Most are made out of mixtures of metals like copper, iron and steel. Ceramic brakes are more prone to fading though.

I often drive through pretty mountainous regions, coasting or even downshifting won’t help much unfortunately.

For anyone doing the brakes on their car, look into ceramic brake pads. I’ve recently replaced mine and used the ones from ATE and it’s actually insane how much less brake dust these give off. My front wheels used to be absolutely coated in black dust after long road trips but now there is pretty much zero buildup. They are only like 1-2 Euros more expensive than the regular ones. It’s a total no-brainer.

Splitting the base is a good thing.

There is no point in making an effort to preserve relations with the US since their clown in chief will just tear down decades of relationships anyways after reading something on Twitter.