A new study published in Communications Earth & Environment has reconstructed the climate conditions of the ancient Indus River Valley civilization between 3000 and 1000 B.C., finding that four intense droughts — each lasting more than 85 years — likely drove the gradual decline of one of the world’s earliest advanced societies. The research team, led by Hiren Solanki at the Indian Institute of...

The bitter standoff between Dutch chipmaker Nexperia — which supplies basic chips crucial to 49% of European automakers, over 85% of medical device companies, and the entire defense industry — and its Chinese parent company Wingtech escalated on Friday when both Wingtech and Nexperia’s Chinese unit accused the Dutch business of secretly building a supply chain that would cut China out entirely....

Australia warned it’s in danger of missing its 2035 climate targets without deeper pollution cuts, which in turn threatens the nation’s ambitions to reach net zero by mid-century. From a report: Emissions are set to fall 48% by 2035 from 2005 levels based on current projections [non-paywalled source], the government said in a report on Thursday. That’s short of an official pledge to cut...

Singapore has claimed the top spot in the 2025 Global Talent Competitiveness Index for the first time, displacing Switzerland from a position the European nation had held since the ranking’s inception in 2013. The index, produced by business school INSEAD and the Portulans Institute, measured 135 economies across 77 indicators spanning soft skills, AI talent concentration, and formal education...

European leaders have spent years warning that the continent risked falling behind the U.S., China and Russia in the global contest for economic, technological and military dominance, and officials now believe they have reached that point. The mood darkened over the summer when Europe found itself on the sidelines as Washington and Beijing negotiated a reset of global trade rules, and turned...

Apple’s Podcasts app on both iOS and Mac has been exhibiting strange behavior for months, spontaneously launching and presenting users with obscure religion, spirituality and education podcasts they never subscribed to — and at least one of these podcasts contains a link attempting a cross-site scripting attack, 404 Media reports. Joseph Cox, a journalist at the outlet, documented the issue...

Australia’s streaming quotas have become law. Legislation requiring the likes of Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max to spend a portion of their local earnings on original Australian content has been passed in parliament, and now comes into effect. From a report: The quotas were announced earlier this month. This will see global streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers made to spend...

China installed 295,000 industrial robots last year — nearly nine times as many as the United States and more than the rest of the world combined — as the country races to automate its manufacturing base amid rising labor costs at home and tariff threats from abroad. The nation’s stock of operational robots surpassed 2 million in 2024, according to the International Federation of Robotics. Of...