Article content One of the main hurdles for many customers considering an all-electric vehicle is the total driving range available – or lack thereof – on a fully charged battery. The distance of roughly 450 kilometres seems to be a pretty good baseline these days, at least without installing enormous batteries the size of Vancouver Island (ahem, Chevrolet Silverado EV, ahem). Numerous companies have been working on so-called solid-state batteries, units which do a much better job in the field of energy density than the technology currently available, such as liquid-state lithium-ion batteries. This week, researchers from Honda outlined their desires in this arena, hoping to use solid-state tech to double the range of the automaker’s EVs by the end of this decade. Keiji Otsu, president of Honda R&D, has been bullish on the prospect. “It’s a game-changer of the EV era,” he told Reuters reporters during a tour of the company’s solid-state battery pilot production line late November. The assembly in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, is pencilled to crank out all-solid-state batteries beginning January 2025, following an investment of 43 billion yen (CDN$388 million) , nearly half of which was furnished through subsidies from the Japanese government. Over the next five years, Honda hopes to cut battery sizes in half while chopping at least 25% of the cost from the things. Basic math tells us doubling the energy density of a battery and halving its size means a company could package a much smaller and lighter battery into an EV without sacrificing any range; or, as would likely be preferred in this market, retain the approximate size of today’s cells whilst cranking total driving range to 900 kilometres or more. This would handsomely address concerns about range anxiety, especially if cost and weight are kept under control. Toss in a charging capability that’s at least as good as what is on the market today, and it is likely electric vehicles would become more appealing to a wider variety of shoppers. Of course, EVs aren’t right for everyone, no matter the range or recharge stats — the quicker car companies and governments get that through their heads, the better off we’ll all be. Honda is open to sharing the tech for a price, saying it has “no reason to refuse” the external sale of its solid-state batteries if such a path is mutually beneficial to it and its partners. Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on X , Tiktok and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice.Ontario First Nations mull next steps on child welfare amid various legal opinions
Police arrested a 26-year-old man on Monday in the Manhattan killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO after they say a Pennsylvania McDonald's worker alerted authorities to a customer who resembled the suspected gunman. The suspect, identified by police as Luigi Nicholas Mangione, had a gun believed to be the one used in Wednesday’s attack on Brian Thompson , as well as writings expressing anger at corporate America, police said. Here are some of the latest developments in the ongoing investigation: Mangione was taken into custody at around 9:15 a.m. after police received a tip that he was eating at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania, about 85 miles (137 kilometers) east of Pittsburgh, police said. Mangione was being held in Pennsylvania on gun charges and will eventually be extradited to New York to face charges in connection with Thompson’s death, said NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny. In addition to a three-page, handwritten document that suggests he harbored “ill will toward corporate America,” Kenny said Mangione also had a ghost gun , a type of weapon that can be assembled at home and is difficult to trace. Officers questioned Mangione, who was acting suspiciously and carrying multiple fraudulent IDs, as well as a U.S. passport, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference. Officers also found a suppressor, “consistent with the weapon used in the murder,” the commissioner said. He had clothing and a mask similar to those worn by the shooter and a fraudulent New Jersey ID matching one the suspect used to check into a New York City hostel before the shooting, Tisch said. Kenny said Mangione was born and raised in Maryland, has ties to San Francisco and that his last known address is in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mangione, who was valedictorian of his Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press on Monday. He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication. His social media posts also suggest that he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations. The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. Some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent people, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have had children attend the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things,” according to a post on the school website. He praised their collective inventiveness and pioneering mindset. Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report. The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. A swarm of reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance. Luigi Mangione is one of 37 grandchildren of Nick Mangione, according to his obituary. Luigi Mangione's grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes ranging from Catholic organizations to colleges and the arts. One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione. A spokesman for the lawmaker's office confirmed the relationship Monday. Police said the person who killed Thompson left a hostel on Manhattan's Upper West Side at 5:41 a.m. on Wednesday. Just 11 minutes later, he was seen on surveillance video walking back and forth in front of the New York Hilton Midtown, wearing a distinctive backpack. At 6:44 a.m., he shot Thompson at a side entrance to the hotel, fled on foot, then climbed aboard a bicycle and within four minutes had entered Central Park. Another security camera recorded the gunman leaving the park near the American Museum of Natural History at 6:56 a.m. still on the bicycle but without the backpack. After getting in a taxi, he headed north to a bus terminal near the George Washington Bridge, arriving at around 7:30 a.m. From there, the trail of video evidence runs cold. Police have not located video of the suspected shooter exiting the building, leading them to believe he likely took a bus out of town. Police said they are still investigating the path the suspect took to Pennsylvania. “This just happened this morning," Kenny said. "We’ll be working, backtracking his steps from New York to Altoona, Pennsylvania,” Kenny said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore and Cedar Attanasio in New York contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.Christ is a temporal mark- After and Before Christ. For the politics in India, Manmohan Singh serves as a reference – After Him and Before Him. Christ, his christian followers believe, was crucified. The politics Manmohan Singh represented and conducted, was also crucified. His personality, his demeanour, his ideals – all this is a misfit in the new age India. Long before his departure on Thursday this week, India suffered a bereavement of a greater magnitude – death of the political leadership Manmohan Singh represented. Looking back he appears like a creature from a different planet who once was the Prime Minister of a country called India – a human prime minister. Never an accidental Prime Minister. It was good luck for India that this economist gentleman was eyed by a prescient Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, to become the finance minister of India. He came, he saw and he liberated the Indian economy. What he also witnessed in his later years, was the devastation of Indian politics. Manmohan Singh was many things rolled in one. An academic who taught his subject at the highest level. A banker who served as the chairman of RBI. An economist who brought in radical reforms. A prime minister who made a coalition work for 10 long years, and navigated his country in such crucial matters as the Indo-US nuclear deal. Name a sector of governance, economy, politics and diplomacy where he didn’t leave an imprint. Another thing he never spoke about it. His was a person full of substance, never full of himself. He was a human being who wouldn’t scare fellow humans. So all humans of the world, it is time to mourn. That is the reason why someone like Anwar Ibrahim, from a far off land, Malaysia, is so saddened by his demise. If anyone has to take a peek into the person the Singh was, read the condolence message Anwar Ibrahim posted on X. Like him there must be hundreds, nay thousands, of hearts he must have touched. A superficial knowledge of states and governments tell us that it is the system that matters in the end. No matter who rules, no matter who is in the chair, it is the national interest and the state policy that finally holds the key. But that is not the entire truth. The person at the top informs everything down under. India just observed 100th anniversary of A B Vajpayee. Wasn’t there something in the man that we had a different political atmosphere? He belonged to an ideological politics that was different from Manmohan’s. But he shared the grace and magnanimity in his person with Manmohan Singh. That is why he was, and is, praised by people across party and ideological divides. Manmohan Singh was gentle and calm, graceful and profound, honest and efficient; the strength of his personality was in his humility. Unfortunately, these traits are no longer in demand. The times have changed. The choices have changed. Now is the time for leaders who can inflict fear in others, who can cast a spell of madness on a rabble, who can raise rhetoric to Himalayan heights, who can bring skies down and turn the earth upside down. Manmohan Singh, by his very disposition brought ease and calm; on the contrary. In the din of today’s politics, who can match the reserves of calm the frail body of Manmohan Singh carried. He had a glacial personality, today’s politics needs volcanic eruption. Now that the man is no more, we see everyone in India, and beyond, praise him. But it still pains to think of the occasions when the Indian media made deprecating remarks about him, and the political opponents added to the toxicity. A man of great character was subjected to the smallness of politics that India spewed after he was no longer in the seat. In his maiden budget speech in 1991, Singh quoted Victor Hugo: “No power on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” He had rightly sensed it then. He brought the Indian economy on the global map. That was the time Manmohan Singh was brought into the politics of India. When his political party lost power, the time for some really ghastly ideas came. Victor Hugo’s quote was applicable then, and is applicable now. Unfortunately, it looks like Indian politics and the Indian society are bursting with ideas that change the very image of an ideal man. Manmohan Singh, even Vajpayee, don’t fit that image. The tragic in the times after Manmohan Singh is that Manmohan Singh is no longer an image of an ideal statesman. How could he live more?‘First Buddy’ Elon Musk accuses Trump impeachment witness of ‘treason’ and calls for ‘appropriate penalty’
Devlin DeFrancesco returns full time to NTT IndyCar Series
As officials of Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited (KBJNL) are all set to release water from the Basavasagar Reservoir into canals on January 2, 2025, farmers in Yadgir district are getting ready for paddy plantation for the rabi season. However, many of them are facing a peculiar problem, i.e., shortage of experienced farm workers. Farmers in the region benefiting from the irrigation network of the Upper Krishna Project grow paddy as a major crop, while cotton and sugarcane are secondary crops. The Irrigation Consultation Committee, in its recent meeting, decided to discharge water from the reservoir on January 2. Paddy farmers who have prepared nurseries are, however, finding it difficult to find experienced workers to carry out plantation work. “Normally, we engage workers locally and also from the irrigated areas in Raichur district for plantation every season. But, this time, we may face a scarcity of workers because farmers are in a hurry to take up paddy plantation immediately after water is made available,” farmer Vijay Gulagi of Satyampet village said. According to farmers leaders, the reasons for the scarcity of labour are multifaceted. “A majority of local workers are busy in their village fairs being organised between the last week of December and January 15, which is considered the peak time for paddy plantation. And, they do not engage in any fieldwork. Moreover, for cotton and red gram growers, it is harvesting time and they too require workers during this period. Naturally, this leads to scarcity of farm workers,” district president of Karnataka Pranta Raita Sangha Channappa Anegundi said. The sudden surge in demand for workers has naturally forced farmers to look for farm workers from other States like West Bengal, Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand for paddy plantation. And, as farmers have no time to wait for local farm workers, they are now eager to avail themselves of services of workers from other States, who have already reached the district. “Last year, I engaged farm workers from other States during paddy cultivation, as I had to ensure that the water released from the reservoir was put to good use. I employed them paying wages they sought. There is no other option for us now and I will have to engage farm workers from other States for paddy plantation,” Vijay Gulagi told The Hindu . No doubt it costs more, but farmers are forced to employ farm workers from outside considering it as the need of the hour. In fact, they will have to arrange for food and erect shanties for accommodation of farm workers coming from outside. While the local farm workers charge ₹4,000 for per acre of paddy plantation, those coming from outside demand ₹5,000 per acre. However, some farmers are comfortable getting workers from outside, including those from Andhra Pradesh who have settled down in Yadgir district. According to farmers, farm workers from outside are more meticulous and systematic in their work, which make them the most sought-after during these times. “Maintaining proper measurement while planting paddy is more helpful in increasing yield. And, moreover, they complete work on time,” Mr. Channappa Anegundi said. He is, however, of the opinion that adaptation of technology will help address the issue of labour scarcity. When contacted, Joint Director of Agriculture Department Ratendranath Sugur admitted that migration of farm workers is a common phenomenon. He, however, said that farm workers from other States migrate to the district only for sugarcane harvesting and not for paddy plantation. Published - December 28, 2024 08:13 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditBrendan Rodgers praises Celtic and Cameron Carter-Vickers’ mentalityCeltic manager Brendan Rodgers praised Cameron Carter-Vickers and his side’s mentality after they dug out a Champions League point following the defender’s disastrous own goal against Club Brugge. The normally reliable centre-back passed the ball into his own net in the 26th minute after failing to spot goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel’s positioning. But a brilliant turn and finish on the hour mark from Daizen Maeda changed the game and ultimately earned the Scottish champions a 1-1 home draw. On the opener, Rodgers said: “Mistakes happen and it was just unfortunate. He’s played that pass a million times and it’s gone back and then we’ve been able to play forward. It was just one of those unfortunate moments in the game that happens. “But he’s a really, really tough character. He’s a great guy, he picked himself up. He was really strong and aggressive again in the game and got on with it and had a real bravery in the second half, because he was the one carrying the ball forward for us to start the attack.” Despite the gift, Brugge were worthy of their lead and Rodgers admitted his side were too passive in their pressing in the opening half. Some tactical tweaks – and the introduction of Paulo Bernardo – helped Celtic dominate after Maeda’s equaliser, although Brugge had a goal disallowed for a marginal offside. “I can only credit the players for the second half, because we had to fight,” Rodgers said. “And we’re still one of those teams that’s really pushing to try and make a mark at this level. So to make the comeback, score the goal, play with that courage, I was so pleased. “You want to win but I’ve been here enough times to have lost a game like that, but we didn’t. We showed a real strong mentality and we kept pushing right to the very end and the players did well. “I thought they showed great courage in the second half because we weren’t at our level in the first half. Sometimes a game like that can get away from you, but it didn’t. “We stayed with it, showed that determination, showed that mentality, never to quit, to keep going. And then we were much, much better, much freer in the second half. “So we’re on eight points, nine to play for. We’re still very much on course to get to where we want to get to and still three games to go.” Rodgers added: “It’s 20 games now and we’ve won 16 and drawn three and lost one, so it shows you the mentality is there, and especially at this level, you need to have that.”