The European Union has ambitious plans to become more self-sufficient when it comes to mining the raw materials it needs for green technology. But in northern Portugal, as elsewhere, that ambition is facing some stiff opposition. 

Lisbon

Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently amid rising sea-levels and increasing temperatures.

Climate Crisis

Europe's green transition meets local opposition

In Portugal's northern Barroso region, the European Union's drive for clean energy is coming up against local opposition. These activists protesting plans to mine lithium essential for electric vehicle batteries are not alone across the block. Land owned by Maria Larreiro and her family could become one of Europe's biggest producers of the resource, as the EU attempts to reduce its dependence on places like China by producing more of the raw materials needed for green technology at home. I'm against the mine. I don't want any of it. I will not sell anything unless I have to. Portugal is already Europe's biggest producer of lithium, with over 66,000 tonnes of known reserves. Barroso, whose lush mountain pastures are a Food and Agriculture Organisation heritage site, contains one of its richest deposits. London-based Savannah Resources wants to build four open-pit mines there, eventually producing enough lithium each year for around half a million EV batteries. They expect to pay about $16 million to secure more than 2,000 acres, about 75% of which is baldios, or common land. But Maria Larreiro and many of her neighbours say they are not selling. I don't like this because it's my land and my home and I'm against it. I don't want them to take away what was left to me by my parents and my grandparents. I don't want to be talked to about it. Portugal's APA Environment Agency says its lithium reserves have an important role to play in meeting the EU's targets, with Savannah's plans getting a favourable assessment in May. But the company faces a lot of pushback from locals, who say they will fight it and the APA in court. Savannah aims to start production at Barroso in 2026. And it says it's earmarked $40 million for community projects, alongside new jobs and new roads. Savannah's CEO, Dale Ferguson, told Reuters the land issue is certainly something we need to resolve via dialogue, but he said the process was going well. For now though, Savannah and Barroso's anti-mining movement, led by Nelson Gomes, are fields apart. We are being sacrificed in exchange for a benefit that we will never enjoy. In other words, they are trying to clean up the cities, which we don't believe will happen because the model remains the same, to pollute the villages, to pollute these places where there is still no pollution. So this is unthinkable for us.

At least 21 people died on Tuesday and 18 were injured after a bus carrying tourists to a campground crashed off an overpass near Venice in northern Italy and caught fire, city officials said.

Venice

Tourist bus crash near Venice kills at least 21

Pope Francis has suggested in a letter to five conservative cardinals that there could be ways to bless same-sex unions within Catholicism and suggests that such blessings could be studied if they are not confused with sacramental marriage.

Città del Vaticano

Pope says Catholic Church could bless same-sex marriages

Republican Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as the Speaker of the House of Representatives in an extraordinary showdown. Those who voted him out include Democrats and members of his own party.

Washington

McCarthy ousted as U.S House Speaker

Thai police arrested a teenage gunman suspected of killing two foreigners and wounding five people on Tuesday in a shooting spree at a luxury Bangkok mall, the latest high-profile gun violence to rock the country in recent years.

Bangkok

Tourists killed in Thailand mall shooting, teen arrested

Sam Bankman-Fried's fraud trial got underway with jury selection on Tuesday (October 3), nearly a year after his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange's collapse shocked markets and tattered his reputation. 

New York

Bankman-Fried Trial

Bankman-Fried's fraud trial begins in New York

The United Nations Security Council has authorized the deployment of a multi-national security force to Haiti. It's designed to help the Haitian police battle heavily armed gangs that have become increasingly powerful there. It's not clear when the force will arrive, or who, other than Kenya, will contribute to it.

UN approves international force to aid Haiti

U.S. House Republican Matt Gaetz has filed a motion to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Gaetz and other hardline Republicans were angered that McCarthy relied on votes from the Democrats to pass a last-minute temporary deal to avert a government shutdown.

Republican files motion to oust U.S House Speaker

At least three people have been killed and several others injured in a shooting attack at a shopping mall in Thailand's capital Bangkok. The Prime Minister said police arrested the suspected gunman. Police said the suspect is 14 years old.

Three killed in Bangkok mall shooting

It's day two of the Conservative Party conference in the United Kingdom and disagreements over the economy have taken centre stage. The government has ruled out pre-election tax cuts despite the urging of some from the party fringes.

Manchester

UK Tories rule out pre-election tax cuts

Thirty-one-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried heads to trial in New York in what prosecutors say is one of the largest fraud cases in U.S history. He is accused of misusing money made from his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, ultimately leading to its collapse.

Crypto on trial, as Sam Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges

Happening before the cameras, the world saw a combative Trump at a civil fraud trial in New York. The state's attorney general is accusing him of inflating the value of his assets by billions of dollars to secure massive loans.

Trump Arrest

Trump 'combative' during first day of fraud NYC trial

The scientists who provided the foundational research that lead to mRNA vaccines — the first vaccines against COVID-19 — have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Philadelphia

Nobel prize to scientists who laid groundwork for COVID vaccines

Locals have told of the frantic moments when they rushed to help a woman who'd been attacked by a shark off the jetty at Beachport in the state's south east. The woman is in a stable condition in hospital with wounds to her foot, leg and hand.

Beachport

Woman seriously injured in SA shark attack

The property market is continuing to soar with house prices set to hit a new record high. It's putting home ownership further out of reach for first homebuyers.

Adelaide

House prices continue to rise, hit record highs

EU ministers convened in Kyiv on Monday in their first ever meeting outside the bloc. They marked their support for Ukraine after both a pro-Russian candidate won an election in Slovakia and the U.S. Congress left Ukraine war aid out of its spending bill.

Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

Kyiv brushes off U.S, Slovakia wobbles in EU visit

Moderate U.S. Republicans and Democrats approved a spending deal just hours before a U.S. government shutdown deadline on Saturday. The bill, presented by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, has further infuriated hardline Republicans already seeking to push him from his post.

Speaker McCarthy risked his job to avoid shutdown

U.S. President Joe Biden is pressing congressional Republicans to back a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine, after the stopgap-funding bill that kept the government open left aid to the country out. 

Biden calls on Republicans to back Ukraine spending bill

Early voting for the Voice to Parliament referendum begins in half of Australia's states and territories today, with the remaining jurisdictions to follow tomorrow. It's less than two weeks before the country's first referendum in almost 25 years. 

Canberra

Voice to Parliament

Voice referendum pre-polling underway

More than a dozen people have been killed in a fire in adjoining nightclubs in Murcia in southeast Spain, emergency services have confirmed, adding that rescuers were still searching for people unaccounted for after the blaze.

Murcia

Nightclub fire in Murcia kills at least 13 people, more missing

In Ukraine, new legislation goes into effect on Sunday mandating women with medical backgrounds to register for military service. The country is preparing for what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is describing as 'a long war'. 

Ukraine mandates military service for female medical personnel

Pakistani security forces have cracked down on Pakistan Taliban armed group, also known by the acronym TTP. The group is blamed for rising violence in the country. It includes remnants of al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS), and has intensified attacks recently.

Islamabad

Pakistan: Taliban crackdown after terror blast

Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female member of the United States Senate, has died at the age of 90.

Dianne Feinstein: Longest-serving woman in U.S senate dies

A United Nations spokesperson says the UN is sending a humanitarian team to Nagorno-Karabakh this weekend as more than 100,000 refugees have now arrived in Armenia from neighbouring Nagorno-Karabakh. It comes after Azerbaijan retook control of the enclave in a military offensive.

Baku

More than 100,000 flee Nagorno-Karabakh region

The consumer and competition watchdog is calling for a major overhaul of Australia's childcare system. A draft report by the ACCC has found Australian parents pay almost twice the OECD average for childcare despite large government subsidies for the sector. 

ACCC calls for enforceable caps on childcare fees

The United Nations is sending a mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh region- its first access there in nearly 30 years. The mission is to identify the humanitarian needs of residents there.

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