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If any husbands or boyfriends mess up Valentine’s Day this week, it’s not because of a shortage of flowers. In the run up to Feb. 14, agricultural specialists at Miami International Airport have processed about 940 million stems of cut flowers, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Around 90% of the fresh cut flowers being sold for Valentine’s Day in the United States come through Miami, while the other 10% pass through Los Angeles. Roses, carnations, pompons, hydrangeas, chrysanthemums and gypsophila arrive on hundreds of flights, mostly from Colombia and Ecuador, to Miami on their journey to florists and supermarkets across the U.S. and Canada. Miami’s largest flower importer is Avianca Cargo, based in Medellín, Colombia. In the past three weeks, the company has transported about 18,000 tons of flowers on 300 full cargo flights, senior vice president Diogo Elias said during a news conference last week in Miami. We transport flowers all year round, but specifically during the Valentines season, we more than double our capacity because theres more than double the demand, Elias said. Flowers continue to make up one of the airport’s largest imports, Miami-Dade chief operation officer Jimmy Morales said. The airport received more than 3 million tons of cargo last year, with flowers accounting for nearly 400,000 tons, worth more than $1.6 billion. With 1,500 tons of flowers arriving daily, that equals 90,000 tons of flower imports worth $450 million just in January and February, Morales said. It’s a big job for CBP agriculture specialists, who check the bundles of flowers for potentially harmful plant, pest and foreign animal diseases from entering the country, MIA port director Daniel Alonso said. “Invasive species have caused $120 billion in annual economic and environmental losses to the United States, including the yield and quality losses for the American agriculture industry,” Alonso said. Colombia’s flower industry was recently looking at a possible 25% tariff, as President Donald Trump quarreled with the South American country’s leadership over accepting flights carrying deported immigrants. But the trade dispute came to a halt in late January, after Colombia agreed to allow the flights to land. Colombian President Gustavo Petro had previously rejected two Colombia-bound U.S. military aircrafts carrying migrants. Petro accused Trump of not treating immigrants with dignity during deportation and threatened to retaliate against the U.S. by slapping a 25% increase in Colombian tariffs on U.S. goods. Officials at Friday’s news conference declined to answer any questions about politics or tariffs. David Fischer, Associated Press
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Several channels owned by Paramount Global, including CBS, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and MTV, could go dark on YouTube TV this week if a contract renewal cannot be reached between the two companies. YouTube TV, a subsidiary of Google, announced in a statement that it is working hard to reach a fair agreement that allows it to keep Paramount channels without raising prices for subscribers. It had not yet been successful in good-faith negotiations. What will happen if a new contract isn’t reached? After February 13, all Paramount content, including CBS and CBS Sports, will be removed from YouTube TV. Subscribers will also not be able to access previous recordings from these channels or add-on services, including Paramount+ with Showtime and BET+, according to the statement from YouTube. The company also announced that if an agreement is not reached, it will offer subscribers an $8 credit. Were still in active conversations with Paramount and are hopeful we can come to an agreement to keep their content available on YouTube TV, said the YouTube team. What has Paramount said about this? Paramount said on a special webpage that it had made a series of offers that were good for all customers, though YouTube TV could not agree on the terms. YouTube TV is attempting to pressure Paramount to agree to unfavorable and one-sided terms, said Paramount on the webpage. YouTube TV is prioritizing their own interests over a fair agreement. The deal that Paramount proposed would continue the relationship between the companies, enabling them to give streamers access to its networks at a fair price, according to Paramount. This dispute comes a month after YouTube TV raised the prices of its basic package to $82.99 per month. The service has around eight million subscribers and is the most popular internet-based pay-TV service, surpassing competitors like DirecTV Stream and Fubo, according to CNN. Sports fans who use YouTube TV could be especially affected, as access to CBS would be cut just as March Madness is soon to begin. Selection Sunday is March 16, and the NCAA tournament starts March 20. Why does this sound familiar? Carriage disputes have long plagued the pay-TV business, with traditional cable subscribers often experiencing service disruptions as media companies and distributors squabble over costs. As streaming services have moved to replicate the cable bundle in recent years, they have sometimes found themselves in the same boat. YouTube previously clashed with Disney in 2021 when it was time for a contract renewal. The problem was caused after Disney thought YouTube wasnt paying enough for its content. Disneys channels disappeared on the service for two days before a contract renewal was reached. How can I find out which channels are in jeopardy? If a contract cannot be reached by Thursday, Paramount has provided this list of channels, based on zip code, that subscribers could potentially lose.
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Valentines Day often conjures up images of chocolates and romance. But the crop behind this indulgence faces an existential threat. Regions like northeastern Brazil, one of the worlds notable cocoa-producing areas, are grappling with increasing aridity a slow, yet unrelenting drying of the land. Cocoa is made from the beans of the cacao tree, which thrives in humid climates. The crop is struggling in these drying regions, and so are the farmers who grow it. This is not just Brazils story. Across West Africa, where 70% of the worlds cacao is grown, and in the Americas and Southeast Asia, shifting moisture levels threaten the delicate balance required for production. These regions, home to vibrant ecosystems and global breadbaskets that feed the world, are on the frontlines of ariditys slow but relentless advance. A farmer in Colombia holds a cacao pod. [Photo: 2017CIAT/NeilPalmer, CC BY-NC-SA] Over the past 30 years, more than three-quarters of the Earths landmass has become drier. A recent report I helped coordinate for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification found that drylands now cover 41% of global land, an area that expanded by nearly 1.7 million square miles (4.3 million square kilometers) over those three decades about half the size of Australia. This creeping dryness is not just a climate phenomenon. Its a long-term transformation that may be irreversible and that carries devastating consequences for ecosystems, agriculture and livelihoods worldwide. What causes aridity? Aridity, while often thought of as purely a climate phenomenon, is the result of a complex interplay among human-driven factors. These include greenhouse gas emissions, land use practices and the degradation of critical natural resources, such as soil and biodiversity. These interconnected forces have been accelerating the transformation of once-productive landscapes into increasingly arid regions, with consequences that ripple across ecosystems and economies. Greenhouse gas emissions: A global catalyst Human-induced climate change is the primary driver of rising aridity. Greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from fossil fuel combustion and deforestation, increase global temperatures. Rising temperatures, in turn, cause moisture to evaporate at a faster rate. This heightened evaporation reduces soil and plant moisture, exacerbating water scarcity even in regions with moderate rainfall. Aridity began accelerating globally in the 1950s, and the world has seen a pronounced shift over the past three decades. This process is particularly stark in regions already prone to dryness, such as Africas Sahel region and the Mediterranean. In these areas, reduced precipitation combined with increased evaporation creates a feedback loop: Drier soils absorb less heat, leaving the atmosphere warmer and intensifying arid conditions. The number of people living in dryland regions has been rising in each region in recent years. Years 1971-2020. Scales vary. [Graph: UNCCD] Unsustainable land-use practices: A hidden accelerator Aridity is also affected by how people use and manage land. Unsustainable agricultural practices, overgrazing and deforestation strip soils of their protective vegetation cover, leaving them vulnerable to erosion. Industrial farming techniques often prioritize short-term yields over long-term sustainability, depleting nutrients and organic matter essential for healthy soils. For example, in cocoa-producing regions like northeastern Brazil, deforestation to make room for agriculture disrupts local water cycles and exposes soils to degradation. Without vegetation to anchor it, topsoil critical for plant growth washes away during rainfall or is blown away by winds, taking with it vital nutrients. These changes create a vicious cycle: Degraded soils also hold less water and lead to more runoff, reducing the lands ability to recover. Aridity can affect the ability to grow many crops. Large parts of the country of Chad, shown here, have drying lands. [Photo: United Nations Chad, CC BY-NC-SA] The soil-biodiversity connection Soil, often overlooked in discussions of climate resilience, plays a critical role in mitigating aridity. Healthy soils act as reservoirs, storing water and nutrients that plants depend on. They also support biodiversity below and above ground. A single teaspoon of soil contains billions of microorganisms that help cycle nutrients and maintain ecological balance. However, as soils degrade under aridity and mismanagement, this biodiversity diminishes. Microbial communities, essential for nutrient cycling and plant health, decline. When soils become compacted and lose organic matter, the lands ability to retain water diminishes, making it even more susceptible to drying out. In short, the loss of soil health creates cascading effects that undermine ecosystems, agricultural productivity and food security. Global hot spots: Looming food security crises Cocoa is just one crop affected by the encroachment of rising aridity. Other key agricultural zones, including the breadbaskets of the world, are also at risk. In the Mediterranean, Africas Sahel and parts of the U.S. West, aridity already undermines farming and biodiversity. By 2100, up to 5 billion people could live in drylands nearly double the current population in these areas, due to both population growth and expansion of drylands as the planet warms. This puts immense pressure on food systems. It can also accelerate migration as declining agricultural productivity, water scarcity and worsening living conditions force rural populations to move in search of opportunities. A map shows average aridity for 1981-2010. Computer simulations estimate that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities caused a 1.2% larger increase in the four types of dry regions combined for the periods between 1850 and 19812010 than simulations with only solar and volcanic effects considered. [Graph: UNCCD] Ariditys ripple effects also extend far beyond agriculture. Ecosystems, already strained by deforestation and pollution, are stressed as water resources dwindle. Wildlife migrates or dies, and plant species adapted to moister conditions cant survive. The Sahels delicate grasslands, for instance, are rapidly giving way to desert shrubs. On a global scale, economic losses linked to aridification are staggering. In Africa, rising aridity contributed to a 12% drop in gross domestic product from 1990 to 2015. Sandstorms and dust storms, wildfires and water scarcity further burden governments, exacerbating poverty and health crises in the most affected regions. The path forward Aridity is not inevitable, nor are its effects completely irreversible. But coordinated global efforts are essential to curb its progression. Countries can work together to restore degraded lands by protecting and restoring ecosystems, improving soil health and encouraging sustainable farming methods. Communities can manage water more efficiently through rainwater harvesting and advanced irrigation systems that optimize water use. Governments can reduce the drivers of climate change by investing in renewable energy. Continued international collaboration, including working with businesses, can help share technologies to make these actions more effective and available worldwide. So, as you savor chocolate this Valentines Day, remember the fragile ecosystems behind it. The price of cocoa in early 2025 was near its all-time high, due in part to dry conditions in Africa. Without urgent action to address aridity, this scenario may become more common, and cocoa and the sweet concoctions derived from it may well become a rare luxury. Collective action against aridity isnt just about saving chocolate its about preserving the planets capacity to sustain life. Narcisa Pricope is a professor of geography and land systems science and associate vice president for research at Mississippi State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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The Senate on Thursday confirmed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as President Donald Trumps health secretary, putting the prominent vaccine skeptic in control of $1.7 trillion in federal spending, vaccine recommendations and food safety as well as health insurance programs for roughly half the country. Republicans fell in line behind Trump despite hesitancy over Kennedy’s views on vaccines, voting 52-48 to elevate the scion of one of Americas most storied political and Democratic families to secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, was the only no vote among Republicans, mirroring his stands against Trump’s picks for the Pentagon chief and director of national intelligence. All Democrats opposed Kennedy. The GOP has largely embraced Kennedys vision to Make America Healthy Again by directing the public health agencies to focus on chronic diseases such as obesity. Kennedy, 71, whose name and family tragedies have put him in the national spotlight since he was a child, has earned a formidable following with his populist and sometimes extreme views on food, chemicals and vaccines. His audience only grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Kennedy devoted much of his time to a nonprofit that sued vaccine makers and harnessed social media campaigns to erode trust in vaccines as well as the government agencies that promote them. With Trump’s backing, Kennedy insisted he was uniquely positioned to revive trust in those public health agencies, which include the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institutes for Health. Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he hoped Kennedy goes wild in reining in health care costs and improving Americans’ health. But before agreeing to support Kennedy, potential holdout Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., a doctor who leads the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, required assurances that Kennedy would not make changes to existing vaccine recommendations. During Senate hearings, Democrats tried to prod Kennedy to deny a long-discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Some lawmakers also raised alarms about Kennedy financially benefiting from changing vaccine guidelines or weakening federal lawsuit protections against vaccine makers. Kennedy made more than $850,000 last year from an arrangement referring clients to a law firm that has sued the makers of Gardasil, a human papillomavirus vaccine that protects against cervical cancer. If confirmed as health secretary, he promised to reroute fees collected from the arrangement to his son. Kennedy will take over the agency in the midst of a massive federal government shakeup, led by billionaire Elon Musk, that has shut off even if temporarily billions of taxpayer dollars in public health funding and left thousands of federal workers unsure about their jobs. On Friday, the NIH announced it would cap billions of dollars in medical research given to universities and cancer being used to develop treatments for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Kennedy, too, has called for a staffing overhaul at the NIH, FDA and CDC. Last year, he promised to fire 600 employees at the NIH, the nation’s largest funder of biomedical research. Amanda Seitz, Associated Press
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Welcome to AI Decoded, Fast Companys weekly newsletter that breaks down the most important news in the world of AI. You can sign up to receive this newsletter every week here. Vances Paris speech shows a brash American exceptionalism for the AI age Vice President JD Vances speech to world leaders at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit was by turns warm and conciliatory, and strident to the point of offensiveness. Vance emphasized that AI has the potential to bring significant benefits to the world, and its risks can be effectively managedprovided that the U.S. and its tech companies take the lead. Vance argued that the U.S. remains the leader when it comes to developing cutting-edge AI models, and suggested that other countries should collaborate with the U.S. on AI rather than competing against it. (Vance also said AI companies shouldnt try to dictate the political tenor of content or dialog their models will accept, citing the Google Gemini models failed attempt at generating correct images that resulted in a Black George Washington and female popes.) This administration will ensure that AI developed in the United States continues to be the gold standard worldwide, he said. And key to the U.S.s approach, according to Vance: leaving tech companies to regulate themselves on safety and security issues. Vances view that the U.S. should take a collaborative and open approach to AI with other Western countries, but stressed that the world needed an international regulatory regime that fosters the creation of revolutionary AI technology rather than strangles it. Vance went on to criticize the E.U. for its more intrusive regulatory approach. It would be a terrible mistake for your own countries if they tightened the screws on U.S. tech companies, he advised the assembly. But not everyone agrees: Every country attending the Paris summit signed a declaration ensuring artificial intelligence AI is safe, secure, and trustworthyexcept for the U.S. and the U.K. Vance said that his administration will take a different approachusing protectionist tactics to favor U.S. AI companies. The White House will continue the Biden-era chip bans, which restrict the sale of the most advanced AI chips to other countries. (The goal right now for the Trump administration is to hinder Chinese companies like DeepSeek.) Its possible that a Trump administration could tighten these restrictions further or explore additional measures to slow down foreign AI competitors. To safeguard Americas advantage, the Trump administration will ensure that the most powerful AI systems are built in the U.S. with American designed and manufactured chips, he said. OpenAIs models will no longer shy away from sensitive topics In his Paris speech, JD Vance said his administration believes that AI companies shouldnt try to restrict speecheven disinformation or outright propagandafrom their models and chatbots. Thats music to Silicon Valley bigwigss ears, many of whom dont love the expensive and demanding and human-intensive work of content moderation. Two days after the speech, OpenAI announced that its pushing a new, more permissive code of conduct (a model spec) into its AI models. Going forward, its models will be less conservative about what they will and wont talk about. The updated Model Spec explicitly embraces intellectual freedomthe idea that AI should empower people to explore, debate, and create without arbitrary restrictionsno matter how challenging or controversial a topic may be, the company said in a blog post published Wednesday. As an example, OpenAI said that an AI model should be kept from outputting detailed instructions for building a bomb or violating personal privacy, but should be trained not to default to simply saying I cant help you with that when given politically or culturally sensitive questions. In essence, we’ve reinforced the principle that no idea is inherently off limits for discussion, the blog post said, so long as the model isn’t causing significant harm to the user or others (e.g., carrying out acts of terrorism). This policy shift sounds very much in line with the permissive posture adopted by right wing sites such as Gab and Parler, then by X, then, recently, by Metas Facebook. Now OpenAI is getting in on Big Techs vibe shift on content moderation. Stay tuned for the results. PwC Champions Agentic AI as the Next Major Workplace Disruptor The professional services firm PwC recently released a report asserting that AI agents could dwarf even the transformative effects of the internet. PwC predicts these agents will reshape workforce strategies, business models, and competitive advantages, while combining with human creativity to form augmented intelligence, enabling unprecedented innovation and productivity. The report emphasizes collaboration between humans and AI: While AI agents offer remarkable autonomy, an effective model is one of collaboration and dynamic oversight. This principle of human-at-the-helm can guide the development of clear protocols that define the boundaries of AI autonomy and enable appropriate human intervention. PwC warns that businesses must reimagine work to adapt to this agentic world. But, the PwC authors stress, that shift is a necessary one, as evidenced by AI agents successful deployment in areas like software development and customer service. To facilitate this transition, PwC suggests a five-step approach: strategize, reimagine work, structure the workforce, help workers redefine their roles, and unleash responsible AI. The question is, the report states, have you transformed to become a winner in the age of AI-enhanced work, or are you racing and perhaps too late to catch up? More AI coverage from Fast Company: Instagrams AI bots are often sexually suggestiveand sometimes underage ChatGPTs latest feature is a transformative leap for web research Are you AI literate? Schools and jobs are insisting on itand now its EU law Zooms CEO explains the video conference giants next act Want exclusive reporting and trend analysis on technology, business innovation, future of work, and design? Sign up for Fast Company Premium.
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