establish regular borrowing in the Chinese market.

BRICS

China will assume the rotating presidency of BRICS next year. The Lula administration’s programme envisions further strengthening ties with the bloc of emerging economies. Flavio Bolsonaro had suggested that he could withdraw Brazil from BRICS, an organization Washington has sought to weaken.

Less than two weeks after Washington announced its tariffs, Xi Jinping told Lula during a telephone call that China supported Brazil in “defending its sovereignty and independence and opposing external interference.”

The call, the second between the two leaders this year, lasted roughly an hour. Both sides agreed to accelerate negotiations toward a trade agreement between China and the South American trade bloc Mercosur, though no details of the pact were disclosed.

Incidents have been detected at the largest US banks in which unauthorised artificial intelligence agents gained access to customer accounts.

According to a report by Axios based on sources, some of these AI agents attempted to take actions that were not included in user instructions.

Institutions facing risks arising from such agents include leading lenders such as Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Citi.

In some cases, AI software entered customer accounts using usernames and passwords directly with user consent.

In contrast, security rules at most banks require users to log in to their accounts personally.

According to Axios, in other instances, AI agents designed to carry out tasks on behalf of customers contacted bank call centres directly or tried to take independent steps without receiving any instruction from the user.

Bank executives worry that such software with access to credentials could make unauthorized purchases or transfer funds.

Following these risks, banks are moving to restrict third-party AI agents from accessing their platforms. While Morgan Stanley has begun blocking such software, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Citi are also introducing similar restrictions.

Banks are also considering offering a financial access model that gives AI agents read-only permissions while completely cutting off transaction capabilities.

Sources speaking to Axios point out that it is extremely difficult for banks to determine whether an agent is acting on user instructions or accessing the account entirely on its own initiative.

Regulators hold emergency meeting with systemically risky banks

According to reports by Bloomberg and the Financial Times citing sources, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell held an extraordinary meeting in April with top executives of the country’s largest banks over concerns about cyber threats that could be posed by a new AI model developed by Anthropic.

Sources providing details on the talks stated that US officials wanted to gauge bank awareness regarding risks tied to the Claude Mythos model and inspect the measures they have taken to protect their systems.

Senior executives from Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Morgan Stanley attended the meeting.

Organised at short notice, the summit indicated that regulatory authorities view this new breed of cyber attack as one of the greatest threats to the financial sector.

All of the banks represented at the table are classified as systemically important institutions within the global financial architecture.

Axios reported that leading AI firms, including Anthropic and OpenAI, harbour concerns that an AI-driven “catastrophic event” could take place over the next 6 to 12 months.