Wired: China’s EV Market Is Booming. There’s Just One Problem
Wired reports that China’s EV boom is now followed by its first big wave of retired batteries. 400,000 tonnes of battery waste piled up last year and 22 million tonnes are expected by 2040, yet certified recyclers get only about a quarter of it, as unlicensed buyers pay more and operate cheaper while polluting.
Le Monde: Far from its postcard image, Seychelles faces the scourge of hard drug addiction
Le Monde describes how Seychelles, sitting on the heroin route from the Pakistani coast, faces a severe addiction crisis. Back in 2017, 5.6 percent of residents over 15 were addicted to heroin, meth and cocaine have since arrived, and although the state hands out free methadone, no new study of users has been done since.
LRT: Why the West still misunderstands Belarus’ role in Russia’s war – opinion
LRT publishes a Belarusian political scientist’s opinion that the West wrongly equates all of Belarus with the Lukashenko regime, a co-belligerent in Russia’s war. Society wants no part of it, only 9 percent support sending the army to Ukraine, and it is this, not independence, that keeps Lukashenko out of direct participation, as his own power is at stake.
TechCrunch: Sam Altman is still making the case for parenting via ChatGPT
TechCrunch writes that Sam Altman is again pitching ChatGPT for parenting, this time by generating a personalized morning podcast for the kids’ drive to school from the family calendars. The reply from the creator of “Gravity Falls”, “What if you just talked to your children?”, went far more viral than the suggestion itself.
Axios: DeepSeek’s new bargain model accelerates AI’s race to zero
Axios writes that DeepSeek’s new coding model approaches the industry’s best while costing 99 percent less. July brought an open price war to the AI market, the gaps between models are shrinking, and intelligence is fast becoming an ordinary commodity bought on price alone.
Financial Times: Trouble at lunchtime as Hong Kong private club spat escalates
The Financial Times writes that members of the Hong Kong Golf and Tennis Academy, who paid 2.68 million Hong Kong dollars for a lifetime membership, are complaining to the city’s legislature because members of another, far cheaper club will get access to theirs. They worry both about getting a lunchtime table and about resale value, which has already halved.
Al Jazeera: Liberia’s kush crisis: The hidden trade behind a generation at risk
Al Jazeera reports that kush, a cheap and highly addictive synthetic drug, is spreading through Liberia, and families of addicted children are left on their own, as the state rehabilitation centre remains unfinished. In a year, 1,167 people were arrested for trafficking but only eight were convicted, and two record cocaine seizures suggest the country has become an international transit point.
NPR: Nurses chase Cyclospora using grocery receipts, food apps and detailed interviews
NPR describes how in Michigan, where a Cyclospora outbreak has sickened more than 10,000 people, public health nurses hunt for the source through receipts, grocery apps and long interviews, since symptoms appear only a couple of weeks after the contaminated meal. The federal response, after funding cuts, was so slow that fast-food chains pulled lettuce before the authorities named the source.
NPR: For sale: early access to Trump’s Truth Social posts
NPR reports that Trump’s media company has started selling early access to the president’s market-moving Truth Social posts for up to 100,000 dollars a month. A former securities regulator sees misuse of insider information, senators demand an investigation, and Wall Street keeps publicly silent, fearing retaliation.
Le Monde describes how tens of thousands of young Moroccans, hearing on social media that the border was open, swam to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, and a day or two later, without food or shelter, almost all walked back through the wide-open gate. At home, nearly 30 percent youth unemployment awaits them, and some tried to swim again that very night.
DW: Germany widens deportations to Afghanistan
DW reports that Germany has for the first time deported a person with no criminal record to Afghanistan, on the same plane as 30 convicted offenders. More than 200 Afghans have been returned since 2024, at least one of them killed after arrival, and human rights organizations accuse the government of de facto recognizing Taliban rule for the sake of deportations.
NPR: FDA weighs a new kind of flu shot based on technology RFK Jr. has questioned
NPR writes that the FDA must decide this week whether to approve Moderna’s flu vaccine, which would be the first mRNA flu shot on the market. In February the agency first refused even to review the application and reconsidered only after industry outcry, and this wavering, along with the cancellation of half a billion dollars in research funding, has already scared investors away from the whole mRNA field.
Al Jazeera: Care for a dirty soda? How this drink trend became a US obsession
Al Jazeera tells how dirty soda, fizzy drinks with syrups, fruit puree and cream invented in Utah, grew from a Mormon favourite into a billion-dollar industry across America. For a generation that drinks less alcohol, soda shops have become a cheap place to meet, as other such places keep disappearing.