DeBriefed 13 June 2025: Trump’s ‘biggest’ climate rollback; UK goes nuclear; How Carbon Brief visualises research
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Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week Trump’s latest climate rollback RULES REPEALED: The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun dismantling Biden-era regulations limiting pollution from power plants, including carbon dioxide emissions, reported the Financial Times. Announcing the repeal, climate-sceptic EPA administrator Lee […]
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Chart: The rise, fall and rise of UK nuclear power over eight decades
The UK’s chancellor Rachel Reeves gave the green light this week to the Sizewell C new nuclear plant in Suffolk, along with funding for “small modular reactors” (SMRs) and nuclear fusion. In her spending review of government funding across the rest of this parliament, Reeves pledged £14.2bn for Sizewell C, £2.5bn for Rolls-Royce SMRs and […]
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Guest post: How climate change is fuelling record-breaking extreme weather
Recent years have seen a rapid succession of climate-related records broken. To name just a few, the world has witnessed record warmth in the Atlantic, unprecedented glacier melt, all-time low Antarctic sea ice extent, the Amazon’s worst drought since observations began and UK temperatures soaring past 40C for the first time. In a review article, […]
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Aged desert dust particles provide new form of SOAs, says study
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Earth’s limb and dust storms in the Sahara are pictured as the International Space Station orbited nearly 252 miles above the African country of Mali (image credit: NASA Johnson, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license). Dust particles thrown up from deserts such as the Saraha and Gobi are playing a previously unknown role in air pollution. Contrary […]
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WWTW in Scotland wins award from the Royal Academy of Engineering
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Medal winners Andrew Dyne of Haskoning, Alan Ford of EPS, Jonny Tyler of Scottish Water, Stephen Fraser of ESD and Colin Maybury of Scottish Water. A wastewater treatment works in West Lothian has won a prestigious sustainability award from The Royal Academy of Engineering. Owned and operated by Scottish Water, the £35m waste water treatment […]
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The Future of Advertising After an AI Traffic Coup
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Large language models are steadily replacing traditional search, not just by answering queries more directly, but by transforming the interface itself into a walled garden – an increasingly sought-after space that seems set to replace traditional search engines, and for which an increasingly frantic land-grab is now under way. Can publishers migrate their content discoverability […]
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Landmark thermal energy technology to pilot in Nigeria
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Aerial view of the Pan-Atlantic University campus in Lagos, Nigeria. A pilot project at Pan-Atlantic University (PAU) in Lagos, Nigeria, aims to replace polluting diesel generators with next-generation thermal energy storage powered by solar. Launched by UK-based clean tech developer Aed Energy, the initiative is part of the ZE-Gen international innovation programme, supported by Innovate […]
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Denas Grybauskas, Chief Governance and Strategy Officer at Oxylabs – Interview Series
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Denas Grybauskas is the Chief Governance and Strategy Officer at Oxylabs, a global leader in web intelligence collection and premium proxy solutions. Founded in 2015, Oxylabs provides one of the largest ethically sourced proxy networks in the world—spanning over 177 million IPs across 195 countries—along with advanced tools like Web Unblocker, Web Scraper API, and […]
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Why LLMs Overthink Easy Puzzles but Give Up on Hard Ones
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Artificial intelligence has made remarkable progress, with Large Language Models (LLMs) and their advanced counterparts, Large Reasoning Models (LRMs), redefining how machines process and generate human-like text. These models can write essays, answer questions, and even solve mathematical problems. However, despite their impressive abilities, these models display curious behavior: they often overcomplicate simple problems while […]
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Iterate.ai Secures $6.4M to Bring Secure, Scalable AI to the Edge of the Enterprise
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In a strategic push to cement its leadership in enterprise-ready artificial intelligence, Iterate.ai has raised $6.4 million in funding. The round is led by Auxier Asset Management and includes prominent investors Peter Cobb, Mike Edwards, and Dave Zentmyer—all former board members of eBags, the $1.65B online travel retailer co-founded by Iterate CEO Jon Nordmark. This high-profile […]
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How AI Is Actually Humanizing Professional Networking
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The prevailing fear around artificial intelligence (AI) is that it will render human workers obsolete, replacing jobs, eroding trust, and stripping away the human element of work. It’s an anxiety rooted in real data: according to the World Economic Forum, 40% of employers expect to reduce headcount due to AI automation, and Goldman Sachs estimates […]
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Why Large Language Models Skip Instructions and How to Address the Issue
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Large Language Models (LLMs) have rapidly become indispensable Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, powering applications from chatbots and content creation to coding assistance. Despite their impressive capabilities, a common challenge users face is that these models sometimes skip parts of the instructions they receive, especially when those instructions are lengthy or involve multiple steps. This skipping […]
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China Briefing 12 June 2025: Critical mineral exports; Electricity price; Coal ‘capacity payment’
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s China Briefing. China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here. Key developments Critical mineral ‘deal’ TRANSITION TURMOIL: US president Donald Trump said China and the US reached a “deal” after talks were held in London, reported the BBC […]
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Guest post: China’s ‘capacity payments’ boosted coal-plant revenue by up to 8%
At the start of 2024, China introduced a new system of “capacity payments” designed to help coal-fired power stations shift into a supporting role, alongside low-carbon sources. In theory, the payments should make it financially viable for coal plants to operate less frequently, switching off unless there is insufficient output from renewables and nuclear. However, […]
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Funding will support sub-Saharan Africa solar energy rental firm
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A MOPO solar energy hub. A start-up company in Africa that lets customers rent portable, solar-charged batteries has received a strategic investment from Octopus Energy Group. The global clean energy firm announced the strategic investment in MOPO – “a pioneering energy tech company delivering clean, reliable energy to underserved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa” – on […]
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Recycled solar panels and heat loss detecting drones among £2m Manchester Prize AI finalists
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The full cohort (image credit: Challenge Works). AI technologies that might transform how people heat and insulate their homes are some of the 10 clean energy innovations to have reached the final of the £2 Manchester Prize. The finalists include a non-intrusive system that uses AI to design bespoke panels that turn bricks into radiators […]
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Bringing meaning into technology deployment
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In 15 TED Talk-style presentations, MIT faculty recently discussed their pioneering research that incorporates social, ethical, and technical considerations and expertise, each supported by seed grants established by the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC), a cross-cutting initiative of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. The call for proposals last summer was met with […]
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Artistly Review: This AI Design Tool Replaces Designers
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What if you could create professional images without spending thousands on a designer? With Artistly, it’s a reality for creators, marketers, and small business owners. 88% of digital marketers use AI in their day-to-day tasks, and 85% of marketers use AI tools for content creation. In this Artistly review, I’ll discuss the pros and cons, […]