Latest news with #Chilean
France 24
2 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
Europe's lithium quest hampered by China and lack of cash
Even the bloc's broader energy security and climate goals could depend on securing a steady supply of the key mineral, used in batteries and other clean energy supply chains. But Europe has run into a trio of obstacles: lack of money, double-edged regulations and competition from China, analysts told AFP. China has a major head start. It currently produces more than three-quarters of batteries sold worldwide, refines 70 percent of raw lithium and is the world's third-largest extractor behind Australia and Chile, according to 2024 data from the United States Geological Survey. To gain a foothold, Europe has developed a regulatory framework that emphasises environmental preservation, quality job creation and cooperation with local communities. It has also signed bilateral agreements with about 15 countries, including Chile and Argentina, the world's fifth-largest lithium producer. But too often it fails to deliver when it comes to investment, say experts. "I see a lot of memoranda of understanding, but there is a lack of action," Julia Poliscanova, director of electric vehicles at the Transport and Environment (T&E) think tank, told AFP. "More than once, on the day that we signed another MoU, the Chinese were buying an entire mine in the same country." The investment gap is huge: China spent $6 billion on lithium projects abroad from 2020 to 2023, while Europe barely coughed up a billion dollars over the same period, according to data compiled by T&E. Lagging investment At the same time, the bottleneck in supply has tightened: last year saw a 30 percent increase in global demand for lithium, according to a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). "To secure the supply of raw materials, China is actively investing in mines abroad through state-owned companies with political support from the government," the IEA noted. China's Belt and Road Initiative funnelled $21.4 billion into mining beyond its shores in 2024, according to the report. Europe, meanwhile, is "lagging behind in investment levels in these areas", said Sebastian Galarza, founder of the Centre for Sustainable Mobility in Santiago, Chile. "The lack of a clear path for developing Europe's battery and mining industries means that gap will be filled by other actors." In Africa, for example, Chinese demand has propelled Zimbabwe to become the fourth-largest lithium producer in the world. "The Chinese let their money do the talking," said Theo Acheampong, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. By 2035, all new cars and vans sold in the European Union must produce zero carbon emissions, and EU leaders and industry would like as much as possible of that market share to be sourced locally. Last year, just over 20 percent of new vehicles sold in the bloc were electric. "Currently, only four percent of Chile's lithium goes to Europe," noted Stefan Debruyne, director of external affairs at Chilean private mining company SQM. "The EU has every opportunity to increase its share of the battery industry." Shifting supply chains But Europe's plans to build dozens of battery factories have been hampered by fluctuating consumer demand and competition from Japan (Panasonic), South Korea (LG Energy Solution, Samsung) and, above all, China (CATL, BYD). The key to locking down long-term lithium supply is closer ties in the so-called "lithium triangle" formed by Chile, Argentina and Bolivia, which account for nearly half of the world's reserves, analysts say. To encourage cooperation with these countries, European actors have proposed development pathways that would help establish electric battery production in Latin America. Draft EU regulations would allow Latin America to "reconcile local development with the export of these raw materials, and not fall into a purely extractive cycle", said Juan Vazquez, deputy head for Latin America and the Caribbean at the OECD Development Centre. But it is still unclear whether helping exporting countries develop complete supply chains makes economic sense, or will ultimately tilt in Europe's favour. "What interest do you have as a company in setting up in Chile to produce cathodes, batteries or more sophisticated materials if you don't have a local or regional market to supply?" said Galarza. "Why not just take the lithium, refine it and do everything in China and send the battery back to us?" Pointing to the automotive tradition in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, Galarza suggested an answer. "We must push quickly towards the electrification of transport in the region so we can share in the benefits of the energy transition," he argued. But the road ahead looks long. Electric vehicles were only two percent of new car sales in Mexico and Chile last year, six percent in Brazil and seven percent in Colombia, according to the IEA. The small nation of Costa Rica stood out as the only nation in the region where EVs hit double digits, at 15 percent of new car sales.
Irish Independent
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
Lisa McInerney talks to Rick O'Shea: ‘It starts off as a romp about a horny teenager but the ending just stunned me'
The award-winning author on the novels of two Chilean authors, one that is in the format of an exam, and the book about the 1980 uprising in South Korea that she brings to her own students Lisa McInerney is an award-winning novelist and short story writer, lecturer and editor of The Stinging Fly, and she unsurprisingly has great taste in books too.
Time of India
5 hours ago
- Science
- Time of India
The universe's darkest mysteries are coming into focus
To reach the top of Cerro Pachón, a mountain at the edge of the Atacama Desert in Chile, astronomers take a drive of two hours up a winding, bumpy road. The lush greenery at the mountain's base slowly gives way to the browns and yellows of the desert. Eventually, telescopes rise in the distance, the sun glinting off their metal domes. The newest eye on the cosmos is the Vera C. Rubin Observatory , which houses the largest digital camera ever built. For the next 10 years, the telescope will take advantage of its station under Chilean skies, some of the darkest on Earth, to conduct an astronomical survey more ambitious than any scientific instrument that came before it. From that survey, astronomers hope to learn about the birth of our Milky Way galaxy, the mysterious matter comprising much of the cosmos, and how the universe evolved into its current arrangement. Perhaps they will even uncover clues about its fate. They will also use the telescope to home in on millions of transient objects, "faint things that go bang, explode or move in the night," said Tony Tyson, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Davis. That includes gorging black holes and collisions of dense, dead stars. But the most valuable discoveries, astronomers say, lie beyond the reaches of their imagination. Live Events "The universe always throws us surprises," said Michael Strauss, an astrophysicist at Princeton University . With Rubin, he said, "we don't yet know what those surprises will be." For all that humanity has learned about the universe, the vast majority of this cosmic plane in which we exist remains in the dark. The best theory yet describes a universe in which the galaxies, the stars, the planets and all of us make up only 5% of all the matter and energy there is. The other 95% is dark matter, an invisible substance that glues everything together, and dark energy, an unknown force ripping the universe apart. Vera C. Rubin, the astronomer whom the Rubin Observatory is named after, uncovered evidence of dark matter in the 1970s. By studying the swirling motion of galaxies, driven by the gravity of the mass within them, she deduced the existence of a type of matter that could not be directly observed by telescopes, because it did not emit, reflect or absorb any light. In the decades since, theoretical physicists have come up with countless ideas about the composition of this so-called dark matter. Experimental physicists have built ever larger detectors in an attempt to observe it directly, so far to no avail. All the while, astronomers have helped narrow the possibilities of its nature by relying on increasingly powerful telescopes that measure how dark matter influences the structure and motion of the universe that can be seen. Dark energy was a newer discovery. In the 1990s, two independent groups of astronomers attempted to measure the rate at which the universe was expanding outward. Both groups found, however, that instead of slowing down as expected, the universe's expansion was speeding up. The term dark energy was coined to describe the underlying force driving this accelerating expansion. But what it actually is, and the physics behind how it works, remain a mystery. For decades, astronomers have scanned the night sky to measure the effects of dark matter and dark energy on what they observe in the cosmos. It was during one such night of observing in 1996 when the idea for the Rubin Observatory was born. Tyson was helping astronomers visiting the Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile to record the brightness of supernovas exploding at different distances from Earth. These measurements helped compute the expansion rate of the universe, which led to a Nobel Prize for the discovery of dark energy in 2011. At the time of the observations, Tyson recalled thinking, "We can do a whole lot better than this." He had a bigger telescope, more sky coverage and a larger camera in mind. "It all seemed possible," he said. Astronomers seized upon this idea, and in 2009, they published a nearly 600-page document describing all of the science that could be accomplished with what was then referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope . Proposals ranged from studying the tiniest galaxies to tracing the largest structures of the cosmos. Construction of the observatory began six years later. U.S. government agencies announced that the instrument would be renamed for Rubin in 2020. Astronomers generally have a choice when they build a big telescope. They can seek views that are wide, capturing broad swaths of the night sky, like the Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico and its Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Or they can go deep, allowing for observations of the faintest, most distant objects in the universe, like NASA 's James Webb Space Telescope in orbit. But no telescope so far had accomplished both, and that means phenomena that might have been observed are missed by existing telescopes. "We wanted to do it all," Tyson said. Rubin will chart the depths of the entire southern sky every three nights for the next 10 years, resulting in a crisp motion picture of the ever-changing cosmos above. "There have been a whole lot of surveys, but they don't go wide, fast and deep all at the same time," Tyson said. Rubin is the start of a new astronomical era, he added, "something that's never been done before." The Rubin Observatory, now fully constructed and in working condition, sits at the cusp of its astronomical potential. It captured its first photon in April, and sparkling images showcasing its perspective of the universe are anticipated Monday. Though the commissioning team is still addressing operational hiccups, the telescope is expected to begin its scientific survey later this year. Every 30 seconds, the observatory will point to a different part of the sky, capturing an area greater than 40 full moons. The end result will be a catalog of 20 billion galaxies and 20 billion stars in six different colors, stretched across not only the wide expanse of space, but also of time. The directions astronomers can go with its survey are endless. Some are eager to study bright transient objects, like supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts, which signify the births of black holes. Others are curious about new types of transients that Rubin is expected to uncover while peering into the faintest corners of the universe, some of which have never been seen before. "I guarantee you, we'll find something there," Tyson said. Rubin will also help astronomers identify long streams of stars, pulled from smaller galaxies that once merged with our Milky Way. These relics from ancient collisions reveal the history of how our home galaxy formed. Gaps and kinks in these stellar streams, resulting from gravitational interactions with dark matter, may also elucidate how the invisible substance behaves on smaller scales. Rubin will shed light on the evolution of other galaxies, too, as well as their uneven distribution across the universe. Galaxies organize along filaments in a structure known as the cosmic web, believed to be shaped by an invisible scaffolding of dark matter. Astronomers also will observe many more examples of an effect known as gravitational lensing, by which dark matter warps the light emitted from galaxies behind it. Such observations will hone their understanding of how dark matter may influence the ordinary matter it surrounds, and how its presence has evolved across cosmic time. Those findings can, in turn, be used to measure the expansion of the universe and probe the behavior of dark energy. "We are eager to see what Rubin will uncover," said Michael Levi, the director of the collaboration running the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. The treasure trove of data compiled by Rubin will complement an ongoing survey of the dark universe by Europe's Euclid space telescope, as well as NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2027. And though Rubin is a U.S.-funded initiative, astronomers say that people around the world will benefit from what the observatory will find. "We are doing this for all of humanity," said Hiranya Peiris, an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge . "It is how we understand our place in the universe."
Straits Times
13 hours ago
- Sport
- Straits Times
Inter Miami goalkeeper Ustari credits Messi for making things easy
Soccer Football - Club World Cup - Group A - Al Ahly v Inter Miami CF - Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, U.S. - June 14, 2025 Inter Miami CF's Oscar Ustari looks on IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Sam Navarro/File Photo REUTERS Inter Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari credited Lionel Messi's presence for helping him settle in at the club after joining the team last September, having played alongside the Argentine great since youth level. Ustari, who put in a stellar performance as the Major League Soccer side kicked off their Club World Cup campaign with a 0-0 draw against Egyptian side Al Ahly on Saturday, joined Inter Miami two months after his contract with Chilean team Audax Italiano expired. He said the decision to reunite with Messi was influenced by the club's ambitions and his long-standing friendship with his Argentine compatriot. "I wasn't retired. I joined ... because I was attracted by the club's aspirations," the 38-year-old Ustari told Reuters in an interview. "And obviously by sharing a squad with Leo again. And of course, Leo's presence on the team made everything easier." Inter Miami, co-owned by David Beckham, earned a spot in the expanded Club World Cup after winning the MLS Supporters' Shield. Ustari said he was delighted to be playing in the tournament after a career, which included stints in Spain, England, Mexico and Uruguay. "Having the opportunity to play in a Club World Cup made us all very happy, especially in my case, given that I'm someone who has had an extensive career," he said. "It's a reward for how well Inter Miami is doing things." While the world eagerly anticipated seeing Messi and Luis Suarez in the opening match of the tournament, it was Ustari who stole the spotlight and was named 'Superior Player of the Match', after saving a penalty and blocking eight shots. He said, however, that the credit belonged to his teammates. "We were all part of that award for best player. Maybe saving a penalty gave me the opportunity to receive it, but there were some very high points from my teammates who could have also been awarded it," he said. Ustari and Messi have shared a close friendship since playing together for Argentina's youth teams over two decades ago, a bond that extended into their senior team careers. They were in the same Argentina squad that won the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and clinched gold together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Reflecting on their time together, Ustari said: "My memories with Leo are from youth training camps, the senior team, the titles we won, training sessions, etc." He added that Messi's personality has remained unchanged, describing him as "affectionate, respectful, and always competitive." "Because of who he is, he's achieved everything, and that's why he's the best player in the history of this sport." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
The Star
13 hours ago
- Sport
- The Star
Soccer-Inter Miami goalkeeper Ustari credits Messi for making things easy
Soccer Football - Club World Cup - Group A - Al Ahly v Inter Miami CF - Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida, U.S. - June 14, 2025 Inter Miami CF's Oscar Ustari looks on IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters/Sam Navarro/File Photo (Reuters) -Inter Miami goalkeeper Oscar Ustari credited Lionel Messi's presence for helping him settle in at the club after joining the team last September, having played alongside the Argentine great since youth level. Ustari, who put in a stellar performance as the Major League Soccer side kicked off their Club World Cup campaign with a 0-0 draw against Egyptian side Al Ahly on Saturday, joined Inter Miami two months after his contract with Chilean team Audax Italiano expired. He said the decision to reunite with Messi was influenced by the club's ambitions and his long-standing friendship with his Argentine compatriot. "I wasn't retired. I joined ... because I was attracted by the club's aspirations," the 38-year-old Ustari told Reuters in an interview. "And obviously by sharing a squad with Leo again. And of course, Leo's presence on the team made everything easier." Inter Miami, co-owned by David Beckham, earned a spot in the expanded Club World Cup after winning the MLS Supporters' Shield. Ustari said he was delighted to be playing in the tournament after a career, which included stints in Spain, England, Mexico and Uruguay. "Having the opportunity to play in a Club World Cup made us all very happy, especially in my case, given that I'm someone who has had an extensive career," he said. "It's a reward for how well Inter Miami is doing things." While the world eagerly anticipated seeing Messi and Luis Suarez in the opening match of the tournament, it was Ustari who stole the spotlight and was named 'Superior Player of the Match', after saving a penalty and blocking eight shots. He said, however, that the credit belonged to his teammates. "We were all part of that award for best player. Maybe saving a penalty gave me the opportunity to receive it, but there were some very high points from my teammates who could have also been awarded it," he said. Ustari and Messi have shared a close friendship since playing together for Argentina's youth teams over two decades ago, a bond that extended into their senior team careers. They were in the same Argentina squad that won the 2005 Under-20 World Cup and clinched gold together at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Reflecting on their time together, Ustari said: "My memories with Leo are from youth training camps, the senior team, the titles we won, training sessions, etc." He added that Messi's personality has remained unchanged, describing him as "affectionate, respectful, and always competitive." "Because of who he is, he's achieved everything, and that's why he's the best player in the history of this sport." (Reporting by Mohamed Yossry in CairoEditing by Toby Davis)
