Our daily trip around the world

🇦🇪 The UAE experienced its heaviest rainfall since record-keeping began 75 years ago. Nearly six inches of rain fell in Dubai over a 24-hour period ending Tuesday – around 1.5x what the city usually records in an entire year – with some areas seeing up to 10 inches of rain. The torrential downpour led to flooding that blocked roads and caused flight cancellations, in addition to 18 reported deaths in neighboring Oman. Yesterday, UAE officials denied media reports that a rain-enhancing technology called cloud seeding was involved in the record downpour.

🇨🇳 Chinese researchers say they’ve developed a chip that could cut AI energy demand by 99+%. The new Taichi microchip is powered by light rather than electricity, allowing it to boost chip operating speed by passing data at the speed of light. Chinese researchers say if the chip is scaled up sufficiently, it could train AI models and run tasks as well as silicon chips while using one-thousandth of the energy.

🇷🇺 Hackers linked to Russia’s military claimed responsibility for sabotaging a Texas water plant. The January hack in the small town of Muleshoe, Texas – which caused a tank at a local water facility to overflow – was recently claimed on Telegram by individuals with a history of hacking for Russia, per a new report from US cybersecurity firm Mandiant. The FBI is currently investigating the incident, with Mandiant saying it’s unclear whether the Russian government was involved.