Three news stories summarized & contextualized by analytic journalist Colin Wright.

Search algorithm reveals nearly 200 new kinds of CRISPR systems

Summary: Researchers at MIT, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, and the National Institutes of Health have identified 188 new CRISPR systems in bacterial genomes using a new search algorithm they developed for the purpose.

Context: This is a pretty big deal, as CRISPR systems allow researchers to manipulate genes, usually with a good deal of specificity and without damaging portions of the DNA or RNA they don’t want to touch, plucking things out, putting things in, and otherwise messing with this genetic code in useful ways; a few CRISPR-based therapies have already been put on the market for treating things like sickle-cell and a genetic condition that causes persistent high cholesterol levels, and having more search, trim, and copy-paste tools available that allow researchers to carefully and successfully perform these sorts of edits could prove to be vital in the coming years.

—MIT News

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Attackers seize an Israel-linked tanker off Yemen

Summary: An oil tanker linked to Israel was seized off the coast of Yemen on Sunday, the third such seizure in recent days.

Context: No group has officially claimed responsibility for this hijacking yet, but it’s assumed that it’s linked to the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and thus may be connected to Yemen-based, Iran-supported Houthi rebels; 22 people were crewing the ship when it was captured, and as was the case with the other two ships, this one has folks aboard from a variety of different countries, and is connected to a bunch of other, non-Israeli nations, as well—which means it’s difficult to be certain why the ship was taken, despite those aforementioned suspicions, and that also makes these hijackings a very international concern.

Update: Before this went live, those who seized the ship were captured by the US Navy, and two missiles fired from a part of Yemen that’s under control of the Houthis landed near the US warship that did the capturing—though it’s now thought the hijackers in this case may have been Somali pirates.

—Politico

Ireland’s prime minister condemns anti-immigrant protesters who rampaged through central Dublin

Summary: Late last week, the Irish prime minister condemned protests that turned into violent and destructive riots across central Dublin, all of which seemed to arise in response to the stabbing of three young children, all of whom survived, one with serious injuries, and a slew of misinformation about the nature of that crime and the person who committed it.

Context: Dozens of people were arrested following these riots, most of those involved apparently members of far-right groups or those with compatible beliefs, and hundreds of these rioters looted shops, threw rocks at crowd control officers, and set fire to vehicles across the city; the protests were seemingly sparked by suggestions that the person responsible for the stabbings was a foreign national—something that has not been confirmed by police, and which seems to have been a rumor started by the extremist anti-immigration groups that organized the protests.

—The Associated Press

Amazon has surpassed UPS to deliver more packages to US homes in 2022, after surpassing FedEx’s delivery numbers in 2020, making it the biggest deliverer of packages in the country—aside from the US Postal Service which is still the largest by volume.

—The Wall Street Journal

60.5%

Portion of all the energy produced and used by Chile in the first ten months of 2023 that were renewables, according to new data from energy research group Ember.

That number could tick even higher by the end of the year, as November and December tend to enjoy upsurges in solar and wind energy output in Chile.

—The Progress Playbook

Trust Click

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