Science & Technology — June 14, 2026

El Niño declared, threatening record global temperatures. NOAA this week officially confirmed El Niño conditions, warning the pattern could push 2026 to a new global heat record -- and may rank among the most severe episodes ever recorded.

Scientific American · Read more →

Autonomous drones killed soldiers in a confirmed first. A senior Ukrainian defense official this week disclosed that fully autonomous drones destroyed targets — with confirmed human casualties — in a test two years ago, marking the first known lethal use of autonomous weapons.

New Scientist · Read more →

First human trial of a cell-rejuvenation therapy launched. A participant this week received a cellular-reprogramming treatment designed to reverse aging in damaged cells, marking the world's first clinical trial of the approach, Nature reported.

Nature · Read more →

U.S. government ordered Anthropic to pull two AI models offline. Anthropic this week took its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models offline for foreign users after a government national-security order, reportedly triggered when Amazon's CEO flagged a newly discovered jailbreak method.

Wired · Read more →

U.S. scientists edited human embryos using precise CRISPR base editing. Researchers this week reported using CRISPR base editing — a technique that rewrites single DNA letters — on human embryos not intended for implantation, reigniting ethical debate eight years after gene-edited babies shocked the world.

Nature · Read more →