U.S. efforts to break China’s near-monopoly on the rare earths market and drive investment into its own industry have taken a major step forward with Washington’s plan to create a separate, higher pricing system. This marks a significant escalation in the West’s attempts to counter China’s dominance over roughly 90% of global rare earths supply, which has long undercut Western producers through low, state-influenced pricing.

Rare earths, a group of 17 metals critical for making high-strength magnets, are vital to a range of strategic sectors, powering everything from electric vehicle motors and wind turbines to sophisticated military hardware like drones and fighter jets. However, Western miners have struggled to compete against Chinese producers, largely because China’s pricing benchmarks, kept low for years, have made investments in rival supply chains uneconomical.

European gas and power trading is about to move materially closer to a “global commodities” operating model, and that shift is likely to change both market microstructure and the way firms staff, risk-manage, and compete. Intercontinental Exchange has said it intends to extend trading in key UK and EU gas and power contracts to roughly 22 hours per day from late February 2026, subject to regulatory and governance processes.

An effective target date is set for February 23, with trading windows expanding from the traditional European daytime session to a near round-the-clock schedule aligned with U.S. benchmarks such as Henry Hub, reflecting Europe’s deeper reliance on globally traded LNG and the associated need to hedge across time zones.

Australian researchers have developed a groundbreaking chemical process that harnesses landfill gases to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), offering a promising solution for reducing carbon emissions in the aviation industry. This innovation comes as the global aviation sector strives to achieve…