Tech News

Car battery recycling market gears up for future boom

Researcher Anna Vanderbruggen peers into a vat of dark bubbling liquid, the result of a process she has developed to recover graphite from old lithium-ion batteries.. "Battery manufacturers were not interested" in recycled graphite up to now because "they could get it at low cost in China", Vanderbruggen told AFP. Her method, developed at the Helmholtz Research Institute in Freiberg, Germany, involves extracting graphite from "black mass", a powder that also contains cobalt, nickel, lithium and manganese.

Hong Kong leads Asian markets higher on Alibaba boost

Asian stocks were broadly up on Wednesday to buck losses on Wall Street, led by massive gains for Chinese tech behemoth Alibaba after it announced it would split into six business groups.. Alibaba is one of China's most prominent tech firms, with operations spanning cloud computing, e-commerce, logistics, media and entertainment, and artificial intelligence.

Room for one more? Saudi moves in on Gulf aviation market

Undeterred by a crowded Gulf market, Saudi Arabia is going all in on an aggressive aviation expansion, with a massive jet order and the launch of a new national carrier.. "The question of what the demand side of this equation looks like has yet to be settled, but the Saudis must be pretty confident to push ahead with such a massive aircraft order," he said.

Billion-dollar facelift as Bahrain bids to join Gulf boom

With a multi-billion dollar economic revamp in full swing, tiny Bahrain is vying to keep pace with its Gulf neighbours after more than a decade beset by political unrest.. In 2018, wealthier Gulf countries agreed to support Bahrain's economic goals with $10 billion in loans, giving rise to the current building spree.

Biden kicks off campaign touting US economy

President Joe Biden launched a new drive Tuesday to promote a major theme of his expected reelection campaign, touting what he said was a resurgence of US manufacturing -- and warning Republicans could tank the economy.. On Tuesday Republican Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the US House of Representatives, wrote to Biden accusing him of "refusing to negotiate any meaningful changes to out-of-control government spending."

Prince Harry accuses UK royals of hiding phone hacking from him

Britain's Prince Harry has accused his family of withholding information about phone hacking from him to avoid sitting in the witness box and opening "a can of worms", a witness statement released Tuesday said.. The prince went on to state: "The Institution made it clear that we did not need to know anything about phone hacking and it was made clear to me that the Royal Family did not sit in the witness box because that could open up a can of worms."

Meatball from extinct mammoth unveiled by food tech firm

Food scientists unveiled a giant meatball made from lab-grown flesh of an extinct woolly mammoth on Tuesday, saying the protein from the past showed the way for future foods.. "We chose to make a mammoth meatball to draw attention to the fact that the future of food can be better and more sustainable." jhe/dk/ea

Amsterdam targets rowdy Brits with 'stay away' campaign

Amsterdam launched a campaign on Tuesday to discourage tourists planning drug- and alcohol-fuelled parties -- starting with young British men.. "This online discouragement campaign is aimed at nuisance tourists who want to visit Amsterdam to 'go wild', with all the ensuing consequences."