The world used clean power to meet more than 40% of its electricity demand last year. / The Guardian 

Between 1999 and 2023, heat deaths in the United States more than doubled. / Grist

Lithium-ion batteries became the leading cause of fire deaths in New York City last year—how LA removed 1 million pounds of them from its burn zones. / The Los Angeles Times

China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea—a new axis called CRINK—unite to defy Western sanctions. / The Wall Street Journal [+]

The tariff war between China and Donald Trump’s White House now looks like a big game of chicken. / The New York Times [+]

Economists find only 15.1 percent of the decline in goods-sector employment from 1992 to 2012 stemmed from US trade deficits. / Marginal Revolution

Unrelated: “Slime supersedes economic and social status.” A visit to a shrine to slime. / i-D

Physicists propose a new model of space-time that may provide “the first observational evidence supporting string theory.” / LiveScience

OpenAI makes ChatGPT Plus free for college students through May. / Adweek

Lessons learned from tracking AI use in global elections in 2024: “It became another tool to generate content on the cheap.” / rest of world

Lessons learned from teaching an AI model to become a therapist: “We got a lot of ‘hmm-hmms,’ ‘go ons,’ and then ’Your problems stem from your relationship with your mother.’” / MIT Technology Review

See also: Psychoanalyst Jamieson Webster on mass anxiety and “nasal menstruation.” / Interview Magazine

Tesla’s Cybertruck is said to be the auto industry’s biggest flop in decades. / Kottke

Cybertrucks are thought to be such failures that Tesla won’t take them as trade-ins, forcing owners seeking compensation to enter the Lemon Law process. / NJ.com

Some illustrated thoughts on maximalist interior design, or “the art of too much.” / Misfits’ Architecture

The 2025 US Barista Champion explains his recipe for “super milk,” a blend of full-cream dairy, cashew, and pistachio milk. / Sprudge