If youve ever been hit with a sketchy text warning you of an overdue toll road payment or mysterious U.S. Postal Service fees, youve likely been targeted by one of the largest cyber scams sweeping the globe.
Now, Google is suing an international cybercrime group it believes is responsible for the ubiquitous text-based phishing scheme, which may have raked in as much as $1 billion over the last three years. In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, Google alleges that 25 people are part of a sprawling scam operation known as Lighthouse that was designed to swipe the logins and passwords of victims caught in its web.
The Lighthouse scam hinges on tricking people with bogus texts, prompting them to click a link and share their credentials on fake websites. The sites display legitimate-looking logos of brands such as Google, Gmail, and YouTube in hopes of convincing potential victims that their fake web pages are real, hence the companys involvement. Google says that it found 107 website templates misusing Google branding on their sign-in screens in order to fool people into thinking those sites are safe and actually connected to Googles products.
According to the lawsuit, almost 200 fake web templates connected to the Lighthouse network imitate U.S. websites like those belonging to the New York City government and USPS. Beyond Googles own logos, the fake sites display official-looking logos of payment companies and social media platforms. Google and other security researchers believe that the text-phishing scam network is based in China, well beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement.
Bad actors built Lighthouse as a phishing-as-a-service kit to generate and deploy massive smishing (SMS phishing) attacks, Google general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado wrote on the companys blog. These attacks exploit established brands like E-ZPass to steal peoples financial information.
Google notes that this family of cybercrime is causing immense financial harm around the globe, and that the company intends to disrupt the schemes core infrastructure with the lawsuit. In it, Google alleges that the unnamed individuals connected to the Lighthouse scam have run afoul of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act; the Lanham Act, which protects trademarks; and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Because the operation is seemingly based in China, Googles suit likely wont be dragging anyone to court overnight, but the suit could still disrupt the groups web hosting and other aspects of its infrastructure. Because Google doesnt know the names of the 25 individuals connected to the scam, the suit includes their Telegram handles when they are known.
To fight cyber scams on U.S. soil, Google also announced Wednesday that it will back a handful of bipartisan bills designed to disrupt fraud, counter scams, and block robocalls that originate overseas.
Legal action can address a single operation; robust public policy can address the broader threat of scams, DeLaine Prado said. We encourage Congress to enact these crucial bills and help bring a decisive end to the financial harm and damage wrought by foreign cybercriminals.
World Labs, the AI model developer cofounded by AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, has released its 3D-space generating model, Marble. At the World Labs website, creators can now input text prompts, images, or videos of pieces of a real-world environment. Marble uses them to create full 3D environments, which can include interior spaces or expansive exterior ones.
Marble can reconstruct, generate, and simulate 3D worldsthink of it as a type of world model. In an interview with Fast Company, Li describes world models as a “significant” evolution of the generative AI era. The large world model is really a significant step towards unlocking AI’s capability,” a category she calls “spatial.” Spatial intelligence refers to a systems ability to perceive, model, reason about, and take actions within physical or geometric spacesimilar to how humans or animals choose their actions based on their understanding of their surroundings.
World Labs launched in September of 2024, when it began working on the Marble model. Two months ago it released a preview of the model to a group of creatives, who began buliding worlds and giving feedback.This week, Li posted a sort of manifesto on Substack arguing that spatial intelligence is the next frontier in AI. For humans, she says, spatial intelligence of the physical world around us provides the scaffolding upon which we build our cognition. Spatial intelligence will transform how we create and interact with real and virtual worldsrevolutionizing storytelling, creativity, robotics, scientific discovery, and beyond, she writes. World Labs believes that endowing machines (including robots) with such spatial intelligence could be transformative for a number of industries in the coming years.
Using a web interface, users can feed Marble a scene description, images or videos, or coarse 3D layouts and the model will generate a realistic 3D environment. A user might input a set of images from the bedroom where they grew up, then upload the images to Marble, which will then intelligently sew them together to create an immersive digital 3D version of the room.
The user can then use a set of tools to refine or expand their bedroom recreation, making small touchups like adding a clock. Or, they might make larger changes: adding a desk and chair or rendering the whole room with a different kind of light. More advanced users can create (or import) a rough 3D scene including the major fixtures of an environment, then use text prompts to control the overall style.
The editing tools let you iterate with the model and go back and forth and edit what the world looks like in various ways to help you [get] that vision out of your head and making that perfect world, says World Labs cofounder Justin Johnson. World Labs is also hosting a hub where people can share their 3D creations.
Marble can output 3D worlds so that other creators, perhaps using other tools, can build on or enhance them. It can generate worlds as Gaussian splats, meshes, or videosformats familiar to graphics pros. That’s really cool because it lets you take those 3D assets and then compose them with all kinds of other traditional workflows, Johnson says. You could take your triangle mesh and drop it into a game. You could take your gaussian splat and then use it for a VFX shot and composite and other things.
In generative AI, a Gaussian splat is the highest quality way of rendering 3D objects and spaces. The model generates millions or billions of tiny splatssemi-transparent particles occupying different points within a 3D space. They are small, smooth blobs whose brightness, opacity, color, or density is greatest at their center, with those values falling smoothly off in a bell-curve shape down to zero at their edges. The blobs then interconnect with their neighbors, which increases the smooth, consistent feel. When billions of these splats overlap, they can approximate the smooth surfaces, colors, and lighting of a 3D scene.
While anyone can now experiment with Marble, professionals such as artists, engineers, and VFX designers might find it useful in their work. Li and her cofounders, Ben Mildenhall, Johnson, and Christoph Lassner, say that this spatial intelligence could transform a variety of industries, including gaming, film production, and robotics.
Li, who also codirects the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI, was recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering at a ceremony with King Charles in London. Her cofounders have impressive bona fides, too. Lassner developed Pulsar, a sphere-based renderer that paved the way for 3D Gaussian Splatting. Johnson, who worked with Li as a graduate student at Stanford, created real-time style transfer (in which the visual style of one image is applied to another), which was deployed by Meta, Snap, and Prisma. Ben Mildenhall cocreated the neural radiance field (NeRF) method, which revolutionized 3D scene reconstruction.
World Labs is offering a tiered subscription plan, starting with a free tier that includes enough credits to generate four worlds. The higher tiers add more credits and more tools, with the top plan priced at $95 per month.
The worst part of any medical is waiting for results. That can be especially true of sexual health tests. Those conducted in person can take 2448 hours, but if theyre submitted via at-home collection kit and mailed to a lab, it can take even longer.
A new test from diagnostics company Visby Medical, launching nationwide today is changing that. Now that it’s successfully completed a pilot period, the company is bringing a 30-minute, lab-accurate PCR test for three common sexually transmitted infections to women at home. From a self-collected vaginal swab, the $149.99 test can diagnose chlamydia, gonorrhea, and trichomoniasisthree common infections that can all easily be treated with antibiotics. It also connects patients who test positive with a healthcare provider via United Healthcares OptumNow telehealth service.
If you tell somebody, I have an STD test for the home, what they think I mean is You’re going to give me a collection kit, I’m going to pee in the cup and send it back and get a result a week later, says Adam de la Zerda, founder and CEO of Visby Medical. With his machine, he says, all they have to do is close the lid and the test starts running, and in 30 minutes youll get your result.
Cleared by the FDA in March as the first at-home diagnostic for these STIs, Visbys test is now going wide with the test following a smaller pilot launch on its site and via diagnostics platform Everlywell. It parlayed that approval into a funding round that in July had brought in $55 million, led by healthcare investment firm Catalio Capital Management.
The company last raised money in 2022, when a $135 million funding roundfocused on developing the STI test and a point-of-care COVID and flu testvalued the company at more than $1 billion. According to PitchBook, it’s raised a total of $486 million
[Photo: Visby Medical]
To underscore the convenience element of the new test, Visby is also making it available for same-day delivery via GoPuff and DoorDash in 10 major cities including Las Vegas, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Orders can be placed via the Visby website, which helps identify the best delivery option for a buyer, and dispatched via one of the apps. It looks and feels just like ordering lunch, de la Zerda says. Its nobodys business what you just received from DoorDashit could be a bag of burritos or a Visby test.
Visbys test is also getting a cosign from a competitor, with digital health platform Everlywell selling it.
From test to treatment
De la Zerda says that the STI test has been the companys goal since it was founded in 2012. Visby had just finished its initial clinical trials on a test for use in doctors offices when the pandemic forced a pivot to COVID, for which Visby developed a point of care test. Even then, the focus was at-home PCR, with Visby landing $19 million from a federal prize competition with an early, point-of-care version of the test.
The FDA authorizationvia the agencys De Novo pathway for novel medical devicestook roughly a year from submission to approval, included Visbys app, which is powered by Google Cloud to decode the test results.The test itself demonstrated the ability to identify 98.8% of negative and 97.2% of positive chlamydia samples; 99.1% of negative and 100% of positive gonorrhea samples; and 98.5% of negative and 97.8% positive trichomoniasis samples.
Visbys ability to say that its test is actually diagnosing STIsas opposed to other at-home STI screenings that require a lab test to confirm their resultsmeant de la Zerda wanted to build an easy way to be treated into the test process and price tag.
We got a true diagnostic claim, de la Zerda says. That enabled us to go to folks like United Health, OptumNow, and say lets leverage that telemedicine platform you guys have built and create that connectivity for people.’ With a 24/7 provider network active in all 50 states, OptumNow can connect Visby users with a clinician and have a prescription sent to a local pharmacy within about 710 minutes, de la Zerda says.
Its a powerful thing to enable somebody to test for a stigmatized condition in the privacy of their home and not just leave them hanging with a diagnosis, he says. Thats part of how Visbys test ended up on a competitors platform.
Team of rivals
Besides the Visby website and its delivery partners, the test is also being offered via Everlywell, a digital health platform that offers home testing on conditions that include fertility, STIs, food sensitivities, and immune health.
STI specifically is an incredibly important, undertested epidemic where this [at-home] format lends itself to eliminating stigma and creating privacy, says Julia Cheek, founder and CEO of Everlywell. Though the company sells its own five-panel sexual health testing kit for, it functions as a blood and urine collection kit that users have to mail into a lab for results. Cheek says the speed and convenience of Visbys test made it an obvious choice for Everlywell, which serves a user base of 80% women.
Its not fully comprehensive yet, but we want to be able to meet people where they are and offer them different options, she syas. We fundamentally believe the consumer deserves access to whatever test is available, accurate and gets them what they need.
Everlywell has offered Visbys test since August, and she says users have responded positively, with both companies already planning to invest further in marketing the test to Everlywell users in 2026.
Even as the STI test shows promise, de la Zerda sees todays wide launch as a starting point. If you rank the top 200 tests that people are running on a PCR machine, just about every single one of them we can have a Visby test to run it as well, he says. Its the same technology.
With all the news in the quantum world this monthincluding DARPA’s new list of the most viable quantum companies, and Quantinuum’s announcement of “the most accurate quantum computer in the world“IBM, not to be outdone, put out a statement of its own. The top-line message: We’re doing great!
IBM’s quantum program is hitting all the milestones it’s set out in its most recent road mapand it is accelerating progress toward a large-scale, fault-tolerant quantum computer, by shifting production of its quantum processors out of its research labs to an 300mm quantum advanced 300mm wafer fabrication facility at the Albany NanoTech Complex. The move will double the speed at which IBM can produce quantum processors, and enable a tenfold increase in their physical complexity.The company also announced two new processors, which IBM Fellow and Director of Quantum Systems Jerry Chow told me, on a recent tour of the company’s lab in Yorktown Heights, represent the company’s two-pronged path moving forward.
The IBM Quantum Nighthawk processor, which allows more complex computations with the same low error rates as its predecessor, is built for near-term “quantum advantage”applications that show an edge over classical (non-quantum) computing approaches alone.
300mm IBM Quantum Nighthawk wafer [Photo: IBM]
By combining high-powered computing (HPC) with quantum processors, IBM believes that researchers will show verifiable examples of quantum advantage in 2026. The company has joined with Algorithmiq, Flatiron Institute, and BlueQubit to create an open, community-led “quantum advantage tracker” to systematically monitor and verify emerging demonstrations of advantage.The company’s experimental IBM Quantum Loon processor, on the other hand, is a step toward the company’s vision of large-scale “fault-tolerant” quantum computing, which it aims to realize by 2029. The Loon chip demonstrates a new architecture capable of implementing and scaling all the components needed for practical, high-efficiency quantum error correction.
A year ahead of schedule, IBM also showed that using classical computing hardware, it could accurately decode errors in real-time, relying on efficient qLDPC (quantum low-density parity check) codes.“You can’t just wait for fault-tolerance,” says Chow. “Even when you get to those machines, you’re going to look at, how do you integrate with the classical side? How do you actually build all the tools and the libraries, all the software pieces [or applications]?”
“You can already to start to build that with the machines today,” Chow continues. “They’re going to be at a different scale and more heuristic [trial and error] in nature. But it’s better to get on board than to just wait and have it show up on your doorstep and not know what to do with it.”
What makes some people instantly likable? How can you make people want to be around you, to work with you, and follow your leadership? You may think it comes down to charisma that some people have and others dont. In fact, theres a simple habit that will make you instantly more likable. Its the secret behind magnetism, according to Emma Seppälä, lecturer at the Yale School of Management and author of The Happiness Track. In a piece for Psychology Today, she cites research showing that positive practicessmall moments of gratitude and caring toward other peoplecan turn you into one of those magnetic people others find irresistible.
Showing genuine interest in others is one great example of a positive practice, Seppälä writes. That holds true whether its the person at the cash register, your co-worker, your roommate, or your family. Sounds obvious (and even boring), but too often were too wrapped up in our own concerns and stresses to take notice of others.
Another positive practice is reminding yourself when someone seems inconsiderate or unfriendly that they may have a backstory that casts a different light on their behavior. When you are genuinely curious, attentive, and kind when you interact with others, you can shift that entire persons day, strengthen your relationship with them, and both of you will feel better after your interaction, she writes.
Positive emotions are contagious
Why do small changes like these make such a big difference? Emotions are contagious, both good and bad, as multiple studies have shown. If youre feeling stressed and you act grumpy, youll inspire other people to do the same. The reverse is also true. Positive emotions bring out the best in us, Seppälä writes. They help us think more clearly, connect better, and become more creative. When we feel emotionally safe, were more open and engaged. We naturally connect with others more easily. Our relationships improve.
Seppälä has several suggestions for positive practices that can make a huge difference in how likable you are. Its well worth reading her entire article. But one really stood out for me, perhaps because its something I need to do more often myself. Its what she calls tiny rituals of care.
This could be texting a friend every Monday to check in, writing a quick thank-you note, or ending the day with a few minutes of conversation on the phone with a relative who lives alone, she writes. Turning these small gestures into a habit, something you do regularly without thinking and that always fits into your schedule, is a very powerful way to harness the power of positivity. It can make you more likable, improve your relationships, and lift your own mood all at the same time.
Theres a growing audience of Inc.com readers who receive a daily text from me with a self-care or motivational micro-challenge or tip. Often, they text me back and we wind up in a conversation. (Want to know more? Its easy to try it out and you can easily cancel anytime. Heres some information about the texts and a special invitation to a two-month free trial.) Many of my subscribers are entrepreneurs or business leaders. They know what an asset it is to have people like you and feel drawn to you. Should you give positive practices a try?
Minda Zetlin
This article originally appeared on Fast Companys sister publication, Inc.
Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
In the space of a few months, a journalistic skill that might seem straightforward to many viewersediting tape for broadcasthas been behind a $16 million legal settlement, a network’s change in how it offers interviews on a news show, and now, the resignation of two top leaders at the BBC.
The other common denominator: President Donald Trump.
Britain’s BBC is reeling this week following the resignations of its director-general, Tim Davie, and news chief Deborah Turness amid accusations of bias in the editing of last year’s documentary, Trump: A Second Chance. The BBC admitted filmmakers spliced together quotes from different sections of the speech Trump made before the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol to make it seem like he was directly urging violence.
Trump sued CBS’ parent company over a 60 Minutes edit of Kamala Harris’ interview, resulting in this summer’s settlement, and the complaints of his Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, about her Face the Nation interview in August caused a policy change.
In a different time, the BBC episode would likely have led to a quick admission of a mistake, a correction, apology, and everyone would have moved on, said Mark Lukasiewicz, a former NBC News executive and now dean of Hofstra University’s School of Communication.
But in an era where every editing decision taken in a newsroom is now under a microscope and can be weaponized for political purposes,” he said, it’s got to be something that is causing real caution in newsrooms all over the world now.
Editing decisions were once largely behind the scenes
Questioning edits is another tool for the president to strike back at journalists who displease him. He has restricted access by The Associated Press after its decision not to follow his lead in renaming the Gulf of Mexico, sued outlets like The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and stripped funding for public broadcasting because he doesn’t like its news coverage.
Much like print reporters who search through notebooks for the perfect quote, video editors often labor to identify footage that will advance a story.
Sometimes the perfect image does not exist, or a quote isn’t as succinct or sharp as a medium under constant time constraints demands. That can lead to the temptation to rearrange or even manipulate.
NBC News got in trouble more than a decade ago for a story about George Zimmermanwho fatally shot Trayvon Martin, a young man who was in his Florida gated community. It quoted Zimmerman talking to a police dispatcher about Martin, saying this guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks Black.
In reality, Zimmerman’s description of Martin’s activities last longer, and his speculation about Martin’s race was a direct response to a police dispatcher’s question about it. Zimmerman sued NBC News for libel, a case later thrown out by a judge. NBC apologized to its viewers.
Katie Couric apologized in 2016 when an editor for her Under the Gun documentary inserted an eight-second pause after footage of Couric questioning guns right activists about background checks. The activists actually responded right away.
Quotes artificially compressed in BBC documentary
In the BBC edit, different parts of Trump’s 2021 Capitol speech are edited to appear as a single quote: We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.
But the second two sentences of that quote were actually said nearly an hour later than the first sentence, and part of his speech where he said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully was omitted.
In an interview that aired Tuesday on Fox News, Trump said, I guess I have to sue the BBC. Because I think they defrauded the public and they’ve admitted it.
In teaching video editing to students at Syracuse University, Jamie Hoskins said she repeatedly emphasizes the need not to be misleading. She’s a former news producer who worked in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Buffalo, New York.
I talk about that in every class at every level, she said. You don’t want to mischaracterize what people are saying or change their meaning by piecing things together.
The proliferation of videoever shorter, ever snappieron TikTok and Instagram adds to pressure placed on journalists. The ability of AI to manufacture completely false video is yet another complication. Fake, racist video of Black food assistance recipients complaining about missing benefits due to the government shutdown spread online; a Fox News digital story linked to some of the videos earlier this month and had to be corrected.
We live in a world now where people can get content from everywhere, Hoskins said. There is a difference between content and journalism.
A new way to protect against complaints
At the root of Trump’s complaint about 60 Minutes was an exchange between correspondent Bill Whitaker and Kamala Harris, the president’s opponent in last year’s election. CBS aired two different reportson 60 Minutes and Face the Nationdepicting Harris giving two different answers to a Whitaker question about the war in the Mideast.
CBS News said both responses were part of Harris’ long-winded answer to the same question. But to people who saw both broadcasts, the effect was jarring; other news outlets say they have a strict policy, when they show an interviewer posing a question, that the immediate, direct response is aired.
CBS News defended it as routine editing. But it gave Trump n opening to charge that it was done to benefit Harris’ campaign.
I don’t think the practices and standards are worse today than they were a few years ago, Lukasiewicz said. I think the consequences of mistakes are more serious than perhaps they used to be, he said, because of the ability and willingness of politicians to seize on them.
In Noem’s pretaped talk with Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan this summer, the Homeland Security secretary complained CBS News had shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth. The network had shortened the interview, removing some accusations Noem had made about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the immigrant deported by the Trump administration.
In response, the network said that it would only air interviews on Face the Nation that were conducted live or, if taped in advance, would have to air in full.
More often, networks are defusing potential editing controversies by posting online full, unedited transcripts of key interviews, Lukasiewicz said. CBS News did that immediately when it aired a pre-taped edited interview with Trump on Nov. 2, along with video. The network didn’t release a transcript of its Harris interview for more than three monthsnot until Trump had sued and the FCC launched an investigation of the news division.
The Trump transcript release created its own issues, with dozens of amateur editors comparing the transcript to the shorter, edited interview that aired on 60 Minutes to see what producers had decided to leave out.
This time, though, Trump had no complaints.
David Bauder, AP media writer
Electricity demand will rise much faster than overall energy growth in the coming decades, underscoring the need for diversified energy sources, according to an analysis released Wednesday.
The report by the International Energy Agency said renewable energy, led by solar power, will grow faster than any other major source in the next few years and that coal and oil demand will likely peak globally by the end of this decade. The report noted that many natural gas projects were approved in 2025, due to changes in U.S. policy, indicating worldwide supply will rise even as questions remain about how it will be used. Meanwhile, global nuclear power capacity is set to increase by at least a third by 2035 after being stagnant for years.
The release of the annual World Energy Outlook coincided with U.N. climate negotiations in Brazil this week, where global leaders are calling for ways to curb the planet’s warming.
Regional dynamics
The IEA says building greater resilience in energy systems is especially important as data centers, heating and cooling, electrification, and more drive energy demand. Investment in data centers is expected to reach $580 billion this year, exceeding investment in the oil supply, according to the report.
Growing economies including India and nations in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, will increasingly shape energy market dynamics in the years, the IEA said, noting their potential for solar power.
China, meanwhile, has accounted for half the global growth in demand for oil and gas, and more than half for electricity, since 2010.
In a break from the trend of the past decade, the increase in electricity consumption is no longer limited to emerging and developing economies, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a release. Birol said that electricity use is also rising in advanced economies.
Nations are grappling with meeting demand while preparing for the risks brought on by the planets warming. The IEA says the world is falling short on universal energy access and climate change goals. Around 730 million people still live without electricity, according to the IEA, and despite progress, nearly one-quarter of the global population still relies on inefficient cooking methods that hurt their health or the environment. 2024 was also the hottest year on record.
Nations should diversify their energy sources and cooperate to expand supply chains for critical minerals used to make things like batteries for electric vehicles and components for solar and wind power generation, the IEA said. This also includes making quick improvements to the grid, energy storage and broader infrastructure.
When we look at the history of the energy world in recent decades, there is no other time when energy security tensions have applied to so many fuels and technologies at once, Birol said. With energy security front and (center) for many governments, their responses need to consider the synergies and trade-offs that can arise with other policy goals on affordability, access, competitiveness and climate change.
In a conference call Wednesday, Birol said: We will still use oil, we will still use gas. But the growth of electricity demand is spectacular.
He noted the role transportation plays in accounting for 45% of global oil consumption, for example. How the electrification of the transportation takes place, especially in countries beyond China and Europe, will determine the shape of the oil demand and growth.
Global reaction
Wednesday’s edition of the yearly report is the first released since the start of U.S. President Donald Trumps second term. Trump’s administration has for a second time opted out of the Paris agreement, rolled back dozens of climate regulations, slashed federal support for renewable energies such as wind and solar power, and is reversing the endangerment finding that sits at the core of U.S. climate policy.
Trump has pledged his support instead to the fossil fuel industry, investing in coal and loosening restrictions on pollution.
But energy analysts said the shift to clean power is happening regardless of climate policy around the world.
The evidence on the ground is overwhelming. EV sales are taking off in many emerging countries, solar is permeating even through the Middle East, said Dave Jones, chief analyst at global energy think tank Ember. “Renewables and electrification will dominate the future.
Maria Pastukhova, energy transition program lead at climate change think tank E3G, said the report makes the choices for the global energy system and the global economy unambiguous.
If countries want to grow their economies and protect their citizens from roller-coaster energy prices, they need to focus relentlessly on energy efficiency and the (decarbonization) of energy demand, Pastukhova said.
Others, however, were critical of how the outlook addressed oil and gas. Ben Backwell, CEO of the Global Wind Energy Council, said the outlook does not fully capture the momentum in renewables, and that it should have emphasized the trajectory for renewable energy is accelerating, driven by the decreasing cost of the technologies, strong policy support and the move toward electrification.
Were accelerating, he added. You can see it all around the world and we can see it in our numbers for last year, but also in our numbers for the first half of this year. It looks very, very exciting, both for wind and for solar, in fact, and for next year, even more so.
The outlook foresees the likelihood of surpassing the warming threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) established in the Paris Agreement. Nonetheless, Stephan Singer, global energy senior advisor at CAN International, a global network of environmental organizaions, said getting below that point is still possible.
The IEA addressed some of the criticism in the call Wednesday. It said that it sees differences economically, politically, and with regard to clean energy efforts across the globe, and that its analysis tries to account for those differences.
In a nutshell, the IEA is backsliding. As a global think tank, the IEA has largely failed to represent where most countries in the (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and the developing world are, as theyre supporting net zero emissions with 98% CO2 emissions reductions by mid-century,” Singer said.
Alexa St. John, Associated Press climate reporter
Associated Press reporters Jennifer McDermott and Sibi Arasu contributed to this report.
The Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find APs standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
Watch out, Dr. Pepper: Mr. Pibb is in the house.
After almost 25 years, Coca-Cola announced in late October that its bringing back Mr. Pibb, its spicy cherry soda that first launched in 1972. If you were born after the turn of the century, chances are you may have never seen a can of Mr. Pibb. That’s because, in 2001, Coca-Cola renamed and rebranded the drink to Pibb Xtra, and its remained largely untouched since then.
Now, Coca-Cola is giving Mr. Pibb another chance. The company is reformulating the beverage, adding extra caffeine, and giving the entire brand a makeover. Its new branding is a combination of burgundy, red, and black, complete with an eye-catching gold exclamation point and a few subtle callbacks to Mr. Pibb’s ’90s look. Mr. Pibb will fully replace Pibb Xtra across the U.S. by 2026, according to A.P. Chaney, Coca-Colas head of creative for sparkling flavors.
Mr. Pibbs big return is Coca-Colas bid to cash in on the spicy cherry beverage category, which Chaney says is now the third-largest sparkling soft drink sector. With its added caffeine content, Mr. Pibb is also playing into the current interest in functional beveragesand the brand itself is adding a distinctly bold new voice to Coca-Colas portfolio.
[Image: The Coca-Cola Company]
A new, highly caffeinated contender enters the chat
Growing up in the 90s, Chaney remembers watching Mr. Pibb commercials on TV. Now that the spicy cherry segment is trending up, she says, it felt like the perfect time to introduce a new generation to the soda millenials and Gen Xers remember from yesteryear.
But the flavor profile isn’t quite the same as what it once was, either. Mr. Pibbs new formulation is a bolder version of what Pibb Xtra was, according to Chaney. The drinkwhich will come in both regular and zero sugar iterationsis an intense cherry flavor layered with notes of caramel.
The real change to the drinks composition is its added caffeine: Mr. Pibb will come with 30% more caffeine than Pibb Xtra, at 54 milligrams of caffeine per serving (about the same as a cup of coffee). Its a move that reflects the fact that functional has become something of a buzzword in the beverage industry, wherein add-ins like prebiotics, adaptogens, and caffeine serve as added selling points for bringing a certain beverage into a customer’s daily routine.
The caffeine is going to be a differentiator, specifically in this spicy cherry segment, Chaney says.
[Image: The Coca-Cola Company]
Coca-Cola spices up Mr. Pibbs
The brands new look and voice are intended to call back to Mr. Pibbs original identity, while also bringing new soda drinkers into the fold.
Mr. Pibbs chunky, bold font is a reference to its 90s eras cans. Its burgundy, cherry red, and black color palette is also pulled from the brands original packaging. But one of the most striking elements of the can design is entirely new: a bright gold exclamation point in place of the i in Pibb, which Chaney explains is specifically engineered to grab shoppers attention in stores.
We were really trying to cue what makes sense: Like, is it a formal Mr. Pibb or is it just Mr. Pibb, the homie? There were all these different personas we were trying to figure out, Chaney says. That comes through in the fontMr. Pibb feels more accommodating and amicable in terms of the logo, but then you have the jagged edges that make it rebellious and bold, so you’re kind of bringing in these two different personalities.
Mr. Pibb is a brand thats not afraid to mess around and crack a few jokesand thats how fans can expect it to show up going forward.
[Image: The Coca-Cola Company]
Coca-Cola is for everyone, as it should be, and it’s about uplift and it’s a beautiful and historic brand, Chaney says. Mr. Pibb is a challenger, and it’s an up-and-comer. We have more room to play in terms of how we show up and where we show up. We can make mistakes in ways that other brands can’t outside of Coca-Cola.
Plenty of brands are actually playing into some level of marketing brashness lately, in a trend that Fast Company has previously termed “DGAF branding.” In an era when platforms like Instagram Reels and TikTok are both shortening our attention spans and informing our collective senses of humor, it makes sense for brands like Nutte Butter, Duolingo, and Sour Patch Kids to take a few risks with their positioning.
It’s rarer to see a major legacy brand like Coca-Cola play into these internet-informed trendsand, to be clear, Mr. Pibb’s marketing is fairly tame compared to the aforementioned examples. Still, the Mr. Pibbs rebrand is clearly tapping into the zeitgeist by embracing a more unexpected sense of humor.
[Image: The Coca-Cola Company]
That spicy brand personality shines in a series of new ads for the soda. The team turned to old Mr. Pibb adswhich had a bold tone and often included the slogan, Mr. Pibb: Put it in your headfor inspiration. Chaney says that while most soda ads today focus solely on getting viewers to fall in love with the liquid, Coca-Cola wanted Mr. Pibb to have a bit more personality. She describes the spots tone as like if Reese’s and Arbys had a baby.
In one spot with more than five million views on YouTube, narrated by actor Roy Wood, shots of Mr. Pibb are accompanied with the voiceover, Most sodas call it at a reasonable hour. Thats when Mr. Pibb is just getting started. When Mr. Pibb texts, U up? its not a questionits a promise. Mr. Pibb, apparently, is a soda brand thats not afraid to send a casual booty call.
Three paintings from famously chill public television legend Bob Ross sold Tuesday for more than $600,000 at auction. The paintings were the first of 30 Ross works being sold to benefit public TV stations hurt by cuts in federal funding.At the live auction at Bonhams in Los Angeles, a serene, snow vista called “Winter’s Peace” that Ross painted entirely during a 1993 episode of “The Joy of Painting” went for $318,000 to a bidder on the phone.“For a good cause and you get the painting,” auctioneer Aaron Bastian said during the bidding. He invoked a common sentiment of Ross, who died in 1995, during a brief lull. “Bob would remind you that this is your world, and you can do anything you want.”Another painting done on a 1993 episode, a lush, green landscape called “Home in the Valley,” went for $229,100. A third, “Cliffside,” sold for $114,800.The final prices include a charge for the auction house added to the final bid known as the buyer’s premium. The identities of the buyers weren’t immediately revealed.Bids for all three paintings went well past pre-auction estimates of their value, which topped out around $50,000.Three more Ross paintings will be up for auction at Bonhams in Marlborough, Massachusetts, on Jan. 27, with others to follow in New York and London.All profits are pledged to stations that use content from distributor American Public Television.Ross, a public television staple in the 1980s and ’90s, was known for his dome of hair and warm demeanor.The special sales seek to help stations in need of licensing fees that allow them to show popular programs that along with Ross’ show include “America’s Test Kitchen,” “Julia Child’s French Chef Classics,” and “This Old House.” Small and rural stations are particularly challenged.The stations “have been the gateway for generations of viewers to discover not just Bob’s gentle teaching, but the transformative power of the arts,” Joan Kowalski, president of Bob Ross Inc., said in a statement.As sought by the Trump Administration, Congress has eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, leaving about 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations.Ross died at age 52 of complications from cancer after 11 years in production with the therapeutic how-to show, “The Joy of Painting.” The former Air Force drill sergeant was a sort of pioneer, known for his calm and calming manner and encouraging words.Ross spoke often as he worked on air about painting happy little clouds and trees, and making no mistakes, only “happy accidents.”He has only became more popular in the decades since his death, and his shows saw a surge in popularity during the lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Andrew Dalton, AP Entertainment Writer
Space weather forecasters issued an alert on Tuesday for incoming severe solar storms that could produce colorful northern lights and temporarily disrupt communications.In the past few days, the sun has burped out several bursts of energy called coronal mass ejections that could reach Earth Tuesday night and early Wednesday. The potential severe geomagnetic storms could disrupt radio and GPS communications, according to forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.How bright the auroras are and how far south they are visible will depend on when the solar bursts get here and how they interact with Earth’s atmosphere. The vibrant displays could be visible across much of the northern U.S., and as far south as Alabama and Northern California.
How northern lights happen
The sun is at the maximum phase of its 11-year activity cycle, making the light displays more common and widespread. Colorful northern lights have decorated night skies in unexpected places and space weather experts say there are more auroras still to come.Aurora displays known as the northern and southern lights are commonly visible near the poles, where charged particles from the sun interact with Earth’s atmosphere.Skygazers are spotting the lights deeper into the United States and Europe because the sun is going through a major face-lift. Every 11 years, its poles swap places, causing magnetic twists and tangles along the way.Last year, the strongest geomagnetic storm in two decades slammed Earth, producing light displays across the Northern Hemisphere. And soon afterward, a powerful solar storm dazzled skygazers far from the Arctic Circle when dancing lights appeared in unexpected places including Germany, the United Kingdom, New England and New York City.The sun’s active spurt is expected to last at least through the end of this year, though when solar activity will peak won’t be known until months after the fact, according to NASA and NOAA.
How solar storms affect Earth
Solar storms can bring more than colorful lights to Earth.When fast-moving particles and plasma slam into Earth’s magnetic field, they can temporarily disrupt the power grid. Space weather can also interfere with air traffic control radio and satellites in orbit. Severe storms are capable of scrambling other radio and GPS communications.In 1859, a severe solar storm triggered auroras as far south as Hawaii and set telegraph lines on fire in a rare event. And a 1972 solar storm may have detonated magnetic U.S. sea mines off the coast of Vietnam.Space weather experts aren’t able to predict a solar storm months in advance. Instead, they alert relevant parties to prepare in the days before a solar outburst hits Earth.
How to see auroras
Northern lights forecasts can be found on NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center website or an aurora forecasting app.Consider aurora-watching in a quiet, dark area away from city lights. Experts recommend skygazing from a local or national park. And check the weather forecast because clouds can cover up the spectacle entirely.Taking a picture with a smartphone camera may also reveal hints of the aurora that aren’t visible to the naked eye.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Adithi Ramakrishnan, AP Science Writer
