America's electric cars need lithium so badly it may wipe out this species
CNN
Fewer than 40 years after humans discovered Tiehm's buckwheat, a Nevada plant with yellow flowers, they may drive it to extinction in pursuit of electric vehicles, a technology widely hailed as being environmentally friendly.
Environmentalists say the benefits of Tiehm's buckwheat could be vast, but its full significance is unknown. What's certain, they say, is that guarding Tiehm's buckwheat is important for preserving biodiversity on Earth. The flower is so newly discovered that it hasn't been studied thoroughly, they say. But botanists say they're impressed with Tiehm's buckwheat's ability to thrive where few species can — poor soil that's full of boron and lithium. That lithium in Nevada, and elsewhere in the world, increasingly has the attention of businesses and governments. Ioneer, an Australian mining company, has said it's ready to break ground on a lithium mine later this year on the land where Tiehm's buckwheat grows. Under the barren soils lies 146.5 million metric tons of lithium and boron. The project has been valued at $1.265 billion.
President Donald Trump has leaned into his presidential clemency powers much more aggressively in his second term –in fact, he’s pardoned one woman twice.
The Pentagon has ordered the military command that oversees new recruits’ enlistment to hold off on initial training for people who are HIV-positive and recently enlisted in the military, CNN has learned, saying that a decision on reinstating a Defense Department ban on their joining the military was “expected in the next few weeks.”
Democrat Abigail Spanberger was sworn into office Saturday as Virginia’s first female governor, amid a cold drizzle outside the state Capitol after centuries of men holding the commonwealth’s top office.
The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.
Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.
Celebrities and laypeople are sharing fond memories from 2016, the era of face “baking” and #ImWithHer, when some of the biggest national dramas pitted Kim Kardashian against Taylor Swift.
The anti-abortion movement is testing new strategies to force a legal confrontation over so-called shield laws in Democratic-led states that protect abortion providers in those states from prosecution.
After pushback from both gun rights and gun control groups, the Trump administration has quietly abandoned its plan to merge the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into the Drug Enforcement Administration, according to people briefed on the matter.
The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.
Franz Rowland has heard President Donald Trump endlessly brag about a roaring economy, but he’s seen few signs of it from his cotton farm here in southern Georgia.
Emergency call logs and reports detailing last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer reveal a greater sense of the organizational chaos and heightened emotion surrounding her final moments.
The Justice Department is investigating Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey over possible obstruction of federal law enforcement, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The US-based rescue team Grey Bull has released a short video showing how they helped Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado escape the country last month.