That is as we speak’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the earth of know-how.
Contained in the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon impartial purpose
“We have been dropping the sunshine, and nonetheless about 20 kilometers from the principle highway, 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 toes 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 filth and grass. The vista recalled the husk of a failed rental improvement, its first residences marooned when the builders ran out of money.”
That is the opening to our newest Large Story, which we’re excited to share as we speak. 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, putting 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 answer? Learn the total story.
—Gregory Barber
This text is a part of the Large Story collection: MIT Expertise Evaluate’s most essential, formidable reporting that takes a deep have a look at the applied sciences which can be coming subsequent and what they’ll imply for us and the world we stay in. Take a look at 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 excellent information for local weather tech within the US. Headlines about billion-dollar grants from the federal government, large personal funding rounds, and labs churning out advance after advance have been routine. Now, although, issues are beginning to shift.
About $8 billion price of US local weather tech tasks have been canceled or downsized to date in 2025. There are nonetheless tasks transferring ahead, however these cancellations undoubtedly aren’t a superb signal. So, how fearful ought to we be? Learn the total story.
—Casey Crownhart
This text is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Evaluate’s weekly local weather e-newsletter. To obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday, enroll right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you as we speak’s most enjoyable/essential/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 all the pieces from MRI scanners to glucose screens. (FT $)
+ The tariffs aren’t excellent news for protecting medical gear makers both. (Now $)
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 complete management to AI brokers can be an enormous mistake. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
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 girls aren’t hate speech. (WP $)
+ How one can repair the web. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
5 How AI may also help programmers protect growing older 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 Evaluate)
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 mistaken. (MIT Expertise Evaluate)
8 Reselling apps are flourishing within the US
Savvy consumers are dodging tariffs by buying second-hand. (WP $)
+ The tip of ultra-cheap buying is nigh. (Remainder of World)
9 How one can create a brand new colour
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 Evaluate)
Quote of the day
“It went from a Cinderella story to Nightmare on Elm Road.”
—Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, tells the Monetary Occasions why Elon Musk’s allegiance to Donald Trump has backfired for his companies.
Another factor
How a tiny Pacific Island grew to become 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 linked to the phone—solely in 1997. Simply three years later, the islands obtained a fax with an unlikely enterprise proposal that will change all the pieces.
It was from an early web entrepreneur from Amsterdam, named Joost Zuurbier. He wished to handle Tokelau’s country-code top-level area, or ccTLD—the brief string of characters that’s tacked onto the tip of a URL—in alternate for cash.
Within the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau grew to become an unlikely web large—however not in the best way it might have hoped. Till not too long ago, its .tk area had extra customers than another nation’s: a staggering 25 million—however the overwhelming majority have been spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.
Now the territory is desperately attempting to scrub up .tk. Its worldwide standing, and even its sovereignty, could rely on it. Learn the total story.
—Jacob Judah
We will nonetheless have good issues
A spot for consolation, enjoyable and distraction to brighten up your day. (Bought any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ An almond and potato cake? You’ve acquired my consideration.
+ Once you get a tattoo, the place does the ink go?
+ The most recent season of Black Mirror was filmed nearly solely within the UK.
+ Lenny Kravitz’s Parisian house is extremely stylish.
