That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on this planet of know-how.
Contained in the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon impartial purpose
“We had been dropping the sunshine, and nonetheless about 20 kilometers from the primary street, when the automotive shuddered and died on the fringe of a wierd forest.
The grove grew as if detached to sure unstated guidelines of botany. There was no understory, no foreground or background, solely the bushes themselves, which grew as a wall of naked trunks that rose 100 ft or so earlier than concluding with a burst of thick foliage close to the highest. The rows of bushes ran maybe the size of a New York Metropolis block and fell away abruptly on both aspect into untidy fields of grime and grass. The vista recalled the husk of a failed rental improvement, its first flats marooned when the builders ran out of money.”
That is the opening to our newest Huge Story, which we’re excited to share at present. It’s all about how Apple (and its friends) are planting huge forests of eucalyptus bushes in Brazil to attempt to offset their local weather emissions, placing a few of the largest-ever offers for carbon credit within the course of.
The massive query is: Can Latin America’s eucalyptus be a scalable local weather resolution? Learn the complete story.
—Gregory Barber
This text is a part of the Huge Story collection: MIT Expertise Overview’s most vital, formidable reporting that takes a deep take a look at the applied sciences which are coming subsequent and what they may imply for us and the world we reside in. Try the remainder of them right here.
The vibes are shifting for US local weather tech
The previous few years have been an nearly nonstop parade of fine information for local weather tech within the US. Headlines about billion-dollar grants from the federal government, large non-public funding rounds, and labs churning out advance after advance have been routine. Now, although, issues are beginning to shift.
About $8 billion value of US local weather tech initiatives have been canceled or downsized to date in 2025. There are nonetheless initiatives shifting ahead, however these cancellations undoubtedly aren’t a great signal. So, how apprehensive ought to we be? Learn the complete story.
—Casey Crownhart
This text is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Overview’s weekly local weather publication. To obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday, enroll right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at present’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about know-how.
1 Elon Musk had a shouting match with the US Treasury Secretary
Scott Bessent didn’t take DOGE meddling with the IRS mendacity down. (Axios)
+ Musk introduced he’d spend much less time on authorities work shortly afterwards. (WP $)
+ What has the company achieved in its first 100 days? Chaos. (Reuters)
2 Trump’s tariffs are disrupting manufacturing of significant medical gadgets
Of every little thing from MRI scanners to glucose displays. (FT $)
+ The tariffs aren’t excellent news for protecting medical gear makers both. (NYT $)
3 Nvidia has launched a brand new platform for constructing AI brokers
And in contrast to its rivals, it depends on open-source fashions to make them. (WSJ $)
+ Nvidia has a really particular imaginative and prescient for a way they’ll work. (The Register)
+ Why handing over whole management to AI brokers could be an enormous mistake. (MIT Expertise Overview)
4 Even Mark Zuckerberg thinks social media isn’t what it was
The query is, what comes subsequent? (New Yorker $)
+ Meta’s Oversight Board dominated that movies disparaging trans ladies aren’t hate speech. (WP $)
+ Find out how to repair the web. (MIT Expertise Overview)
5 How AI can assist programmers protect getting old pc code
Governments internationally are utilizing AI instruments to modernize their methods. (Bloomberg $)
+ The race to avoid wasting our on-line lives from a digital darkish age. (MIT Expertise Overview)
6 LinkedIn is rolling out its verification system
Adobe is amongst its first adoptees. (The Verge)
7 Google’s AI Overviews is making stuff up once more
This time, it’s confidently claiming that made-up idioms are actual. (Wired $)
+ Why Google’s AI Overviews will get issues flawed. (MIT Expertise Overview)
8 Reselling apps are flourishing within the US
Savvy customers are dodging tariffs by buying second-hand. (WP $)
+ The tip of ultra-cheap buying is nigh. (Remainder of World)
9 Find out how to create a brand new coloration
Olo is a bit like teal—nevertheless it doesn’t technically exist. (The Atlantic $)
10 This Starbucks retailer is solely 3D-printed
The espresso will nonetheless style the identical, although. (Quick Firm $)
+ Meet the designers printing homes out of salt and clay. (MIT Expertise Overview)
Quote of the day
“It went from a Cinderella story to Nightmare on Elm Road.”
—Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, tells the Monetary Instances why Elon Musk’s allegiance to Donald Trump has backfired for his companies.
Yet another factor
How a tiny Pacific Island turned the worldwide capital of cybercrimeTokelau, a string of three remoted atolls strung out throughout the Pacific, is so distant that it was the final place on Earth to be related to the phone—solely in 1997. Simply three years later, the islands acquired a fax with an unlikely enterprise proposal that might change every little thing.
It was from an early web entrepreneur from Amsterdam, named Joost Zuurbier. He needed to handle Tokelau’s country-code top-level area, or ccTLD—the quick string of characters that’s tacked onto the tip of a URL—in change for cash.
Within the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau turned an unlikely web large—however not in the way in which it could have hoped. Till lately, its .tk area had extra customers than some other nation’s: a staggering 25 million—however the overwhelming majority had been spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.
Now the territory is desperately attempting to wash up .tk. Its worldwide standing, and even its sovereignty, could depend upon it. Learn the complete story.
—Jacob Judah
We are able to nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Obtained any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ An almond and potato cake? You’ve acquired my consideration.
+ Whenever you get a tattoo, the place does the ink go?
+ The newest season of Black Mirror was filmed nearly solely within the UK.
+ Lenny Kravitz’s Parisian residence is extremely stylish.
