With its track record of leveraging cultural power for US gain and barely concealed promotion of coup attempts, the US Agency for International Development will not be mourned among the US’s southern neighbours, write JOHN PERRY and ROGER D HARRIS
How lithium became a new global flashpoint
Lithium is crucial for batteries — but because deposits form only under rare geological conditions, its extraction is a geopolitical flashpoint between the imperial West and the rest of the world, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
KEITH FLETT looks back 50 years to when the Iron Lady was elected Tory leader…
Social security is lagging further and further behind inflation and our government quite simply does not care, argues Dr DYLAN MURPHY
RAVISHAAN RAHEL MUTHIAH agues that much as social media are presently guilty of fanning hostilities, the roots of it lie with decades of xenophobic narratives peddled by politicians and the traditional media
ESTHER, from Nordic Model Now! explains how decriminalisation of prostitution, rendering it just another form of ‘work’, would undermine the Equality Act 2010
As a partial successor to the post-war Marshall Plan, USAid is not simply a humanitarian aid programme, but is involved in projecting US power as an instrument of foreign policy, argues NICK WRIGHT
Locals have been let down by procrastination over the upgrade to Ardrossan Harbour, says KATY CLARK MSP
LITHIUM has been around for a very long time. Along with hydrogen and helium, it was one of the three elements synthesised in the Big Bang.
In its elemental form, it is a chalky white alkali metal, soft enough to be cut with a knife. Lithium is unstable due to its high reactivity, and does not naturally occur in elemental form on Earth.
It is typically found in mineral form (combined with other elements) within igneous rocks — formed by the cooling and solidification of molten lava from deep beneath the Earth’s surface.
A type of rock called granitic pegmatite hosts the largest concentrations of lithium-containing minerals. Lithium can be directly mined from these rocks, like in Australia at Greenbushes, the world’s largest lithium mine.
More from this author
Fraud in Alzheimer’s research raises difficult questions about the current state of science, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
The new US administration’s policy decisions are already having seismic effects worldwide, argue ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Natural hydrogen gas could be a replacement for fossil fuels, but its extraction could see developing nations face familiar patterns of land loss and resource theft, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
Despite miraculous trial results showing new treatment could halt transmission, corporate greed and patent laws condemn millions to preventable infection and death, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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