"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead (American anthropologist)
SUSTAINABILITY
We start our newsletter with a news that will make you say "no way!". The U.S. under the Trump administration stated that it “rejects and denounces” the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), the key global goals adopted by nations unanimously in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, aimed at tackling global environmental and social challenges. DETAIL
With global average temperatures expected to continue to rise in the coming decades, scientists have projected that warming will significantly harm global agriculture as it weakens crop yields and disrupts food production. Now, new research finds that warming will disrupt many of Earth’s major crops and harm global crop diversity. DETAIL
Nearly a tenth of global climate finance could be under threat as US president Donald Trump’s aid cuts risk wiping out huge swathes of spending overseas, according to Carbon Brief analysis. DETAIL
Reuters reports that the US has “withdrawn from the board of the UN's hard-negotiated climate damage fund, dedicated to helping poor and vulnerable nations cope with climate change-fuelled disasters”. The newswire adds: “Nearly 200 countries had agreed to launch the ‘loss and damage’ fund at the COP28 UN climate summit in 2023, in a victory for developing nations that had demanded help for years over increased extreme weather events… DETAIL
Business sustainability ratings and solutions provider EcoVadis announced the launch of Carbon Data Network, a new data exchange aimed at enabling companies to access reliable primary carbon data from their suppliers. DETAIL
The LEGO Group revealed significant progress in its efforts to increase the use of sustainable materials in its products, announcing that its LEGO bricks in 2024 consisted of an estimated 33% material from renewable sources, nearly tripling year-over-year. DETAIL
Lee Zeldin, the head of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has announced a series of actions to roll back environmental regulations, including rules on coal-fired power plant pollution, climate change and electric vehicles, reports the Associated Press. It notes that the changes are subject to “a lengthy process that includes public comment”. DETAIL
The seventh-annual World Air Quality Report collected data from 40,000 air quality monitoring stations across 138 countries, territories and regions. The results revealed that only seven countries meet the annual average guideline for fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, of 5 micrograms per cubic meter (5 µg/m3) as set by WHO. The countries that meet this target include Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Estonia, Grenada, Iceland and New Zealand. DETAIL
To reduce the growing risk of intense wildfires, California is cutting and burning the areas that fuel them – but these efforts may be moving too slowly. DETAIL
Ancient humans might have lived in extremely icy conditions, which were previously thought to be uninhabitable, 25,000 years ago in Tibet. DETAIL
HEALTH
As measles cases in Europe have increased more than 10-fold in the past year, health authorities are calling for vaccination against the highly contagious disease. DETAIL
In early February, an Australian man in his 40s became the first person in the world to leave hospital with a virtually unbreakable heart made of metal. 'Beating' in his chest was a titanium pump about the size of a fist. For 105 days, the metal organ's levitating propeller pushed blood to the man's lungs and kept him alive as he went about his usual business. DETAIL
Germany's foreign intelligence service in 2020 put at 80%-90% the likelihood that the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic was accidentally released from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology, two German newspapers reported on Wednesday. DETAIL
Swiss doctors are expanding the range of prescriptions for patients with mental health conditions and chronic illnesses to include strolls in public gardens, art galleries and museums. DETAIL
DIGITAL / TECHNOLOGY / SCIENCE / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Meta tests first AI training chip, part of plan to reduce reliance on suppliers like Nvidia. Chip aims to lower AI infrastructure costs, sources say. Meta plans to use chips for recommendations and generative AI. DETAIL
Green-steel startup Boston Metal just showed that it has all the ingredients needed to make steel without emitting gobs of greenhouse gases. The company successfully ran its largest reactor yet to make steel, producing over a ton of metal, MIT Technology Review can exclusively report. DETAIL
Google DeepMind has released a new model, Gemini Robotics, that combines its best large language model with robotics. Plugging in the LLM seems to give robots the ability to be more dexterous, work from natural-language commands, and generalize across tasks. All three are things that robots have struggled to do until now. The team hopes their work could usher in an era of robots that are far more useful and require less detailed training for each task. Incorporating LLMs into robotics is part of a growing trend, and this may be the most impressive example yet. DETAIL
Snapchat has announced that it’s rolling out its first-ever generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered video lenses, which allow users to add AI-generated animals or flowers to their videos. The three new AI Video Lenses are available now exclusively to Snapchat Platinum subscribers. DETAIL
A study of the fossilised fur of six mammals from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods has found they were all greyish-brown in colour, which would have helped them hide from dinosaurs. DETAIL
ENERGY / TRANSPORTATION
China's manufacturer BYD is planning to launch a 1,000-volt platform for its premium electric models in order to speed up their charging processes, among other things. The introduction of the new architecture is to be accompanied by an extensive roll-out of corresponding fast-charging stations. DETAIL
Amazon, Google and Meta signed a commitment document at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in the USA, which envisages tripling the amount of nuclear energy produced worldwide by 2050. DETAIL
Toyota has introduced its new electric concept vehicle, the FT-Me, equipped with a solar panel on the roof. The FT-Me, which is only 2.5 meters long, comes with a futuristic design. The solar panel on the roof of the vehicle provides an additional range of up to 30 kilometers in sunny weather. The vehicle, which will have the capacity to carry two passengers including the driver, uses cameras instead of side mirrors and allows gas and brakes to be operated via the steering wheel. DETAIL
CYBERSECURITY
Most apps on Apple’s App Store seem to leak at least one hard-coded secret. Many high-sensitivity secrets were found, including keys to cloud storage, various APIs, and even payment processors. Some endpoints are left completely unprotected, putting users at risk. DETAIL
Last week, a Texas-based software developer by the name of Davis Lu was found guilty by a federal jury for maliciously disrupting servers at Eaton Corp, a huge power management firm headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. An employee since 2007, Lu's efforts at digital sabotage started in 2018 when he became frustrated with Eaton's management, which had begun "corporate realignment" — a vague PR term that usually means layoffs are imminent. In this case, Lu's work duties shifted, and he found that his system access had been reduced. DETAIL
According to the Cyber Security Law, which was accepted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly and became law, those who organize cyber attacks against the elements of the Republic of Turkey in cyberspace and keep any data they obtain in cyberspace will be sentenced to up to 12 years in prison; those who disseminate this information and try to sell it will be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. DETAIL
TurkNet, an internet service provider used by hundreds of thousands of people, announced that it detected a cyber attack on the institution. The statement emphasized that some customer identification information was compromised, but financial data and user passwords were safe. DETAIL
CURIOSITY
A new lobbying group, dubbed the Freedom Cities Coalition, wants to convince President Trump and Congress to authorize the creation of new special development zones within the U.S. These zones would allow wealthy investors to write their own laws and set up their own governance structures which would be corporately controlled and wouldn’t involve a traditional bureaucracy. The new zones could also serve as a testbed for weird new technologies without the need for government oversight. DETAIL
U.S. president Donald Trump has hosted a Tesla advertisement on the White House lawn alongside CEO Elon Musk. He also erroneously called the boycott against the electric vehicle company "illegal."
Discontent with Elon Musk has spurred a nationwide protest movement that aims to cut off the profits for the billionaire’s lucrative car business, EV maker Tesla. Now, Trump-aligned lawmakers are lobbying for the Justice Department to go after protesters in what seems like a blatantly oligarchic weaponization of the nation’s justice system. DETAIL
In response to urbanization and digitalization limiting children's outdoor play, Unilever-owned laundry brand OMO has launched a campaign in Turkey that transforms OOH advertising into playgrounds. The Play is Outside initiative added soccer goals, basketball hoops and slides to billboards in Istanbul's Kadıköy, Acıbadem and Şişli districts, creating unexpected play spaces in urban environments. DETAIL
