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The Biden administration laid out an ambitious new goal for the US: produce 20% of the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips by the end of the decade. It currently makes 0% of the so-called leading edge logic chips that are considerably more powerful than older-generation semiconductors, making them crucial for everything from mobile phones to AI to quantum computing. The legislation allows the White House to spend $50 billion in taxpayer dollars — $39 billion specifically earmarked for manufacturing — to try and help reignite American manufacturing in the years ahead.

A conflict between Russia and NATO would be inevitable if Western troops go to Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said today. The Kremlin's comments come after French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to fend off Russia's full-scale invasion. While Macron noted that there was no consensus about troops at this stage, Ukraine has not asked allies for soldiers to fight its cause and other Western governments even scrambled Tuesday to insist troops were not set to be deployed, the mere suggestion sparked a furious response from Moscow....

<p>For more than an hour, sheriff's deputies, firefighters and other volunteers fought to pull Angela Chao out of a vehicle submerged in a pond on a Central Texas ranch, a picturesque location that complicated the rescue attempt, according to a report obtained Friday by the American-Statesman.</p>

The battery will not catch fire or explode in response to punctures or even gunshots, unlike some current batteries that can be unsafe if damaged or exposed to high temperatures, says Chinese startup Betavolt ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chinese company Betavolt claims to have developed a battery that could power mobile phones that never need to be charged and drones that can fly forever. Photo: Betavolt.tech ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Chinese startup claims to have developed a new battery that could power smartphones for 50 years without the need for charging. Beijing-based Betavolt said its nuclear battery is the first in the world to realise...

A township ordinance that limits firing guns to indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and zoning that significantly restricts where the ranges can be located does not violate the Second Amendment, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The man who challenged Stroud Township's gun laws, Jonathan Barris, began to draw complaints about a year after he moved to the home in the Poconos in 2009 and installed a shooting range on his 5-acre property. An officer responding to a complaint said the range had a safe backstop but the targets were in line with a large box store in a nearby shopping...

The Philippines' fishing bureau has accused Chinese fishing vessels of using cyanide to destroy Scarborough Shoal, a fish-rich atoll in the South China Sea contested by both Manila and Beijing. "These Chinese fishermen use cyanide," Nazario Briguera, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said on Saturday, per a translation from Filipino by The Philippine Star. Cyanide fishing is a controversial fishing method that typically involves dumping the highly toxic chemical near coral reefs or in fishing grounds to stun or kill fish so they can be easily captured. It's widely condemned because it indiscriminately affects most...

China has begun reviving its volunteer armies in a significant effort to bolster its military capabilities as World War 3 fears grow. Chinese companies have once again started creating corporate militias, something that was previously an issue in the 1970s. A CNN analysis of state media discovered that at least 16 major firms in the country have already established fighting forces, one of which is a privately owned dairy giant.

If you can't handle spice, you might want to skip this new coffee craze in China. A coffee shop in China has a bizarre beverage on its menu — chilli coffee. Jiangxi's Spicy Chilli Latte, a spice-infused coffee, was launched by Jingshi Coffee, a coffee chain in Jiangxi province, eastern China last December, South China Morning Post reported. A clip posted by Chinese video platform Pear Video on Weibo, showed a Jingshi Coffee employee adding sliced peppers and some hot pepper powder in a cup of iced latte before serving it. According to local media, the popular beverage costs about...

hinese electric-vehicle giant BYD is thinking about building a car assembly plant in Mexico. That’s one way to crack the U.S. market. The possibility of a BYD plant in this region is a big deal and while Tesla, General Motors, and Ford Motor have time to prepare they should start getting ready right now. Wednesday, Nikkei Asia reported that BYD was considering building a car plant in Mexico. Ultimately, that would be the avenue for BYD cars to enter the North American market. BYD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about its expansion plans. “The company’s spokesperson did...

A mass shooting in China is said to have happened in Shandong Province New Year Day, Feb 10. Up to 21 murdered including two families and two police. Murderer(s) used modified staple gun to shoot bullets. Also used cleaver. I’ve been hearing about it for a couple days, writhing for news reports. None have come out yet. China of course censors news. Below is one translated report from those putting out the info. I’ll link to others below. There are also YouTube channels that report on it. From Teacher Li Some reliable news updates from Zhaike Village, Rizhao Ju County,...

A Chinese-born researcher has been arrested for allegedly stealing trade secret technologies developed for the U.S. government to detect nuclear missile launches and to track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).Chenguang Gong, 57, of San Jose, California, was arrested in San Jose on Feb. 6, prosecutors said.Mr. Gong became a U.S. citizen in 2011. He got his master’s degree in electrical engineering from Clemson University and completed some work toward a doctorate at Stanford University, according to court documents.From January 2023 to April 2023, Mr. Gong worked as an engineer for a research and development...

President Donald Trump joined Maria Bartiromo for an interview this weekend that aired yesterday on Sunday Morning Futures. During the interview Trump suggested up to 60% tariffs on Chinese goods coming into America. Trump | China Gets Hit with Massive Tariffs – But I Want to "Get Along" Donald Trump will allegedly impose tariffs of 60%+ on Chinese products if he wins the 2024 election. The former president said Beijing is taking advantage of the US but he didn't want to ignite another… pic.twitter.com/dewVXsMtEz — RT_India (@RT_India_news) February 5, 2024 On Monday the China markets sunk to 5-year lows. That...

A decade ago, Elon Musk laughed off the threat posed by Chinese electric carmaker BYD. He's not laughing now. The Tesla CEO warned investors in a recent earnings call that Chinese EV firms will "demolish" their Western rivals if trade barriers aren't put in place to limit their expansion, after BYD finally overtook Tesla as the world's top seller of electric cars. "The Chinese car companies are the most competitive car companies in the world," Musk told investors during Tesla's Q4 earnings call. "If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in...

Elon Musk’s Tesla has been one of the largest electric vehicle manufacturers in recent years thanks to its range of reasonably priced, high-tech EVs like the Tesla Model Y and the newly introduced Cybertruck. Chinese manufacturers have made huge progress in recent years by expanding across Europe and North America with the aim of securing a significant global market share. Major Chinese firms can benefit from cheaper production costs and greater access to materials needed to manufacture electric vehicles, putting them ahead of the competition. Elon Musk has now warned that manufacturers from China will have “significant success” outside of...

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said that Ireland’s policy on China and Taiwan has not changed, despite reports in Chinese state media following his meeting in Dublin with Chinese premier Li Qiang. Earlier, CGTN quoted Mr. Varadkar as saying that Ireland “will always abide by the one-China principle, and hopes that China will achieve peaceful reunification at an early date”. However, Mr. Varadkar said Ireland supported the One China “policy” on Taiwan, which is distinct from the One China “principle”. He said: “I reaffirmed our policy, which is the One China policy, that we recognize that Taiwan is part of China....

Elysian says the world is vastly underestimating the capabilities of battery-electric airlinersElysian Aircraft A Dutch startup says everyone's hugely underestimating the potential of battery-electric aircraft – that it's possible to build large battery-electric airliners covering distances most assume we'll need hydrogen for. Elysian plans to prove it. The company doesn't believe it'll need some giant leap in batteries to do it, either; it says it can take 90 passengers some 800 km (497 miles) using a pack with 360 Wh/kg. Amprius, meanwhile, was shipping 450-Wh/kg cells back in 2022, and Chinese giant CATL launched a 500-Wh/kg "condensed" battery last year....

According to what Bloomberg News describes as a US intelligence report, Chinese authorities discovered that some of their missiles’ fuel tanks were filled with water – and that this was a marquee example of corruption whose unraveling led to Chinese President Xi’s recent military purge. Bloomberg reported that it got the information from unnamed people who were “familiar with” a US intelligence assessment and that those US sources also said that new Xinjiang missile field silos were fitted with lids that were not installed properly and would not work – taken as another example of corruption. Pentagon officials and “experts”...

Chinese scientists have developed a cost-effective method of converting coal into protein, which they say could feed livestock much more efficiently than natural plants, while using a tiny fraction of the land. According to Our World in Data, grazing land for livestock and farming land for animal feed production combine to take up an astonishing 40 million square kilometers (15.4 million square miles) of land. That's well over a quarter of the Earth's entire dry land area, and nearly 40% of the land defined as "habitable." This is one of the reasons the meat-heavy Western diet is under fire as...

David Menzies, a reporter for Canada’s conservative Rebel News Network, was arrested Monday for asking Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland a question after a police officer accused him of assault in what appears to be a fabricated charge. Video of the event, posted by Rebel News chief Ezra Levant, went viral on Monday. It shows Menzies asking Freeland about Canada’s refusal to label Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IGRC) as a terrorist organization — an ordinary question.

Momentum seemed to be on their side of US lawmakers this year to stop 150 million Americans from using TikTok. What happened? Banning TikTok in the US seemed almost inevitable at the start of 2023. The previous year saw a trickle of legislative actions against the short-form video app, after dozens of individual states barred TikTok from government devices in late 2022 over security concerns. At the top of the new year, the US House followed suit, and four universities blocked TikTok from campus wifi. The move would effectively require TikTok and WeChat to shut down in the US or...