Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has agreed to sell the East Africa tea gardens it acquired in 2022, as part of its €4.5 billion purchase of Unilever's tea business, to Sri Lanka's Browns Group.
Why it matters: This includes the controversial Kericho site in Kenya, where workers were sexually abused, according to a BBC investigation filmed just before Unilever turned over control.
ArkeaBio, a Boston developer of a vaccine to reduce livestock methane emissions, raised $26.5 million in venture capital funding led by an investment fund founded by Bill Gates.
Why it matters: Caring about cow farts (or burps) has become a political punchline, but they're estimated to create more than 5% of global greenhouse gasses.
The Sun has been emitting "strong" solar flares of high-energy radiation, raising the possibility of communications disruptions but also that the Northern Lights could be seen across parts of the U.S. from Friday evening.
The big picture: That's according to NOAA, which issued a "very rare" Severe (G4) Geomagnetic Storm Watch — the first such alert in 19 years.
Google DeepMind's AlphaFold AI model, which has already revolutionized scientists' understanding of proteins, has expanded its capabilities in a new version released this week.
The big picture: The new AlphaFold 3 can predict what interactions between nearly all of the molecules that form the basis of life look like, which could open roads to new drugs or more resilient crops.
A fourth straight day of severe weather is forecast Thursday, this time for the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic, the day after storms killed at least two people in Tennessee and another in North Carolina.
The big picture: Tornado watches were in effect for tens of millions of people from Dallas to Paducah to Nashville on Wednesday evening, as storms erupted from the same major system that plagued parts of the Plains, Midwest and Ohio Valley this week.
Google DeepMind's AlphaFold AI model, which has already revolutionized scientists' understanding of proteins, has expanded its capabilities in a new version released Wednesday.
The big picture: The new AlphaFold 3 can predict what interactions between nearly all of the molecules that form the basis of life look like — and that could open roads to new drugs or more resilient crops.
