AI Killed the Media Star

🌍 Solar power has rapidly become the world’s dominant energy source, with installations now occurring at a rate of one gigawatt every 15 hours globally, and is projected to surpass coal as the primary energy source by 2032 (The New Yorker)

🌎 Global banks have channeled more than $385 billion into coal since the 2021 COP26 climate summit, despite commitments to phase it down (Bloomberg)

🇨🇳 Battery storage prices in China have hit a record low in what industry experts are calling a “watershed moment” (Renew Economy)

🇩🇪 Germany has reached one million balcony solar installations in the past five years, with simple plug-and-play systems costing as little as 200 euros (Distilled)

Clean energy developers face a critical challenge as the interconnection queue process now takes nearly five years on average, threatening thousands of gigawatts of renewable projects from meeting the 12-month construction deadline required to qualify for federal tax credits (Heatmap)

Despite some early promise from Moderna’s melanoma vaccine, cancer vaccines have largely failed so far(Mackenzie Morehead)

The health of US children has significantly declined since 2007, with kids being 15-20% more likely to have chronic conditions like depression, anxiety, obesity, and ADHD, and 80% more likely to die than peers in other high-income countries due to factors like gun violence, car crashes, and substance abuse (WHRO Public Media)

🌍 The world’s first malaria treatment specifically for newborn babies under 5 kg has been approved, and will be rolling out to eight African countries on a not-for-profit basis (Euro News)

Higher levels of air pollution are strongly linked to the same types of cancer-driving DNA mutations typically associated with smoking (The Guardian)

A major brain study of 10,000 children found that those who experimented with drugs before age 15 had distinctive brain differences before they ever used substances, suggesting that addiction vulnerability may be rooted in pre-existing neurological factors (Scientific American)

Researchers are collaborating with farmers in the Northwest to expand buckwheat production, developing new varieties and products to build local demand for this nutrient-dense, climate-friendly crop (Civil Eats)

Farmworkers in California are collecting, growing, and processing native seeds to restore hundreds of thousands of acres damaged by wildfires, drought, and other climate impacts (Civil Eats)

🇨🇳 China has achieved global dominance in rare earth metals production, but it has come with a cost, including decades of severe environmental damage to water sources (The New York Times)

The Trump administration is suing California over its voter-approved animal welfare cage-free laws, claiming the law is responsible for driving up egg prices and violates federal farming regulations (LA Times)

The MAHA movement often praises Europe’s stricter food policies on additives and dyes as a model for reducing chronic disease, but nutrition experts say they’re overlooking other European policies with great health impacts like walkable cities and universal healthcare (STAT)

🌍Developing nations are seeking to reclaim digital sovereignty and ensure economic benefits flow back to their own countries by demanding that tech giants store citizen data locally rather than overseas (Rest of World)

Hugging Face launched a $299 open-source desktop robot that integrates with their AI platform, aiming to democratize robotics development by making AI-powered robotics more accessible to developers worldwide (Venture Beat)

An open-source software designed to protect small websites from AI bot scrapers has been downloaded 200,000 times since January, and is now being used by major organizations (404 Media)

🌍Mobile money accounts have grown from 13 million in 2010 to 640 million in 2023, with more than half located in Sub-Saharan Africa, transforming financial inclusion by allowing people without traditional bank access to securely transfer funds (Our World in Data)

The American Federation of Teachers is launching a National Academy for AI Instruction to train educators on using AI tools (The New York Times)