Time to Retire the Diesel School Bus

Despite what the news may be saying, the data shows that America isn’t pivoting to natural gas. In places like Texas, renewables and storage still dominate new energy development (Distilled)

🌍 African nations have dramatically increased their solar panel imports from China, with 21 countries posting record purchases in the last year (Bloomberg)

🌍 European cities are facing a critical dilemma of how to cool populations during an escalating heat crisis when only 20% of buildings have AC, without increasing emissions (World Resources Institute)

Exposure to heat waves can accelerate biological aging, with new research suggesting that just two years of heat exposure can add 8 to 12 extra days of age-related health damage (The New York Times)

Fishermen reliant on income from offshore wind construction to supplement their fishing revenues are fighting back against halting construction on the nearly-completed Revolution Wind offshore wind project (Canary Media)

🇳🇴 Norway has successfully reduced homelessness by nearly half since 1996 through a comprehensive “Housing First” approach that prioritizes permanent housing over temporary solutions (Reasons To Be Cheerful)

🌎 The dismantling of USAID has disrupted the global supply chain of ready to use therapeutic food, a $45 treatment that can save severely malnourished children (The New York Times)

🇧🇼 Botswana is the first high-burden country to achieve WHO Gold Tier status for eliminating mother-to-child HIV transmission (The Guardian)

The federal government buried a major federal study on alcohol and cancer that was commissioned in 2022, with researchers being told the results would not be published as the alcohol industry has campaigned to discredit the research (Vox)

🎧 Explore the contentious debate over gain-of-function research, through two scientists with opposing views (Undark)

While numerous studies link ultra-processed foods to obesity, diabetes, and other health problems, some researchers question whether the classification is too broad (Nature)

Iowa’s $50 billion agricultural industry has prevented efforts to clean up the state’s severely polluted waterways (Bloomberg)

An app that provides real-time flood alerts by aggregating data from over 13,000 stream-gauging stations nationwide is at risk due to federal cuts that threaten the monitoring infrastructure it depends on (Seven Days)

Mass deportations are negatively impacting agriculture, with at least 1.2 million foreign-born people leaving the US labor force in the first half of 2025, leading to a 6.5% drop in agricultural employment, and rising food prices (Civil Eats)

🇧🇬 Bulgaria’s severe water crisis is a warning for climate change impacts across Europe (Bloomberg)

🇮🇳 India is lagging behind in AI development, but the government has a rapid response plan to catch up through the $1.25 billion IndiaAI Mission (MIT Technology Review)

US states are beginning to regulate AI therapy chatbots because while these tools may provide benefits to users, there are legitimate reasons for intervention (Platformer)

Has AI created a “mass-delusion event” where people feel like they’re losing their minds as they navigate increasingly surreal digital interactions that blur the lines between reality and artificial stimulation? (The Atlantic)

Widespread age verification laws are severely impacting the adult entertainment industry, and could force sex workers back into more dangerous working conditions (WIRED)

Copyright takedown systems used to combat OnlyFans piracy are incorrectly flagging and removing completely unrelated content from Google search results, which highlights larger issues with automated content moderation systems that lack human oversight (404 Media)