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Excerpt from www.mining.com

Additionally, the researchers emphasized the safety advantages of their aqueous battery over non-aqueous lithium batteries, notorious for their high flammability.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the water-based battery “shows promising potential for the development of next-generation high-energy-density and safe rechargeable aqueous batteries,” as quoted by the researchers.

One of the authors, Li Xianfeng, a professor at the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, stated that their findings “may expand aqueous battery applications in the power battery field.”

Currently, most electric vehicles rely on lithium-ion batteries to operate.

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Excerpt from www.forbes.com

The United States military has invested tens of billions of dollars over a half-century in the research and development of directed energy weapons. Now, it’s actually using them in battle.

The Army has used lasers to take down hostile drones in the Middle East, Doug Bush, the Army’s head of acquisitions, recently told Forbes. It’s the first time the Defense Department has acknowledged that such weapons have been used in combat.

“They’ve worked in some cases,” Bush said. “In the right conditions they’re highly effective against certain threats.”

He declined to detail the weapons used, but one appears to be a system called P-HEL. It’s based on the defense contractor BlueHalo’s Locust laser, a boxy pallet-mounted device for fixed-site defense that’s commanded with an Xbox gaming controller. The weapon is designed to discharge a relatively low-powered 20-kilowatt laser beam that melts a critical point on a drone in seconds, knocking it from the sky.

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Excerpt from www.thecollegefix.com

Modern equivalent of ‘scrawling cruel rumors on the bathroom wall,’ president says

The University of North Carolina System plans to ban anonymous social media apps across its 16 campuses, arguing the technology companies have a “reckless disregard” for students’ wellbeing.

Other universities are considering similar bans, prompting concerns from free speech advocates.

UNC System President Peter Hans announced the plan in a two page statement to the UNC Board of Governors earlier this semester. Hans said social media apps are the modern equivalent of “scrawling cruel rumors on the bathroom wall,” and the most destructive ones will be blocked by the UNC System infrastructure.

His statement did not include a timeline for the social media block. The College Fix reached out to UNC three times via email and phone call for comment in the past two weeks, but the university did not respond.

“We’re targeting a handful of smaller, hyper-local platforms that have shown reckless disregard for the wellbeing of young people and an outright indifference to bullying and bad behavior,” Hans said in his statement.

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Excerpt from www.iraqinews.com

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The Iraqi Ministry of Interior began purchasing medium-range weapons from citizens after opening 697 registration offices in Baghdad and the rest of the Iraqi governorates.

The Interior Ministry announced earlier that it allocated one billion Iraqi dinars (more than $763,000) for each governorate to complete the purchasing process, according to Alsabah Daily, the official newspaper in Iraq.

The secretary of the committee tasked with weapon control, Brigadier General Mansour Ali Sultan, said in November that 70 percent of a database related to arms possessed by individuals has been completed.

“The Iraqi law allows every citizen who is 25 years old or older to possess weapons,” Sultan explained.

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Excerpt from apnews.com

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Campus protests by pro-Palestinian activists spread across Europe on Tuesday as some called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza, while schools increasingly faced the question under debate in the U.S.: Allow or intervene?

German police broke up a protest by several hundred pro-Palestinian activists who had occupied a courtyard at Berlin’s Free University. Protesters occupied a university building in Amsterdam hours after police detained 169 people at a different campus location. Two remained in custody on suspicion of committing public violence.

Elsewhere in Europe, some student camps have been allowed to stay in places like the lawns of Cambridge. In recent days, students have held protests or set up encampments in Finland, Denmark, Italy, Spain, France and Britain.

In Berlin, protesters put up about 20 tents and formed a human chain around them. Most covered their faces with medical masks and draped keffiyeh scarves around their heads, shouting slogans such as “Viva, viva Palestina.”

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Excerpt from www.ctvnews.ca

A knife attack at a hospital in southwestern China on Tuesday killed two people and injured 21 others, authorities said.

No motive was given for the attack at Zhenxiong County People’s Hospital in Yunnan province. The suspect is a male from a village in the same county, a Zhenxiong police statement said. The injured were being treated, it said.

A witness told Red Star News, an online outlet, that he had narrowly escaped the attack and that a doctor or doctors were among the injured. Video from the witness showed people who were bleeding and had fallen to the ground, and one older person trying to help another, the Red Star social media post said.

Earlier media reports said 23 people had been injured, but the police statement said the total was 21. A video posted online by Guizhou Province Television showed a man being taken away by police.

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Excerpt from www.nbcsandiego.com

The headline of this story originally stated that protesters had been pepper-sprayed, which has not been confirmed. Video shows people rinsing the eyes out of at least one person, but, if they were hit with pepper-spray, it’s not clear why. — Ed.

After arrests earlier in the morning, a large crowd of protesters gathered near UC San Diego’s Price Center on Monday, where a bus with barred windows that is operated by the San Diego Sheriff’s Department had been brought on campus, likely to transport those whom had been taken into custody.

At least one person was spotted using a water bottle to rinse out another protester’s eyes.

The large crowd, while not surrounding the bus, certainly impeded its departure after several of those in attendance began banging on the sides of the coach.

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Excerpt from www.bbc.com

Columbia University has cancelled its main graduation after weeks of protests on campus over the Israel-Gaza war.

The Ivy League school said it was ditching the 15 May commencement in favour of smaller celebrations to focus on “keeping them safe”.

The New York City university said it had arrived at the decision after consultations with student leaders.

Colleges across the US are bracing for disruptions at graduations amid pro-Palestinian protests.

Columbia University said in a statement on Monday: “Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families.

“They are eager to cross the stage to applause and family pride and hear from their school’s invited guest speakers.

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Excerpt from www.wionews.com

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday (May 8) ordered the transfer of former prime minister Imran Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, from the Banigala residence to Adiala Jail, her lawyer said.

In her petition to the Islamabad HC, Bibi accused the authorities of violating her privacy and serving contaminated food in her home cell.

She and her lawyers also said that the Banigala residence, which had been declared a sub-jail, was dominated by men. The prison staff has denied the claims.

Bibi further accused the authorities of detaining her in one room at Khan’s hilltop mansion in Islamabad. The couple has been detained since January conviction on charges of illegally selling state gifts.

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Excerpt from www.ndtv.com

Kim Ki Nam, one of the longest-serving North Korean officials who served all three generations of its leaders cementing their political legitimacy and heading the propaganda apparatus for the dynastic state, has died, official media said on Wednesday.

North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visited the bier of Kim at 2 a.m. on Wednesday to pay tribute “with bitter grief over the loss of a veteran revolutionary who had remained boundlessly loyal” to the country until the very end, it said.

Kim died on Tuesday at the age of 94, official KCNA news agency said.

He was part of a core group of loyal officials who had worked to sustain the three generations of Kims by solidifying their legitimacy carrying the blood line of a revolutionary leader who founded the state in 1945.

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Excerpt from www.erienewsnow.com

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Excerpt from thehill.com

A Western New York judge on Tuesday invalidated a ballot measure known as the Equal Rights Amendment that would have codified reproductive rights and protections against other discrimination into the state constitution.

State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle, a Rochester-area Republican, ruled that the state Legislature did not follow correct procedure when it passed the measure last year.

“The constitution is the supreme will of the people,” he wrote. “Its amendment should be undertaken by strict adherence to the will of the people.”

The ruling deals a blow to Democrats’ attempt to bring the issues before voters and boost turnout in November, when New Yorkers will vote on a handful of competitive House seats that could determine control of the chamber.

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Excerpt from www.shawlocal.com

Gov. JB Pritzker unexpectedly moved away last week from his long-standing opposition to taxing services, saying he didn’t want to start taking ideas off the table as lawmakers search for ways to fund and reform the Chicago region’s mass transit system. A major business group predictably pushed back.

As you may know, Chicago area’s mass transit agencies are facing a $730 million “fiscal cliff” in 2026. The federal government’s COVID-era subsidies will expire that year. Also, ridership has declined as service worsens, operating costs have increased and average fare prices have fallen.

According to a report last year from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, imposing a service tax could be part of the solution. The CMAP report claimed adding a service tax to the state’s existing 6.25 percent state tax rate could generate $1.1 to $1.9 billion in 2026. Some legislators are proposing a $1.5 billion annual funding increase for transit, as part of a consolidation effort.

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Excerpt from www.ndtv.com

The White House said Tuesday the Israel’s closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable”.

Washington:

The White House said Tuesday the closure of border crossings into Gaza was “unacceptable,” after Israel sent tanks into the southern city of Rafah and seized control of the crossing with Egypt.

“The crossings that have been closed need to be reopened, it is unacceptable for them to be closed,” Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a briefing, adding that another crossing, at Kerem Shalom, was expected to reopen Wednesday.

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Excerpt from www.sci.news

A team of physicists and chemists has discovered a previously unknown way in which light interacts with matter, a finding that could lead to improved solar power systems, light-emitting diodes, semiconductor lasers and other technological advancements.

Kharintsev et al. found that photons can obtain substantial momentum, similar to that of electrons in solid materials, when confined to nanometer-scale spaces in silicon. Image credit: Kharintsev et al.

“Silicon is Earth’s second-most abundant element, and it forms the backbone of modern electronics,” said Dr. Dmitry Fishman, a chemist at the University of California, Irvine.

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Excerpt from www.bloomberg.com

Podcast: Tesla Pulls the Plug on Supercharger  Bloomberg

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Excerpt from uk.news.yahoo.com

Georgia’s ruling party bussed in thousands of people from across the country on Monday for a rally in the capital aimed at countering days of mass anti-government protests over a controversial “foreign influence” bill.

The Black Sea Caucasus nation has been gripped by mass anti-government protests since mid-April, when the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced plans to pass a law that critics say resembles Russian legislation used to silence dissent.

The European Union has said that, if adopted, the proposed legislation would undermine Tbilisi‘s long-standing bid for EU membership.