Snip:

China already dominates the processing of more than half of the world’s lithium, a critical material for EV batteries. It is now set to call the shots in what comes next: sodium-ion batteries.

Their appeal lies in the fact that they can reduce reliance on expensive and strategically important critical minerals such as lithium, graphite, nickel and cobalt.

Sodium is cheap and found almost everywhere - including ordinary salt and seawater. Sodium-ion batteries can use hard carbon made from biomass and industrial waste.

[…]

China’s battery industry spent a decade perfecting lithium-ion manufacturing at global scale, and is now applying the same industrial approach: supply-chain integration, rapid iteration, cost discipline and policy coordination - to sodium-ion.

Snip:

US President Donald Trump’s approval rating fell to the lowest level of his political career, Reuters reported, citing the results of a public opinion poll it conducted jointly with international polling service Ipsos.

According to the news agency, the approval rating of the incumbent US president stands at 32%, which is the “lowest his political career.” Among supporters of the Republican Party, which the US president represents, Trump’s approval rating fell from 82% to 73% over the course of a week.

“Dissatisfaction among Republicans on the subject has been growing since Trump launched the war on Iran in February that has pushed gasoline and diesel prices sharply higher,” the news agency said. The public opinion poll was conducted online on September 17-20, with 1,277 respondents taking part.