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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) – The world’s top-selling carmaker Toyota said Tuesday it no longer expects to meet its annual production target with operations hampered by the global chip crunch. A worldwide shortage of microchips — essential components of modern cars — has forced many automakers including Toyota to slow or temporarily halt production. In September, the Japanese giant lowered the number of vehicles it hopes to make in the year to March 2022 to nine […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Scotland, fresh from hosting the COP26 climate summit, on Monday awarded offshore wind project concessions for almost £700 million ($960 million, 840 million euros). Crown Estate Scotland announced in a statement that it has granted 17 concessions via an auction process to energy companies including BP, Royal Dutch Shell and SSE, as well as Spain’s Iberdrola and France’s TotalEnergies. The final awards received a total of 74 bids, totalled £699.2 […]
by Isabel MALSANG Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) – Europe is seeking to expand its lithium mining and refining capacity and wean itself off imports as the “white gold” becomes a vital resource in the fight against climate change. Alongside nickel and cobalt, lithium allows electricity to be stored and transported, making them essential in electric battery production as car manufacturers move away from polluting fossil fuels. But Europe mostly depends on external sources for […]
https://youtu.be/BgxmhTHnvbQ by Lucie AUBOURG The most powerful space telescope ever built completed a tricky two-week-long deployment phase Saturday, unfolding its final golden mirror panel, as it readies to study every phase of cosmic history. Engineering teams in the James Webb Space Telescope’s control room cheered as confirmation came back that its final wing was deployed and latched into place. “I’m emotional about it — what an amazing milestone,” Thomas Zurbuchen, a senior NASA engineer, said […]
by Tomohiro OSAKI TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa said Friday his trip into space had given him a new appreciation for Earth, and he now hopes to plunge into the ocean’s forbidding Mariana Trench. Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano spent 12 days on the International Space Station last month, where they documented life in space for one million YouTube subscribers. Speaking Friday for the first time since his return to […]
by Julie JAMMOT LAS VEGAS, United States (AFP) — A ring shimmers on display at the Consumer Electronics Show, but this is no mere piece of jewelry — it’s packed with sensors capable of detecting body temperature, respiration and much more. Startups at the annual gadget extravaganza in Las Vegas touted technology-enhanced accessories designed to look fetching on the outside while scrutinizing what is happening on the inside of wearers. “We want to democratize personal […]
by Joshua MELVIN LAS VEGAS, United States (AFP) — A lifelike, child-size doll writhed and cried before slightly shocked onlookers snapping smartphone pictures Wednesday at the CES tech show — where the line between cool and slightly disturbing robots can be thin. “Oh! The eyes are very scary,” said Marcelo Humerez, an exhibitor from Peru who happened upon the Pedia-Roid, which is designed for medical training, as its eyes went white. But just a few […]
by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed its tennis-court sized sunshield Tuesday, a critical milestone for the success of its mission to study every phase of cosmic history, NASA said. “All five layers of the sunshield are fully tensioned,” said an announcer at the observatory’s control center in Baltimore, where team members cheered, a live feed showed. The 70-foot (21 meter) long, kite-shaped apparatus acts like a […]
by Chris Lefkow WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A time capsule buried 130 years ago in the base of a statue of a Confederate general revealed its secrets on Tuesday — bullets, buttons and currency from the 1861-65 US Civil War along with other artifacts. The copper box was found Monday embedded in the stone pedestal of a statue of General Robert E. Lee, who commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the bloody conflict […]
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AFP) – Dystopian nightmare or a simple convenience? A Swedish company implanting microchips under the skin has is promoting its devices for use as a Covid-19 health pass in a country with thousands of early adopters. “I think it’s very much part of my own integrity to have myself chipped and keep my personal data there with me, I actually feel that it’s even more controlled on my end,” Amanda Back, a Stockholm […]
by Poornima WEERASEKARA Agence France-Presse BAODING, China (AFP) – Beaten, forced off their land, cheated out of money, and even falsely imprisoned — farmers in China say they are paying a heavy price as authorities rush to deliver on ambitious pledges to ramp up national green energy output. China has vowed the upcoming Winter Olympics 2022 will be the first Games to be run entirely on wind and solar energy, and have built scores of […]
by Neil SANDS Agence France-Presse WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AFP) – A two-tonne rubber whale can take on a life of its own in the frigid shallows of a windswept New Zealand beach, particularly when a bedraggled group of would-be rescuers is trying to wrestle it into a harness. “Keep the blowhole clear… you’re too close to the tail, one swipe can do a serious injury to yourself and the whale,” an instructor yells as the […]
