Business

Indian Railways train

Indian Railways to achieve net zero targets in 2025 – 5 years ahead of schedule

/

Indian Railways operates roughly 12,000 trains daily, carrying over one billion tons of goods and more than 8.5 billion passengers annually. Now, over 90% of the nationwide railways’ traction energy comes from electric rather than fossil sources, with plans to increase this to 95% by 2030. This shift has led to a substantial decrease in operational costs and direct greenhouse gas emissions, with a reduction of 2.2 million tons of CO2 expected by the end of 2025.

Fur coats

Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein bans fur and wild-animal skins across its online marketplace

/

Shein’s updated ban covers any items made from the skins or feathers of all animals considered to be “exotic”, including ostrich feathers, alligators, and snakes. The decision comes after PETA noticed several third-party vendors offering real fur products and accessories made from exotic animal skins on Shein’s marketplace platform in 2024. Shein previously maintained a no-fur policy for its in-house brands; however, this policy did not extend to third-party sellers operating on its marketplace platform.

Chevron gas station

Chevron ordered to pay $740 million to restore Louisiana coast in landmark trial

/

Jurors have found that energy giant Texaco, acquired by Chevron in 2001, had for decades violated Louisiana regulations governing coastal resources by failing to restore wetlands impacted by dredging canals, drilling wells, and billions of gallons of wastewater dumped into the marsh. The case was the first of dozens of pending lawsuits to reach trial in Louisiana against the world’s leading oil companies for their role in accelerating land loss along the state’s rapidly disappearing coast.

Satellite from above with Earth below|nasa unsplash

First Earth Fire Alliance satellite for detecting wildfires is now in orbit

/

The FireSat constellation, which will consist of more than 50 satellites when it goes live, is the first of its kind that’s built to detect and track fires. It’s an initiative launched by nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance, which includes Google and Muon Space as partners, among others. According to Google, current satellite systems rely on low-resolution imagery and cover a particular area only once every 12 hours to spot large wildfires spanning a couple of acres. FireSat will be able to detect wildfires as small as the size of a classroom and deliver high-resolution visual updates every 20 minutes.

Holding pills

U.S. FDA approves non-addictive alternative to opioids

/

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has signed off on the first new type of pain reliever to be approved in more than two decades. The drug, suzetrigine, is a 50-milligram prescription pill that’s taken every 12 hours after a larger starter dose. Crucially, suzetrigine creates no euphoria or high like opioids sometimes can, so doctors believe there’s no potential for it to create addiction or dependence in people who use it.

Empty office desk and chairs

Two hundred U.K. companies sign up for permanent four-day working week

/

Two hundred U.K. companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, in the latest landmark in the campaign to reinvent Britain’s working week. Together, the companies employ more than 5,000 people, with charities, marketing, and technology firms among the best-represented. Supporters say the four-day week is a useful way of attracting and retaining employees while improving productivity by creating the same output over fewer hours and fostering a more fulfilled, happy, and engaged workforce.

New York

New York City to get a $3 billion, 80,000-acre offshore wind farm

/

New York City will soon be getting its own personal offshore wind farm. The Empire Wind 1 project just received a US$3 billion project financing package and is expected to go online in 2027, powering roughly half a million borough residents. A turbine-laden 80,000-acre plot of Atlantic Ocean – which is nearly half the size of NYC – could generate 810 MW if running efficiently at its designed capacity. That is around 3.19 TWh per year or roughly 6% of NYC’s overall consumption. Empire Wind 1 will be the first offshore wind project to connect directly to NYC’s electrical grid.

Dongying floating solar farm

China activates world’s largest offshore floating solar installation

/

China’s state-owned CHN Energy has begun generating electricity at a 1 gigawatt offshore floating solar park, 5 miles off the coast of the city of Dongying in Shandong province. The park can generate 1.78 billion kilowatt-hours of power each year — enough to meet the energy needs of 2.6 million city dwellers. The offshore floating solar installation consists of 2,934 PV platforms installed using large-scale steel truss platforms affixed to foundations made of pilings.

Blood cells under microscope

Danish scientists design new form of insulin that automatically switches itself on and off

/

For decades, researchers have been working to develop a system that can automatically adjust insulin activity based on the amount of glucose in a person’s blood. Now, Rita Slaaby, a principal scientist at pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk in Bagsværd, Denmark, and her colleagues engineered an insulin molecule with a switch that turns its activity on and off in response to glucose levels in the blood. In animals, this ‘smart’ insulin reduces high blood-sugar concentrations effectively while preventing levels from dropping too low.

Scroll to Top