Inside the CIA’s audacious plot to steal a Soviet satellite

Biden will direct billions in federal spending power to climate change

Sponsored by Darktrace The Download Your daily dose of what's up in emerging technology Stealing a Soviet satellite 01.28.21 Good morning! Today: we lift the lid on an audacious CIA plot to steal a Soviet satellite during the Cold War, and how Biden plans to spend billions tackling climate change. Get your friends to sign up here to get The Download every day. Inside the CIA’s audacious plot to steal a Soviet satellite     On October 4 of 1959, a pillar of fire lit up the sky above the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a remote Soviet space facility. That night, a Soviet Luna 8K72 rocket roared into the sky. As it reached the edge of the atmosphere and shed its booster rockets, the upper stage opened like a Russian doll, giving birth to a smaller space probe: Luna 3. The craft was the size of a large garbage can, and possibly the most sophisticated machine ever sent into space. Its four insect-like antennae received radio signals from the Soviets, who guided it on a journey to see what no human had ever set eyes on—the far side of the moon.  This spacecraft contained the secrets to the Soviet’s success. And now America was on the lookout for an opportunity to steal them... This brilliant tale of espionage and the space race tells the story (for the first time) of how a team of spies in Mexico got their hands on Russia's space secrets—and tried to change the course of the Cold War. Read the full story. —Jeff Maysh Biden will direct billions in federal spending power to climate change The news: President Joe Biden has signed a second set of executive orders and memorandums on climate change that promise to bring about major changes in US energy policies and priorities: directing federal agencies to purchase US-made, zero-emissions vehicles and carbon-free electricity, halting nearly all new oil and gas leases on public lands, and eliminating most fossil-fuel subsidies. He’s also placed climate change at the center of national security planning.  The impact: The orders will provide a major boost to the domestic market for renewables like wind, solar and geothermal plants, as well as electric or hydrogen vehicles. They will direct billions of federal dollars to these industries while creating regulatory certainty that will make it easier to finance new projects and factories. However: It’s not yet clear how the orders will work or what they will achieve in the next few years. There are also limits to how much Biden can achieve by executive orders, rather than pushing new laws through Congress. Read the full story. —James Temple We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction in these weird times. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or tweet 'em at me.)   + Werner Herzog on skateboarding.    + Some ideas to beat quarantine-induced boredom.    + Japan has a long history of tidying up. (New Yorker $)   + Take a virtual tour of a historic home. (NYT $)   + Howl at the first full moon of 2021.   + A quick-thinking artist turned that Bernie Sanders meme into a doll. Sponsor Message Cyber Security is Now a Machine Fight AI is being used to create increasingly customized, targeted, and hard-to-detect cyber-attacks at scale.  Autonomous Cyber AI learns ‘normal’ for your organization and stops advanced threats in their tracks.   Learn more > The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 You still need to take precautions, even if you have been vaccinated One dose doesn't confer full protection, and you can still spread covid-19. (New Scientist $)   + That includes wearing masks and distancing. (Medium)   + In fact, you might want to start "double-masking," given the risk of the new variants. (Slate)   + Vaccinated people are going to hug each other. (The Atlantic)   + The UK is going to study the effect of the vaccines on covid-19 transmission. (FT $)   + The EU's vaccination woes have snowballed into a full-blown crisis. (NYT $)  2 The GameStop saga shows how casino capitalism is eating the world The stock market has never looked more remote and disconnected from the real world.  (The New Republic)   + Anger is a huge factor for the Reddit traders. (Bloomberg $)   + But this isn't just about "protest." For some, it's mostly a way to make a lot of money quickly. (The Verge)   + Obviously it will all end in tears. (CNBC)  3 Could we cure all disease with a trillion dollars? 💸 We could fairly easily afford universal healthcare for all, if we chose to. (The Guardian)   + The wealth increase of just a handful of men during the pandemic would comfortably be enough to vaccinate everyone against covid-19. (BBC)  4 NextDoor is quietly replacing local newspapers If there are any of those left these days. (OneZero $)   5 The history of modern white supremacy A KKK leader's vision of using the internet to connect "lone wolves" was disturbingly prescient. (NYT $)   + White nationalism is far worse than a "disease." (Wired $)  6 Zuckerberg says Facebook will stop recommending political groups But, weary sigh, will it enforce it? (Reuters)   + Facebook had to apologize for flagging "Plymouth Hoe" as an offensive term (it's a real place.) (The Guardian)   7 The future of the office 🏢 We mostly want to stay remote. But we want to see colleagues, too. How do companies proceed? (New Yorker $)   8 Instagram has got a lot more delicious  🍲 Unable to work in restaurants, chefs are selling straight to customers and using social media as their takeout menu. (NYT $)   9 The pandemic drove an online backlash against multi-level marketing  Long overdue. (The Atlantic)   10 The pleasure and pain of making choices in video games 🎮 When does it stop being escapism, and start being work? (Wired $) What happens when the internet of things converges at the speed of 5G with the reasoning of artificial intelligence? Find out at Future Compute, our virtual conference on intelligent computing, which kicks off in 2 weeks! Register now. Quote of the day "I just figured that the market is completely irrational and that everything I learned in college means nothing." —David, a 25-year-old who bought and sold GameStop stock this week, tells Buzzfeed how he feels about the saga.  Top image credit: MS TECH | GETTY Please send your theories on soup to hi@technologyreview.com. Follow me on Twitter at @charlottejee. Thanks for reading! —Charlotte Was this newsletter forwarded to you, and you'd like to see more? Sign up for free Intelligent computing Join us virtually | February 10-11, 2021 Follow us: MIT Technology Review One Main Street Cambridge, MA 02142

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