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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Uber driver allegedly kicks woman to the ground during collection in Perth: 'I was terrified'
Distressing footage has surfaced of a rideshare driver appearing to kick a female supermarket worker to the ground, prompting calls for stronger worker protections. The woman, aged in her 20s, was left 'terrified' by the incident, which unfolded in the carpark of a Coles supermarket in Inglewood, in Perth 's inner-city, on Tuesday last week. CCTV footage obtained by ABC News captured the moment the man appeared to walk past her nonchalantly before allegedly kicking her to the ground. She remained on the asphalt for a few moments before the man appeared to chase her out of view of the camera. Police allege the rideshare driver, a 27-year-old man from Beckenham, made verbal threats against the worker before physically assaulting her and driving away. He was charged with assaulting a retail worker who was performing their duties and making a threat to unlawfully do an act. The worker, who did not wish to be named, told the broadcaster the man kicked her after she asked him to separate the delivery orders. 'I was so scared, like, terrified,' she said. She said her employer contacted the rideshare platform and asked them to ban the 27-year-old from driving for them until an investigation into the incident was concluded. Her mother described the incident as 'shocking' and said it posed 'a real concern' for female safety. 'To be in that situation was quite clearly terrifying,' she said. She also raised concerns about information sharing between rideshare platforms, asking whether the driver in question could feasibly work for another service. It cast doubts on recent efforts to crack down on retail worker violence across the state, including a new 'assault retail worker' offence imposed in WA in July last year. Since, then 329 people have been charged with the new offence which increased the maximum penalty to seven years imprisonment, or three years and a fine of $36,000. 'Just like other Western Australians, retail workers have every right to feel safe in their workplace,' Police Minister Paul Papalia said at the time. 'These tougher penalties send a strong message that violent behaviour towards staff simply doing their job won't be tolerated.' The 27-year-old man is due to appear in Perth Magistrates Court next month.
Reuters
26 minutes ago
- Reuters
Renewables and coal are working to push out crude oil in China
LAUNCESTON, Australia, July 24 (Reuters) - The headline news in China's energy transition is often about how the world's second-largest economy is adding solar and wind generation at a breakneck pace. What is less discussed is how this is affecting the rest of the energy landscape, and how China is treading a different path to decarbonisation than most Western nations. In the West, renewables such as wind and solar have largely pushed out coal-fired power generation, and the intermittency that they bring to grids has been addressed by using natural gas, and to a lesser extent battery storage. In China, renewables have lowered coal's share of electricity generation, but only slightly, and the world's biggest miner, importer and consumer of coal is currently building even more coal-fired plants. Instead of pushing out coal, it appears that the fuel being most targeted by renewables in China is crude oil. This isn't because renewables directly replace crude or refined products. It's because China is trying to rapidly electrify its economy and transport systems. While it may not please anti-coal environmentalists or oil exporters such as the OPEC+ group, China's accelerated electrification does make economic sense, and over the long term it may even make environmental sense too. China installed 46 gigawatts (GW) of wind power and 198 GW of solar in the first five months of the year, as well as 3 GW of hydropower, according to data from the National Energy Administration. In contrast, just 18 GW of thermal power generation, mainly coal, was added in the January to May period, meaning that renewable energy accounted for 93% of the capacity additions. China is installing solar at such a fast pace that Lauri Myllyvirta, a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, calculated that in May it was adding 100 solar panels every second. However, China also has 227 GW of coal-fired power under construction and a further 257 GW in the pipeline, according to the Global Energy Monitor. China accounts for 83% of the global coal-fired generation capacity currently being built and its 1,789 GW of operating coal-fired generation accounts for 55% of the world total. The overall picture that emerges from China's current and planned electricity generation is renewables are accounting for the bulk of the growth, but coal is still increasing even if its share of total generation is starting to decline. What is also clear is that China is adding electricity generation faster than any other major economy. Part of the reason Beijing is doing so is because of the rapid rollout of electric and hybrid vehicles, which China collectively refers to as New Energy Vehicles (NEVs). Total vehicle sales rose 11.4% to 15.65 million units in the first half of 2025 from the same period last year, according to data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, with NEV sales surging 43% to 6.94 million units. The increasing share of NEV sales in China has led the International Energy Agency (IEA) to forecast hardly any growth in China's oil product demand this year, with it estimating an increase of just 81,000 barrels per day (bpd). The main drag on China's product demand growth is gasoline, which the IEA expects to drop by 141,000 bpd in 2025 from 2024. The increasing sales of electric heavy vehicles, as well as those powered by liquefied natural gas, are expected to see diesel demand drop by 40,000 bpd. The drivers of growth in China's oil product demand are naphtha, ethane and liquid petroleum gas, which the IEA forecasts will rise by a combined 199,000 bpd. The main uses for these products include plastics and chemicals. Rising demand is a reflection of strength in vehicle and other manufacturing, despite concerns over the potential fallout from import tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. China's crude oil imports rose a modest 1.4% in the first half of 2025, as refiners bought more crude than they processed as prices trended lower in the second quarter. The country's crude oil imports dropped 1.9% in 2024 from the prior year, and the modest gain so far this year suggests the country may be at, or nearing, peak oil consumption. This makes economic and strategic sense for Beijing. China will want to move away from imported crude as fast as it can, given the commodity's inherent vulnerability to geopolitical events and its history of price fluctuations. Using electricity to replace oil boosts energy security and lowers China's import bill. While China is adding renewables at an impressive rate, it still makes sense to use the vast domestic reserves of coal as a fuel, especially if it replaces expensive and uncertain crude oil. Using coal also makes more sense in China than natural gas, with the bulk of the country's gas supplies either imported via pipelines or in the form of LNG. This makes natural gas more expensive than coal, meaning it will only be used for applications that are difficult to electrify, such as some industrial heating. In some weird way, coal is turning out to be China's transition fuel from crude oil to renewables. Enjoying this column? Check out Reuters Open Interest (ROI), your essential new source for global financial commentary. ROI delivers thought-provoking, data-driven analysis of everything from swap rates to soybeans. Markets are moving faster than ever. ROI can help you keep up. Follow ROI on LinkedIn, opens new tab and X, opens new tab. The views expressed here are those of the author, a columnist for Reuters.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Lynas sees higher rare earths prices after US backs MP Materials
MELBOURNE, July 24 (Reuters) - Prices of rare earths could rally further given growing demand for Western material, reflected in a recent deal by the United States that has shown its resolve to rebuild the sector outside China, the CEO of top producer Lynas Rare Earths ( opens new tab said. The U.S. Department of Defense this month agreed to a multi-billion dollar deal to become the largest shareholder in the Australian company's peer, MP Materials (MP.N), opens new tab, the sole U.S. miner of the magnetic metals used in electronics, electric vehicles and aircraft engines. As part of the deal, it offered a floor price of $110 per kilogram for the two most popular rare earths, a price nearly twice the current Chinese market level. Lynas CEO Amanda Lacaze, who heads the world's largest rare earths producer outside China, said the MP Materials deal reflected the U.S. government's determination to break Beijing's dominance and to drive investment in its own industry. "Can (prices) go above $110? Yes and I think the recent detail of the deal is that there would be an expectation for the government that that is likely to happen, because they have negotiated exposure to upside," she said. After Beijing curbed exports earlier this year, automakers panicked over a rare earths supply bottleneck, though those concerns have started to dissipate as Chinese rare earths magnets began to flow again. Japanese magnet makers had "significantly increased" their output over the past quarter due to the Chinese supply shortages, and Lynas was working with them to develop automotive customers outside their home country, Lacaze said. Lynas beat estimates for fourth-quarter revenue by 10%, driven by higher selling prices across all rare earths products, and entered into a magnet manufacturing deal with South Korea's JS Link ( opens new tab. It received an average selling price of A$60.20 per kg, the highest since the July 2022 quarter, compared with A$42.30 per kg a year earlier. Shares climbed as much as 4.2% to A$10.57, the highest level since April 5, 2022, compared to a 0.3% decline in the broader Australian mining index (.AXMM), opens new tab. Lynas posted sales revenue of A$170.2 million ($112.3 million) for the quarter ending June 30, beating a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$155 million by about 10% according to Barrenjoey, and up from A$136.6 million a year earlier. The company's total rare-earth oxide (REO) output for the fourth quarter was at 3,212 REO metric tons, compared with 2,188 REO tons reported a year ago. Lynas also disclosed a deal with South Korean permanent magnet manufacturer JS Link to develop a permanent magnet value chain in Malaysia and said it sees the country as a key market for industry growth. The collaboration includes plans for a 3,000-ton neodymium magnet manufacturing facility near Lynas' advanced materials plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, it said. Lynas will supply light and heavy rare earth materials to support production, although the non-binding agreement remains subject to finalisation. ($1 = 1.5152 Australian dollars)
