That is at present’s version of The Obtain, our weekday publication that gives a every day dose of what’s happening on this planet of expertise.
Contained in the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon impartial aim
“We have been dropping the sunshine, and nonetheless about 20 kilometers from the principle 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 timber 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 timber ran maybe the size of a New York Metropolis block and fell away abruptly on both facet 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 Massive Story, which we’re excited to share at present. It’s all about how Apple (and its friends) are planting huge forests of eucalyptus timber in Brazil to attempt to offset their local weather emissions, hanging a number of the largest-ever offers for carbon credit within the course of.
The large 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 Massive Story collection: MIT Expertise Assessment’s most vital, formidable reporting that takes a deep take a look at the applied sciences which might be coming subsequent and what they’ll 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 excellent information for local weather tech within the US. Headlines about billion-dollar grants from the federal government, huge 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 tasks have been canceled or downsized up to now in 2025. There are nonetheless tasks transferring ahead, however these cancellations undoubtedly aren’t signal. So, how anxious ought to we be? Learn the complete story.
—Casey Crownhart
This text is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Assessment’s weekly local weather publication. To obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday, join right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you at present’s most enjoyable/vital/scary/fascinating tales about expertise.
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 important medical gadgets
Of the whole lot 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 the way they’ll work. (The Register)
+ Why handing over whole management to AI brokers could be an enormous mistake. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
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 $)
+ Easy methods to repair the web. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
5 How AI may also help programmers protect getting old pc code
Governments internationally are utilizing AI instruments to modernize their programs. (Bloomberg $)
+ The race to avoid wasting our on-line lives from a digital darkish age. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
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 unsuitable. (MIT Expertise Assessment)
8 Reselling apps are flourishing within the US
Savvy consumers are dodging tariffs by purchasing second-hand. (WP $)
+ The top of ultra-cheap purchasing is nigh. (Remainder of World)
9 Easy methods to create a brand new shade
Olo is a bit like teal—however 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 Assessment)
Quote of the day
“It went from a Cinderella story to Nightmare on Elm Avenue.”
—Dan Ives, a Wedbush Securities analyst, tells the Monetary Instances 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 acquired a fax with an unlikely enterprise proposal that might change the whole lot.
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 quick string of characters that’s tacked onto the tip of a URL—in change for cash.
Within the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau grew to become an unlikely web large—however not in the way in which it could have hoped. Till not too long ago, its .tk area had extra customers than some other nation’s: a staggering 25 million—however the overwhelming majority have been spammers, phishers, and cybercriminals.
Now the territory is desperately attempting to wash up .tk. Its worldwide standing, and even its sovereignty, could rely on 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. (Received any concepts? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ An almond and potato cake? You’ve bought my consideration.
+ If 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 dwelling is extremely stylish.
