Hasta La Gadget!

The call for climate action is coming from the inside the House. More than a dozen congressional staffers occupied the Washington D.C. office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today, in a protest demanding that Congress pass policy to combat climate change. Less than an hour after the demonstration began,…

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China’s space agency performed a successful launch of a Long March 5B rocket on Sunday, delivering a new module to its fledgling space station. Similar to previous launches, however, the rocket’s core stage remained in orbit and is now set to perform an uncontrolled reentry.

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The Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Program (ATVMP) hasn’t offered a loan to an electric car maker since 2010, but it’s ready to offer money once again. As Reutersreports, the Energy Department is providing a $2.5 billion loan to the GM and LG joint venture Ultium Cells for the sake of constructing EV battery cell factories. This is the government agency’s first loan for battery production under the program.

The money will be used for manufacturing plants in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee. It will come with conditions (unspecified as of this writing), and is expected to close sometime in the months ahead. Production starts at the Ohio plant in August, and should be followed by Tennessee in late 2023 and Michigan in 2024. Ultium in a statement characterized the deal as beneficial for the country, and expected it to create 5,000 US jobs.

All previous loans under ATVMP went to car manufacturers in the early days of EVs, including Tesla, Ford and Nissan. The efforts have so far been fruitful. Tesla, for instance, grew quickly with help from the loan during its early days. It finished repaying the Energy Department in 2013, nine years ahead of schedule.

The GM loan isn’t surprising. While the brand has extensive car manufacturing capacity, it’s racing to establish battery factories that will help it both clear an order backlog and produce relatively mainstream models like the upcoming Blazer and Equinox EVs. Extra funding may help GM cope with demand. President Biden, meanwhile, wants zero-emissions vehicles to represent half of all new sales by 2030 — that won’t happen unless GM and others can ramp up production to meet demand.

Delaware State Police are still trying to identify the driver, who fled the scene.

Daedalic Entertainment has delayed The Lord of the Rings: Gollum a little more than five weeks before it was due to debut on September 1st. The studio took to Twitter on Monday to announce it would need more time to complete work on the game. “In order to deliver the best possible experience, we have decided to push the release of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum by a few months,” Daedalic said. The studio did not share a new release date but promised to do so “in the near future.”

First announced in 2019 with a 2021 release window, Daedalic eventually went on to push the game back to 2022 at the start of last year. It shared the previous September 1st release date in May. Set during the early chapters of The Fellowship of the Ring, Daedalic is billing Gollum as a “cinematic stealth adventure.” Part of the game involves navigating a narrative system that reflects Gollum’s dual personalities. Once the game finally arrives, it will be available on PlayStation 4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC.