Environment Agency appointed lead regulator for Cornwall lithium project in bid to speed approvals
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Drone footage of the former china clay pit in Cornwall being developed by Cornish Lithium (image credit: the Environment Agency). The Environment Agency has been appointed as the lead environmental regulator for Cornish Lithium’s proposed Trelavour Lithium Project in Cornwall, as part of a government pilot aimed at streamlining approvals for major economic development schemes. […]
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New guide published to help highway authorities adapt roads to climate change
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Highway drainage infrastructure plays a critical role in helping road networks cope with increasingly frequent and intense rainfall events, one of the key climate risks addressed in ADEPT’s new guide. A new guide, aimed at local highway authorities, has been published to support resilience planning across road networks as extreme weather events grow in frequency […]
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Rising octopus numbers: UK study examines impacts on coasts and communities
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Divers and snorkellers recorded their observations as part of a survey (image credit: Kirsty Andrews). Scientists have reported a second year of an unprecedented boom in common octopus populations off southwest England, with new research from the Marine Biological Association (MBA) describing the phenomenon as the largest recorded in at least 75 years. The study, […]
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Scottish councils face £28.7m annual carbon cost from waste incineration, campaigners warn
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The NESS Energy from Waste (EfW) facility in Aberdeen (image credit: byvalet / Shutterstock). Scottish councils could face an additional £28.7 million annual bill from 2028 when waste incineration is brought within the scope of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), according to a new analysis by Zero Waste Scotland that has prompted campaigners to […]
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World Cup viewing surge highlights growing role of battery storage in grid stability
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Football fans watch the UEFA Conference League final between Chelsea and Real Betis on a large screen in Wroclaw, Poland, on May 28, 2025. The UK’s electricity system operator is preparing for significant spikes in power demand during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with forecasts suggesting that England and Scotland matches could trigger surges equivalent […]
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Building Semantic Search with Transformers.js and Sentence Embeddings
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You’ve probably shipped this bug before, where a user types ” affordable laptop ” into your search bar and gets zero results.
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The crucial human component in computing and AI
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On April 30, the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) initiative hosted a full-day research symposium examining how artificial intelligence is shaping the world and its implications for society. The symposium included research talks by SERC’s latest seed grant recipients on topics such as air pollution forecasting and responsible computer vision deployment, panels on AI […]
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Unpacking New York State’s Rollback of its Landmark Climate Law
On May 26, as part of the FY 2026-27 budget, New York State enacted significant revisions to its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA or Act). The amendments amount to a substantial rollback of the Act’s ambition. Annual temperature change in New York from 1895-2023. Source: earthstrips.org For the last seven years, the […]
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DeBriefed 5 June 2026: UK eyes 2040 emissions cut | US ‘dismantling’ oceans research | China’s solar slump
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed. An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change. This week UK proposes new emissions target ‘ON COURSE’: The UK government has proposed reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to 87% below 1990 levels by 2040, reported the Associated Press. The newswire cited scientists saying that the goal […]
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Chart: Why China’s solar boom is slowing down
Solar power has been a major element of China’s renewables buildout since the mid-2010s. The country installed 315 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in 2025, adding more than half of all new solar globally. The year before, it added 277GW. But the picture in 2026 to date is very different. Installations in March fell 56% […]
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PATH to boost AI training and career opportunities for industry-aligned jobs
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MIT, in collaboration with Georgia State University and a growing network of educational institutions, has announced expanded work under PATH (Pathways for AI Training and Hiring) — a multiyear initiative designed to scale effective, affordable, industry-aligned AI training for entry-level and current workers, with a particular focus on transforming community colleges into engines powering an […]
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NSF renews support for MIT-led AI and physics institute, expanding a new model for discovery
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The MIT-led Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Fundamental Interactions (IAIFI) has received renewed support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an additional five years, increasing annual funding from $4 million to $4.98 million. The renewal marks a new phase for IAIFI, which has spent its first five years building a research model and an […]
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Project aims to tackle biofouling in floating offshore wind
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Floating offshore wind developers are increasingly focusing on the impact of marine growth on offshore infrastructure, and a new EU-backed project seeks to address this problem, and thereby improve the reliability and commercial viability of floating wind farms in deeper waters. Engineering company Alfa Laval has joined the ESOMOOR project, a European initiative aimed at […]
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Finnish firm wins €2.5m award for water monitoring tech
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Sensmet CEO Dr Toni Laurila. Water technology firm Sensmet, which has developed a unique water quality monitoring technology, has been awarded a €2.5m grant in the latest round of the EIC Accelerator. The EIC award is recognised as a mark of excellence, and builds on a recently announced additional investment of €1.5m. The group said […]
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Superconducting motor brings electric flight closer
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The superconducting aviation motor demonstrator (image credit: University of Strathclyde) Researchers at the University of Strathclyde have demonstrated a 100kW fully superconducting aviation motor, in what seems a noteworthy advance in the development of future zero-emission aircraft propulsion systems. The prototype, developed by the University’s Applied Superconductivity Laboratory (ASL) in Glasgow, is believed to be […]
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Analysis: China’s CO2 climbs 2% in early 2026 due to ‘wasted’ wind and solar
China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions grew by 2% in the first quarter of 2026, after a rise in the amount of “wasted” wind and solar power. The country used more coal and gas to generate electricity than in the same quarter a year earlier, despite a record amount of new wind and solar capacity being […]
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Teaching AI agents to ask better questions by playing “Battleship”
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In 2026, the hype for artificial intelligence agents is louder than ever before. These semi-autonomous programs can “think” and execute well-defined tasks in areas like customer service and software development, typically using language models (LMs). But fields like medical diagnosis and scientific discovery require them to inquire about a vast range of solutions in uncertain […]
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Tod Machover receives George Peabody Medal for contributions to music and technology
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Tod Machover, the Muriel R. Cooper Professor of Music and Media, faculty director of the MIT Media Lab, and director of the Opera of the Future research group, will receive the George Peabody Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Music and Dance in America — the highest honor bestowed by the Peabody Institute of the Johns […]