LONDON (AP) — Toothbrushes used to be simple, powered only by your hand so they never broke down. Nowadays, rechargeable electric toothbrushes are increasingly popular because they make brushing easier and more effective, but they are a headache when they stop working properly.

Inside an electric toothbrush’s waterproof housing is a battery that powers a tiny motor which rapidly rotates or vibrates a replaceable brush head. The batteries are usually rechargeable but don’t last forever. The question of their longevity, and toothbrush repairability as a whole, is the subject of many online forums.

If you’ve ever owned one, you’ve probably noticed recharging intervals becoming more and more frequent. At some point you might decide to throw it out, adding to the world’s growing pile of electronic waste.

But all is not lost. You can pay someone else to repair it, or — with some online help — do it yourself. Here are some pointers:

According to the manufacturers, the answer is usually no. They warn people against disassembling the devices, saying it’s dangerous or that it will void the warranty. But that doesn’t mean you can’t do it yourself, repair advocates say.

You can find websites and YouTube channels devoted to showing people how to fix their battery-powered brushes.

Toothbrush manufacturers will say the devices are not “user serviceable” but it’s “blatantly untrue,” said Shahram Mokhtari, lead teardown engineer at iFixit, a right-to-repair advocacy group. “Some of these devices have very replaceable batteries,” and in most cases, it’s just a matter of getting inside the device and learning how to do a little bit of soldering or taking it to someone can do it, he said.

DIY fixes might soon be standard practice. The European Union, a pioneer of global tech regulations, is drafting rules to promote the repair of electrical devices, while several states have introduced right-to-repair legislation.

Every model is slightly different but models from Oral B and Philips Sonicare — two of the most popular brands — can be dismantled using the same general procedure.

Most Oral B brushes can be opened by holding the toothbrush and the charging stand together, and then twisting the stand to pop the bottom cap off. On some models, you might instead have to use the stand as a lever to pop it off.

Philips Sonicare models are a bit trickier. You’ll need something to pry off the bottom cap, such as a small flathead screwdriver or a plastic tool known as a “ spudger.”

Whatever the model, if it’s too tight some websites advise softening up the plastic housing by placing the brush in hot water for a few minutes.

Once it’s off, you’ll need to slide the electronic innards out of the housing. You might need to first remove a metal or plastic ring on the brush head spindle. Then push the spindle against something hard to slide the motor assembly out the bottom. You might need to pry open some plastic tabs first. Again, each toothbrush is different so it’s best to consult, if possible, the guide to your specific model on iFixit or other repair websites.

On some models, the battery is not so easy to remove because it’s soldered to the circuit board. But if you feel handy, you could do it yourself, Mokhtari said. You will need a soldering iron to undo the wiring connection and then you’ll have to re-solder a new battery in. If you’ve never done it before, there are videos. Be careful, the soldering iron is hot.

“We would encourage people to learn that skill because it’s not a difficult thing to learn,” said Mokhtari. The soldering process for toothbrushes are generally similar, and will be “a little bit delicate” and “a little bit difficult,” he said.

Yes, but you’ll have to make sure it’s the right size. It’s usually a cylindrical cell similar to the Energizer or Duracell AA batteries in your TV remote, but don’t assume it’s the same.

It could could be longer, shorter or have a different diameter than a standard AA. Some have metal tabs that need to be soldered to the circuit board. Whatever the type, it should be available online.

Oral B is making it easier for consumers to do DIY repairs with their IO line of toothbrushes, which can be fixed without specialist tools. Some versions even come with a circular charger that’s specifically designed for use as a tool to twist off the bottom cap when turned upside down. After sliding out the mechanism, simply pop the battery out.

The downside is that IO models, and their brush heads, are more expensive than other Oral B model lines, according to the U.K. website toothbrushbattery.com, which has a buyer’s guide ranking electric toothbrushes by their ease of repair.

Some upstart brands like Suri and Quip highlight their repairability as part of their sustainable appeal. Suri, however, says owners should send them back to be fixed and shouldn’t do it themselves, and only if they’ve signed up for a brush head subscription plan.

Other types may vary. Mokhtari demonstrated for the Associated Press the procedure for taking apart a brand new Philips Sonicare 6100 model. It took him more than 15 minutes to get the bottom cap off and remove the electronics, then tackle a complex desoldering process.

“This is just not consumer friendly. This is not repair friendly.” he said. “We’re already way beyond what would be reasonable for a DIY repair job.”

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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — The Cyprus government has given Chevron another six months to come up with a revised plan to develop a sizeable natural gas deposit off the island nation’s southern coastline after an earlier plan proposed by the U.S. energy company lacked a timetable, an official said Thursday.

Chevron’s development proposal from March 29 for the Aphrodite deposit estimated to hold 4.2 trillion cubic feet of gas “wasn’t considered targeted and was without specific timetables,” the official with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the deal.

In a reply letter last Thursday, Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou asked Chevron for “specific, targeted actions” and a “specific timetable” that would confirm its commitment to developing the gas field.

In January this year, the Cypriot government and Chevron reached a “mutually beneficial” agreement on how to develop the gas field, ending long stalled negotiations on plans to extract the hydrocarbon since its discovery in 2011.

At the time, the Cypriot energy ministry said Chevron affirmed that both sides are in “alignment” regarding the “wider framework of the field’s exploitation.”

Chevron had wanted to send the gas to Egypt through a pipeline, but Cyprus preferred to process it on a floating production facility because it would be more economically beneficial for the island nation and would lend more flexibility to supplying other markets.

On Tuesday, Claudio Descalzi, chief executive officer of the Italian energy company Eni discussed with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides ways to expedite development of gas fields that Eni discovered in waters off Cyprus’ southern coast.

A statement said the two men reviewed discoveries that Eni and its partner TotalEnergies of France made in 2022, confirming “the encouraging outcomes of the previous wells.”

Eni, which has had a presence in Cyprus since 2013, operates five offshore areas – or blocks – and has participating interest in another two.

BEIJING (AP) — The death toll climbed to 48 as search efforts continued in southern China on Thursday after a highway section collapsed in a mountainous area, sending more than 20 cars down a steep slope.

Officials in the city of Meizhou said three other people were unidentified, pending DNA testing. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had died, which would bring the death toll to 51.

By Jarrett Renshaw

(Reuters) – Since 1968, North Carolina has backed only two Democrats for president: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008.

President Joe Biden visits the southeastern state on Thursday for the third time this year, betting he can do it again for Democrats in the 2024 election.

But opinion polls suggest Biden will have a tough time flipping North Carolina in this year’s rematch against Republican Donald Trump. While winning the presidency in 2020, Biden lost the state to Trump by 1.3% – just 74,000 votes – his narrowest state loss.

Biden’s campaign is spending heavily on early advertising, voter outreach and in-state staff, hoping to ride North Carolina’s recent population boom to victory.

Some 400,000 people have moved to North Carolina since 2020, census figures show, including many people of color and with college educations, groups that vote overwhelmingly Democratic.

This time, the state’s Republican party is embracing far-right candidates and policies. Its candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, has supported an outright ban on abortion and referred to homosexuality as “filth.” Democrats believe those hard-line policies can help Biden.

“We are in the best position to win this state in years,” said Aisha Dew, a Biden supporter and Democratic candidate for the state legislature.

The polls, however, show a tougher path for Biden in the November election. An Emerson College poll released on Tuesday showed Trump five points ahead of Biden in the state, while Marist College polling from March showed Trump leading on issues like immigration.

With a hefty 16 votes in the 538-vote Electoral College that selects U.S. presidents, North Carolina would be more than a historic flip. Winning the state could be an insurance policy for Biden, who polls show struggling against Trump in other battleground states.

A win in North Carolina could help Biden clinch victory even if he loses Arizona, Georgia or Wisconsin, states he won in 2020 and where polls show close races this year.

The Biden campaign has poured $30 million into battleground state ads since early March, including in North Carolina, aimed at groups including Hispanics and African Americans.

It has been working with state election officials to pre-qualify a list of acceptable identification for voters, the first statewide election requiring a photo ID to vote in person.

North Carolina’s Republican-led legislature has passed some of the strictest laws in the U.S. that could limit whose vote counts. Republicans say these are needed to prevent voter fraud; Democrats say they are meant to suppress likely Democratic votes.

Biden’s campaign has opened 11 offices in the state and had 40 staffers by the end of the April, aides say, a sharp contrast to Trump, who has yet to name a state team or open any offices in a state he visited more than 20 times in 2020. Trump visited North Carolina earlier this year but had to cancel a rally there last month due to storms.

Trump’s campaigning has been limited because he on trial in New York, accused of falsifying business records to conceal hush-money payments to a porn star during the 2016 campaign.

Biden visits Wilmington, North Carolina, on Thursday to talk about $3 billion in federal funding to replace lead pipes across the country.

Republicans say they are not worried.

“In 2016 and 2020, Democrats lit money on fire in North Carolina only to lose to President Trump,” Anna Kelly, a Republican National Committee spokesperson, said in a statement.

RALEIGH, CHARLOTTE ARE KEY

North Carolina’s population boom has been led by people of color, according to state budget figures, and is most pronounced around the banking hub of Charlotte and the state capital Raleigh, two of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S.

Many of the new residents are from Democratic-leaning states like New York and California, according to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mecklenburg County, encompassing Charlotte, and Wake County, including Raleigh, have added a net 90 voters a day for the past four years, accounting for 41% of the state’s new voter registration growth for the period, said Paul Shumaker, a long-time Republican pollster in North Carolina.

“This is the county where the election is going to be won,” Mecklenburg County Democratic party chair Drew Comer told supporters when Vice President Kamala Harris visited.

In 2020, Biden beat Trump by 198,896 votes in Mecklenburg County and 167,139 in Wake County, even as he lost the state.

Despite the population boom, there are signs of trouble for Democrats. Black turnout in the 2022 midterm elections was below that of the previous midterms in North Carolina, which at 20% has one of highest Black populations in the country.

Even though Cheri Beasley, a Black woman running for U.S. Senate in 2022, was at the top of every ballot in the state, fewer than 42% of Black registered voters cast a ballot – the lowest turnout of Black voters since 2010, according to an analysis by the group Democracy North Carolina.

A Marist College poll last month found North Carolina registered voters favoring Trump by 12 percentage points on immigration and nine points on the economy, with 22- and 17-point leads, respectively, with independents. Biden held a five-point advantage on abortion rights and a one-point edge on preserving democracy.

“Mathematically, Biden is in the hunt in North Carolina,’ Shumaker said. “Issue-wise, he has a long way to go to win the state.”

(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Heather Timmons and William Mallard)

ZURICH (Reuters) -The Swiss government said on Thursday that “at this stage” Russia is not among the 160 delegations invited to talks to be held in Switzerland in mid-June aimed at helping bring about peace in the conflict between Moscow and Ukraine.

“Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process,” the Swiss government said in a statement. “A peace process without Russia is not possible.”

The Swiss government said it had always shown openness to inviting Russia but noted that Moscow had repeatedly underlined it has no interest in participating in the first summit.

Russian officials have pointed to Switzerland’s adoption of EU sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, and argued it therefore lacks credibility as a neutral broker.

Switzerland in January said it would host a peace summit at the request of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The invited delegations include members of the G7, G20, BRICS groups, the EU, international organizations and two religious representatives, the Swiss government said.

The government reiterated it aims to create a framework to bring about a lasting peace in Ukraine, as well as a roadmap for Russia’s participation in the peace process.

The talks will be held June 15-16 at the Bürgenstock resort in the canton of Nidwalden outside the city of Lucerne.

(Reporting by Dave Graham, Noele Illien, Anastasiia Malenko;Editing by Miranda Murray)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian security officers killed a gunman in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, a rare intra-Palestinian clash whose circumstances were disputed and which the fighter’s faction described as an Israeli-style “assassination”.

Palestinian Authority security services spokesperson Talak Dweikat said a force sent to patrol Tulkarm overnight came under fire and shot back, hitting the gunman. He died from his wounds in hospital.

Videos circulated online, and which Reuters was not immediately able to confirm, showed a car being hit by gunfire.

A local armed group, the Tulkarm and Nour Shams Camp Brigades, claimed the dead man, Ahmed Abu al-Foul, as its member with affiliation to the largely militant group Islamic Jihad.

Al-Foul was “treacherously … targeted in his car” without provocation, the brigades said in a statement. “This crime is just like any assassination by Israeli special forces.”

President Mahmoud Abbas’ PA wields limited self-rule in the West Bank, and sometimes coordinates security with Israel.

Parts of the territory have drifted into chaos and poverty, with the PA and Israel trading blame, especially since ties have been further strained by Israel’s offensive in Gaza.

Hamas, an Islamic Jihad ally which rules the Gaza Strip and has chafed at Abbas’ strategy of seeking diplomatic accommodation with Israel, denounced “the attacks by the PA’s security forces on our people and our resistance fighters”.

Palestinian security forces and gunmen have exchanged gunfire several times in the last year, but deaths are rare.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Editing by Alison Williams)

By Krisztina Than and Krisztina Fenyo

LADANYBENE, Hungary (Reuters) – Laszlo Kemencei lives as sustainably as possible on his small farm in eastern Hungary. He believes the land is effectively borrowed from his young daughter, so he must do all he can to preserve it for the future.

Kemencei, 28, wife Cintia and Boroka, almost two, moved to the farm outside Ladanybene three years ago. They keep horses, pigs and chickens on an area of 4.5 hectares (11 acres), which they partly lease for grazing.

They do not use pesticides, keep their animals free range, and dig the land as little as possible to preserve the structure and moisture of the rich soil. They grow their own vegetables and slaughter or barter the meat they need, while trading the rest with families who choose a similar lifestyle.

Kemencei says while becoming fully self-sufficient seems an unrealistic goal, they rely minimally on external resources.

“This land, we have not inherited from our fathers, but we have it on a lease from our children … so we try to live and farm the land in a sustainable way,” he says, sitting in their cosy kitchen where a chunk of pork sizzles in the oven.

(For the photo essay, click on )

While there are no statistics on how many families are following a similar lifestyle in Hungary – part of their choice is not necessarily to engage with central institutions – anecdotal evidence suggests it is a growing trend.

Some want to rein in the costs of living, while for others it is to escape a consumer-driven society or live a more environmentally friendly life.

Kemencei estimates there are around 1,000 families trying to embrace some form of sustainability, either alone or as part of informal barter arrangements, or as part of more structured eco-villages.

He said a loose grouping called Sustainable Regression had around 600 to 800 members – although not all have committed to all aspects of sustainable living.

Reuters spoke to six other families, many of whom had left jobs in the formal economy, who were now growing much of their own food. Some had their own energy and water supplies.

Akos Varga and wife Gabi, both in their late 50s, sold their IT and solar panel business four years ago to live a freer life on a farm in Nagybereny, in western Hungary.

Varga believes small, self-sustaining communities where mutual trust matters will spread.

“We thought we had achieved what we wanted and asked ourselves if this is really happiness. And we could not say yes to that,” Varga said. “We were seeking being close to nature.”

BARTER TRADE

For Kemencei, the trusted networks matter too. A small pot-bellied pig traded with a friend is eaten from nose to tail. A rooster is swapped with another friend who is a beekeeper.

“We sometimes slaughter chickens for barter trade … but only from a place where we know the farming is similar to ours,” Kemencei said.

“We don’t want to change the world here … or become some kind of superheroes, there are plenty of those out there, we would like to produce most of what we need.”

Currently, they do not live off-grid. They have the internet, and buy electricity and gas for heating. But their water comes from a well and they hope to install solar panels and a wind turbine when they can afford it, Kemencei said.

They can get by on about 250,000 forints ($680) per month, outside of emergencies. They buy milk, sugar and other basics that they cannot grow themselves.

The family have a walipini greenhouse for plants – a hole in the ground covered with polyethylene glazing. The name means “place of warmth” in the language in Bolivia where the practice comes from.

“We should reduce our wants just a little, as now we live in a world where we sit on a galloping horse and when the horse dies, we just jump on another one,” he says.

“This is scary, but I think everyone should do their best within their limits.”

($1 = 367.5500 forints)

(Writing by Krisztina Than; Editing by Alison Williams)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s parliament on Thursday approved legislation mandating a new, independent investigation into the 2022 Halloween crush in Seoul that killed 159 people.

The single-chamber National Assembly passed the bill by a 256-0 vote. It will become law after it is signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol and promulgated by his government agency — steps that are considered formalities because the president and his ruling party already agreed on the legislation.

The bill is meant to delve into the root cause of the crush, details about how authorities handled the disaster and who should be blamed for it. It also envisages the creation of a fact-finding committee with nine members that would independently examine the disaster for up to 15 months.

Once the committee determines who is responsible and who should face charges, it would report them to the government’s investigation agencies. The agencies would then conclude investigations of the suspects within three months, according to the bill.

The crush, one of the biggest peacetime disasters in South Korea, caused a nationwide outpouring of grief. The victims, who were mostly in their 20s and 30s, had gathered in Seoul’s popular nightlife district of Itaewon for Halloween celebrations.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, there was also anger that the government had again ignored safety and regulatory issues despite the lessons learned since the 2014 sinking of the ferry Sewol, which killed 304 people — mostly teenagers on a school trip.

In early 2023, a police special investigation concluded that police and municipal officials failed to formulate effective crowd control steps, despite correctly anticipating a huge number of people in Itaewon. At the time, investigators said police had also ignored hotline calls by pedestrians who warned of swelling crowds before the surge turned deadly.

More than 20 police and other officials have been on trial over the disaster but few top-level officials have been charged or held accountable, prompting bereaved families and opposition lawmakers to call for an independent probe.

President Yoon had previously opposed a new investigation of the disaster.

However, during a meeting with liberal opposition leader Lee Jae-myung on Monday, Yoon said he would not oppose it, should some existing disputes be resolved, such as whether the fact-finding committee can request arrest warrants.

A shift in Yoon’s position came as he faces growing public calls to cooperate with Lee’s Democratic Party, which scored a massive win in the April 10 parliamentary election, extending its control of parliament for another four years.

In a meeting with Yoon’s ruling People Power Party on Wednesday, Lee’s party agreed to remove contentious clauses from the draft bill.

“I can’t describe how fortunate it is as we can pass the special law now,” the Democratic Party’s chief policymaker Jin Sung-joon said ahead of the vote. “We’ve accepted the demands raised by President Yoon Suk Yeol and his ruling party in consideration of the desperate requests by the bereaved families, who said they can’t wait any longer.”

SYDNEY (AP) — A judge denied bail Thursday to a 15-year-old boy alleged to be in a network planning terrorist acts and who claimed to be a friend of another teen accused of stabbing a Sydney bishop last month.

The attack on the bishop triggered an investigation that led to the arrests of six teens, ages 14 to 17, who were charged last week with a range of offenses including conspiring to engage in or planning a terrorist act. All remain in custody.

The 15-year-old boy’s lawyer Ahmed Dib had applied for bail Wednesday in the Parramatta Children’s Court, arguing there were exceptional circumstances that required his client’s release.

But Magistrate James Viney ruled such circumstances did not exist. “There is an unacceptable risk to the protection of the community,” Viney said.

Viney said he found the boy’s alleged threats to stab Jewish or Assyrian people, a predominantly Christian ethnic group native to the Middle East, and an alleged assault to be “gravely concerning.”

“The messages clearly set up the young person wanting to do something catastrophic,” Viney said.

The boy was already in custody on an assault charge when the terrorism-related charge was added Friday.

Earlier last week, he was accused of being part of group that threw rocks at a liquor store employee. The boy allegedly threw a wooden plank that narrowly missed his intended target. The boy was allegedly carrying a knife at the time.

Prosecutor Rebekah Rodger said the boy had told associates in an encrypted chat group that the 16-year-old boy accused of stabbing an Assyrian Orthodox bishop and priest on April 15 was “my mate.”

Later, the boy’s lawyer, Dib, told reporters he would apply for bail to the New South Wales state Supreme Court.

The documents Dib had submitted as evidence of his client’s special circumstances showed the boy had a history of behavioral issues, lacked confidence and had low self-esteem.

The boy propped his head up with his hand for much of the hearing as he watched on from custody via videolink, as his parents sat in court.

Viney said he had “no doubt” the parents were both loving and supportive of their son, and had confiscated his phone after becoming concerned by his behavior.

“They are genuinely shocked as to the charges he’s facing,” Viney said.

At the end of the hearing, the mother left the courtroom in tears.

Police alleged the six teens arrested last week all “adhered to a religiously motivated, violent extremist ideology” and were part of a network that included the boy who is accused of the stabbing in the Christ the Good Shepherd Church as a service was being streamed online. Neither the bishop nor priest suffered life-threatening injuries.

The boy arrested in the stabbings was charged with committing a terrorist act four days after the attack that triggered a riot outside the church.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — A huge explosion at a military base in southwestern Cambodia that killed 20 soldiers and injured many others was an accident caused by a “technical issue” stemming from the old and degraded ammunition that was being moved, the Defense Ministry said Thursday.

The army said on Tuesday that Saturday’s blast was believed to have been an accident caused by mishandling of ammunition by troops.

The Defense Ministry’s statement followed an allegation leveled by an opposition politician-in-exile suggesting that the explosion had been an attack.

The day after the explosion, exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy claimed in a post on his Facebook page that an armed group of anti-government dissidents had caused the blast but cited no evidence to support his claim.

The Defense Ministry said that while there had been recent social media posts by “a group of extremists,” the ministry wanted to inform media that the investigation had concluded the blast had been an accident.

It warned that anyone publishing untrue information about the blast could face prosecution.

Army spokesperson Maj. Gen. Mao Phalla on Tuesday said soldiers were transferring ammunition into a storage facility when the blast occurred, killing 20 instantly.

He said another 11 people, including soldiers and nearby villagers, were slightly injured from the damaged building’s debris, not shrapnel.

The blast in Kampong Speu province also destroyed military vehicles and four buildings at the base, and damaged homes in a village.