By Carman Chew SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Chilean President Gabriel Boric said on Thursday he would nationalise the country’s lithium industry and create a state-owned company to produce the metal that is a key component of electric vehicle batteries. Boric said future lithium contracts would only be issued as public-private partnerships with state control. Chile holds…
By Daphne Psaledakis and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military is preparing options to evacuate the U.S. Embassy in Sudan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday as the Biden administration weighed whether to pull personnel out of the country’s increasingly unstable capital. “We’ve deployed some forces into theater to ensure that we…
By Anait Miridzhanian and Carien du Plessis JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Ukrainian activist Oleksandra Romantsova this week suggested to South African officials that it would be better for Russian President Vladimir Putin to dial in to this year’s BRICS summit in South Africa rather than attend in person. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – No decision yet has been made to evacuate American diplomatic personnel from Sudan but the United States is preparing for such an eventuality if it becomes necessary, the White House said on Friday. John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said that for all American citizens in Sudan, they must “make…
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Labour unions rejected a 3.75% pay rise offer from South Africa’s power utility Eskom as it is below the rate of inflation, union representatives said on Friday. Unions are demanding a 15% increase in wages at Eskom, which is implementing rolling blackouts of about 10 hours a day as it struggles to…
By Chris Mfula LUSAKA (Reuters) – Zambia’s official creditors are close to signing a memorandum of understanding on debt relief, Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said on Friday. Zambia became the first African country to default on its sovereign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but it has struggled to finalise restructuring talks on external…
(Reuters) – Chile, the world’s second largest lithium producer, said it plans to transfer control of the production of the mineral essential for electric vehicle (EV) batteries to a new state-owned company. Here are key facts about lithium and EVs: WHAT IS LITHIUM? The silvery-white element is the lightest metal and highly reactive, giving it…
N’DJANEMA (Reuters) – Chad has recalled its ambassador to neighbouring Cameroon in the latest escalation of a dispute over the sale by Exxon Mobil of its oil assets in both countries to Savannah Energy. Chad said in a statement late on Thursday that the president of the landlocked Central African state decided to recall its…
(Reuters) – A conflict raging in Sudan is rattling neighbouring countries and worrying the United States and others for reasons ranging from concern about shared Nile waters and oil pipelines to the shape of a new government and a new humanitarian crisis in the making. Sudan, which relies heavily on foreign aid, is no stranger…
(Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Friday it was monitoring reports of a possible ban on exports to Russia by Western countries, and that new sanctions would damage the global economy. “We are carefully monitoring this, we are aware that both the U.S. and the EU are actively considering new sanctions,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov…
