📌 Climate Summit, Haiti Chaos, More

Delegates in Baku hope to resolve the summit's top agenda item – up to $1 trillion in annual climate finance for developing countries.

COP29 host Azerbaijan will be tasked with keeping countries focused on agreeing to a new global finance target to replace the current $100 billion pledge expiring this year.

Many in Baku were worried that a US disengagement could lead other countries to backpedal on past climate pledges or to scale back future ambitions.

The European Union and current US President Joe Biden's administration have pressed China and Gulf oil nations to join the pool of climate finance donor countries.

A climate and energy expert said, “Unless the world collectively steps up its efforts, the impacts of climate change will become increasingly severe and frequent and will be felt by an increasing number of people in all countries.”

A report says that Haiti will name former senate candidate Alix Didier Fils-Aime to replace Prime Minister Garry Conille.

The shakeup is the latest blow to political stability in the country, which has been wracked with worsening violence. Armed gangs have gained control of most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and expanded to nearby regions, fueling hunger and forcing hundreds of thousands from their homes.

The transition council, named in April, was tasked with choosing a prime minister and wielding certain presidential powers until conditions were considered secure enough for a new election. Conille (pictured) said the transition council only had the power to appoint a prime minister but not dismiss one from the role.

Didier Fils-Aime is the son of well-known Haitian activist Alix Fils-Aime, who was jailed under dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

Californian farmers’ increased land use for pistachios generated nearly $3 billion in 2023, making the US the nut’s top exporter.

According to state agricultural statistics, California grows more than a third of the country's vegetables and three-quarters of its fruit and nuts. Pistachios have surged over the past decade to become the state's sixth-biggest agricultural commodity in value, ahead of longtime crops such as strawberries and tomatoes.

Industry experts said Americans are eating more pistachios, which were rarely in grocery stores a generation ago, and today, they are a snack food found almost everywhere. They are sold with shells or without, and flavors range from salt and pepper to honey roasted.

Industry experts said pistachios are poised to weather California's dry spells better than almonds, the state's even bigger nut crop, which generated nearly $4 billion last year.

A Penn State study suggests that a positive attitude about aging can lead to a better cognitive experience in senior years.

The study finds that people with more positive expectations of aging report fewer cognitive problems, such as difficulty concentrating or keeping track of their actions. They were also less likely to report that their mental performance had declined.

The researchers’ online survey targeted individuals aged 65 and older in the US who lived independently and didn’t report any diagnosis of dementia or other cognitive impairment. 581 people completed the survey; 51% of the respondents were women, and 74% were non-Hispanic white.

A researcher said people who worry about perceived declines in their cognitive function — even if it is normal— are at a higher risk.

As cognitive function gradually declines, people often experience subtle symptoms before clinical tests identify an impairment.

“If we can intervene in a way to ground aging expectations more in what is true and less stigmatized, then maybe we can help people clarify what they’re experiencing in terms of cognitive changes, which will support our ability to respond to individual needs for maximizing cognitive health,” a researcher said.

The slogan “learn to code” was popularized in the 2010s. Google's head of research says the advice still rings true, even in the AI age.

“Learning the basic disciplines remains as important as ever,” said Yossi Matias, Google's head of research. “Basic coding is like basic math," Matias said. “You need to understand what's going on there. … it's important to master the basic things.”

That may come as a surprise to some as companies increasingly lean on AI for some coding duties. With the emergence of tools like GitHub Copilot, one Microsoft manager estimated 70% of his time spent coding has been reduced.

Matias said junior professionals have faced “challenges in getting "the experience they want.” But he said there will be many opportunities to build on fundamental coding skills.

Scientists dropped gophers onto parts of Mount St. Helens for only 24 hours, and the benefits are visible 40 years later.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for miles around. Scientists theorized that gophers might help regenerate lost plant and animal life on the mountain by digging up beneficial bacteria and fungi. Two years after the eruption, they tested this theory.

They were right. However, the scientists did not expect the benefits of this experiment to be visible in the soil today. A scientific paper details the enduring change in the communities of fungi and bacteria where gophers had been versus nearby land where they were never introduced.

After scientists dropped a few local gophers on two pumice plots for a day, the land exploded again with new life. Six years post-experiment, 40,000 plants were thriving on the gopher plots. The untouched land remained mostly barren and still does to this day.

Artificial intelligence detected a woman’s breast cancer after a routine scan evaluated by humans came back as “normal.”

Sheila Tooth was given the all-clear after her most recent mammogram was examined by two experienced radiologists who determined that there were no signs of cancer. However, the English hospital was participating in research to see whether AI could improve early detection.

The technology spotted cancerous cells that were undetectable by the human eye, which allowed Sheila, who had been diagnosed with early breast cancer 15 years ago, to get minimal treatment as early as possible.

“It’s extraordinary, and I’m amazed,” said the retired nurse from West Sussex, England. “I knew that whatever they could see on my scan must have been incredibly small if it wasn’t picked up the first time.”

The mother-of-one was diagnosed with the same early non-invasive breast cancer as before — but because it was found so early, she was able to have a lumpectomy and didn’t need any further treatment. Recovering from the surgery, she says she is grateful for the AI technology.