Nov 25, 2016 11:03 AM

Frozen conflict zones

*There are a lot of them. Very few of them seem to be thawing out. People are being born and growing up in there who have no memory of what the original trouble was. This is a systemic problem of the current political order.

A lot are ex-Soviet areas, but there's Kosovo, Turkish Cyprus, Kurdish areas...

Earth’s Condition Is ‘Serious and Getting Worse’ as Climate Change Intensifies

Seven of 16 planetary vital signs are in their most extreme state ever recorded, and El Niño is here to make matters even worse.

Brian Kahn

What the US Movement Against Data Centers Can Learn From Everywhere Else

Paris Marx, author of Hyperscale, has been tracking global data center development for years. The US has a lot to learn from what’s happened everywhere from Ireland to New Zealand.

Molly Taft

You Probably Aren’t Going to Get the Plague

The death of a lab worker in Russia has authorities looking at whether plague played a role. Even if it did, though, the odds of it spreading are very low.

Emily Mullin

A New Ice Age Was Beginning. Then Humans Started Burning Fossil Fuels

Ancient plants reveal that the vestiges of the North American ice sheet started expanding a few thousand years ago, but that climate change caused it to reverse course.

Molly Taft

The Man Behind a West Bank Telegram Channel Trying to Keep Palestinian Drivers Safe

With no accurate Big Tech mapping app to help him, Anas Hattab launched a Telegram group to get himself home at night. Now nearly 350,000 Palestinians rely on it to navigate the occupied West Bank.

Lama Rabah

WIRED Ghost Stories

Five hauntings from the other side of technology.

Rural Data Centers Are in for a Big Federal Tax Break

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, data center projects in rural areas could be eligible for major tax benefits starting next year. Some hyperscalers do not seem eager to take the free cash.

Molly Taft

These Midterm Races Will Decide Data Centers’ Political Fate

From the Senate to governors’ mansions, candidates are trying to outcompete each other to be the most anti–data center in races across the US.

Molly Taft

Amazon Says It’s No Longer Using NDAs for Data Centers

The company announced it has stopped using secret agreements with county officials and acknowledged that community backlash is leading to data center moratoriums across the country.

Molly Taft

The Iran War’s Impact on Oil Is Hitting Key Senate Races Hard

Democrats are using the high price of diesel, heating oil, and fertilizer to tie Republicans to President Donald Trump’s unpopular, costly war in Iran.

Molly Taft

They War-Gamed Dimming the Sun. It Went Even Worse Than You Think

Solar geoengineering could buy humanity time against climate change—or trigger a dangerous new arms race. A first-of-its-kind simulation offered a glimpse of what happens when geopolitics takes the wheel.

Karl Mathiesen

Please Let the Internet Die

Online spaces are captured by oligarchs and saturated with slop—and they’re exacerbating humanity’s worst impulses. It’s time to start over.

Miles Klee