The findings support the following policy considerations:
The phaseout of new ICEV, HEV, and PHEV registrations by 2035 would align sector emissions with EU climate targets.
When running on the EU average fuel and electricity mix, only BEVs offer a large-scale reduction in life-cycle GHG emissions. To achieve a similar emissions reduction potential, FCEVs would need to be restricted to the use of renewable electricity-based hydrogen. For ICEVs, HEVs, and PHEVs, meanwhile, the development of the average mix of fossil fuels and biofuels that can be expected from current policies and market developments would not allow vehicles of these powertrain types to meet EU climate targets. While vehicles running solely on e-fuels could, in theory, achieve life-cycle GHG emissions similar to BEVs, the future availability of e-fuels for the road sector is uncertain while costs are expected to remain high.
Complementary policies: Decarbonizing all components of the life-cycle emissions of passenger cars could be achieved by complementary policies.
Alongside tailpipe CO2 emission standards and a phaseout of powertrain types that lack large-scale decarbonization potential, complementary policies can decarbonize vehicle production emissions. Examples include the battery production carbon footprint provisions in the EU Battery Regulation and sustainability criteria for vehicle purchase subsidies. Improvements in the energy efficiency of BEVs could be achieved through energy efficiency standards, and decarbonization of the EU power sector can be achieved with the Emissions Trading System.
Emissions regulations based on life-cycle emissions could be effective in the long term but come with high uncertainties and administrative burdens and take several years to be developed.
This analysis shows that comparing the life-cycle GHG emissions of vehicles with different powertrain types is highly sensitive to methodological choices. Basing vehicle regulations on life-cycle emissions thus risks disproportionally benefiting powertrain types that do not offer a sufficient long-term decarbonization potential. Moreover, it would require extensive administrative effort for companies and governments to trace, report, and verify emissions for each step of vehicle production, as well as time to build sufficient capacities and effective cross-industry data sharing platforms. Further, introducing LCA-based regulations would require several years of reporting and negotiation to establish both a baseline and an emissions threshold curve that decreases over time.
Vehicle life-cycle assessment methodologies should consider the development of the fuel and electricity mix during the lifetime of the vehicles, fuel and electricity consumption values that are representative of average real-world usage, and a full vehicle lifetime.
Our analysis of the impact of methodological choices on the estimation of life-cycle emissions illustrates the need to harmonize methodological guidelines. As presented in this study, attaining representative results requires considering projected changes in the fuel and electricity mix during the lifetime of the vehicles, fuel and electricity consumption in real-world driving conditions, and the full lifetime of passenger cars.
Plastic polymers are ubiquitous in our lives, and while their resilience makes them ideal for a variety of uses, finding means to effectively dispose of them represents a major challenge. Recently, a variety of plastivore insects have been discovered that possess the remarkable ability to consume and rapidly degrade petro plastics. Focusing on the caterpillar larvae of the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) — known as wax worms — and low-density polyethylene, scientists explored how much plastic is consumed, the relative contributions from the insect and its microbiome to the biodegradation process, and the impacts of plastic ingestion on larval fitness.
Polyethylene degradation by wax worms. Left: plastic bag after exposure to about 100 wax worms for 12 hours; Right: magnification of the area indicated in the image at left. Image credit: Bombelli et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.060.
Plastics play a fundamental role in modern life, but their resistance to biodegradation makes them very difficult to dispose of.
In 2017, biologists demonstrated that the caterpillars of the greater wax moth can degrade polyethylene plastic.
Polyethylene is the world’s most commonly manufactured plastic, with over 100 million tons of polyethylene produced globally each year.
This plastic is chemically resilient, which makes it resistant to decomposition and can take decades or even hundreds of years to fully degrade.
“Around 2,000 wax worms can break down an entire polyethylene bag in as little as 24 hours, although we believe that co-supplementation with feeding stimulants like sugars can reduce the number of worms considerably,” said Dr. Bryan Cassone, a biologist at Brandon University.
“However, understanding the biological mechanisms and consequences on fitness associated with plastic biodegradation is key to using wax worms for large-scale plastic remediation.”
Utilizing a suite of techniques spanning animal physiology, material science, molecular biology and genomics, Dr. Cassone and colleagues studied the interesting relationship between wax worms, their bacterial microbiome, and their potential for large-scale plastic biodegradation, as well as the possible impacts on wax worm health and survivability.
“This is similar to us eating steak — if we consume too much saturated and unsaturated fat, it becomes stored in adipose tissue as lipid reserves, rather than being used as energy,” Dr. Cassone said.
“While wax worms will readily consume polyethylene, this research also shows that this ultimately ends in a quick death.”
“They do not survive more than a few days on a plastic-only diet and they lose considerable mass.”
“However, we are optimistic that we can formulate a co-supplementation that not only restores their fitness to natural levels but exceeds it.”
The researchers identified two ways in which wax worms could contribute solutions to the ongoing plastic pollution crisis.
“Firstly, we could mass rear wax worms on a co-supplemented polyethylene diet as part of a circular economy,” Dr. Cassone said.
“Secondly, we could explore the re-engineering of the plastic biodegradation pathway outside the animal.”
“As a bonus benefit, the mass production of wax worms would also generate a substantial surplus of insect biomass, which could represent an additional economic opportunity in aquaculture.”
“Our preliminary data suggests that they could become part of a very nutritious diet for commercial food fishes.”
The authors presented their findings today at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Conference in Antwerp, Belgium.
_____
Bryan J. Cassone et al. Plastic Biodegradation by Insects. SEB 2025, abstract # A17.4
I definitely experienced being in London primarily through the show, and on the weekends I was so exhausted, but I stayed in Shoreditch and every Sunday, the street next to the house I was in would have this huge flower market. It just felt so London. I was pretty much just in that small area of Shoreditch, but we got to film in so many cool places on the show; the animal farm they go to in one of the episodes was just down the street from the area I was living in.
Is there anything you particularly miss about London?
Well, when I was first there, my friend took me to a very strange interactive theater. You’re walking through but it’s not an escape room, although I guess I’d say London does have a lot of theater and escape rooms. It was this very cool sort of dungeon/chamber vibe that was kind of scary.
Have you ever moved somewhere to restart your life, Jessica-style?
I’ve moved and restarted a couple times in my life, but it wasn’t about relationships, it was always career stuff. I moved to Chicago to do improv and stand-up, I moved to New York to do stand-up, and then everything I’ve done took me to LA. I only knew one person in Chicago when I moved there, and then I made so many best friends that I still have today. It’s kind of like going to comedy college, to move there in your 20s.
Do you have a favorite ’90s or aughts rom-com?
Oh God, I love rom-coms so much. I mean, I feel like I keep talking about Bridget Jones. Before we filmed the show, I feel like I was watching, like, Notting Hill. Anything with Julia Roberts. And, of course, 10 Things I Hate About You. That’s a rom-com, right?
TOKYO — Despite a successful test flight of a reusable launch vehicle prototype last month, Honda has yet to decide whether to pursue development of an operational vehicle.
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Jeff Foust writes about space policy, commercial space, and related topics for SpaceNews.
He earned a Ph.D. in planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree with honors in geophysics and planetary science…
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Australia’s power-hitting batter Tim David has made it clear that he has no current desire to return to One Day International (ODI) cricket, affirming that his focus remains firmly on the T20 format at this stage of his career.
The 29-year-old last featured in an ODI during Australia’s tour of South Africa in 2023, when he was selected in place of the injured Glenn Maxwell, despite not having played a 50-over List A match since 2021.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, David said he has been in ongoing discussions with his coaches and mentors about his future, but reiterated that ODIs are not part of his immediate plans.
“Definitely having conversations in the background with my coaches and people that I want to talk to about my game at the moment,” David said.
“I’m not too sure, to be honest. It’s not the immediate plan. We’ve got such a busy year, leading up to this T20 World Cup. The winter actually looks quite different for me this year.”
David is currently recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during the Indian Premier League (IPL), where he played a key role in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s maiden title win.
However, the injury ruled him out of the playoffs and also disrupted his plans to return in the newly-launched Global Super League (GSL) with the Hobart Hurricanes.
“Initially, that was the plan, especially once the Hurricanes had a team in the GSL,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the injury and just the nature of it made it a pretty tight time schedule. I’ve probably got a couple of things that I need to tick off with the CA guys when I get over to Jamaica.”
David is expected to rejoin Australia’s T20I squad for the upcoming five-match series against the West Indies, beginning July 20 in Jamaica.
Despite being one of the most explosive T20 finishers in world cricket and a regular in Australia’s T20 setup since 2022, David has confirmed he is not planning to play domestic List A cricket in the near future.
Kane Williamson and Michael Bracewell will skip the upcoming two-test tour of Zimbabwe with the blessing of New Zealand Cricket, while paceman Ben Sears has been ruled out by a side injury.
Rob Walter, who replaced Gary Stead as coach last month, named his first test squad on Tuesday, awarding a call-up to uncapped young fast bowler Matt Fisher and recalling experienced hands Ajaz Patel and Henry Nicholls.
“Kane and Michael were up front with New Zealand Cricket about their availability for this tour during the contracting process,” Walter said in a news release.
“While all test matches are hugely special and important, the fact these tests aren’t part of the World Test Championship did influence the discussions on this occasion.
“We will obviously miss their talent and class, but it allows an opportunity to others and we’re lucky to be able to call on the likes of Ajaz and Henry who are both proven performers at test level.”
All-rounder Bracewell has been allowed to miss the tour to play in The Hundred in England, while paceman Kyle Jamieson has elected to stay in New Zealand for the birth of his first child.
Jamieson’s absence offers potential opportunities for Fisher and Jacob Duffy, who has played short-format matches for New Zealand but is yet to win a test cap, in the two matches in Bulawayo in late July and early August.
Team: Tom Latham (captain), Tom Blundell, Devon Conway, Jacob Duffy, Matt Fisher, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O’Rourke, Ajaz Patel, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Nathan Smith, Will Young.
A contingent of firefighters and first responders from Mexico arrived in Texas over the weekend to aid in search and rescue efforts following the devastating flooding of the Guadalupe River in a show of solidarity with their northern neighbors.
“When it comes to firefighters, there’s no borders,” Ismael Aldaba, founder of Fundación 911, in Acuña, Mexico, told CNN on Tuesday. “There’s nothing that’ll avoid us from helping another firefighter, another family. It doesn’t matter where we’re at in the world. That’s the whole point of our discipline and what we do.”
They represent one of a handful of volunteer groups, including highly skilled search and rescue teams from California, that have traveled to Texas after the flooding which is being described as one of the US’s deadliest floods in decades. Dozens of people are still missing.
Under the command of Mountain Home fire department and Texas state police, Fundación 911 is assisting along the Guadalupe River and coordinating to bring in reinforcements equipped with search and rescue canines from the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
The team of 13 hails from just across the US-Mexico border from the Texas counties most severely affected by the flooding, and has practice responding to crises in flood zones along the Rio Grande River.
The arrival of the international team comes amid tensions along the US-Mexico border over the Trump administration’s sweeping crackdown on immigration. But the message expressed by the firefighters this week has been one of unity.
One of the volunteers, José Omar Llanas Hernández, told CBS News he feels immense pride in being able to serve communities and aid in rescues in any country.
His colleague, Jesús Gomez, who is a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, told the outlet: “There’s a bunch of firefighters that have visas and we were like: ‘Let’s just go and help.’”
“Sometimes people from the other side cross and help us,” he added. “It’s time to give a little bit.”
Aldaba said that locals in Texas had been “welcoming to our team from Mexico”.
In a social media post on Monday, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, thanked the Mexican teams for their efforts. “The United States and Mexico are united, not only as neighbors but as family, especially in times of need,” he said.
In January, firefighters from Mexico traveled to California to help battle the Los Angeles area wildfires.
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Also on Monday, Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum applauded the work of two Mexicans who survived the flooding in Texas, and saved at least 20 girls. Silvana Garza Valdez and María Paula Zárate were working as camp counsellors at Camp Mystic, the Christian all-girls summer camp where at least 27 campers and counselors were killed in the flood waters, when the Guadalupe River began to flood.
“We started writing their names, we put their badges on them, we told them to pack a bag with their things, with what they needed most, and if they had their favorite animal, to bring it,” Zárate told the Mexican news outlet N Mas in a Spanish-language interview.
Aldaba, the leader of the team of Mexican firefighters, says the first responders have “received a lot of love” from their US colleagues.
“We appreciate all the other guys that are here from different fire departments in Texas,” she told CNN. “Our team has been prepared in disasters. They’ve been to different disasters around the world. We decided to come and help our friends and try to make this a little easier for them. What we found here has been incredible.”
LangChain, an AI infrastructure startup providing tools to build and monitor LLM-powered applications, is raising a new round of funding at an approximate $1 billion valuation led by IVP, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal.
LangChain began its life in late 2022 as an open-source project founded by Harrison Chase, who was then an engineer at machine learning startup Robust Intelligence. After generating significant developer interest, Chase transformed the project into a startup, securing a $10 million seed round from Benchmark in April 2023, That round was followed a week later by a $25 million Series A led by Sequoia, reportedly valuing LangChain at $200 million.
The startup was an early darling of the AI era. When LangChain first emerged, LLMs lacked access to real-time information and the ability to perform actions such as searching the web, calling APIs, and interacting with databases. The startup’s open-source code solved those problems with a framework for building apps on top of LLMs models. It became a hugely popular project on GitHub (111K stars, over 18,000 forks).
The LLM ecosystem has since expanded significantly, with new startups including LlamaIndex, Haystack, and AutoGPT now offering comparable features. Furthermore, leading LLM providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google have evolved their APIs to directly offer capabilities that were once key differentiators for LangChain’s core technology.
So the company has added other products, including LangSmith, a separate, closed-source product for observability, evaluation, and monitoring of LLM applications, specifically agents. This product has soared in popularity, multiple people tell us.
Since its introduction last year, LangSmith has led the company to reach annual recurring revenue (ARR) between $12 million and $16 million, four sources told TechCrunch. The company didn’t respond to a request for comment. Developers can start working with LangSmith for free and upgrade to $39 per month for small team collaboration features, according to the company’s website. LangChain also offers custom plans for large organizations.
Companies who use LangSmith include Klarna, Rippling, and Replit.
While LangSmith currently leads the burgeoning LLM operations space, it does have competitors like smaller, open-source Langfuse and Helicone. IVP declined to comment on this report.
Samsung’s Frame TV lineup is popular for a reason; It’s unique, makes practical use of all the idle space a TV typically leaves behind, and looks great doing so. And right now, on Samsung’s website, you can save up to $1,500 on the 2024 model of the flagship TV for Prime Day.
Also: The best Prime Day TV deals we’ve found
The 75-inch TV is on sale for $1,499 on Tuesday, July 8 only, saving you $1,500. You’ll also find the 50-inch, 55-inch, 65-inch, and 85-inch versions on sale for over 40% off. With the 2025 models recently released (and on sale too), these discounts are just in time.
For the unfamiliar, what makes the Samsung Frame TV so special is its dedicated Art Mode, which displays digital artwork when the TV is not in use. So, instead of having a large black rectangle in your living room or bedroom, there’s an artsy backdrop. You can choose from over 2,500+ pieces of artwork from the Samsung Art Store app, which includes contributions from The Met, MoMA, Basquiat, and more.
Also:The best Samsung TVs you can buy
The updated matte display treatment on the newer Frame TV models certainly helps to sell the illusion, and the 2024 models, in particular, come with an improved eco-mode that significantly reduces energy consumption when the TV is left on. Ideally, you’d mount the Frame TV to a wall, with its included One Connect Box helping you manage dangling cables and wires. But the set also comes with standard legs, if that’s your preference.
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How I rated this deal
I gave this offer a 4/5 Editor’s deal rating. Buying a Samsung Frame TV is an investment; therefore, having significant savings of up to $1,500 off is a great deal. Not to mention, cashing in on nearly new models makes this ideal. If you need a new TV for summer, the ball is in your court with this offer.
The deal for 50% off the 75-inch Frame TV expires after July 8. However, the other models will still be on sale.
Deals are subject to sell out or expire at any time, though ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best product deals for you to score the best savings. Considering this offer is for a refurbished product, inventory is even more important than timing, so keep an eye out for the stock of the model that interests you the most.
Our team of experts regularly checks in on the deals we share to ensure they are still live and obtainable. We’re sorry if you’ve missed out on this deal, but don’t fret — we’re constantly finding new chances to save and sharing them with you at ZDNET.com.
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In 2025, we refined our approach to deals, developing a measurable system for sharing savings with readers like you. Our editor’s deal rating badges are affixed to most of our deal content, making it easy to interpret our expertise to help you make the best purchase decision.
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