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Excerpt from www.wral.com

CNN — (CNN) — Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader declared himself the winner of the weekend’s presidential election in a race where crime and safety were among voters’ biggest concerns.

Official results are still pending, but the election website shows the former businessman leading by a wide margin as two of his top challengers conceded. As of Monday afternoon, Abinader had 57.46% of the votes counted.

 

Votes have been counted in over 99% of the polling stations, according to real-time data from the electoral board, which has yet to declare a winner.

However, on Sunday, both Abinader’s main rivals congratulated Abinader on his win. “Tonight I called President Luis Abinader by phone to recognize his electoral victory and wish him success in his administration,” candidate Leonel Fernandez wrote on X.

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Excerpt from fortune.com

Beijing hinted it could retaliate against the European Union in a trade dispute that shows signs of escalating the same way as China’s contest with the US.

If the EU keeps pursuing investigations into Chinese firms then China will “very likely have to take a series of measures to hit back,” said a post on Yuyuan Tantian, a social media account linked to China’s state media. Beijing has regularly used such channels as a way of signaling its thinking about trade.

The EU is investigating Chinese subsidies across a range of industries, threatening tariffs for electric carmakers and keeping firms out of rail and energy tenders. President Xi Jinping visited Europe last month seeking to dissuade the bloc from going down the same path as the US, which last week announced new charges on some imports from China — raising concerns in Beijing that American allies may follow suit.

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Excerpt from www.morganlewis.com

The US Supreme Court ruled on May 16, 2024 that the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—which is funded with money from the Federal Reserve rather than the US Congress—does not run afoul of the Appropriations Clause of the US Constitution. The Court’s decision reversed the Fifth Circuit’s ruling that the CFPB’s funding structure was unconstitutional and put a definitive end to the last pending wholesale challenge to the CFPB’s constitutionality.

In the few days since the decision, the ruling has already emboldened the agency to move forward even more aggressively with its regulatory, enforcement, and supervision agenda.

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Excerpt from www.nysun.com

Twelve prominent Arizona Republicans, alleged co-conspirators of President Trump, are about to be processed, fingerprinted, and have their mugshots taken prior to appearing before an arraignment judge Tuesday in the Arizona fake electors case.

On Friday, one of Mr. Trump’s former attorneys, John Eastman, was arraigned at the Maricopa County courtroom. On Tuesday, 12 of his alleged accomplices are scheduled to appear in court on charges they presented fraudulent presidential election results.

The defendants are charged with conspiracy, fraud, and forgery in service of an effort to keep Mr. Trump in power by dedicating Arizona’s electoral college votes to Mr. Trump “against the will of Arizona voters.”

“Defendants and their unindicted co-conspirators deceived the public with false claims of election fraud in order to prevent the lawful transfer of the presidency, to keep [Mr. Trump] in office against the will of Arizona’s voters, and deprive Arizona voters of their right to vote and have their votes counted,” the indictment reads.

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Excerpt from cosmosmagazine.com

Eco-friendly and affordable battery for low-income countries

A new battery made from zinc and lignin, an organic polymer found in the tissues of most plants, has been developed as a cheap and sustainable battery solution for countries where access to electricity is limited.

“While lithium-ion batteries are useful when handled correctly, they can be explosive, challenging to recycle, and problematic in terms of environmental and human rights issues when specific elements like cobalt are extracted,” says Ziyauddin Khan, a researcher at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University, Sweden.

“Therefore, our sustainable battery offers a promising alternative where energy density is not critical.”

The battery’s energy density is comparable to lead-acid batteries, it can be used for more than 8,000 cycles while maintaining about 80% of its performance and retains its charge for approximately 1 week.

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Excerpt from twistedsifter.com

If you ask most “regular people,” they would likely admit that wrapping their heads around how far away things actually are in space is a bit of a stretch.

I know that’s true for me.

So, it almost seems impossible that NASA would be able to receive a message from 140 million miles out.

The Psyche mission was dispatched to study a strange asteroid and for NASA to test a new communication system.

It doesn’t use radio waves but an infrared laser, and so far, has not been successfully tested from such a long way.

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Excerpt from www.ccn.com

Roger Ver Faces 30 Years, CZ Jailed, Signaling New Era of Enforcement – Ex-Biden Advisor Warns  CCN.com

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Excerpt from cosmosmagazine.com

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has started enrolling volunteers at Duke University in North Carolina to test its experimental mRNA-LNP vaccine against seasonal influenza, one of several universal influenza vaccine candidates now in the pipeline. Another clinical trial has begun at the US National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Centre in Maryland.

Influenza kills up to 650,000 people around the world each year.

Ninety-nine percent of deaths in children under five years of age in developing countries are due to influenza-related infections, according to the World Health Organization.

The current crop of influenza vaccines has limitations in effectively combating the billion cases of seasonal influenza each year as they provide immunity against only one specific existing strain or mutation. The propensity of flu viruses to mutate into new strains means vaccines must be continuously monitored and reformulated each year.

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Excerpt from mashable.com

A robot just performed microsurgery on a corn kernel, which could change the game for precision surgeries.

Sony has unveiled a prototype of a microsurgery assistance robot which can support surgeons operating on extremely small tissues, nerves, and veins.

The compact creation includes a miniature automatic instrument exchange, designed to reduce the number of interruptions and delays during surgery. The robot’s precision control is further boosted by a lightweight, highly sensitive control device which reflects the delicate movements of human fingertips.

The prototype is also equipped with 1.3-type 4K OLED Microdisplays, that let operators view high-definition images of the targeted area, and closely monitor movement of surgical instruments.

The prototype, tested by Aichi Medical University in Japan, is still at development stage and cannot yet be sold or offered, but Sony hopes that in the future, it can will improve microsurgery accuracy and effectiveness and provide assistance amid staff shortages currently faced by healthcare systems around the globe.

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Excerpt from www.autoevolution.com

Many of the world’s militaries employ drones for various purposes, but regardless on where they are deployed on this planet, and by whom, the vast majority of the big, professional drones used for surveillance and strikes are made in the U.S.A. And Europe doesn’t like that, so not long ago it set out to create something called the Eurodrone.

The Eurodrone program, which was announced about a year ago, is a collaborative effort between European aviation companies Airbus, Dassault, Safran, and Leonardo, and aims to deliver an uncrewed aerial platform that can be used for intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) missions.The Old Continent makes no secret of the fact it wants to “ensure European sovereignty and independence in this critical segment of unmanned long endurance ISTAR capability,” especially given how it is there where the largest conflict between developed nations since World War II is raging.

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Excerpt from www.outsmartmagazine.com

(CNN) — The US State Department issued a worldwide security alert on Friday due to the potential for terrorist attacks against LGBTQ people and events.

“Due to the potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations, or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests, the Department of State advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution. The Department of State is aware of the increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events and advises U.S. citizens overseas to exercise increased caution,” the alert read.

The alert comes two weeks before Pride Month begins on June 1. The department warned US citizens to stay alert in locations that tourists often visit “including Pride celebrations and venues frequented by LGBTQI+ persons.”

Earlier this week, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security similarly issued a warning that foreign terrorist organizations and their supporters may target LGBTQ events and venues as Pride Month approaches.

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Excerpt from www.nbcnews.com

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear a bid backed by a conservative Christian legal group to challenge a Maryland school district’s policy against informing parents if their children identify as transgender or gender-nonconforming.

The justices turned away an appeal by three parents with children attending public schools in the Washington suburb of Montgomery County of a lower court’s ruling holding that they lacked the necessary legal standing to challenge the policy. The plaintiffs are represented by the Virginia-based National Legal Foundation.

The issue of transgender rights has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars. As part of this, conservative litigants and parents groups have filed lawsuits in various U.S. jurisdictions challenging school policies that seek to respect requests by transgender students to not “out” them to their parents without their consent.

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Excerpt from ca.movies.yahoo.com

A Nebraska mother and teenage daughter are facing criminal charges after the teen allegedly got an illegal abortion and police say the two buried the fetus.

While the abortion allegedly occurred before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a constitutional right to abortion, a state law on the books since 2010 bans abortions in Nebraska at 20 weeks.

MORE: New abortion restrictions may push patients to more expensive, complicated care

Norfolk police opened an investigation into then 17-year-old Celeste Burgess on April 26, investigating concerns she had given birth prematurely to a stillborn child, according to an affidavit submitted by the Norfolk Police Investigations Unit that was obtained by ABC News.