Climate problem for cities US cities have a climate problem. Their architecture, road layouts, transportation systems, and other infrastructure were designed for weather conditions that are becoming a thing of the past.
‘A lot of infrastructure we’re still using now was built for the weather of the 1950s and ‘60s,’ says Costa Samaras, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. ‘This is not the weather that we have now, and it’s not the weather that we’ll have in the future.
A warmer climate brings dangers, such as violent storms, flooding, drought, and wildfires. But researchers and city planners are working on solutions to increase urban climate resilience. One example is grid-enhancing technologies.
During heat waves, there is a surge in power demand as people crank up their air conditioning and a drop in supply as infrastructure becomes less efficient, but Al can reroute power to maximise efficiency.
(Adapted from ‘Our Cities Were Designed For The Weather Of The 1950s And ‘60s,’ by Andrew Blackman, published on June 24, by the Wall Street Joumal)Scrim_ping for vacations This season’s shrinking vacation marks a shift for many Americans, who for years have refused to let inflation and tariffs dampen their travel plans. Airlines and cruise companies have raised fares to offset surging fuel costs related to the war in Iran, though gasoline prices have fallen by nearly $1 a gallon in recent weeks, according to the American Automobile Association. Rising costs have prompted 52pc of US workers to stay home more this summer, according to a poll of more than 1,000 Americans conducted by Monster, the job platform. For that half of the population, staycations are a way to save on dining out, entertainment and driving, the survey showed. Travellers’ confidence in the economy has hit its lowest level since 2023 after four months of decline, according to data from the analytics firm Morning Consult. More people now say they are willing to forgo airfare or hotel purchases because costs are too high, the survey showed.
(Adapted from ‘These Americans Are Scrimping To Save Their Summer Vacations,’ by Katherine Hamilton, published on June 28, 2026, by the Wall Street Joumal)Organic M&Ms M&M’s will mark a milestone in its 85-year history in August, debuting a version made without artificial dyes. The bags of chocolate will also be missing the colours brown and blue. The naturally coloured M&M’s will be sold only on Amazon.com, and those with artificial dyes aren’t going anywhere for now.
Under pressure from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ campaign, M&M’s maker Mars pledged to offer options for some of its iconic products without artificial dyes this year. The chocolate giant planned instead to colour the foods with dyes derived from natural sources. The task is proving much harder and more expensive than it sounds. Mars researchers figured out how to deliver convincing replicas of its red, orange and yellow candies using natural ingredients like beets and turmeric. Blue was a different story. The company also couldn’t reliably churn out brown M&M’s, which, it turns out, include a fair bit of blue.
(Adapted from ‘Mars is Spending Millions To Give M&M’s A MAHA Makeover,’ by Jesse Newman, published on June 18, 2026, by the Wall Street Journal) Indian websites Walk over to your laptop the supercomputer in your hand is not up to the task and make yourself comfortable.
Now navigate to indianvisaonline.gov.in and see if you can figure out how to apply for a visa. If you succeeded, welcome back, and apologies. The visa website of a country renowned for its people’s IT skills resembles a Geocities page from 1999.
And it is unlikely to improve any time soon.
India’s online services feature a sadistic mix of pop-ups, moving text, flashing graphics, and antique elements like textbased Captchas. Several questions are probably fighting for space in your addled brain. The answer to the first is no, the government of India does not hate foreign visitors. Its online services for Indian citizens railway ticketing, voter registration, income-tax filings are just as hostile. Those are among the better ones. Clunky online experiences reveal the failures of Indian officialdom.
(Adapted from ‘Why Can’t India’s Govemment Build A Decent Website?’ published on June 28, 2026, by The Economist)