In Trump era, fearful left-leaning Americans turn to guns

A new $400 million stadium that was a symbol of Christchurch's struggle to rebuild after a deadly earthquake struck the New Zealand city will host its first match Friday in front of a sellout rugby crowd.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake killed 185 people in February 2011 and toppled or damaged buildings, including the city's old Lancaster Park.

The stadium, which hosted international rugby and cricket and was home to rugby team the Canterbury Crusaders, was badly damaged and never reopened.

It was bulldozed in 2019 and turned into sports fields, leaving the Crusaders without a permanent home.

Government funding for a new stadium was finally approved in 2020, and Super Rugby side the Crusaders will run out at the NZ$683 million (US$404 million) Te Kaha stadium on Friday.

The 30,000-capacity state-of-the-art arena is one of the last projects to finish following the devastation 15 years ago.

"It's real beautiful and a great representation of our region," All Blacks and Crusaders back Leicester Fainga'anuku said.

"This place has become the heart of the city and it's something our people deserve.

"From the moment we heard about the new build and what it means to us and our people, it gets you excited.

"Now it's finally here, we're just ready to get into it and put on a good show."

Coach Rob Penney, whose side face the NSW Waratahs to open the stadium, said it had been "a long wait".

Taha Kemara, who will start at fly-half for the Crusaders, added: "It's something we've been looking forward to for a long time and something the city's been waiting for." 

Canterbury found a temporary home after the earthquake at Rugby League Park, where the team won eight Super Rugby titles in nine years.

The ground was a fortress for the Crusaders, partly because of the freezing conditions that could greet unsuspecting away teams.

Under a roof at Te Kaha the conditions will be milder, but Penney hopes the fans keep the atmosphere hostile.

Fainga'anuku, who usually plays at wing or centre, will switch to flanker for the game and Penney said it was something the All Black had wanted to try for some time.

"This stadium felt like the right place to do it," Penney said. 

"He loves big environments, loves pressure moments, and we feel he'll add real value against this opposition."

The Crusaders are also bolstered by the return of All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor, while David Havili is back in the starting side at centre.

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Chinese carmakers have quickly built up their presence in the lucrative European auto market, buoyed by technological advances their competitors are trying to copy, and analysts say their next step is to begin producing locally.

Largely unknown in the continent three years ago, brands including BYD, Chery, Geely and XPeng achieved a nine percent share of European sales in March -- and 14 percent of electric cars -- according to Dataforce. 

That has doubled in a year, and some models even rank among the top sellers in Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. 

Their success is shaking up European manufacturers, weakened by a domestic market that has shrunk by a quarter since 2019 and wrong-footed by European Union plans to make 90 percent of all cars sold electric by 2035.

The policy has come at just the right time for Chinese manufacturers, who are far ahead in the electric segment at home, thanks to strong state support. 

"Europe, one of the only major global markets, is a natural outlet for Chinese carmakers," said Jamel Taganza, head of the consulting firm Inovev. 

"The EU's plan for electric cars was practically made for them; it opened up the European market to them in a very short time."

Exports are an even greater necessity for Chinese firms than their European rivals because they face significant overcapacity.

Their plants are running at only 50 percent of their potential, compared with around 60 percent for European companies, Alexandre Marian, an analyst at AlixPartners, pointed out.

"The Chinese manufacturers' strengths are not just labour costs; it's innovation," added Michael Foundoukidis, an automotive analyst at Oddo. 

"In China today, they're offering vehicles that are twice as efficient for half the price" of European models. 

The next step is to produce locally. 

"All manufacturers believe that if you want to gain a foothold in a market, it's easier to produce locally to avoid customs duties and transport issues," said Lionel French Keogh, sales director of Chery France, which aims to build a small electric city car in Europe. 

"If they want to sustainably exceed a 10 percent market share in Europe, they will have no choice but to assemble in Europe," confirmed Foundoukidis.  

- Europe fights back -

EU customs barriers on imported electric cars -- imposed in 2024 -- are encouraging this shift. 

BYD is building a plant in Hungary, while Leapmotor -- a Stellantis partner -- plans to produce two models in a Stellantis factory in Zaragoza, Spain. 

Reports also say Stellantis is considering making Leapmotor models in Spain under the Opel brand. 

And XPeng is assembling knock-down kits in Austria. 

To fight back, European manufacturers have adopted the same strategy the Chinese used in the 2000s: learning from competitors via joint ventures. 

Examples include Stellantis with Leapmotor and Volkswagen with Xpeng, which is launching a first jointly developed electric model for the Chinese market. 

Meanwhile, Renault has teamed up with Geely for internal combustion and hybrid engines. 

This is a "reverse joint venture", said AlixPartners analyst Marian.

Chery's French Keogh added that European manufacturers "are seeking these alliances to learn Chinese know-how in electric vehicles".

"It's a complete reversal of the situation: for a long time, Europeans were condescending toward Chinese manufacturers, seen as mere imitators."

Renault has decided to imitate the Chinese by developing its new models in two years, and has entrusted the development of its electric Twingo to its research and development centre in China. 

The game is not lost for the Europeans, in Foundoukidis's view, "as long as traditional manufacturers step up their competitiveness efforts to catch up with their Chinese rivals over the next two or three years". 

But they may be forced to cut capacity in Europe, or even close plants. 

This is the case in Poissy, in the Paris region, where Stellantis has decided to halt car production, while Volkswagen has decided to make major staff cuts and reduce its global capacity by a million units. 

"We must not underestimate the ability of European manufacturers to react," adds Taganza.

Renault's Twingo will be a test, as will the strategic plan Stellantis is due to announce on May 21. 

In the meantime, BYD has applied to join the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association. 

"No decision yet," a spokeswoman for the ACEA said, as it requires "an established industrial presence in Europe". 

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India's blood-soaked six-decade Maoist insurgency may be over, but a lethal legacy remains: hundreds of crude landmines planted by the rebels along forest tracks.

For decades, Maoist fighters seeded vast stretches of central India's forests with pressure-operated improvised explosive devices (IEDs), often buried just beneath dirt roads or hidden along jungle footpaths. 

Rudimentary in design -- gelatin, ball bearings and metal fragments packed into a steel lunch box -- they were nonetheless devastatingly effective, say those who fought the insurgency.

The Maoists controlled nearly a third of the country at the rebellion's peak in the mid-2000s, saying they were fighting for the rights of marginalised indigenous people in forest regions.

But India stepped up its campaign against the last remnants of the rebellion in recent years, and declared last month that the country was free of the Maoist insurgency.

"You ask a soldier what he is afraid of the most -- it is not bullets, but these pressure IEDs, because you never knew when you step on one," said 23-year-old Kishan Hapka of the District Reserve Guards, the police's main strike force against the Maoists. 

"Every step you take in the jungle, you have to be mindful."

Hapka's left leg was torn off in 2024 when he stepped on a mine.

"I would still say I was lucky," he said.  "Three other soldiers were killed in that same operation."

Hapka now walks with a prosthetic leg, restricted to administrative work.

- 'Ears went numb' -

IEDs have killed nearly 500 soldiers in the last 25 years in the former Maoist stronghold of Bastar in Chhattisgarh state, according to police data. They have injured a thousand more.

The pressure mines were designed to target security forces.

But they also killed and maimed the local tribal residents whom the Maoists claimed to have been fighting for, killing more than 150 of them and hurting more than 250 others.

Tama Jogi is one of them.

The 65-year-old was foraging in the forest last summer, when she stepped on one.

Her right leg was shattered.

"My ears went numb and I lost consciousness," she told AFP.  "The next thing I remember is I was in the hospital and they were cleaning my wounds."

Doctors had to amputate her other leg too to save her life, leaving her entirely immobile.

The government only pays for medical care for soldiers who are hurt in the line of duty.

Police arrested her son days later, saying he was a Maoist insurgent -- a charge she denies.

He is still in prison.

"I don't know who to blame anymore," said Jogi, who must now crawl to the bathroom.

 - 'Big problem' -

Officials in Chhattisgarh state say stray landmines are everywhere -- and continue to be a "big problem".

"The IED can be buried beside a pond, beside a road, beside a river – anywhere it could be," said Vijay Sharma, deputy chief minister of the state. 

"Every day, dozens are being recovered."

In the remote forest village of Lankapalli, where a waterfall cascaded even in the dry heat of Bastar, 35-year-old Raju Modiyam found out the hard way.

In January, he had gone looking for fish, taking a popular mountainous path, believing the Maoists would not plant a landmine on a track frequented by the local villagers.

"I stepped on a mine, and as soon as I stepped on it, my leg blew up," he told AFP from his mud-tiled house's courtyard, shaded by bottle gourd creepers over a bamboo frame.

"When I saw my leg, it was completely blown apart, everything was torn open," said Modiyam, walking restlessly on one leg, leaning on a stick. 

"There was blood everywhere."

Modiyam, as he feared while waiting for help to arrive, lost his leg.

The family, dependent on the forest for their livelihood, cannot afford a prosthetic limb, said his wife Jayamma, 21, who is pregnant with their third child.

"A duplicate leg will take money which we don't have," she said.

The police say they recovered nearly 900 IEDs from the forests of Bastar last year, and another 300 in just the first three months of 2026.

"We are not in a position to declare the area is 100 percent IED-free yet," said local police chief Sundarraj P.

The problem, he said, arose from Bastar's "entangled" geography -- unlike other conflict-addled places like Sri Lanka, where the army could sweep a defined territory after the Tamil civil year ended.

"There was never a clear demarcation in terms of the areas they controlled and what we controlled," he said, but adding that "98 percent of the job has been done".

But that is little consolation for Bastar's tribal residents. 

"There is a lot of fear," said Modiyam.  "We don't go into the jungle anymore. What if we step on an IED and it explodes?"  

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An Australian billionaire's plan to burn rubbish for energy in Fiji amounts to "waste colonialism" and risks spoiling a "beach paradise", villagers and the Pacific nation's UN ambassador said.

Traditional landowner Inoke Tora boarded a bus to the capital Suva on Tuesday with a petition from villagers opposing the $630 million waste-to-energy incinerator, which is forecast to consume 900,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish each year.

The fashion entrepreneur behind the Paris-born Kookai label and an Australian billionaire who made his fortune in rubbish disposal want to build a port and waste incinerator within 15 kilometres (nine miles) of Fiji's tourism gateway Nadi.

The Australian-based duo of Ian Malouf and Rob Cromb have told Fiji's government the project could meet 40 percent of the small nation's electricity needs, cutting its reliance on diesel.

However, an environmental impact statement lodged by their company TNG shows it would also raise Fiji's national emissions by 25 percent.

Residents say the emissions will spoil Fiji's eco-tourism reputation and pose a safety risk with hotels and schools nearby.

"There are hundreds of people living in villages in this place and they fish each day, eat fresh crabs. They call that beach paradise," Tora told AFP by telephone on his way to petition Fiji's prime minister.

"The government should stop this."

Fiji's ambassador to the United Nations, Filipo Tarakinikini, wrote on social media on Monday that the Vuda coast north of Nadi "must not become the Pacific's ashtray".

Ash residue and dioxins would contaminate the food chain, Tarakinikini warned, likening the plan to send up to 700,000 tonnes of non-recyclable rubbish to Fiji each year to "waste colonialism".

- Rejected in Australia -

"Dial-a-Dump" founder Malouf spent seven years trying to get a similar waste-to-energy incinerator approved in Sydney before it was rejected as a risk to human health in 2018, planning and court documents show.

Stephen Bali, then mayor of Blacktown in Sydney, led opposition to the project in his suburb and urged Fiji to seek independent scientific data.

"Gathering up rubbish from Australia, driving it in a diesel truck to port, putting it on a diesel ship to Fiji to be offloaded -- it would be interesting to look at those emissions," Bali, now a lawmaker in the New South Wales state parliament, told AFP.

"We need to deal with our own waste," he said.

Malouf did not respond to AFP's request for comment.

His business partner Cromb, who bought the Paris fashion label Kookai in 2017, said he maintains business links to Fiji, where he was born, because Kookai manufactures clothes there.

Cromb has held community meetings with villagers as the incinerator proposal spurs a backlash.

- Under review -

"There are genuine concerns around environmental safety, transparency, and the scale of the proposal and those concerns are valid and are being taken seriously," Cromb said in a statement sent to AFP.

Energy-from-waste systems "are widely used in jurisdictions with some of the world's highest environmental protections", he said.

"By diverting waste from landfill where it would otherwise produce methane, a significantly more potent greenhouse gas and reducing reliance on fossil fuel-based energy sources, energy-from-waste can contribute to broader lifecycle emissions benefits," he said.

The project would manage waste generated in Fiji, reduce landfill and support the country's energy needs, he said.

"It is not a project intended to import waste from overseas," he said.

However, the plan for a port and incinerator lodged with Fiji's government showed it would feed in local waste as well as waste shipped from Australia and across the region.

Opponents have told the government it would be a breach of a 1998 convention signed by Australia to ship hazardous waste to a Pacific island country.

Fiji's Tourism Minister Vilame Gavoka said tourism across Nadi could be jeopardised by the incinerator. 

"Such facilities in other countries are located away from businesses and densely populated areas," his office said.

And Fiji's permanent secretary for environment and climate change, Michael Sivendra, told AFP the project is under review.

Resident Eremasi Matanatabu, a food company manager, said concern over building a waste business in the bay where the first Fijians arrived to shore is widespread.

"It will stick out like a big sore thumb," he said.

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Schools in India's capital must ring regular bells to remind schoolchildren to drink water as the megacity gears up to face heatwave conditions, a new city order has said.

Summer heat in the world's most populous nation can be brutal -- putting millions of people at risk, with nearly 11,000 people dying due to heat stroke between 2012 and 2021, according to government data.

A heatwave in May 2024 in New Delhi saw temperatures match the capital's previous record high: 49.2C clocked in 2022.

That year was India's hottest year since thorough records began in 1901, with sizzling temperatures following a global pattern of extreme weather driven by climate change.

The temperature on Wednesday morning in New Delhi and the wider sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents was a relatively balmy 29.4C.

But weather forecasters predict temperatures will hit 41-43C later on Wednesday, and rise to 42-44C later in the week.

The India Meteorological Department has issued a "yellow alert" for Delhi, indicating the likelihood of a heatwave later in the week.

On Tuesday, guidelines issued by the Delhi education directorate asked schools in the city to adopt a plethora of steps to shield students.

They included avoiding "outdoor physical activities" and conducting "awareness sessions" to remind them of the importance of hydration.

"Outdoor assemblies to be curtailed or conducted in shaded/indoor areas with minimal duration," the note read. "No open air classes to be conducted."

Quirkier directions are also on offer: schools have been asked to start a "water bell" initiative to prevent dehydration and also implement a "buddy system" for students to look out for each other. 

"Schools shall implement a 'Water Bell' system, whereby a bell is rung at regular intervals (every 45-60 minutes) reminding students to drink water to prevent dehydration," the circular notes.

"Each student may be paired up with another student during school hours to monitor and take care of the each other's physical wellbeing," it added.

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Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting "one-person companies" that have artificial intelligence do most of the work.

Smaller startups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms.

More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing's political goal of "technological self-reliance".

"The one-person company is a product of the AI era," said Karen Dai, founder of Shanghai-based SoloNest, which hosts weekend events for solo entrepreneurs.

In the past, it was very difficult to run a business on your own, she said, but the range of tasks that AI can help with has "lowered the entry barrier".

On a Sunday in Shanghai, around 20 people in their 20s and 30s packed into a conference room for Dai's 134th iteration of a three-hour ideas swap on going it alone.

One attendee, Wang Tianyi, now earns up to 40,000 yuan ($5,800) per month making AI-generated commercials for businesses.

The 26-year-old, who quit his product manager job at an internet company last year, predicts that people flying solo will become a "major trend".

"Because of the technological empowerment brought on by AI, (one-person companies) have an efficiency advantage," he told AFP.

- 'Invisible line' -

On Chinese social media, people have lamented for years the so-called "curse of 35" -- widespread age discrimination in tech, government and other competitive sectors.

"At 35 years old, there's like this invisible line," said Dai, who is 38.

"People might face some challenges in the workplace. The company might re-evaluate who is more fit to stay."

But young people, who witnessed a decade of rapid economic expansion in China, have a hunger to grow, said Dai, also author of the book "One Person Company".

"When you're 30 or even younger, you'll ask yourself: when I reach that invisible line of 35, what preparations should I make?" she said.

Shanghai resident Wei Xin, 34, knew her job as a document reviewer at a foreign consulting firm would be replaced by AI before it actually happened.

So she signed up for a course on Google's Gemini and dabbled in creating an AI-generated digital version of herself, before turning to social media content creation.

"There's a bit of AI anxiety," said Wei, who returned to China last year after completing a degree in the United States.

"If I don't use it, don't approach it, I might soon be eliminated."

- Government 'carrots' -

Chinese municipalities are rolling out policies to support AI-powered one-person companies, using the initials "OPC" -- a rare use of English in official policy.

In November, the eastern city of Suzhou vowed to cultivate "more than 10,000 OPC talents" by 2028 and funnel around 700 million yuan ($100 million) towards sectors including AI robotics, healthcare and smart transportation.

Southwestern Chengdu also last month promised subsidies of up to 20,000 yuan for graduates to establish AI-driven one-person firms.

These measures are "carrots to help these startups get off the ground and be successful", said Brookings fellow Kyle Chan, an expert on China's technology development.

Sponsoring OPCs is a new, cheap way to tackle high youth unemployment in China -- where one in six people between the ages of 16 and 24 are jobless.

"The cost of doing this, from the local governments, for an OPC, is very low," Chan said.

Wang, the former product manager, said many of his friends were opting to work on independent projects instead of vying for corporate jobs.

But "the important thing in the future will be how to sell it", he said, with new companies often struggling to turn a profit.

Young Chinese are investing in back-up plans while "asking themselves, 'can I, with my own two hands, helped by the convenience of AI, explore the things I say I want to do?'" Dai said.

"There is a sense of control, of creativity."

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Late inning theatrics at the plate have become all too common for Mizzou baseball, and the offense tends to turn on too late and falls short. The team was on the receiving end of the late runs Tuesday.

The Tigers broke the trend of late offense by scoring three runs in the first four innings against SIUE, but also gave up eight runs in the seventh to push them to an 11-5 loss in their midweek. This game marks Mizzou’s seventh-straight loss.

In Mizzou’s weekend series against Oklahoma, the Tigers scored seven of their 10 runs in the seventh inning or later. After the game, Missouri coach Kerrick Jackson criticized the team’s inability to score more than late-game runs.

“Now, I guess the message is to try to get (the offense) going earlier in the ball game, right?” Jackson said to Mizzou Radio following the Sunday loss.

Freshman second baseman Blaize Ward took that message to heart and blasted a 410-foot solo home run on the second pitch Mizzou saw against the Cougars. It was just the second home run of his collegiate career. His first came just four days ago in the series opener against Oklahoma.

But Jackson wishes that Ward never homered.

“I think probably the worst thing for us was Blaize hitting a home run,” Jackson said. “The reason why that was the worst is because that’s his second home run of the year. Then, I think everyone else after that thought ‘Well, I should hit a home run, too.’”

Another run crossed in the second inning. Eric Maisonet walked, and then freshman catcher Juliomar Campos doubled to drive in the run. A bit of small ball followed to bring in the third run. A hit-by-pitch, steal and then a sacrifice bunt put Kaden Peer in position to cross on Maisonet’s single in the fourth.

But after Mizzou had an early 3-0 lead, the team watched it fade when SIUE whacked two homers for three runs in the sixth.

After that, the offense displayed another frustration that Jackson has harped his team on: a lack of adjustment at the plate leading to the inconsistent scoring. After the hot start, Mizzou scored just two runs in the second half of the game. They came on a sacrifice fly from Kam Durnin to score Maisonet in the seventh and a solo home run from Cameron Benson in the eighth.

“We got a big pole-side swings and swung and missed at stuff and hit some stuff soft,” Jackson said. “We did have some balls we hit hard, but I just wish (Blaize) didn’t hit a home run.”

The offset of the Mizzou offense gave SIUE the chance to come back big.

During a bullpen game for the Tigers, Mizzou saw seven pitchers come to the mound and none went more than three innings. Starter Dane Bjorn held off the Cougars with three scoreless innings, but Sam Rosand allowed the first run on a solo homer to lead off the sixth inning. That opened the floodgates.

The Cougars scored nine more runs after that, with three more home runs, a sacrifice fly and an RBI single across the next four pitchers.

Mizzou committed two errors and saw eight runs cross in the top of the eighth inning. Fourteen batters came to the plate for the Cougars, while SIUE recorded just four hits in the inning.

“(The bullpen) threw strikes, but at the same time, we put ourselves in two big holes and behind in counts to where you’re throwing predictable pitches,” Jackson said.

The Tigers will return to face No. 24 Arkansas at 7 p.m. Thursday at Taylor Stadium in Columbia.

The Portland Trail Blazers exploited an injury to Victor Wembanyama to score an upset 106-103 victory over the second-seeded San Antonio Spurs in their NBA Western Conference playoff series on Tuesday.

San Antonio superstar Wembanyama -- who had scored 35 points in the Spurs' game one win on Sunday -- exited in the second quarter at the Frost Bank Center in Texas after hitting his head on the court following a collision with Portland's Jrue Holiday.

The 22-year-old looked groggy as he lay on the floor for several minutes before getting to his feet and jogging to the locker room.

The 7ft 4in (2.24m) forward was subsequently ruled out of the remainder of the game after entering the concussion protocol.

San Antonio looked to have overcome Wembanyama's injury as they pulled into a 14-point lead early in the fourth quarter, leading 93-79 with just over eight minutes left on the clock.

But with victory seemingly in sight, San Antonio's shooting went ice cold and the absence of newly crowned NBA defensive player of the year Wembanyama was keenly felt as a determined Portland snaffled victory, closing the fourth quarter with a 27-10 run.

Scoot Henderson led Portland's scoring with 31 points, while Holiday added 16.

"Basketball is a game of runs, and the basketball gods are always gonna repay the ones that play the game right," Henderson told NBC television afterwards.

Game three of the best-of-seven series takes place in Portland on Friday.

- Sixers bounce back -

In the Eastern Conference playoffs, Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe combined for 59 points as the Philadelphia 76ers scored a series-leveling 111-97 victory on the road over the Boston Celtics.

Edgecombe made six-of-10 three-point attempts before finishing with 30 points, 10 rebounds and two assists in a stunning victory for the Sixers, who had trailed 26-13 early in the first quarter before rallying.

Maxey was also lethal from long-range, making five three-pointers on his way to a 29-point haul.

The bounce-back victory came after the Sixers were thrashed 123-91 in game one on Sunday, after a performance that Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse lambasted as "absolutely unacceptable."

Nurse was unsurprisingly happier with his team's winning display on Tuesday.

"I thought we just played much better team defense tonight," said Nurse, who also saluted his team's resolve after Boston surged into an early double-digit lead.

"I think we did a great job of just taking that punch,” Nurse said. 

"They were spectacular to start, but we just hung in there. I said 'Listen, they're pretty great right now, let's believe that they're not going to be this great the whole game, and just hang in there'. And our guys did."

Jaylen Brown led Boston's scoring with 36 points but Jayson Tatum was the only other Celtics player to make double figures with 19 points. The Celtics made just 35-of-89 shots from the field throughout the game.

"You have to be able to score in close games against a team like that," Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla said. "They made more shots than us down the stretch."

With the series knotted at 1-1, game three takes place in Philadelphia on Friday.

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BOSSIER CITY, La. -- Louisiana Tech football made it to Bossier City Tuesday evening for their "Red River Run Through" as the Bulldogs continue spring practice.

Several local players have been on the roster for years like long snapper and former Loyola Flyer, Ean Burch.

"It's always awesome to come back and let your family and friends come out here and see what a day in our life looks like. Oftentimes they don't really know what goes on unless it's Saturday," Burch said. "It's nice to get out here and see people that we don't see every day and that are Tech fans."

Others are newcomers like running back and former North DeSoto Griffin, Kenny Thomas.

"It's kind of a surreal feeling. You know, since I'm technically still supposed to be in high school, seeing some of my peers out here when I'm practicing for college," Thomas said. "I'm just taking it in, making the most of every moment and trying to earn my dues. I'm just grateful for the position I'm in right now."

Louisiana Tech's spring game is Saturday in Ruston.

Workers load tonnes of rare earth minerals into bags ready for shipping at a refinery in eastern Malaysia, fuelling the global pushback against China's grip on the critical sector.

Rare earths are a key ingredient in products ranging from smartphones to fighter jets, electric cars and wind turbines -- and increasingly for hardware powering the artificial intelligence boom.

Global jitters about Beijing's dominance as a rare earths producer have kicked Australian mining giant Lynas into action, expanding its portfolio of rare earths refined in Malaysia as it hopes to boost its approximately 10 percent share of the market.

China makes up the other 90 percent of the world's market, stoking fears about Beijing's ability to choke global supplies.

"China has built its success on executing a clear industrial plan -- it takes us to be serious about it," Lynas company's chief executive Amanda Lacaze told AFP.

Pushing against Chinese dominance will "take discipline, focus and clear planning", she said during a rare press visit to the company's sprawling chemical plant in Malaysia's Gebeng industrial hub, near the coastal city of Kuantan.

The Lynas facility in Gebeng is now the world's largest single rare earths processing plant.

- Downstream demand -

Since 2012, the facility has been refining pure metals from raw materials mined in Western Australia, in an intensive and complicated separation procedure.

It currently handles 11 of the 17 rare earths -- a number that is increasing -- with plans to expand even further to include "heavies" such as yttrium and lutetium, used for lasers, medical imaging and cancer therapy.

From the plant, the bags are transported to Port Klang on the other side of Malaysia, and leave on a ship for Japan, where the metal powders are turned into high-performance magnets used in advanced industries such as electronics and aerospace.

Most bags contain NdPr, short for neodymium-praseodymium, a rare-earth mixture and key magnet material, which sells for around $100,000 per bag. 

Smaller quantities of other separated heavy rare earth oxides like dysprosium, terbium and samarium are sold in 25-kilogramme tins. 

Rare earths are so vital for the global economy that they have become a flashpoint in the blistering trade war between the United States and China.

Beijing leveraged its grip on the precious minerals in spectacular fashion last October, reaching a deal with Washington to pause the trade war after its curbs on exports rattled markets and snarled supply chains.

Supply of rare earths is expected to be a key discussion point at an upcoming summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing set for mid-May.

But the challenge for Lynas is not its production capacity, chief operating officer Pol Le Roux said.

Instead, incentives are needed to boost downstream capacity -- the ability to turn raw minerals into a finished product -- which is "growing too slowly", he told AFP.

Lacaze said the company was already partnering with magnet makers to close the gap between rare-earth processing and manufacturing.

However, she stressed: "We won't just say that we are going to wake up tomorrow and be a magnet maker."

- 'Minimise risks' -

Producing rare earths requires heavy chemicals and can produce toxic waste, with cases including illegal operations polluting Mekong tributaries in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia with arsenic and cadmium.

Lynas got the green light last month from the Malaysian government to process rare earths there for another 10 years.

The licence was issued as environmental watchdogs such as Greenpeace raised concerns over the management of radioactive by-products.

Under the latest agreement, the government said the company must now halt all activities that produce radioactive waste within five years of its renewed operating licence.

Lynas however, says its by-product from rare earth refining produces a non-toxic, non-radioactive magnesium-rich gypsum and an iron phosphate with a very low level of naturally occurring radioactive material.

Existing by-product is already stored in a permanent disposal facility "constructed and managed to ensure the material does not impact on the surrounding environment," the company said.

Lynas also has ambitions to diversify further into producing rare earths as catalysts over the next decade.

Rare earths are particularly important as a low-cost catalyst in the hydrogen supply chain, for instance, in the recovery process when the gas is transported long-haul as ammonia.

"In 10 years from now, I expect this to be a substantial part of the business," Le Roux said.

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