Quantum Graphite has made a play for fellow SA graphite developer and explorer Lincoln Minerals. Under the off-market bid, Quantum is offering one of its shares for every 40 Lincoln shares based on the two-day weighted average price for Quantum shares of 40.67 cents. The offer represents a 30 per cent premium to Lincoln’s most recent share price of 1.02 cents.
Lincoln’s South Australian tenure totals about 1177 square kilometers on the Eyre Peninsula, which is shaping up as Australia’s world-class flake graphite province.
Quantum has its sights firmly set on the prospective landholding that houses the high-grade Kookaburra Gully graphite deposit. In 2013, Lincoln released a maiden JORC mineral resource estimate coming in at 2.2Mt grading a spectacular15.5 per cent total graphitic carbon, or “TGC”.
As an additional sweetener, the tenure includes the historic Koppio Graphite mine containing a JORC inferred mineral resource of 1.85Mt at 9.76 per cent TGC.
Quantum’s South Australia operation, about 40km south along the Eyre Peninsula, takes in the Uley 2 and Uley 3 resources where a hefty 7.2 million tonnes going 10.5 per cent TGC has been defined.
According to Quantum, the addition of Lincoln’s flake graphite assets to its arsenal delivers a greater economy of scale from their joint development.
Not surprisingly, the Kookaburra Gully graphite deposit exhibits many similar key characteristics as that of the broader geology of Quantum’s Uley deposits.
Importantly, the metallurgical properties of the Kookaburra Gully graphite deposit match those of the Uley deposits, posing clear synergies for the preferred processing path for each of the projects.
Quantum is looking to develop thermal energy storage battery cells utilizing graphite from its Uley deposit on the Eyre Peninsula through a joint venture with Sunlands.
The duo says the high-purity natural flake graphite found at Uley is important for Sunlands’ downstream processing and technologies required to develop thermal energy storage, or “TES” cells. TES cells are devices that temporarily store energy to be used for power generation later. They can be used to balance fluctuating energy demand caused by the changeable nature of renewable energy generation.
Additionally, natural flake graphite is an important component of lithium-ion batteries. Quantum previously reported during the next 18 months demand for natural flake graphite could increase from about 30 to more than 50 per cent of the anode market share and by 2025 the material will be the dominant force in the sector – moving above the now in-vogue synthetic versions.
The Eyre Peninsula is part of the highly endowed Gawler Craton mineral province that hosts the world-class Olympic Dam, Prominent Hill and Carapateena copper mines along with a bevy of iron ore mines in the infamous “Iron Triangle” of the Middleback Ranges.
Lincoln’s Gum Flat Project, only 2km from Quantum’s Uley project, hosts a plethora of iron-rich magnetite and hematite-goethite deposits with a combined JORC mineral resource of 109Mt.
Despite its proximity to the Uley deposits, limited exploration has been done at Gum Flat for graphite. Resampling conducted by Lincoln on previous drilling targeting iron ore mineralization returned a suite of encouraging results including 13m at 12 per cent TGC from only 57m down hole.
Whilst Quantum will have its hands full assessing Lincoln’s graphite assets, the tenure also hosts a compelling suite of intriguing gold, zinc-lead-silver, copper, manganese, uranium and vanadium prospects all worthy of a second glance.
Quantum already has its foot on plenty of graphite at its Uley deposits in South Australia’s world-class flake-graphite province. If Lincoln’s shareholders accept Quantum’s offer, it could be a game changer for the evolving graphite developer.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:[email protected]
US authorities have obtained a warrant to seize a Russian oligarch’s private plane, valued at over $90 million, for violating US sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Airbus A319-100 aircraft, authorities say, is owned by Andrei Skoch, a member of Russia’s State Duma and a billionaire who made his fortune through a stake in a conglomerate in the metals and mining industry. Skoch has been on the US sanctions list since 2018 for Russia’s invasion of Crimea, the eastern region of Ukraine. The plane is believed to be in Kazakhstan, authorities said.
Skoch is the latest Russian oligarch to have one of his luxury assets in the sights of US authorities, who launched a campaign to seize valuable property of those close to the Kremlin in hope of pressing an end to the war.
In June, US authorities announced a judge approved a warrant for the seizure of two of Roman Abramovich’s private plans, valued at more than $400 million. In May, the US took possession of a $300 million super yacht called the Amadea, which is owned by Suleiman Kerimov. And in April, authorities seized at a port in Spain the $90 million yacht Tango belonging to Viktor Vekselberg, a billionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On Monday, a federal judge authorized a seizure warrant from a special agent with the US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, which traced the plane to Skoch through a series of shell companies allegedly intended to shield his ownership.
Authorities allege Skoch violated US sanctions by using US dollars to pay the plane’s registration fees to Aruban authorities and pay insurance premiums on the Airbus that passed through US financial institutions. The $113,180 in registration payments and $284,459 in insurance premiums passed through the US banking system without a license to allow payment on sanctioned entities.
The seizure warrant notes that, in addition to the plane, Skoch owns a yacht named the Madame Gu, a helicopter, and a villa at the Four Seasons Hotel in the Seychelles. Those assets are not authorized for seizure. Authorities need to demonstrate that sanctions were violated, such as by money transferring through the US banking system, to seize property.
Prosecutors have creatively used insurance premiums and registration payments to identify assets for seizure since most yachts and plans can’t operate unless they are insured. Since the US, UK and the European Union announced broad sanctions against Russian elites, several insurance companies stopped doing business with sanctioned individuals.
Some of the world’s richest men are funding a massive treasure hunt, complete with helicopters and transmitters, on the west coast of Greenland.
The climate crisis is melting Greenland down at an unprecedented rate, which – in a twist of irony – is creating an opportunity for investors and mining companies who are searching for a trove of critical minerals capable of powering the green energy transition.
A band of billionaires, including Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, among others, is betting that below the surface of the hills and valleys on Greenland’s Disko Island and Nuussuaq Peninsula there areenough critical minerals to power hundreds of millions of electric vehicles.
“We are looking for a deposit that will be the first- or second-largest most significant nickel and cobalt deposit in the world,” Kurt House, CEO of Kobold Metals, told CNN.
The Arctic’s disappearing ice – on land and in the ocean – highlights a unique dichotomy: Greenland is ground zero for the impacts of climate change, but it could also become ground zero for sourcing the metals needed to power the solution to the crisis.
The billionaire club is financially backing Kobold Metals, a mineral exploration company and California-based startup, the company’s representatives told CNN. Bezos, Bloomberg and Gates did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment on this story. Kobold is partnered with Bluejay Mining to find the rare and precious metals in Greenland that are necessary to build electric vehicles and massive batteries to store renewable energy.
Thirty geologists, geophysicists, cooks, pilots and mechanics are camped at the site where Kobold and Blujay are searching for the buried treasure. CNN is the first media outlet with video of the activity happening there.
Crews are taking soil samples, flying drones and helicopters with transmitters to measure the electromagnetic field of the subsurface and map the layers of rock below. They’re using artificial intelligence to analyze the data to pinpoint exactly where to drill as early as next summer.
“It is a concern to witness the consequences and impacts from the climate changes in Greenland,” Bluejay Mining CEO Bo Møller Stensgaard told CNN. “But, generally speaking, climate changes overall have made exploration and mining in Greenland easier and more accessible.”
Stensgaard said that because climate change is making ice-free periods in the sea longer, teams are able to ship in heavy equipment and ship out metals out to the global market more easily.
Melting land ice is exposing land that has been buried under ice for centuries to millennia – but could now become a potential site for mineral exploration.
“As these trends continue well into the future, there is no question more land will become accessible and some of this land may carry the potential for mineral development,” Mike Sfraga, the chair of the United States Arctic Research Commission, told CNN.
Greenland could be a hot spot for coal, copper, gold, rare-earth elements and zinc, according to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The government of Greenland, according to the agency, has done several “resource assessments throughout the ice-free land” and the government “recognizes the country’s potential to diversify the national economy through mineral extraction.”
Sfraga said that pro-mining stance is not without regard for the environment, which is central to Greenland’s culture and livelihood.
“The government of Greenland supports the responsible, sustainable, and economically viable development of their natural resources to include mining of a broad range of minerals,” Sfraga said.
Stensgaard noted that these critical minerals will “provide part of the solution to meet these challenges” that the climate crisis presents.
In the meantime, Greenland’s vanishing ice – which is pushing sea level higher – is a great concern for scientists who study the Arctic.
“The big concern for Arctic sea ice is that it’s been disappearing over the last several decades its predicted to potentially disappear in 20 to 30 years,” Nathan Kurtz, a NASA scientist who studies sea ice, told CNN. “In the fall, what used to be Arctic ice cover year-round is now just going to be seasonal ice cover.”
CNBC’s Jim Cramer on Monday said the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates in August, before its next scheduled meeting in September, if this week’s economic data shows that inflation isn’t abating.
“The Fed is still in charge of this market. A week ago, it looked like they might ease up, but after Friday’s red-hot jobs number and the passage of the [Inflation Reduction Act]I’m worried they might lower the boom on us even before September comes,” he said.
“If both numbers are scorchers, we will get a surprise August meeting,” he predicted, referencing the consumer price index and producer price index data coming this week.
The Senate on Sunday passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a Democrat-backed package aimed at fighting climate change and extending health care coverage.
The legislation, among other provisions, allows Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies and puts a 15% minimum tax on large corporations.
The July jobs report saw stronger-than-expected numbers last week, meaning the central bank could have to continue its path forward on raising interest rates aggressively.
“If I were Chairman Jay Powell … I’d be hard-pressed not to call a special Fed meeting this month to hit us with another 75-basis point rate hike,”Cramer said. A basis point equals 0.01 percentage point.
Investors are also looking to the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index this week to shed more light on how consumers are coping with inflation.
Cramer also previewed this week’s slate of earnings. All earnings and revenue estimates are courtesy of FactSet.
Tuesday: Emerson Electric, Ralph Lauren, Plug Power, Unity Software
Emerson Electric
Q3 2022 earnings release at 6:55 am ET; conference call at 9 am ET
Projected EPS: $1.29
Projected revenue: $5.10 billion
Cramer said he expects Emerson to perform well long term after selling its waste disposal business InSinkErator to Whirlpool, but is still curious about how the company is faring short term.
Ralph Lauren
Q1 2023 earnings release at 8 am ET; conference call at 9 am ET
Projected EPS: $1.71
Projected revenue: $1.40 billion
Though Ralph Lauren is a high-end store, it could still face the same inventory gluts that other retailers are dealing with, he said.
plug-power
Q2 2022 earnings release after the close; conference call at 4:30 pm ET
Projected loss: 21 cents per share
Projected revenue: $159 million
Plug Power will benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act because of the bill’s hydrogen tax credit, which could help the company become more than just a niche fuel cell producer, Cramer said.
UnitySoftware
Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
Projected loss: 21 cents per share
Projected revenue: $300 million
Cramer predicted that the beaten-down stock could go even lower since Nvidia’s preliminary financial results on Monday revealed that gaming is weak.
Q2 2022 earnings release between 7:00-7:10 am ET; conference call at 8:30 am ET
Projected loss: 30 cents per share
Projected revenue: $138 million
The company should report great results since cybersecurity companies tend to be shielded from economic turbulence, Cramer said.
Wendy’s
Q2 2022 earnings release at 7 am ET; conference call at 8:30 am ET
Projected EPS: 22 cents
Projected revenue: $540 million
Cramer said he’s worried about how inflation could be hurting Wendy’s performance.
Disney
Q3 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 4:30 pm ET
Projected EPS: 98 cents
Projected revenue: $20.99 billion
“It’s just too hated for me to believe it can stay down,” he said.
Dutch Bros.
Q2 2022 earnings release after the close; conference call at 5 pm ET
Projected EPS: 5 cents per share
Projected revenue: $182 million
The company is a beloved brand, but it’ll have to convince investors that its stock is worth buying, Cramer said.
Thursday: Warby Parker, Toast, Rivian
Warby Parker
Q2 2022 earnings release at 6:45 am ET; conference call at 8 am ET
Projected loss: 2 cents per share
Projected revenue: $150 million
“I bet, like other recent IPOs, it’s going to move up on the quarter,” Cramer said.
toast
Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:05 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
Projected loss: 12 cents per share
Projected revenue: $651 million
He said that he’s surprised so many small companies like Toast are seeing their stocks go higher, even on no news — which suggests they never should have gone down so much in the first place.
Rivian
Q2 2022 earnings release at 4:10 pm ET; conference call at 5 pm ET
Projected loss: $1.63 per share
Projected revenue: $335 million
The electric vehicle maker will likely benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act due to the bill’s extension of income tax credits for consumers who purchase electric vehicles, Cramer said. I have added that he still prefers Tesla.
Disclosure: Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Disney.
In the wake of then-President Donald Trump’s infamous photo-op at the height of the George Floyd protests, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley penned a lengthy and vociferous critique of Trump in a resignation letter he ultimately never sent, The New Yorker reported on Monday.
On June 1, 2020, Milley accompanied Trump on a walk from the White House to St. John’s Church, where he was photographed wearing his combat uniform and moving with the President’s entourage through Lafayette Square. Protesters had been forcibly cleared out of the area minutes before.
The images provoked a swift wave of criticism from lawmakers and several senior former military officials who said they risked dragging the traditionally apolitical military into a contentious domestic political situation.
Milley’s letter was dated June 8, a week after the incident, according to The New Yorker. The article was based on “The Divider: Trump in the White House 2017-2021,” a forthcoming book by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser.
“The events of the last couple weeks have caused me to do deep soul-searching, and I can no longer faithfully support and execute your orders as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” Milley wrote, according to The New Yorker. “It is my belief that you were doing great and irreparable harm to my country. I believe that you have made a concerted effort over time to politicize the United States military.”
The report said Milley sought advice regarding the resignation letter, including from former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Joseph Dunford, retired Army Gen. James Dubik, an expert on military ethics, as well as members of Congress and former officials from the Bush and Obama administrations.
Milley ultimately decided not to quit.
“F*** that s***,” Milley told his staff, according to The New Yorker. “I’ll just fight him.”
“If they want to court-martial me, or put me in prison, have at it,” Milley added. “But I will fight from the inside.”
A spokesman for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs declined to comment to CNN about the report.
Milley would later publicly apologize for his involvement in the incident in a pre-recorded speech at the National Defense University.
“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it,” Milley said during the address.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday it was shipping its biggest yet direct delivery of weapons to Ukraine as that country prepares for a potentially decisive counteroffensive in the south against Russia, sending $1 billion in rockets, ammunition and other material to Ukraine from Defense Department stockpiles.
The new US arms shipment would further strengthen Ukraine as it mounts the counteroffensive, which analysts say for the first time could allow Kyiv to shape the course of the rest of the warnow at the half-year mark.
Kyiv aims to push Russian troops back out of Kherson and other southern territory near the Dnipro River. Russia in recent days was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
“At every stage of this conflict, we have been focused on getting the Ukrainians what they need, depending on the evolving conditions on the battlefield,” Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said Monday in announcing the new weapons shipment.
The new US aid includes additional rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, as well as thousands of artillery rounds, mortar systems, Javelins and other ammunition and equipment. Military commanders and other US officials say the HIMARS and artillery systems have been crucial in Ukraine’s fight to block Russia from taking more ground.
While the US has already provided 16 HIMARS to Ukraine, Kahl said the new package does not include additional ones.
“These are not systems that we assess you need in the hundreds to have the type of effects” needed, Kahl said. “These are precision-guided systems for very particular types of targets and the Ukrainians are using them as such.”
He declined to say how many of the precision-guided missile systems for the HIMARS were included in Monday’s announcement, but said the US has provided “multiple hundreds” of them in recent weeks.
The latest announcement brings the total US security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to more than $9 billion.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the United States for the package, and said “100% of it we will use to protect freedom, our common freedom.”
Until now, the largest single security assistance package announcement was for $1 billion on June 15. But that aid included $350 million in presidential drawdown authority, and another $650 million under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funding for training, equipment and other security needs that can be bought from other countries or companies.
Monday’s package allows the US to deliver weapons systems and other equipment more quickly since it takes them off the Defense Department shelves.
In addition to the rockets for the HIMARS, it includes 75,000 rounds of 155mm artillery, 20 mortar systems and 20,000 rounds for them, 1,000 shoulder-mounted Javelin rockets, and other arms, explosives and medical equipment.
For the last four months of the war, Russia has concentrated on capturing the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, where pro-Moscow separatists have controlled some territory as self-proclaimed republics for eight years. Russian forces have made a gradual headway in the region while launching missile and rocket attacks to curtail the movements of Ukrainian fighters elsewhere.
Kahl estimated that Russian forces have sustained up to 80,000 deaths and injuries in the fighting, though he did not break down the figure with an estimate of forces killed.
He said the Russian troops have managed to gain “incremental” ground in eastern Ukraine, although not in recent weeks. “But that has come at extraordinary cost to the Russian military because of how well the Ukrainian military has performed and all the assistance that the Ukrainian military has gotten. And I think now, conditions in the east have essentially stabilized and the focus is really shifting to the south.”
The new funding is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security aid for Ukraine approved by Congress in May.
This is the 18th time the Pentagon has provided equipment from Defense Department stocks to Ukraine since August 2021.
The US and allies are still evaluating whether to supply aircraft to Ukraine, Kahl said. It’s “not inconceivable that western aircraft down the road could be part of the mix,” he said.
Zelenskyy early in the war made near-daily appeals for warplanes, calling them essential to protecting Ukraine’s skies. The US and some other NATO countries feared that they could draw them into more direct involvement with Ukraine’s war against Russia, and have not provided Western aircraft.
Separately Monday, the Treasury Department said it was sending $3 billion more in direct economic assistance to Ukraine. That’s part of a previously approved $7.5 billion in economic assistance, with $1.5 billion yet to be disbursed.
___
Associated Press writers Eric Tucker and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
We’ve all heard about the skyrocketing price of oil at the pump, but did you know there’s another oil crisis?
At the helm of a deep fryer, Teresa Paolini is right across this issue.
A few years ago, her family-owned takeaway shop in Melbourne used to be able to buy her preferred cottonseed oil blend for less than $40 a drum.
“Now it’s up to $60,” Ms Paolini says.
The latest consumer price index (CPI) data just showed a 14 per cent rise in the price of cooking oil in the past year. The only other sector of food that’s gone up by more is fruit and vegetables.
Indirectly, analysts say, the cooking oil crunch is now likely to hit many other parts of the food chain.
That’s because it is such a fundamental staple ingredient. Edible oil is in everything from margarine through to hummus and baked goods, and there is only so much of a price hike that manufacturers through to takeaway shops can absorb.
“We’ve had to put our prices up about 50 cents on each item,” Ms Paolini says.
And it’s not just fried chips.
Teresa Paolini has bumped prices at her takeaway shop in Melbourne because cooking oil has gone up.(ABC News: Chris LePage)
In bad news for beauty, vegetable oils are a core ingredient in moisturizer and lipstick.
The latest CPI data shows personal care items already went up almost 5 per cent in a year. One company that develops and manufactures cosmetics is tipping that inflation will escalate by up to 15 per cent by 2023, due to vegetable oil prices.
As well as price hikes, the situation is also creating headaches for food labelling.
One of Australia’s biggest food manufacturers, Goodman Fielder, has just announced that it is having to replace some of the sunflower oil in its well-known mayonnaise Praise with canola oil.
That’s how far-reaching the issue has become.
What’s driving the cooking oil crunch?
Just like petroleum and gas, vegetable oil is a globally traded commodity that follows international pricing.
Most of this year’s headlines about the cooking oil crunch have centered around the war in Ukraine. Both it and Russia are some of the biggest producers of sunflower oil, and the war has seen their exports largely curtailed.
“[Edible oil] prices really escalated very quickly this year as a result of the invasion,” Rabobank’s senior commodities analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon told ABC News.
However, sunflower oil is not one of the most-consumed edible oils globally, and the price pressures go far beyond the war in Ukraine.
“Prior to that, we were already seeing prices that were double the five-year average,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
The three most-widely consumed oils globally are canola, palm and soybean.
Before the war, Ms Kalisch Gordon said, canola supply was already being hit by drought in key producers, including Canada.
Meanwhile, soybeans saw extra demand from China, which bought up beans to rebuild their pig herds after an outbreak of swine fever.
“On top of that, we had a disappointing harvest of soybeans out of Brazil and more broadly across South America, including Paraguay,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
Then there were issues during the pandemic with worker shortages in Indonesia and Malaysia, which produces much of the world’s palm oil.
“They just weren’t able to get the harvest out of the plantations,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
The other oil crisis, petroleum, didn’t help.
Ms Kalisch Gordon said fossil fuels were now so expensive, that markets were turning to edible oils to make biodiesel instead.
“We’ve had production increasing at a slower rate than consumption increase. We’ve got a strong biodiesel market that is growing internationally,” she said.
As this all happened, some countries — including Turkey, Indonesia and Argentina — put export bans on their edible oils to ensure their own populations had enough of these vital ingredients.
“Really, we have found ourselves with a litany of issues feeding into this that wouldn’t be expected normally,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
“The higher prices for soybean, palm oil and canola have led to higher prices or costs across the entire complex, including for olive oil and cottonseed.”
Peter Fitzgerald has never seen price hikes on edible oil like those he is currently dealing with at Cookers.(ABC News: Chris LePage)
Cookers is one of Australia’s biggest vegetable oil distributors.
The national company buys canola and olive oil from refineries across Australia and overseas, including recently from Ukraine until the invasion. It is subject to whatever prices its suppliers pass on.
“We’ve seen prices in the last two years virtually double,” the company’s managing director Peter Fitzgerald said.
“It’s something we’ve never seen in our industry.
“And we don’t know where that’s going to end up”
Cookers is pushing these price hikes onto its customers, which include takeaway chains and major food manufacturers that use vegetable oil in everything from hummus to margarine.
“They’re all addressing this with the supermarkets currently,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“If you look at a lot of packaging, oil is such a large component in so many foods.
“I think that you’ll see that as this flushes through, that it’s going to continue price increases at the customer level.”
As well as food staples, vegetable oil is also a core ingredient in many of life’s little luxuries, including makeup.
The price of cosmetics is also set to rise due to the vegetable oil crisis.(Getty Images: Andreas Rentz)
Rohan Widdison runs local cosmetics developer and manufacturer New Laboratories.
He’s forecasting price hikes on everything from moisturizer to lipstick, largely in part due to the extreme increases he is seeing on oils such as almond.
“We’ve held off passing pricing on to a lot of clients. But now what we’re seeing is elements where it’s just impossible to hold off,” Mr Widdison said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t see increases [at the consumer level] that are going to range from 8 to 15 per cent in the coming year.”
Mr Widdison isn’t so sure the global price rises all come down to supply and demand, either.
“At a certain point in time, then the question really becomes: Is it the market price? Or is it really just profit-taking?” I have asked.
He said the issue was bigger than just a moisturizer.
“There’s no question that we should be looking at food security before cosmetics,” he said.
“If you use palm oil, for example, I’m fully supportive of the Indonesian government protecting that essential commodity for domestic use.”
The impact of oil prices in poorer nations is something the World Food Program and the World Bank are concerned about too.
In good news, the price spikes on soybean and palm oil do appear to have gone past their peak.
Ms Kalisch Gordon said that improvement had come as growing conditions improve in the regions hit by drought.
Most of the markets such as Indonesia — that put temporary export bans on their oils — have now lifted them.
And global markets also appear to be pricing in decreases after the resumption of Black Sea exports.
However, the situation remains volatile.
For instance, just this month, there has been fresh talk of olive oil shortages after another drought in Spain.
“We don’t expect prices to drop or reduce in their volatility substantially in the near term,” Ms Kalisch Gordon said.
“So this isn’t going to play out quickly.”
“I don’t see [prices] returning to the five year-averages of pricing across this complex that we saw prior to COVID.”
As the new normal hits, New Laboratories is looking into substituting some edible oils for synthetics in their cosmetics.
“That’s probably taking the ethical and responsible approach in this situation, rather than complaining about price,” Mr Widdison said.
Meanwhile, Peter Fitzgerald at Cookers is also calling for edible oils to be prioritized for food ahead of biodiesel.
“I think we’ve got to be careful,” Mr Fitzgerald said.
“For me, there’s a moral dilemma about food versus fuel.”
And Ms Paolini is stocking up on olive oil for her takeaway shop, just in case.
“My husband and I just went and bought a few vats,” she said. “I like my olive oil.”
Australian motorists are being urged to take advantage of falling petrol prices and fill up now to make the most of the “lowest levels we have seen for some time” before it is too late.
Prices across the nation last week were down almost 20 per cent from their July peak and experts say more price relief is on the horizon.
Watch more on high diesel prices in the video above
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The national average pump price fell by 8.1c to $1.73 per liter last week, down from a recent peak of $2.12 in the first week of July.
National Roads and Motorists’ Association’s Peter Khoury said Australia was nearing the bottom of the price cycle, but warned it could soon jump back up.
“They’ve been falling now for several weeks in accordance with the price cycle, but they have definitely fallen to levels we haven’t seen for some time,” he told 7NEWS.
Khoury said Sydney had hit its cheapest average price since April, reaching $1.62 on Monday.
“We are almost at the bottom of the cycle,” I explained.
“But also, we know oil prices have been falling steadily since hitting those high points that we saw in June.
“The average in the middle of June for regularly unleaded in Sydney was $2.19. It’s now at $1.62. That gives you an idea of how much oil prices have failed.”
While motorists will welcome the relief at the pump, Khoury says it is not clear how long it will last.
“The falls are highly volatile,” he said, adding “we have no idea whether they’re going to be sustained long term.
“What we do know is that over the last two or three weeks it’s been pretty consistent, driven largely by concerns about the global economy.”
While it has taken about 50 days for prices to fall this low, Khoury says, it will only take a few days for them to jump back to the top.
“That’s just the unfortunate reality of price cycles nationally is that when they go down, they go down very slowly, and when they jump, they absolutely skyrocket,” he said.
“So at some point in the coming days, possibly later this week we will see that price cycle turn. And that’s why it’s really important for (motorists) to fill up today or tomorrow.
“Keep a very close eye because you’re going to see lots of service stations are below a $1.60.”
As for when motorists will see cheap prices again, Kheary says it depends on how long the next cycle is.
Man stunned after friend charges him $2.47 for fuel money.
Man stunned after friend charges him $2.47 for fuel money.
Here’s where to find the cheapest petrol in your postcode, as of Monday afternoon.
sydney
Real time fuel price tracker PetrolSpy says Sydney’s inner west boasts the cheapest petrol, with Payless Fuel in Sydenham offering $154.8.
Franks Automotive in Marrickville offers the second cheapest at $156.9.
melbourne
Metro stations in Carlton and Collingwood are offering the lowest prices, with $157.9 and $159.9 up for grabs respectively.
Brisbane
A tank of unleaded will be cheapest at Puma Wilston, Grange Auto Care or Puma Grange, which are all offering deals of $159.5.
Adelaide
Motorists can find the petrol on offer in Adelaide at X Convenience Prospect and Woolworths Ampol Nailsworth for $153.5.
Perth
Motorists will get the most bang for their buck at United Petroleum service stations in Northbridge, Mount Lawley and East Victoria Park, where prices are tied at $156.5.
The second cheapest suburb is Yokine, where Puma is offering $156.7.
Canberra
Prices in Canberra are yet to plunge quite as low as the rest of the country, with the cheapest $179.9 at Metro Petroleum Fyshwick, followed by $182.9 at BP Fyshwick.
Darwin
Drivers in Darwin face the most expensive prices, with FuelXpress Winnellie offering the cheapest deal of $189.5.
United stations at Darwin (Smith Street), Parap, Ludmilla, Winnellie Roadhouse and BP Winnellie are all offering prices of $195.5.
Hobart
BP Moonah, Coles Express Moonah, Ampol Moonah and Ampol Central Moonah are all offering petroleum for $176.9.
Man with 2 boomerangs smashes window in road rage incident.
Man with 2 boomerangs smashes window in road rage incident.
The Republican matchup in the Wisconsin governor’s race on Tuesday features competing candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump and his estranged vice president, Mike Pence. Democrats are picking a candidate to face two-term GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for control of the closely divided chamber.
Meanwhile, voters in Vermont are choosing a replacement for US Sen. patrick leahy as the chamber’s longest-serving member retires. In Minnesota, US Rep. Ilhan Omar faces a Democratic primary challenger who helped defeat a voter referendum to replace the Minneapolis Police Department with a new Department of Public Safety.
What to watch in Tuesday’s primary elections in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont and Connecticut:
WISCONSIN
Construction company co-owner Tim Michels has Trump’s endorsement in the governor’s race and has been spending millions of his own money, touting both the former president’s backing and his years working to build his family’s business into Wisconsin’s largest construction company. Michels casts himself as an outsider, although he previously lost a campaign to oust then-US Sen. Russ Feingold in 2004 and has long been a prominent GOP donor.
Establishment Republicans including Pence and former Gov. Scott Walker have endorsed former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefischwho along with Walker, survived a 2012 recall effort. She argues she has the experience and knowledge to pursue conservative priorities, including dismantling the bipartisan commission that runs elections.
With Senate control at stake, Democrats will also make their pick to take on Johnson. Democratic support coalesced around Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes beats in the race, when his three top rivals dropped out and threw their support to him. He would become the state’s first Black senator if elected.
Several lesser-known candidates remain in the primary, but Johnson and Republicans have treated Barnes as the nominee, casting him as too liberal for Wisconsin, a state Trump won in 2016 but lost in 2020.
Four Democrats are also running in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District, a seat that opened up with the retirement of veteran Democratic US Rep. Ron Kind. The district has been trending Republican, and Derrick Van Orden — who narrowly lost to Kind in 2020 and has Trump’s endorsement — is running unopposed.
MINNESOTA
Democratic Gov. Tim Walz faces a little-known opponent as he seeks a second term. His likely challenger is Republican Scott Jensena physician and former state lawmaker who has made vaccine skepticism a centerpiece of his campaign and faces token opposition.
Both men have been waging a virtual campaign for months, with Jensen attacking Walz for his management of the pandemic and hammering the governor for rising crime around Minneapolis. Walz has highlighted his own support of abortion rights and suggested that Jensen would be a threat to chip away at the procedure’s legality in Minnesota.
Crime has emerged as the biggest issue in Rep. Omar’s Democratic primary. She faces a challenge from former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who opposes the movement to defund the police and last year helped defeat efforts to replace the city’s police department. Omar, who supported the referendum, has a substantial money advantage and is expected to benefit from a strong grassroots operation.
The most confusing part of Tuesday’s ballot was for the 1st Congressional District seat that was held by US Rep. Jim Hagedorn, who died earlier this year from cancer. Republican former state Rep. Brad Finstad and Democrat Jeff Ettinger, a former Hormel CEO, are simultaneously competing in primaries to determine the November matchup for the next two-year term representing the southern Minnesota district, as well as a special election to finish the last few months of Hagedorn’s term.
CONNECTICUT
It’s been roughly three decades since Connecticut had a Republican in the US Senate, but the party isn’t giving up.
In the GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthalthe party has endorsed former state House Minority Leader Themis Klarides. She’s a social moderate who supports abortion rights and certain gun control measures and says she did not vote for Trump in 2020. Klarides contends her experience and positions can persuade voters to oppose Blumenthal, a two-term senator who in May registered a 45% job approval rating, his lowest in a Quinnipiac poll since taking office.
Klarides is being challenged by conservative attorney Peter Lumaj and Republican National Committee member Leora Levy, whom Trump endorsed last week. Both candidates oppose abortion rights and further gun restrictions, and they back Trump’s policies from him.
VERMONT
Leahy’s upcoming retirement has opened up two seats in Vermont’s tiny three-person congressional delegation — and the opportunity for the state to send a woman to represent it in Washington for the first time.
Democratic US Rep. Peter Welch, the state’s at-large congressman, quickly launched his Senate bid after Leahy revealed he was stepping down. Leahy, who is president pro tempore of the Senate, has been hospitalized a couple of times over the last two years, including after breaking his hip this summer.
Welch has been endorsed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and is the odds-on favorite to win the seat in November. He faces two other Democrats in the primary: Isaac Evans-Frantz, an activist, and Dr. Niki Thran, an emergency physician.
On the Republican side, former US Attorney Christina Nolan, retired US Army officer Gerald Malloy and investment banker Myers Mermel are competing for the nomination.
The race to replace Welch has yielded Vermont’s first wide-open US House campaign since 2006.
Two women, including Lt. Gov. Molly Gray and state Senate President Pro Tempore Becca Balint, are the top Democratic candidates in the race. Gray, elected in 2020 in her first political bid, is a lawyer and a former assistant state attorney general.
The winner of the Democratic primary will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in the liberal state. In 2018, Vermont became the last state without female representation in Congress when Mississippi Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate.
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Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin; Doug Glass in Minneapolis; Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn.; and Wilson Ring in Montpelier, Vermont, contributed to this report.
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — The white man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery after chasing the 25-year-old Black man in a Georgia neighborhood was sentenced Monday to life in prison for committing a federal hate crime.
Travis McMichael was sentenced by US District Court Judge Lisa Godbey Wood in the port city of Brunswick. His punishment of him is largely symbolic, as McMichael was sentenced earlier this year to life without parole in a Georgia state court for Arbery’s murder.
Wood said McMichael had received a fair trial.
“And it’s not lost on the court that it was the kind of trial that Ahmaud Arbery did not receive before he was shot and killed,” the judge said.
Before the sentencing, she heard from members of Arbery’s family. Her mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, said she feels every shot that was fired at her son from her everyday.
“It’s so unfair, so unfair, so unfair that he was killed while he was not even committing a crime,” she said.
McMichael declined to address the court, but his attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said her client had no convictions before Arbery’s slaying and had served in the US Coast Guard. She said a lighter sentence would be more consistent with what similarly charged defendants have received in other cases, noting that the officer who killed George Floyd in Minneapolis, Derek Chauvin, got 21 years in prison for violating Floyd’s civil rights, though he was not charged with targeting Floyd because of his race.
McMichael was one of three defendants convicted in February of federal hate crime charges. His father, Greg McMichael, and neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan had sentencing hearings scheduled later Monday.
The McMichaels armed themselves with guns and used a pickup truck to chase Arbery after he ran past their home on Feb. 23, 2020. Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of McMichael shooting Arbery with a shotgun as Arbery threw punches and grabbed at the weapon.
The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar. Investigators determined he was unarmed and had committed no crimes.
Arbery’s killing became part of a larger national reckoning over racial injustice and killings of unarmed Black people including Floyd and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. Those two cases also resulted in the Justice Department bringing federal charges.
“The evidence we presented at trial proved … what so many people felt in their hearts when they watched the video of Ahmaud’s tragic and unnecessary death: This would have never happened if he had been white,” prosecutor Christopher Perras said before Travis McMichael was sentenced.
Greg McMichael and Bryan also face possible life sentences after a jury convicted them in February of federal hate crimes, concluding that they violated Arbery’s civil rights and targeted him because of his race. All three men were also found guilty of attempted kidnapping, and the McMichaels face additional penalties for using firearms to commit a violent crime.
A state Superior Court judge imposed life sentences for all three men in January for Arbery’s murder, with both McMichaels denied any chance of parole.
All three defendants have remained jailed in coastal Glynn County, in the custody of US marshals, while awaiting sentencing after their federal convictions in January.
Because they were first charged and convicted of murder in a state court, protocol would have turned them over to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve their life terms in a state prison.
In a court filings last week, both Travis and Greg McMichael asked the judge to instead divert them to a federal prisonsaying they won’t be safe in a Georgia prison system that’s the subject of a US Justice Department investigation focused on violence between inmates.
Copeland said during Monday’s hearing for Travis McMichael that her client has received hundreds of threats that he will be killed as soon as he arrives at state prison and that his photo has been circulated there on illegal phones.
“I am concerned your honor that my client effectively faces a back door death penalty,” she said, adding that “retribution and revenge” were not sentencing factors, even for a defendant who is “publicly reviled.”
Arbery’s family insisted that Travis McMichael serve his sentence in a state prison. His father, Marcus Arbery Sr., said Travis McMichael had shown his son no mercy and served to “rot” in state prison.
“You killed him because he was a Black man and you hate Black people,” he said. “You deserve no mercy.”
Wood said she didn’t have the authority to order the state to relinquish custody of Travis McMichael to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, but also wasn’t inclined to do so in his case.
During the February hate crimes trial, prosecutors fortified their case that Arbery’s killing was motivated by racism by showing the jury roughly two dozen text messages and social media posts in which Travis McMichael and Bryan used racist slurs and made disparaging comments about Black people.
Defense attorneys for the three men argued the McMichaels and Bryan didn’t pursue Arbery because of his race but acted on an earnest — though erroneous — suspicion that Arbery had committed crimes in their neighborhood.
