{"id":884051,"date":"2026-01-10T23:12:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/10\/the-download-war-in-europe-and-the-company-that-wants-to-cool-the-planet\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T23:12:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:12:02","slug":"the-download-war-in-europe-and-the-company-that-wants-to-cool-the-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/10\/the-download-war-in-europe-and-the-company-that-wants-to-cool-the-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"The Download: war in Europe, and the company that wants to cool the planet"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Plus: Amazon has listed retailers’ goods without their permission<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n

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This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s drone-filled vision for the future of war<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Last spring, 3,000 British soldiers deployed an invisible automated intelligence network, known as a \u201cdigital targeting web,\u201d as part of a NATO exercise called Hedgehog in the damp forests of Estonia\u2019s eastern territories.<\/p>\n

The system had been cobbled together over the course of four months\u2014an astonishing pace for weapons development, which is usually measured in years. Its purpose is to connect everything that looks for targets\u2014\u201csensors,\u201d in military lingo\u2014and everything that fires on them (\u201cshooters\u201d) to a single, shared wireless electronic brain.<\/p>\n

Eighty years after total war last transformed the continent, the Hedgehog tests signal a brutal new calculus of European defense. But leaning too much on this new mathematics of warfare could be a risky bet. <\/strong>Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Arthur Holland Michel<\/em><\/p>\n

This story is from the next print issue of MIT Technology Review<\/em> magazine. If you haven\u2019t already, <\/strong>subscribe now<\/strong><\/a> to receive it once it lands.<\/strong><\/p>\n

MIT Technology Review Narrated: How one controversial startup hopes to cool the planet<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Stardust Solutions believes that it can solve climate change\u2014for a price.<\/p>\n

The Israel-based geoengineering startup has said it expects nations will soon pay it more than a billion dollars a year to launch specially equipped aircraft into the stratosphere. Once they\u2019ve reached the necessary altitude, those planes will disperse particles engineered to reflect away enough sunlight to cool down the planet, purportedly without causing environmental side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But numerous solar geoengineering researchers are skeptical that Stardust will line up the customers it needs to carry out a global deployment in the next decade. They\u2019re also highly critical of the idea of a private company setting the global temperature for us.<\/p>\n

This is our latest story<\/a> to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which we\u2019re publishing each week on Spotify<\/a> and Apple Podcasts<\/a>. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it\u2019s released.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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The must-reads<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve combed the internet to find you today\u2019s most fun\/important\/scary\/fascinating stories about technology.<\/em><\/p>\n

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1 Amazon has been accused of listing products without retailers\u2019 consent<\/strong>
Small shop owners claim Amazon\u2019s AI tool sold their goods without their permission. (Bloomberg<\/a> $)
+ It also listed products the shops didn\u2019t actually have in stock. <\/em>(CNBC<\/a>)
+ A new feature called \u201cShop Direct\u201d appears to be to blame. <\/em>(Insider<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

2 Data centers are a political issue\u00a0<\/strong>
Opposition to them is uniting communities across the political divide. (WP<\/a> $)
+ Power-grid operators have suggested the centers power down at certain times. <\/em>(WSJ<\/a> $)
+ The data center boom in the desert. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

3 Things are looking up for the nuclear power industry<\/strong>
The Trump administration is pumping money into it\u2014but success is not guaranteed. (NYT<\/a> $)
+ Why the grid relies on nuclear reactors in the winter. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

4 A new form of climate modelling pins blame on specific companies<\/p>\n

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It may not be too long until we see the first case of how attribution science holds up in court. (New Scientist<\/a> $)
+ Google, Amazon and the problem with Big Tech\u2019s climate claims. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

5 Meta has paused the launch of its Ray-Ban smartglasses <\/strong>\ud83d\udd76\ufe0f<\/strong>
<\/strong>They\u2019re just too darn popular, apparently. (Engadget<\/a>)
+ Europe and Canada will just have to wait. <\/em>(Gizmodo<\/a>)
+ It\u2019s blaming supply shortages and \u201cunprecedented\u201d demand. <\/em>(Insider<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

6 Sperm contains information about a father\u2019s fitness and diet
<\/strong>New research is shedding light on how we think about heredity. (Quanta Magazine<\/a>)<\/p>\n

7 Meta is selling online gambling ads in countries where it\u2019s illegal
<\/strong>It\u2019s ignoring local laws across Asia and the Middle East. (Rest of World<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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8 AI isn\u2019t always trying to steal your job
<\/strong>Sometimes it makes your toy robot a better companion. (The Verge<\/a>)
+ How cuddly robots could change dementia care. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n

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9 How to lock down a job at one of tech\u2019s biggest companies<\/strong>
You\u2019re more likely to be accepted into Harvard, apparently. (Fast Company<\/a> $)<\/p>\n

10 Millennials are falling out of love with the internet
<\/strong>Is a better future still possible? (Vox<\/a>)
+ How to fix the internet. <\/em>(MIT Technology Review<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Quote of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to keep up with the latest doom.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014Author Margaret Atwood explains why she doomscrolls to Wired<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One more thing<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Inside the decades-long fight over Yahoo\u2019s misdeeds in China<\/strong>When you think of Big Tech these days, Yahoo is probably not top of mind. But for Chinese dissident Xu Wanping, the company still looms large\u2014and has for nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

In 2005, Xu was arrested for signing online petitions relating to anti-Japanese protests. He didn\u2019t use his real name, but he did use his Yahoo email address. Yahoo China violated its users\u2019 trust\u2014providing information on certain email accounts to Chinese law enforcement, which in turn allowed the government to identify and arrest some users.<\/p>\n

Xu was one of them; he would serve nine years in prison. Now, he and five other Chinese former political prisoners are suing Yahoo and a slate of co-defendants\u2014not because of the company\u2019s information-sharing (which was the focus of an earlier lawsuit filed by other plaintiffs), but rather because of what came after. Read the full story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2014Eileen Guo<\/em><\/p>\n

We can still have nice things<\/strong><\/p>\n

A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? <\/em>Drop me a line<\/em><\/a> or <\/em>skeet ’em at me<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n

+ It\u2019s time to celebrate the life and legacy of Cecilia Gim\u00e9nez Zueco<\/a>, the legendary Spanish amateur painter whose botched fresco restoration reached viral fame in 2012.
+ If you\u2019re a sci-fi literature fan<\/a>, there\u2019s plenty of new releases to look forward to in 2026.
+ Last week\u2019s wolf supermoon<\/a> was a sight to behold.
+ This Mississippi restaurant is putting its giant lazy Susan<\/a> to good use. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Rhiannon Williams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plus: Amazon has listed retailers’ goods without their permission This is today’s edition of\u00a0The Download ,\u00a0our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Europe\u2019s drone-filled vision for the future of war Last spring, 3,000 British soldiers deployed an invisible automated intelligence network, known as a \u201cdigital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":884052,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24097,3098,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-884051","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-download","8":"category-europe","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}