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Researchers have come up with a new way to generate electricity with solar panel technology by harvesting the energy produced by raindrops. The method, proposed by a team from Tsinghua University in China, involves a device called a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that creates electrification from liquid-solid contact. These are typically used to harvest energy from waves, as droplet-based TENGs (D-TENGs) have previously faced technical limitations that prevented them from working at any significant scale. By using solar panel bridge arrays, the researchers discovered such barriers could be overcome “Referring to the design of solar panels in which multiple solar power generation units are connected in parallel to supply the load, we are proposing a simple and effective method for raindrop harvesting,” said Professor Zong Li, who led the research. “The peak power output of the bridge array generators is nearly five times higher than that of the conventional large-area raindrop energy harvesting. The results of this study will provide a feasible scheme for large-area raindrop energy harvesting.” FULL ARTICLE

Former Vice President Mike Pence, a Republican presidential contender, said Sunday that Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, were “reckless” but that he’s “not yet convinced” they were crimes. “While his words were reckless, based on what I know, I am not yet convinced that they were criminal,” Pence said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Trump said last week that special counsel Jack Smith notified him in a letter that he is the target of an investigation by a Washington-based grand jury examining the Jan. 6 riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, which he said effectively means he will be indicted for a third time. The letter mentions three federal statutes related to the deprivation of rights, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and tampering with a witness, two attorneys with direct knowledge of the document have said. “I hope it does not come to that,” Pence said, arguing that it should be left up to the American people to judge Trump’s conduct around Jan. 6" FULL STORY

GOP presidential candidates have started to go after the president for his lack of a relationship with one of Hunter Biden’s daughters. President Joe Biden’s family story has long been one of his greatest strengths politically. Republicans are starting to think they can turn it into a liability. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has had no shortage of issues on which he’s attacked Biden — immigration, the military or “woke” policies. But speaking to a group of Republicans about parental rights in Tennessee last weekend, he made it more personal. “Why don’t you spend some time with your granddaughter in Arkansas, or at least recognize her existence before you start worrying about our kids?” DeSantis said. He also tweeted a jab at Biden on the issue on Friday. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley floated this attack on Thursday as well when she talked about her call for mental competency tests of presidents and quipped that they should include a question about “how many grandchildren you have.” FULL STORY

Twitter owner Elon Musk has said he wants to get rid of the Twitter bird logo, and replace it with an "X". However, Mr Musk also has a history of making statements that fail to happen or are not serious. Mr Musk, who has changed the name of the business to X Corp, said the replacement "should have been done a long time ago". According to reports, the billionaire wants to create a "super app" called "X" which is similar to China's WeChat. He said on Sunday he was looking to change Twitter's logo, tweeting: "And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds." He then said that an interim logo would go live later the same day. Mr Musk posted an image of a flickering "X" on Twitter, and later in a Twitter Spaces audio chat, replied "Yes" when asked if the Twitter logo will change, adding that "it should have been done a long time ago". FULL STORY

The Ukraine Grain Deal. 22 July 2022 - 17 July 2023. A short life, with its flaws, but the only diplomatic light in the darkness of Russia's invasion. It had allowed Ukraine to export its grain to the world through the Black Sea. A third less than normal, but still 33 million tonnes. However, in recent months, its health had deteriorated. Russia was accused of slowing the route with naval blockades and long inspections, and the deal finally succumbed. Last week saw Moscow's official withdrawal. Russia then launched a wave of missile strikes on ports it once promised to leave alone. EXPLAINED: What was the Ukraine grain deal? One site destroyed was a grain terminal owned by one of Ukraine's biggest producers, Kernel. Officials say more than 60,000 tonnes of grain has been destroyed in the past week. "We stopped our exports for the first two to three months of the war," explains Yevhen Osypov, Kernel's CEO. FULL STORY

Corfu has become the latest Greek island to issue an evacuation order, as the country grapples with wildfires. Photos uploaded to social media show flames engulfing Corfu. A fire broke out on the northern part of the island which is popular with British tourists. It comes after some 19,000 people were evacuated on the island of Rhodes, which has also been hit by fires. Many were forced to flee their hotels as the flames continued to spread from the centre of the Greek island. Greece has been grappling with searing heat, with temperatures exceeding 40C across the country, and fires have blazed for nearly a week in some areas. A national holiday that had been planned for Monday has been cancelled "in view of the extraordinary conditions prevailing in the country due to the fires", the Greek presidency said. Late on Sunday evening Greece's Emergency Communications Service published evacuation orders for a number of areas of Corfu. People in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies on the island have been told to evacuate. Boats in the area had been dispatched to evacuate residents by sea, a government official said. FULL STORY

Tensions between Russia and Poland are heating up after Poland moved troops near its border with Belarus amid concerns about the Wagner Group's presence in the region. Russian President Vladimir Putin exiled the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit, to Belarus following an attempted mutiny by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin against Moscow's military leadership last month, fueling concerns about stability across Eastern Europe. Poland, which shares a strategically critical northeastern border with Belarus, transferred 1,000 troops near its border earlier this month due to these concerns as a Russian lawmaker suggested the Wagner Group could attempt to seize the Suwalki Gap and cut off the Baltic states from the rest of Europe.

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China has sent nearly 40 warplanes toward Taiwan just days before the island plans to hold military exercises to practise defending itself from a potential invasion. Taiwan is set to conduct annual military exercises next week, including combat readiness drills, and to prepare its civilians for evacuations in the case of a possible air raid. The evacuation exercise has drawn attention because it represents a significant departure from previous years – while normally people are just asked to go indoors for 30 minutes while the air raid sirens sound, this week police will escort anyone out on the street at the time of the drill to their nearest bomb shelter. The drills are also covering a much greater sample of the population than previously, covering districts that account for a combined three million of Taiwan’s 23 million people, according to the Financial Times. FULL STORY

Republican presidential candidate and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took another swipe at former President Trump on Friday, claiming he’s a “con artist” amid his legal woes. The Trump campaign’s financial disclosures for the first quarter revealed that just over half of the money he raised for his 2024 bid has been used to pay legal fees, the Washington Post reported. Christie called the move “ridiculous,” and claimed the former president’s supporters were likely left in the dark. “You really need to have people who are donating $10, $20, $50 to your campaign, pay for your high priced lawyers for indictments that you’ve all put on yourself by paying off a porn star by holding back classified documents, despite the fact that they’ve been asked for voluntarily for 18 months?” Christie said in an interview on CNN. “I mean, this is ridiculous. And he is using these people in a way that I don’t think that they completely know about.” “People are giving to him and because they think it’s going to help him get reelected president when all he’s doing is grifting off these people,” he continued. “He is a con artist, who is conning them out of their money, pretending he wants to be their president. Well, what he wants is a free ride for the legal defense he’s getting for the criminal charges he personally faces.” FULL STORY

From Video footage A drone attack on an ammunition depot in Crimea has led to civilian evacuations and disrupted transport, Russian authorities have said. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Crimea, said Ukraine was behind the attack, without providing evidence. Mr Aksyonov said local residents living within five kilometres of the blast were being evacuated. Rail services across the Kerch bridge have also reportedly been halted. Earlier on Saturday, Russian authorities stopped traffic on the bridge, but then swiftly reopened it to cars. A later update from the Moscow-installed government said road traffic was again halted until further notice. Kerch bridge is hated symbol of Russian occupation Mr Aksyonov said infrastructure facilities in the Krasnogvardeysky district in Crimea were the target. FULL STORY

A top Senate Republican has released an FBI document detailing an allegation President Joe Biden and his son accepted bribes from a Ukrainian firm. Chuck Grassley, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said: "The American people can now read this document for themselves." The unclassified memo is a June 2020 internal FBI report outlining claims by a foreign informant. There is no evidence that Joe Biden received any payments from Ukraine. Senior congressional Republicans have acknowledged the allegation is unverified. The memo contains a claim that Hunter Biden was hired by the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, in 2013 as a way to gain support from his father, who was the US vice-president at the time. Hunter Biden: Who are the IRS tax whistleblowers? FULL STORY

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner revealed the one statement that "conclusively" proves former President Donald Trump's "corrupt intent" in the January 6 probe during an MSNBC interview on Saturday morning. On Tuesday, Trump said he received a letter from the Department of Justice (DOJ) stating that he is a target of the investigation into the January 6, 2021, riot at the United States Capitol building that saw a mob of his supporters—allegedly motivated by his unfounded election fraud claims—violently protest in a failed effort to block Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. Trump said he anticipates that he will be indicted, with legal experts adding that an indictment could be handed down in the coming weeks. The former president, meanwhile, has declared his innocence in the case. Kirschner, a legal analyst who frequently vocalizes criticisms of the former president, weighed in on the DOJ's probe during an appearance on MSNBC's The Katie Phang Show. Full Story and Video

Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes and hotels on the Greek island of Rhodes after wildfires engulfed large parts of the island. The country's fire service has described the fires as the most difficult it is currently facing. It is estimated more than 3,500 people have been moved by land and sea to safer locations. The island has been battling wildfires fanned by strong winds since Tuesday, amidst a heatwave in Europe. No injuries have been reported, according to the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection in Greece. It said visitors are being evacuated safely from the affected areas of Rhodes - which represent less than 10% of the island's tourist accommodation - and are being redirected to other hotels on the island. New Greece heatwave warning as fires still burn FULL STORY

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People often bemoan gray hair and wrinkled skin as some of the most unpleasant side effects of aging. It may be discouraging to watch your youthful visage slip away, but the status of your strength, balance and flexibility is of much greater concern. Significant declines in these areas can lead to pain, falls and fractures, and an overall loss of mobility and functionality. Think about the inability to play with the grandkids, climb stairs or carry groceries. No matter how active we are, our muscle mass and strength decline as we age. In fact, muscle mass and strength peak at 30 to 35 years old. After that, they slowly but steadily decline. At age 65 for women and 70 for men, the pace of these declines increases, according to the National Institutes of Health. Similarly, everyone’s balance and flexibility decrease with age due to changes in vision, sensory nerves, joints, ligaments and more. Full Article

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Global air forces transitioning to Lockheed Martin's prized F-35 fifth-generation jets are freeing up F-16s for countries like Ukraine, the former head of the defense giant's F-35 program told Newsweek. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 drove many nations to turn to the F-35 in a rapidly-changing security environment, former Lockheed Martin F-35 general manager, Tom Burbage, told Newsweek. Some of these countries had "been on the fence" about procuring F-35s before early 2022, added Burbage, who is co-author of F-35: The Inside Story of the Lightning II. But with Finland having hopped onto the F-35 program, joining other nations bordering the Arctic such as Canada and Norway, another group of "natural alliances" is coalescing in the Pacific, he said. FULL ARTICLE

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As part of his candidature for president in 2024, the former President Trump launched a tough-on-crime proposal on Friday to punish human traffickers with the death penalty. In a video published by his campaign, Trump promised to "immediately end the Biden border nightmare that traffickers are using to exploit vulnerable women and children." “I will urge Congress to ensure that anyone caught trafficking children across our border receives the death penalty immediately,” he added. Title 42, a pandemic-era legislation that was repealed earlier this year, was suggested to be reinstated by the former president in order to expeditiously remove migrants and send people who had been smuggled across the border back to their native countries. Trump additionally promoted "Sound of Freedom," the divisive box office success about a Homeland Security Department agent who claims to have looked into paedophiles and trafficking organisations, in the campaign video. This week, the former president showed the movie at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club. Copyright 07.22.2023

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