Google Cloud Speech-to-Text API (Chirp) + Gemini 2.5 Flash Non-Thinking. Treat it as a searchable index of what was broadcast, not a quotation record.
00:00:00has been in dire straits for many, many years. Uh,
00:00:03Iranians are dealing with hyperinflation, they're dealing with high
00:00:06unemployment. Every day, the price of food and items are just
00:00:10going up. Um, and they are really feeling the pinch of the US naval
00:00:14blockade. I spoke to a woman recently whose mother has
00:00:17cancer. She told me that it's been very difficult to find
00:00:20medicine, that hospitals and clinics are having a hard time replacing
00:00:24medical equipment, and so they are very much already feeling squeezed and bracing for
00:00:28things to get worse. Right, so there's that block. paid going on. Obviously, there's also been
00:00:31a whole lot of missile strikes, uh, that have destroyed
00:00:34infrastructure, destroyed different things
00:00:37throughout the country. What is the state of the Iranian economy right
00:00:41now? It's, uh, it's in dire straits. It hasn't been doing
00:00:45well for a really long time. Uh, unemployment is extremely
00:00:48high. Um, people are dealing with the price of
00:00:52goods going up daily. Um, it's, it's
00:00:55in a really rough spot, and I think that sanctions are going to bring in
00:00:59a world of... pain. But there are challenges with sanctions, and I
00:01:03think what we saw today from Secretary Wessant was that it's very thin
00:01:06on details and there's the possibility that Iran will
00:01:10continue to evade sanctions. Yeah, I mean, you called what the secretary did
00:01:13today anti-climactic. What do what do you mean by that? Well, I think
00:01:17everyone was really waiting to see what the details would be.
00:01:20President Trump called this unprecedented,
00:01:24but the fact of the matter is, is that many administrations in the past have
00:01:27attempted isolating Iran, and Iran has managed to adapt
00:01:31its economy to different sanctions
00:01:34campaigns. They have developed very sophisticated smuggling networks and
00:01:38schemes. They run shadow fleets, uh, in
00:01:41which ships turn off their transponders and are able to continue
00:01:45selling oil to some of their biggest customers, including China.
00:01:49And it just raises huge questions about how
00:01:53single species and trees of the United States is going to, uh, serve consequences to a country like China if it continues to engage with Iran, and
00:01:57it's already indicated that it will continue to. And, and
00:02:00despite all of those different challenges over the years, this same
00:02:03regime, yes, has survived all of it,
00:02:07correct? Correct? No, they are very, very savvy in terms of
00:02:11figuring out ways to evade sanctions. And I think the challenge for the Trump
00:02:15administration is to figure out how they
00:02:18can, you know, convince, uh, countries that have long had
00:02:21relationships with Iran to, to stop. And there
00:02:25has already been an indication that they're starting to do that. The United Arab Emirates last
00:02:29week announced that it would... halt all, uh, relationships,
00:02:32transactions with Iran. So they're hoping that in this next
00:02:35phase, um, of quiet diplomacy, as Secretary Beson said, that they can
00:02:39convince other countries to follow suit. Yeah, but China and
00:02:42Russia, potentially different story, uh, as well. Are
00:02:46Azu Rizvani, uh, appreciate your perspective. Thanks so much for coming in.
00:02:50As always, you can check out her reporting on
00:02:51NPR.
00:03:01The European Union is preparing changes in the enlargement process, announced
00:03:04Commissioner Marta Kos in Zagreb. Stricter guarantees
00:03:08against the erosion of democracy and the rule of law in
00:03:11future member states are foreseen. Who also advocates for gradual integration
00:03:15so that candidates receive concrete benefits even before full
00:03:18membership in the Union.
00:03:22We must learn from experience. And
00:03:24the experience after the 2004 enlargement
00:03:28is that we cannot.
00:04:04with a time plan, but based on experience, we could finalize
00:04:08agreements with Montenegro by the end of this
00:04:11year, due to the ratification procedure, that would mean that Montenegro
00:04:15could become uh
00:04:17the 28th
00:04:20uh EU member in 2028.
00:04:23Albania still has a lot to
00:04:27do, it's doing well on its way, and Moldova.
00:04:39And that would be all in this edition of Global. As usual, the latest
00:04:42world news is on our web portals and our social networks.
00:04:46Goodbye until tomorrow.
00:05:45Knowledge is love, light, and
00:05:48vision.
00:05:51Aleksandar Cvetanović, originally from Leskovac, but currently
00:05:55lives in Novi Sad, is on the list of one hundred
00:05:59best scientists in the world according to the Chinese
00:06:02Academy of Forestry, while the Austrian
00:06:05Ministry of Science declared her the best
00:06:08young scientist in Serbia. The subject of her
00:06:11research is bioactive molecules, i.e.,
00:06:15compounds that she extracts from plants. My task
00:06:19is to find a good way to obtain
00:06:22such compounds, to extract them from natural sources and
00:06:25later to find a way to apply them, that is, to
00:06:29apply them somewhere. This application can be in different products,
00:06:33for example, it can be in the food industry where they are added as natural
00:06:36additives that will protect food from spoilage, then
00:06:40they can improve sensory
00:06:42characteristics of food, they can be added to various
00:06:45cosmetic products to increase their
00:06:48functionality or as medicines, i.e., as some
00:06:52medicinal pharmacologically active components. The process
00:06:56of extracting compounds is often long and accompanied
00:06:58by difficulties, but this young scientist
00:07:02views them as challenges. One of
00:07:04the projects she is currently working on, at the invitation of colleagues from
00:07:08Moscow, is to increase the functionality of food for
00:07:11Russian cosmonauts. We add some pharmacologically
00:07:15active components, i.e., compounds that I extract from some
00:07:19natural sources, and we add them so that the food
00:07:23itself is additionally facilitated, so that it is nutritionally
00:07:26richer, sensorily better, more acceptable, so that
00:07:29it is better metabolized, because in those extreme conditions,
00:07:33the metabolism of food is quite
00:07:36different than in normal conditions. So far, she has given
00:07:40lectures at numerous world universities and
00:07:43trained in the best-equipped
00:07:46laboratories. The best formula for success, according to
00:07:49her, is to go abroad
00:07:53for new knowledge and return to Serbia to
00:07:57help develop science and its application on home
00:08:01turf. Working abroad is a little
00:08:04different, they have
00:08:08larger scientific funds, they are usually technically
00:08:11better equipped than us. On the other
00:08:14hand, we have good ideas, we always find
00:08:17ways to implement our ideas,
00:08:21regardless of some obstacles, to
00:08:23overcome them. Of all the awards received
00:08:26so far, her favorite is from her people,
00:08:30the October Award of the City of Leskovac.
00:08:33Somehow the most emotional moment was actually receiving that
00:08:37award, because I received it from people with whom I
00:08:41grew up, who are... my fellow citizens, and I think
00:08:44that the honor I received with that award is
00:08:47incomparable to all others. Although
00:08:51the subjects of research are different, young
00:08:54scientists in Serbia mostly share the same
00:08:57challenges, but they overcome them with
00:09:01a smile. Absolutely, yes, because
00:09:04somewhere there, uh, I think that is the place
00:09:08of our not only collegial relationship, but also friendship
00:09:12today. That's what I said a moment ago, we don't see
00:09:15things as problems but as challenges, aha, we have, we have a
00:09:19situation, let's call it a problem, okay, let's
00:09:22solve it, so there's a smile, there's a positive
00:09:25attitude and I think that what characterizes
00:09:29our joint work is that nothing is impossible, there are no
00:09:33limits, we simply push boundaries, open new
00:09:36horizons, new horizons for the scientific
00:09:39community. Aleksandra opened through her doctoral
00:09:42brother whose subject of research was
00:09:45Chamomile. In Serbia, everyone says, "Oh, Chamomile!" I mean,
00:09:49we all know everything about it, and for me,
00:09:52that was a big challenge, to find
00:09:56something new, to show something new on a raw material that is so well
00:10:00known, generally known, and to
00:10:02publish such a large number of scientific papers.
00:10:06When we say scientist, we usually
00:10:09think of someone who is always with a book, does not
00:10:13know how to have fun,
00:10:16but she is the opposite of that. Yes, from a professional
00:10:19perspective, she works a lot, but privately she is
00:10:23a completely different person. "She is cheerful, she loves company,
00:10:27she has a wide circle of friends,
00:10:30she is a versatile person, she loves ballet and opera, but she also
00:10:33loves traditional taverns." Marija is particularly proud
00:10:37of her sister's journey, that success has
00:10:40not changed her. She is
00:10:43one of those people who one day can
00:10:47be in Dubai, for example, giving
00:10:50a speech at a big world congress,
00:10:53and the next day be in her native village with
00:10:57ordinary people.
00:10:58Good
00:11:01deeds must not go unnoticed. Contact
00:11:05us and introduce your hero.
00:11:07Share with us good things about people.
00:13:18Did I do the right thing? Should I go see a
00:13:22doctor? What should I cook for dinner?
00:13:26People are turning to artificial intelligence as a constant
00:13:29companion, chatting with it almost like it's a close
00:13:32friend.
00:13:35But what is AI actually good at? When should we
00:13:38trust it, and when should we be more
00:13:41skeptical?
00:13:43Answers to those questions and much more, this time on DW
00:13:47Science Show. Welcome to Tomorrow
00:13:49Today.
00:13:53helping with career decision.
00:14:37I could handle your emails, your reports, even this interview, and honestly, do a pretty good job. Yeah, maybe emails, that's just optimization. But talking to students, interacting, showing empathy, taking
00:14:40responsibility, you can't do that. You're just
00:14:43imitating. True, I am you, the optimized
00:14:46version. Many users believe AI really
00:14:50is the optimized version, that it can be the perfect friend, for
00:14:53example, and that's no surprise. Developers almost
00:14:57always design AI avatars to be friendly and
00:15:00non-confrontational.
00:15:03It presents itself like a human, it understands us, it sounds so
00:15:06real, and we need to protect ourselves against that.
00:15:10AI can create the illusion of being trustworthy, human, and
00:15:13empathetic, and that can easily mislead
00:15:16us.
00:15:19AI's real strength lies in processing huge amounts of
00:15:22data. Here, it assesses 30.
00:16:37remain cautious about AI. That's because
00:16:40experts can sometimes underestimate what the technology is actually able to
00:16:44do.
00:16:46The A3 Iceburg has been closed after an Antonov aircraft made
00:16:50an emergency landing. Fortunately, no one was
00:16:52injured. AI deepfakes like these have become
00:16:56very convincing in recent years, and as computing
00:16:59power continues to grow, they're getting even more realistic. The same
00:17:03goes for deepfakes circulating on the dark web. But is that really
00:17:06innovation?
00:18:07than Northern Virginia in the U.S., just next to Washington,
00:18:11D.C. They take up enormous amounts of
00:18:14space, consume huge amounts of electricity,
00:18:18and they're not just an eyesore, they're pretty noisy
00:18:21too.
00:18:26When Greg Pirio first stepped outside the home he just bought in
00:18:292012, he was surrounded by greenery. But where there
00:18:33was once a forest, there's now a data center.
00:18:38It's really frustrating. We, you know, uh, how they
00:18:42how they could have voted to change the zoning to allow this so close to a
00:18:45neighborhood is beyond my
00:18:48comprehension. It's not just the view that's
00:18:51changed, the soundscape has
00:18:53too.
00:18:56It's just such an annoying sound
00:18:59of anger because
00:19:03it will reduce the prop the value of our properties
00:19:06here. Because it's chased the
00:19:09wildlife away from us. The
00:19:13area in Northern Virginia has become a global hub for data centers
00:19:17where the information that powers giant companies such as Uber, Netflix,
00:19:20and Amazon, as well as from AI applications is stored and
00:19:24processed. AI data centers in particular
00:19:28require enormous amounts of electricity.
00:19:31Those are data centers. Look that direction, that direction, behind
00:19:35us, all three sides. Elena Schlussburg is also
00:19:39frustrated. Of Virginia's more than 600 data
00:19:42centers, 260 are concentrated in just two residential
00:19:46communities. In the 1990s, the area was home
00:19:50to AOL, America's first major internet service
00:19:53provider. Today, it's at the heart of the AI
00:19:56boom. Look, see another American flag. We're all
00:20:00a part of American when we're building out, uh, the wealthiest
00:20:03industry in the world and paying for their infrastructure.
00:20:07leads the world in data center concentration, accounting for
00:20:1114% of all data centers
00:20:13globally. Running those facilities doesn't require
00:20:17many workers, but it does consume vast amounts of
00:20:20electricity, and that's having an impact on local
00:20:24residents. Communities are in direct competition
00:20:28with industry that has an
00:20:31unprecedented need for power and water, and so those things that
00:20:34you normally rely on your affordable, clean
00:20:37energy is now being consumed by
00:20:41this one customer, and that's
00:20:44why you see your utility bills increasing.
00:20:47Electricity prices here have risen by 30% in just five
00:20:50years. The enormous demand for energy is one major
00:20:54downside of the AI boom. So it looked as
00:20:57though it was a matter of economic development and a good thing for the
00:21:01community, but they did not think through the
00:21:04implications for the ordinary rate payer. Industry
00:21:07often needs a certain amount of power, but it tends to be
00:21:11distributed, and the increases are predictable and
00:21:15measurable. There's almost nothing that compares to
00:21:18this in the past. But there are locals who are
00:21:22benefiting. Some residents have joined forces to sell
00:21:25farmland for the construction of data centers and power
00:21:28plants.
00:21:31Mine has been a family farm for generations, and
00:21:35unfortunately, my kids and grandchildren have
00:21:38absolutely no interest in it. And we came up with a win-win
00:21:42solution. The county is going to make money, the
00:21:46um, which helps them pay other people, all their employees,
00:21:50more money, get better parks, get better schools for everyone, and yes, we're going to
00:21:54make money. Data centers generate more than one billion
00:21:57dollars in tax revenue every year, and construction continues
00:22:01around the clock. But that growth comes at a cost. Depending
00:22:05on its capacity, a single AI data center can consume
00:22:09as much electricity as an entire
00:22:11city.
00:22:14Keeping buildings cool already accounts for more than 10% of
00:22:18global electricity, and demand is only expected to
00:22:22rise. Researchers think they may have found a way to
00:22:26dramatically reduce the energy needs for air conditioners.
00:22:29They're developing new cooling technology that uses special
00:22:33metals that heat up when stretched and cool down again when
00:22:36released.
00:22:39only enough room for a single soda can, but this mini refrigerator
00:22:43is packed with innovative technology.
00:22:46Researchers at a university in southwest Germany have built a
00:23:20muscles that rotate around the cooling chamber.
00:23:24They're made from a shape memory alloy, a material engineered
00:23:27to return to a preset shape after being deformed.
00:23:31Palmotski is a professor of smart material systems at Zarland
00:23:34University. He uses an infrared camera to show us
00:23:38what's happening. The thermal image reveals the hidden
00:23:41superpower of the nickel titanium wires under tension. It's
00:23:45the same phenomenon seen in a balloon, a phase
00:23:48transformation.
00:23:50The atoms arrange themselves differently depending on the temperature and the
00:23:53mechanical stress in the material. So when I
00:23:56stretch this bundle of wires, I force it into a different
00:23:59phase. The atoms reorganize themselves,
00:24:03that creates a different energy state, heat is released, and the material
00:24:06warms up. When I release the tension, the atoms rearrange
00:24:10themselves again. We get a different energy state, heat is absorbed,
00:24:14and the bundle cools down again. This is known as
00:24:17an elastocaloric effect. It can create temperature
00:24:20differences of up to 40 degrees Celsius within the material.
00:24:24The phenomenon is well-known, but only recently have researchers tried to
00:24:28harness it for use in refrigerators and heat
00:24:30pumps.
00:24:35How do we transfer the heat and cold that we generate to where it's actually
00:24:38needed? In a fridge, we need to bring the cooling into the interior and
00:24:42release the heat into the
00:24:43surroundings.
00:24:46Here circulating air passes over the cooled wires, then flows
00:24:50around the cooling chamber circled in blue, causing the contents inside to
00:24:54cool down too. The team from Zarbrücken demonstrates the
00:24:58technology with this mini refrigerator at trade shows and
00:25:01conferences. However, its compact design limits its
00:25:04cooling performance. Drinks inside can only be cooled to about 12 degrees
00:25:08Celsius. The team has also developed more
00:25:12powerful prototypes with cooling capacities of up to 250
00:25:16watts, roughly what an average fridge needs. But in
00:25:20simulations, electricity consumption is about half that of
00:25:23comparable conventional systems. The
00:25:27technology is slowly gaining momentum. Startups
00:25:30around the world are developing caloric heat pumps and
00:25:33refrigerators. Both the European Commission and the US Department of
00:25:36Energy see enormous potential. Air
00:25:40conditioners are becoming more common in households around the world, in India, for
00:25:44example, and they consume huge amounts of
00:25:47energy. The world's roughly
00:25:502.6 billion air conditioning units account for around 30% of
00:25:53global electricity consumption, according to estimates from the International
00:25:57Energy Agency. That figure has at least tripled since
00:26:011990.
00:26:03Researchers at the Center for Mechatronics and Automation Technology in
00:26:07Zarbrucken are convinced we'll need innovative technologies like this
00:26:10to bring rising global energy demand under
00:26:12control.
00:26:16This is where elastocaloric technology can help. It gives us the
00:26:20ability to provide cooling with much lower energy
00:26:23consumption, and it does so without producing harmful
00:26:26gases, making it safer for both the environment and
00:26:29people. The goal is to allow everyone.
00:26:42For now, the latest prototype is tackling a different challenge. The
00:26:45nickel-titanium wire bundles wear out over
00:26:48time. Depending on the alloy and the amount of force
00:26:52applied, they can withstand anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of
00:26:55thousands of cycles. The new
00:26:58replacement cartridge makes swapping them out relatively easy. In this case,
00:27:02just 28 grams of nickel titanium wire provide roughly
00:27:06100 watts of cooling power, more than enough for the small laboratory
00:27:09refrigerator.
00:27:13The technology is very well suited to places that need to be clean.
00:27:17The air passes directly over the wires and releases into the room
00:27:20without causing any problems.
00:27:23The Zarbrukan team believes its cooling systems could find a market in niche
00:27:27applications such as lab equipment. They believe the
00:27:30technology could be ready within two to three years, but they
00:27:34estimate it will be at least another decade before consumers can start
00:27:38replacing conventional refrigerators with alustocaloric
00:27:41systems.
00:27:45As temperatures rise around the world, so does the risk of
00:27:48wildfires, particularly vulnerable are coniferous
00:27:52forests, dominated by a
00:27:55the same age. One solution could be more
00:27:59resilient mixed forests, but choosing the right...
00:28:25what I plant here today will be harvested by future generations, and I hope I make the right decisions. If the decision is wrong, I have to make expensive changes, rebuild, and
00:28:29basically start all over again.
00:28:32To create the forest of the future, you first need a lot of information about its
00:28:36current condition. A research team at Anhalt University
00:28:39of Applied Sciences in central Germany is developing an app that
00:28:43allows anyone walking in the woods to share their
00:28:45observations.
00:28:50The app tells you to hold your smartphone horizontally, and then you take three
00:28:54photos. First, it says here, "Take a picture
00:28:57angled up into the tree canopy." Then
00:29:01it tells me to take a second photo straight ahead into the forest
00:29:04and a third one angled down towards the ground. After that, I
00:29:08can share my location and upload the images.
00:29:12Photos taken by forest visitors are a real treasure trove of
00:29:16data, say the
00:29:16researchers.
00:29:20Every measurement, every piece of information
00:29:22helps. They've discovered a medium-sized fallen
00:29:26deadwood log heavily decomposed. Even that will be
00:29:29recorded. The data is meant to provide the
00:29:33foundation for a completely new approach. We are developing an
00:29:36AI model and investigating whether
00:29:40AI can assess the condition of a forest based on
00:29:42photographs.
00:29:45What's special is that anyone can take part? As
00:29:49citizen scientists, volunteers use the app to take
00:29:52photos on their walks.
00:29:56The project is called Mein Wald Care, meaning My Forest
00:29:59AI.
00:30:03The researchers trained the AI model behind the app using more than
00:30:066,000 of their own photos from two
00:30:09forests.
00:30:12The next step is to encourage enough citizen scientists to take
00:30:15part. The first version of the free
00:30:19MyForest AI app is already available for Android. It
00:30:23should provide invaluable insights about the forest's current
00:30:26conditions. But many forest owners need to make changes
00:30:30now, like here in Munich. They need to... which tree species can
00:30:33best withstand heat, drought, and pests, and these are big
00:30:37decisions. Replacing the ecological benefits of a single
00:30:40mature tree, like water storage and carbon capture, can require
00:30:44up to 400 young trees, a cost of up to €25,000 euros
00:30:48per hectare, and they're having to make these decisions largely on their
00:30:52own. We've seen bark
00:30:56beetles eat away at our forest year after year. So