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Around 70% of rare earths mining, and 90% of refining, happens in China, as a result of years of support from the Chinese government.

Europe, like many other parts of the world, is trying to reduce its dependence on importing these key metals from China. The future of Solvay's plant will be critical to those ambitions.

"This is a market that is growing fast, and, also, there is a greater demand for shorter supply chains," says CEO Philippe Kehren [the CEO of Solvay, a French company that runs one of only two rare earths processing facilities in Europe].

The Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine have made companies and politicians try to remove some of the vulnerabilities in their supply chains.

"When you have a material that is coming almost 100% from one specific location, if you are dependent on this, you want to diversify your sourcing. This is what we can offer," explains the boss of the Belgian chemicals giant.

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That is why the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act came into force last year. It sets targets for reducing dependence on imports for the extraction, processing and recycling of the most important substances by 2030.

Europe only has two rare earth processing facilities, one in Estonia and this one in western France. It is the only plant outside of China that can process all 17 different rare earths.

The increased investment in the facility comes as it is moving away from focusing on supplying rare earths for catalytic convertors, to instead focus on soaring demand for the magnets that are essential to electric car batteries, advanced electronics and defence systems.

For now the focus is on recycling rare earths that are already in Europe. "We think that we can probably produce 30% of the rare earths needed by Europe just by recycling end of life motors and other equipment," says Mr Kehren.

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The European Parliament wants the European Commission to do more to reduce that dependence on Chinese rare earths. It says Beijing's controls are "unjustified" and "intended to be coercive".

On a recent visit to Germany, China's foreign minister Wang Yi said it was his country's "sovereign right", as well as being "common practice", to control exports of goods that have both commercial as well as military uses.

That stance explains why securing access to raw materials has been at the heart of recent EU trade deals, such as the one it signed with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay last year.

Western firms in the rare earths sector say they need more government support if they are going to catch-up with their Chinese rivals.

Rafael Moreno, the CEO of Australia's Viridis Mining, says this backing, both regulatory and financial, "is the key right now". His business is developing a vast rare earths mine in Brazil, which hopes to provide as much as 5% of the world's rare earths.

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One reason China has forged ahead of the rest of the world regarding rare earths is that it has been more willing to handle the radioactive pollution that can be caused by the mining and processing.

Solvay also has rare earth operations in China, and Mr Kehren says "there are solutions to do it in a very responsible way without polluting". He adds: "It costs a bit of money, so you need to be ready to pay a little bit more."

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Comments

Im dyslexic pretty bad, but somehow all my letters are just uppercase and lower case at almost random but there is a pattern to my madness that im not good at explaining. Is it possible to write normally or improve my handwriting? I want to work on many projects but they require planning or writing such as a comic i want to someday do or make a video game. Im not sure what to do for those examples.

Journalists from Radio Liberty have released previously unseen surveillance footage showing Russian soldiers killing 70-year-old Volodymyr Rubailo on Yablunska Street in Kyiv Oblast’s town of Bucha on 4 March 2022.

Source: Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty

Details: The footage shows Russian soldiers first wounding Volodymyr Rubailo with a shot and then, as the man was barely standing, finishing him with a shot to the head.

Soon after, near Volodymyr’s body, which remained on the ground, Russian soldiers began looting a supermarket. They smashed the glass to enter the building. The stolen goods were packed into baskets and bags and loaded onto armoured vehicles. To take more, some even filled trolleys and pushed them down the street to the recently seized homes of Bucha residents.

I don't know if a result of shrinkflation or they've always been like this, but I was more than half disappointed

Archived

A surveillance camera recording obtained by the Ukrainian service of Radio Liberty captured the moment of the death of 70-year-old Bucha resident Volodymyr Rubailo, who was shot by Russian soldiers on Yablunska Street on March 4, 2022. Still images from this video were published in June of this year, but the full recording has only now been made public.

The footage shows the man first being shot, then finally being killed with a bullet to the head. One of the soldiers approaches the body and takes something from Volodymyr Rubailo’s pocket.

After that, the same group of soldiers goes towards a nearby grocery store and begins looting it. They carry out food and bottles — presumably alcohol — in baskets and shopping carts, then load them into bags. They later drank the looted liquid right in front of the cameras. At one point, one of the soldiers noticed the camera and smashed it with a sword he had in his possession.

[...]

According to Radio Liberty's investigation, the crime may be linked to soldiers of the 234th Air Assault Regiment from Pskov, a unit of which was stationed in that area. Journalists suggest that the shots were fired from a position where, according to conclusions reached by Ukrainian ballistics experts, a squad under the command of Russian Sergeant Vladimir Borzunov had been located.

In a conversation with a Radio Liberty correspondent, Sergeant Borzunov confirmed that Rubailo, along with Oleksandr Konovalov and Ihor Horodetskyi, had been killed by Russian soldiers, but he denied that he or his subordinates were involved in their murders. Journalists discovered that it was Borzunov himself who retrieved something from Rubailo’s pocket.

[...]

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Originally Posted By u/ResistByStack At 2025-08-07 06:33:30 PM | Source

https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social/post/3lvk5gjb6nk2c

"Abbott orders arrest of Democrats who fled Texas" https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5435617-texas-democrats-flee-state/

Conservative People’s party in Jumilla votes to stop civic centres and gyms being used for activities ‘alien to our identity’

A local authority in south-east Spain has banned Muslims from using public facilities such as civic centres and gyms to celebrate the religious festivals Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha.

The ban in Jumilla, in Murcia, is a first in Spain. It was introduced by the conservative People’s party (PP) and passed with the abstention of the far-right Vox party and the opposition of local leftwing parties.

The proposal states “municipal sports facilities cannot be used for religious, cultural or social activities alien to our identity unless organised by the local authority”.

The local Vox party posted on X: “Thanks to Vox the first measure to ban Islamic festivals in Spain’s public spaces has been passed. Spain is and will be forever the land of Christian people.”

Mounir Benjelloun Andaloussi Azhari, president of the Spanish federation of Islamic organisations, told El País newspaper the proposal was “Islamophobic and discriminatory”.

“They’re not going after other religions, they’re going after ours,” he said. Referring to the recent rise of racist rhetoric and attacks, he added: “We’re rather surprised by what’s happening in Spain. For the first time in 30 years I feel afraid.”

Jumilla has a population of about 27,000, of whom 7.5% come from largely Muslim countries.

The decision is bound to be challenged as it contravenes article 16 of the Spanish constitution, which states: “Freedom of ideology, religion and worship of individuals and communities is guaranteed, with no other restriction on their expression than may be necessary to maintain public order as protected by law”.

Francisco Lucas, the socialist leader in Murcia, said on X: “The PP violates the constitution and puts social cohesion as risk simply in the pursuit of power.”

Comments

#Friendica : il social network a modo tuo
#Fediverso #SocialMedia @diggita @fediverso
https://webappsmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/08/friendica-il-social-network-modo-tuo.html

This morning's culprit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCIRawl3nxg

“With Hamas controlling nearly all media in Gaza, these photographers aren’t reporting, they’re producing propaganda,” the statement said.

“This investigation underscores how Pallywood has gone mainstream with staged images and ideological bias shaping international coverage, while the suffering of Israeli hostages and Hamas atrocities are pushed out of frame,” it continued.

“They are intended to overwrite the brutal images of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. Many people don’t even remember these pictures,” Paul said. “Hamas is a master at staging images.”