A New Orleans judge has ordered Shia LaBeouf to return to drug and alcohol rehabilitation and set a $100,000 bond after the film star was charged with two counts of battery over an alleged assault outside a bar during Mardi Gras. LaBeouf, who waited alone in the courtroom wearing a fleece jacket and jeans tucked into cowboy boots, was also admonished by the judge for allegedly yelling homophobic slurs while hitting multiple people near the French Quarter. The police report said LaBeouf dislocate...

As electric vehicles roll off assembly lines, a bottleneck sits upstream: lithium refinement. Turning raw lithium into the compounds needed for batteries is expensive, messy, and energy-intensive, but Mangrove Lithium, a Vancouver-based startup, has a better way. The company has developed an electrochemical refining process that converts lithium feedstocks into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Converting raw lithium to lithium hydroxide typically requires roasting spodumene—a mineral from whic...

In July 2024, NASA’s Perseverance rover came across a peculiar rocky outcrop on Mars covered in strange spots. On Earth, these marks are almost always produced by microbial life. Sure, those specks are not definitive proof of alien life. But they are the best hint yet that life may not be a one-off event in the cosmos. But the only way to know for sure is to bring a sample of that rock home to study. Now, just over a year and a half later, the project to do so is on life support, with zero fun...

Vanair’s zero-emission compressor at CONEXPO-CON/AGG solves emission and noise contaminants The EPEQ EPRO20 power skid represents idle-free portable air-compression technology that delivers 20 CFM at up to 150 PSI By Stephanie Bontorin February 26, 2026 Vanair, a Lincoln Electric Company, has launched its new EPEQ EPRO20 Power Skid, a battery-powered air compressor system that eliminates the need for engine idling and fuel-powered compressors on construction sites. The patent-pending system na...

When a company claims to have created what’s essentially the holy grail of batteries, there are bound to be some questions. Interest has been swirling since Donut Lab, a Finnish company, announced last month that it had a new solid-state battery technology, one that was ready for large-scale production. The company said its batteries can charge super-fast and have a high energy density that would translate to ultra-long-range EVs. What’s more, it claimed the cells can operate safely in the e...

Audi admits the new RS5 has put on ‘some weight,’ but swears you won’t feel it. The RS5 Avant weighs 5,225 lbs (2,370 kg). The sedan isn’t much lighter, at 5,192 lbs (2,355 kg). They say weight is the enemy of performance, but the company with the Four Rings is confident it has found a way to offset the massive heft brought by the new RS5’s plug-in hybrid system. In an official post on LinkedIn, Audi Sport’s Managing Director pledged the new fast wagon “feels agile...

Mf3d/Getty Images Batteries, in a sense, rule our lives. From the compact lithium-ion batteries powering our smartphones to the much larger units powering our EVs, not to mention all the battery ecosystems that tool manufacturers have invested in, it’s safe to say we wouldn’t be where we are without battery technology. The main downside of batteries, of course, is their limited lifespan. After all, even the smartphones with great battery life will rarely last more than a day or tw...