Chile’s state-owned Codelco, the world’s leading copper producer, and private miner SQM, which features Chinese capital, announced Saturday the creation of a giant company to exploit lithium, a lightweight metal used in batteries for electric vehicles.The South American country is the world’s second-largest producer of lithium, a key component of EVs and other clean technologies, and has about 40 percent of the world’s lithium reserves.The partnership between the firms will allow them to jointly ramp up the exploitation of lithium in the Atacama salt flat region of northern Chile. The public-private partnership will be called Nova Andino Litio SpA, said Codelco, which described the deal as “one of the most significant in the history of Chilean business.”The Chinese firm Tianqi holds a 22 percent stake in SQM.The new company “will carry out lithium exploration, extraction, production, and commercialization activities in the Atacama salt flat until 2060,” Codelco said in a statement. Chilean regulators authorized the alliance earlier in December.The agreement was approved by more than 20 national and international regulatory bodies, including in China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and the European Union. Chile was the last of the countries to clear the deal. Last month, China gave the green light to the planned partnership between Codelco and SQM.The partnership aims to restore Chile’s leadership in lithium production, a title it lost to Australia nearly a decade ago. The new company aims to increase production by about 300,000 tons per year in the Atacama salt flat. In 2022, Chile produced 243,100 tons of the so-called white gold. “This joint venture makes it possible to plan the development of the Atacama salt flat,” and for the benefit of global markets, said Ricardo Ramos, CEO of SQM, one of the world’s leading lithium producers. The partnership is part of the National Lithium Strategy announced by the leftist government of Gabriel Boric in 2023, aimed at reclaiming Chile’s global leadership in lithium production.According to Codelco, with this agreement the Chilean state will receive around 70 percent of the operating margin generated by the new production between 2025 and 2030, and starting in 2031, 85 percent of that margin. Lithium accounted for three percent of Chile’s exports in 2024.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa announced on Saturday that two key restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP-4) will now be permanent, in a bid to tackle the city’s persistent severe air pollution. Speaking to the media, Sirsa said vehicles will not be provided petrol without a valid Pollution Under Control Certificate (PUCC) until further notice, according to news agency ANI.

“Out of the restrictions under GRAP-4, we have decided to make two permanent. First, the PUCC requirement: you will not get petrol anywhere without a PUCC certificate until the next orders,” he stated. The minister also confirmed that vehicles entering Delhi from outside the city that do not meet Bharat Stage VI (BS6) emission standards will face restrictions. “Vehicles from outside Delhi that are below BS6 will also be restricted from entering the city,” he added. Sirsa noted that authorities are closely monitoring the weather, as the Western Disturbance may lead to adverse conditions. “The possibility of bad weather is being indicated. Therefore, we are continuously monitoring the situation,” he said, emphasizing that the government’s priority is to minimize pollution-related hardships for Delhi residents. Delhi’s air quality has deteriorated, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) reaching 390 at 6 pm on Saturday, placing it in the ‘Very Poor’ category, according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Experts advise vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly, and those with respiratory conditions, to limit outdoor exposure and use protective masks. Thick smog and fog are trapping pollutants, reducing visibility, and disrupting daily life. Authorities are enforcing measures such as the ‘No PUC, No Fuel’ rule and Stage III restrictions under GRAP, including limits on construction and industrial activities. Earlier, the Delhi Cabinet, led by chief minister Rekha Gupta, approved measures to strengthen environmental governance in the capital. A key decision includes allocating Rs. 100 crore for the rejuvenation of water bodies across the city. Delhi has around 1,000 water bodies, 160 of which fall under the government’s jurisdiction. Sirsa said, “The rejuvenation of Delhi’s water bodies will play a crucial role in pollution control. The chief minister has directed that full financial support be provided to complete this work within the year.” The Cabinet also approved the establishment of Delhi’s first E-Waste Park at Holambi Kalan, spanning 11.5 acres. The facility will follow strict pollution-control standards and operate on a 100 per cent circular, zero-waste model. Sirsa explained, “This will be India’s first state-of-the-art e-waste facility built on zero pollution and zero wastage principles. The plant will fully recycle and reuse water through an advanced recirculation system.”

As another year winds down, a cybercrime epidemic of mindboggling proportions continues unabated in India. Striking with impunity and alarming frequency, there is seemingly no tactic that’s too bizarre and no target that’s out of reach for cyber fraudsters. Earlier this year, a doctor in Gujarat was kept under video surveillance for three months, reportedly losing Rs 19 crore during her digital-arrest ordeal. More recently, a former Punjab Police IG was defrauded of more than Rs 8 crore in an investment scam. The shock led him to shoot himself in the chest.While the law of the land does not specifically recognise the concept of “digital arrest”, cases are reported every day from across India — mostly, instances of cybercriminals impersonating police and central security officials and using panic and manipulation to wipe people’s bank accounts clean.But there are many more ways in which they come for your money (see box), like infecting your phone with forwards that transfer control, catching you by surprise with a video call and morphing the footage for blackmail, or ‘pig butchering’ you with texts about lucrative investment returns.The number of cases, and the swindled cash involved in those, has seen an exponential rise: 23 lakh cybercrime complaints were registered on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) in 2024, a 42% jump over 2023. And the money lost to such frauds in 2024 was estimated to be Rs 23,000 crore, a 200% jump from Rs 7,500 crore in 2023. As a hydra-headed monster that takes new forms virtually every month, cybercrime is no longer a battle that state police can fight within their own limited jurisdictions and win. Which would explain why Supreme Court this month ordered CBI to launch a sweeping probe into all digital arrest scams.Central teeth for national problemBringing in the might of a central agency was an overdue move. As a senior cyber cell officer in Delhi pointed out, “the core challenge lies in the complex inter-state and geographical nexus of these operations, where the victim and the perpetrator are separated not just by distance but also by an intricate web of digital and financial layering.”Cybercrime presents a challenge entirely different from that posed by conventional crime. In a ‘digital arrest’ scam, which is perpetrated over a video call that can last hours, weeks, days, or even months, the money moves quickly through a series of what are known as ‘mule accounts’.These are usually located in places far apart and opened using forged documents or with the connivance of bankers. For example, money from a ‘digital arrest’ in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bengaluru or Hyderabad could be routed to mule accounts in West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. That is why recoveries are only a fraction of the defrauded cash because, by the time the labyrinth of transactions has been decoded, the money has vanished.In India, two key hubs of cybercrime have been identified in Jharkhand’s Jamtara and the triangle of Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), and Nuh (Haryana). But an even more concerning dimension is the rise of large organised overseas operations in countries like Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and, of late, Myanmar.

These are operations that run call-centre-style scam compounds, drawing their manpower from human trafficking victims, including Indians who are snared by local placement agents with the lure of foreign jobs in data entry, IT and management. “Once trapped, these recruits are held in prisonlike conditions and coerced into undertaking cybercrimes targeting their own countrymen,” said a Delhi Police officer.Several of these international operations have been traced to Chinese criminal syndicates that provide technical infrastructure like apps and VoIP. “CBI is uniquely positioned to connect these disparate dots: like a SIM card issued in one state, a bank account opened in another, and an IP address originating at a third location,” said a government official.Banking, telecom breachesThe digital epidemic has fed on an explosive growth of the internet user base. While India has become an increasingly digital society, large sections of people remain digitally naïve because initiation to new technology and devices happened at a later stage in life. But cybercrime’s uncontrolled spiral has also exposed major vulnerabilities in two critical pillars — the telecom sector and the banking system. Both have failed to build adequate safeguards.“Fraudsters routinely exploit lax Know Your Customer (KYC) norms to illegally procure huge numbers of SIM cards. They are similarly also able to open mule bank accounts, the lifeblood of their operations,” said a Delhi cyber cell investigator. Systematic targeting of senior citizens with pension funds in their accounts and women makes it clear that scammers have access to banks’ customer data, investigators said.Recently, CBI arrested the manager of a prominent bank in Mumbai for allegedly accepting illegal gratification to process account-opening forms, creating channels for rapid layering of cybercrime proceeds. The accused is said to have facilitated the use of accounts that are linked to multiple cybercrime cases.Similar crackdowns across states, like ‘Operation Insider’ by Telangana Police, have led to the arrest of many bank officials for opening current accounts without due diligence in exchange for commissions from fraudsters.It’s the transnational cybercrime syndicates in Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam that execute the most complex frauds, increasingly deploying AI and deepfakes. These are the crimes that have so far proved the hardest to crack for police across Indian states. “Funds siphoned from Indian victims are quickly laundered, often converted into cryptocurrency and then moved internationally to accounts in countries like China, Singapore and Vietnam to evade detection,” explained a senior police officer.What’s the counterpunch?Sleuths may still have to play catch-up with new tactics, but the fight against cybercrime is much more organised now than it was two years back, which will help CBI.The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), through its Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, has helped save around Rs 7,130 crore by facilitating rapid freezing of funds. NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), too, has helped freeze scam proceeds in real time. A centralised toll-free helpline number, 1930, has been operationalised for quick assistance in lodging cybercrime complaints.Govt has blocked over 11 lakh SIMs and around 3 lakh IMEI numbers linked to frauds, underscoring the necessity of a coordinated, technological counteroffensive. Creation of a ‘Suspect Registry’ by I4C to flag suspect bank accounts and use of the ‘Pratibimb’ module to map criminal locations based on telecom and crime data are among other tech responses that have taken shape.“A state-of-the-art Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre has been set up at I4C. It has brought together representatives of major banks, financial intermediaries, payment aggregators, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and representatives of states/UTs and police to tackle cybercrime,” a government official said.Over to CBIBy combining domestic reach and collaborations with security agencies globally, CBI can serve as the lead enforcer and nodal point for busting complex, transnational cybercrime networks. Through specialised initiatives like Operation Chakra, CBI has been coordinating simultaneous raids on financial nerve centres of cybercrime with organisations like FBI and Europol. This is something that no state police force can do.CBI can ensure that the digital trail of a crime — which might involve a victim in Delhi, a server in Europe, and a perpetrator in Southeast Asia — is traced and documented for prosecution. By utilising the Bharatpol portal and its Global Operations Centre, CBI can also create a bridge between state police forces and international intelligence, allowing real-time sharing of data. CBI’s strength also lies in its role as National Central Bureau for Interpol in India, which gives it a direct line to law enforcement in over 190 countries.The agency is also equipped to lead large-scale crackdowns on illegal call centres that have been operating as hubs for international extortion. Besides, it has extraterritorial mandate under Section 75 of the IT Act, which gives it legal authority to investigate any individual, regardless of nationality, whose digital actions impact systems within India.

Melbourne Stars will face the Sydney Thunder in the fourteenth match of the Big Bash League. This article contains information regarding the MLS vs SYT Head-to-Head records in this particular competition.

MLS vs SYT Head-to-Head Records- BBL 2025-26, Match 14:

Stats	Matches	MLS won	SYT won	Draw	Tied	NR
Overall	22	10	12	0	0	0
At Manuka Oval	5	1	4	0	0	0
In the last 5 matches	5	0	5	0	0	0

MLS vs SYT Head-to-Head Records- Key Statistics

Melbourne Stars and Sydney Thunder have faced each other in 22 matches so far in the history of the Big Bash League, and the upcoming match will be the 23rd outing between the two sides.

As far as the number of mayhem won by each team is concerned, it paints a picture of the Stars and the Thunder being involved in some tightly contested games that have gone right down to the wire.

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Although the Sydney Thunder has the lead in the overall head-to-head record against the Melbourne Stars, it is a slim one.

The Thunder have won 12 games as compared to the Melbourne Stars, who have got the better of their opponent on 10 occasions.

Having said that, the story is a lot different when it comes to the results of the last five MLS vs SYT matches in the BBL.

Sydney Thunder have won each of the last five games that they have played against the Stars, while the Stars are in desperate need of a win to break the losing streak that they are experiencing against this particular opposition.

The series is quite similar in the matches featuring the two teams at the Manuka Oval, the ground which is going to host the next game between them, with Thunder once again dominating the Stars in terms of number of wins.

Sydney Thunder have come out on the right side of the result in four of the five games that they have played against the Stars at the Manuka Oval, with the Stars getting rid of the Thunder once.