WIRED Middle East

Microsoft’s greenhouse gas pollution increased by roughly 25% last year, the company says in its new sustainability report released Thursday. The report follows similar ones released by Google and Amazon last week. Together, they show a troubling trend of rising tech company emissions, driven by the global race to build out power-hungry data centres.

In June, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple spent an unusual chunk of time during its keynote talking up new child safety features coming to its devices later this fall. The addition of these features came as a surprise to Sarah Gardner, who just so happened to be tied to a tree outside Apple Park in Cupertino, California, at the same time.

AI model developers have long offered consumers a simple deal: use our technology for free through an online chatbot, or pay a monthly subscription to receive more usage, premium features and advanced models. Anthropic is about to make that bargain a lot more complicated.

For Norway’s national men’s football team, Saturday’s World Cup quarter final against England will be a first in more ways than one. As the Scandinavian side prepares for the biggest match of its history, it will also face conditions almost unimaginable back home: the punishing combination of South Florida heat, humidity and blazing sunshine that scientists warn can push the human body to its limits.

As the war on Gaza intensified in early 2024, Palantir CEO Alex Karp doubled down on his support for the Israeli government. In an interview with CNBC at the time, he acknowledged that employees had left his company due to its stance on Israel, stating: “We’ve lost employees.

OpenAI’s chief executive of AGI deployment, Fidji Simo, is leaving her full-time role at the company and transitioning to become a part-time adviser. The move comes after Simo took a months-long medical leave due to a worsening neuroimmune condition. “Three months ago, I had to go on medical leave after a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness I’ve lived with for seven years,” Simo wrote in a post Thursday on X.

The 2026 World Cup final can do much more than just make you cheer in front of the screen. Scientific evidence shows that these high-tension matches also raise heart rates, increase stress levels and can even put extra strain on the cardiovascular system. Now, a recent German study offers one of the most detailed snapshots of how fans’ bodies react before, during and after a decisive match.

If you’re reading this while the blinds are drawn against yet another heatwave and wondering whether it’s finally time to buy an air-conditioner, you’re far from alone. At the end of June, as temperatures climbed well above 40 degrees Celsius across Europe, shoppers in France literally forced their way into stores to snatch up portable fans and ACs before they sold out. Such scenes are likely to become more common. As the planet warms, the demand for cooling is rising worldwide.

Somewhere between the World Cup summer, the longevity-podcast industrial complex and your For You Page, creatine had its image rehabilitated.

In May 2026, just weeks before the World Cup kicked off, 18-year-old midfielder Ayyoub Bouaddi announced he would represent Morocco rather than France. Born and raised in France, Bouaddi had come up through Les Bleus’ youth ranks and was regarded as one of French football’s brightest prospects. He chose the Atlas Lions instead, joining a growing list of France-born players who have opted for their ancestral homeland over European powers that historically dominated the game.