Monthly World Updates

New Year, New News. If the January Los Angeles fires, a fossil of what may be the world’s oldest bird, and a looming Artificial Intelligence “Cold War” are just a hint of what 2025 looks like, this year undoubtedly holds much in store for the globe. Welcome back to this year’s first edition of Monthly World Updates.

ANTARCTICA: When 69 million-year-old fossils of ancient duck-like creatures were discovered on Vega Island, Antarctica, in 2011, scientists were eager to prove they were the oldest living birds in history. However, the fossils were not truly analyzed until recently, as the resulting study was just published on February 5. The study suggests that the nearly complete skull belongs to Vegavis iaai (V. iaai), a waterfowl species believed to be the ancient relative of modern-day ducks and geese. The species lived at the same time as dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and may have survived the Cretaceous mass extinction. Despite being around 65 million years since the dinosaur extinction, science is constantly evolving to incorporate new discoveries relating to the time period.

ASIA: The popularity of OpenAI’s ChatGPT model in late 2022 has been long unrivaled. One of the first AI technologies to be made accessible and understandable to the general public, ChatGPT experiences over 300 million weekly active users worldwide. However, no one expected the newest AI startup, China’s DeepSeek, to cause quite the phenomenon that it did when released in January 2025. According to Kelly Ng, a writer for BBC News, “DeepSeek made headlines worldwide after it topped app download charts and caused US tech stocks to sink.” But why is this so remarkable? Simply put, its popularity, inexpensiveness, and potential rattled investors. DeepSeek wiped billions of dollars off the market value of the American chip giant, Nvidia, and called into question whether American firms would continue to dominate the booming AI market, as many assumed they would. DeepSeek’s inventors say it has been able to cause such a stir at very low costs—the researchers behind it claim it required $6 million to train, a fraction of the "over $100 million" alluded to by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman when discussing GPT-4. The fact that a generative AI system just as powerful and effective as the world-renowned ChatGPT was made in a shorter period and for far less cost is frightening to US innovators. Author and entrepreneur Stanley Chao even said that a continued path of containment, isolation, and suspicion in the fields of AI will lead precisely to what the US is trying to avoid: “another cold war.”

EUROPE: In a landmark move, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have successfully synchronized their electricity grids with the European Union, cutting their last remaining energy ties to Russia and Belarus. This historic shift, finalized on February 9, marks the end of decades of reliance on the Soviet-era Inverter Power Supply/Uninterruptible Power Supply network. The move, years in the making, strengthens the region's energy security and furthers its integration with the EU. Amid growing tensions in the Baltic Sea, this energy independence is seen as a critical step in ensuring stability for the three nations, who stopped buying Russian power after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

NORTH AMERICA: By now, many of us have heard about the deadly Los Angeles fires beginning on January 7. Between the two major fires that scorched thousands of acres and destroyed or damaged more than 18,000 structures, at least 29 people were killed. After 24 days, the Eaton and Palisade fires were officially contained on January 31, according to a statement from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. What began as a brush fire in a neighborhood east of Malibu erupted into the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people as crews tried to battle back the fires. According to Cal Fire, “the Palisades Fire covered 23,448 acres, destroyed 6,837 structures, and damaged an additional 1,017.” Living in Montana, many of us have experienced the dangers of a fire being sparked due to months of dry weather. In fact, NBC News stated that the fire feasted on “seven months of rain-free brush as hurricane-force winds spread it into the neighborhoods of Altadena.” The severity of fires is rarely understated, however, even the National Weather Service warned on January 6 that extreme fire weather was coming, using a rare term, “particularly dangerous situation.” It can be widely inferred that fires such as these are uncommon and far more dangerous than usual, and not to be regularly feared. Nevertheless, with global temperatures rising consistently, organizations like the Environmental Defense Fund expect the size, frequency, and severity of wildfires to increase in the years ahead, so it’s more critical than ever to put time and effort into mitigating the harmful effects of climate change and prevent events such as these from happening in the future.