That is immediately’s version of The Obtain, our weekday e-newsletter that gives a each day dose of what’s occurring on the planet of expertise.
Contained in the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon impartial purpose
“We have been shedding the sunshine, and nonetheless about 20 kilometers from the primary highway, when the automobile shuddered and died on the fringe of an odd 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 growth, 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 immediately. 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 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 Massive Story collection: MIT Expertise Evaluation’s most essential, formidable reporting that takes a deep have a look at the applied sciences which are coming subsequent and what they may imply for us and the world we dwell in. Try the remainder of them right here.
The vibes are shifting for US local weather tech
The previous few years have been an virtually 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 price of US local weather tech tasks have been canceled or downsized to date in 2025. There are nonetheless tasks shifting ahead, however these cancellations positively aren’t a great signal. So, how frightened ought to we be? Learn the complete story.
—Casey Crownhart
This text is from The Spark, MIT Expertise Evaluation’s weekly local weather e-newsletter. To obtain it in your inbox each Wednesday, join right here.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the web to search out you immediately’s most enjoyable/essential/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 units
Of every little thing from MRI scanners to glucose screens. (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 complete management to AI brokers could be an enormous mistake. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
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 $)
+ The way to repair the web. (MIT Expertise Evaluation)
5 How AI will help programmers protect getting older laptop code
Governments the world over 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 Evaluation)
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 Evaluation)
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 The way to create a brand new shade
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 Evaluation)
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 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 alternate for cash.
Within the succeeding years, tiny Tokelau grew to become an unlikely web big—however not in the way in which it might have hoped. Till just lately, 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 making an attempt to wash up .tk. Its worldwide standing, and even its sovereignty, could rely on it. Learn the complete story.
—Jacob Judah
We will 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 acquired my consideration.
+ Whenever you get a tattoo, the place does the ink go?
+ The most recent season of Black Mirror was filmed virtually solely within the UK.
+ Lenny Kravitz’s Parisian residence is extremely stylish.
