🌎 Vine Returns

Gen Z protests spread across Mexico

The rallies lasted days. Thousands of people joined anti-government protests across Mexico over the weekend, adding to a growing wave of Gen Z-driven demonstrations worldwide.

While most of the protests remained peaceful, some rioters in Mexico City clashed with police using stones, fireworks, sticks, and chains, leaving 120 injured, nearly all of them police officers.

Why is Gen Z fed up?

The protests are the culmination of increasing frustration among younger Mexicans over corruption and surging crime, with many arguing that President Claudia Sheinbaum has failed to rein in Mexico’s ongoing drug-fueled violence.

The movement also draws on the recent assassination of Uruapan Mayor Carlos Alberto Manzo Rodríguez, who had been an outspoken advocate against drug cartels:

• Rodríguez was shot during Day of the Dead celebrations on November 1.

• Authorities recently identified the suspect as a 17-year-old battling meth addiction and links to organized crime groups.

While the movement frames itself as civic and non-partisan, President Sheinbaum has accused right-wing groups and other international actors of using social media bots to drive attendance.

These protests aren’t unique… they follow a wave of similar demonstrations led by Gen Z across the globe that toppled governments in Madagascar and Nepal earlier this year.

Trump cuts tariffs on bananas, beef, and other grocery essentials

Hopefully, homemade smoothies won’t cost a small bar of gold soon. Late last week, President Trump announced an executive order that removes tariffs on bananas, beef, coffee, avocados, tomatoes, nuts, and other grocery staples in an attempt to lower high grocery prices.

Tariff termination

The White House framed the move as part of “reciprocal trade” negotiations with partner countries that, in theory, should help lower prices:

• The Trump admin already struck deals with Ecuador, Guatemala, Argentina, and El Salvador that ease tariffs on items the US can’t produce in large quantities, like coffee and bananas.

The order cuts more than 200 products, which also aren’t “substantially grown or processed” in the US, from the broad tariffs previously applied by the Trump administration.

Will they help? Analysts say the tariff removal could help ease some upward pressure on food prices in the short term, but question whether the price relief will be significant or fast enough.

Why cut tariffs now? Grocery prices and inflation are first and foremost in voters’ minds, and considering Democrats won big in several local elections after running campaigns focused on affordability just weeks ago, the decision is likely a response to mounting economic and political pressures.

Scientists recover 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth RNA

The discovery could transform prehistoric history. For the first time, scientists have successfully sequenced RNA from a woolly mammoth, giving us a deeper insight into how the ancient animals lived.

Meet the mammoth

The RNA (read explanation) originated from Yuka, a woolly mammoth calf that lived 39,000 years ago and whose remains were preserved in Siberian permafrost.

• It is now the oldest RNA ever sequenced, nearly three times the age of the previous record from a 14,300-year-old ancient wolf.

Why is this so important? Mainly because RNA degrades much more quickly than DNA, so its survival over tens of thousands of years was unexpected (to put it mildly). Not to mention, RNA also offers some unique insights:

• Unlike DNA, RNA provides deeper insight into how an animal lived, essentially showing us a snapshot of its molecular biology in its final moments.

After sequencing Yuka’s RNA, researchers could identify a few key molecules that gave them clues to what was happening in its body at the time of death.

So, what did they learn?

Yuka’s RNA revealed signs of muscle activity and stress, suggesting the young mammoth may have died under traumatic circumstances, possibly due to a cave lion attack.

• They also confirmed Yuka was male, based on RNA fragments from the Y chromosome.

Looking forward: Since RNA can survive for far longer than previously thought, the discovery provides a roadmap to study RNA from other extinct species, giving scientists a way to uncover details about their lives like never before.

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NASA and Blue Origin launch satellites to study Mars

Blue Origin is finally getting the space cred it’s always wanted. Jeff Bezos’ space company completed a successful launch of two NASA satellites, which are now on their way to Mars to help scientists better understand the planet’s history.

Catching up

The mission had NASA’s twin satellites, named Blue and Gold, launched aboard Blue Origin’s newest Glenn rocket, which is part of an effort to study Mars’s upper atmosphere and magnetic environment.

It marks a major win for the space company that’s been lagging far behind its most worthy rival, SpaceX:

• It’s the first-ever NASA science payload that Blue Origin has launched that’s not just a test or commercial mission.

• In comparison, SpaceX has launched dozens of similar missions for NASA (at least 33) and has long been ahead of Blue Origin in all industry categories, including launches, reusable rockets, and satellite technology.

However, Bezos is (slowly) catching up to Musk: After launch, the booster later landed on an Atlantic barge (watch video), marking Blue Origin’s first offshore recovery and making it just the second company ever to pull off an orbital booster landing. The first to do so was SpaceX, which has achieved the same feat 532 times (see a list of the company’s statistics here).

Studying from space

Aside from the billionaire battle, the EscaPADE mission is designed to explore how solar wind interacts with Mars’ atmosphere and magnetic fields, an important question for understanding the planet’s evolution.

• The mission aims to shed light on how Mars lost much of its atmosphere over time, which turned it from a wet and warm planet into the dry, dusty one we know it as today.

Looking forward: The twin satellites are expected to reach Mars by September 2027, where they will begin their nearly year-long science phase to conduct studies on the Red Planet’s space environment.

Vine is coming back from the grave (maybe)

Be prepared for a bunch of millennials to ask you what 9 + 10 equals. Jack Dorsey, who was once the CEO of Twitter (now X), is backing a new app called diVine, a modern reboot of the once-popular Vine social media app.

diVine guidance

After a nine-year absence, the resurrection of the short-form app is finally on the horizon… kind’ve.

The new version of the app brings back the ability to create six-second looping videos and, thanks to a massive backup assembled before Vine shut down in 2017:

• The app could host a restored archive of 150,000-200,000 classic Vine clips from roughly 60,000 creators, according to diVine founder Evan Henshaw-Plath.

• Users will also be able to reclaim their old accounts and request takedowns if they don’t want archived clips displayed.

There’s no ‘AI’ in diVine: The app will use verification tools to ensure uploaded videos come from real devices rather than AI systems, plus, any content that seems AI-generated will be flagged or blocked.

Catch up on this week’s weird news

 > A physical education teacher in Maine made 1,516 3-pointers in an hour, or one basket every 2.5 seconds, to set the new Guinness World Record.

 > Ancient Roman luxury glasses embedded with diamonds, crosses, and leaves were not just decoration, according to an art historian, but the equivalent of today’s brand names.

 > The first major freeze of the season last week caused an unusual floral phenomenon called “frost flowers,” or paper-thin ice ribbons, to bloom across plants along much of the US.

 > Flights at every single airport in South Korea were delayed for 35 minutes while more than half a million people took the country’s nine-hour college entrance exam last week, enabling prospective students to hear during the listening portion of the test.

> To help Americans find the best places to gobble up all of this month’s festivities, WalletHub released its list of the top 100 cities to spend your Thanksgiving.