Loneliness among adolescents around the globe has skyrocketed since a decade ago, reports the Washington Post . And it may be tied to smartphone use, a new study finds:

In 36 out of 37 countries, feelings of loneliness among teenagers rose sharply between 2012 and 2018, with higher increases among girls, according to a report released Tuesday in the Journal of Adolescence. Researchers used data from the Programme for International Student Assessment, a survey of over 1 million 15- and 16-year-old students. The survey included a six-item measure of loneliness at school in 2000, 2003, 2012, 2015 and 2018. Before 2012, the trends had stayed relatively flat. But between 2012 and 2018, nearly twice as many teens displayed high elevated levels of "school loneliness," an established predictor of depression and mental health issues.

Thousands of scientists have repeated calls for urgent action to tackle the climate emergency, warning that several tipping points are now imminent. From a report:

The researchers, part of a group of more than 14,000 scientists who have signed on to an initiative declaring a worldwide climate emergency, said in an article published in the journal BioScience on Wednesday that governments had consistently failed to address "the overexploitation of the Earth," which they described as the root cause of the crisis. Since a similar assessment in 2019, they noted an "unprecedented surge" in climate-related disasters, including flooding in South America and Southeast Asia, record-shattering heatwaves and wildfires in Australia and the US, and devastating cyclones in Africa and South Asia.

There currently isn’t an adequate vocabulary to describe people’s experiences in the digital world, which impedes understanding and conversations around what’s actually happening, and what harms are lurking. The Me2B Alliance has developed a set of terms to help bridge this gap. Central to the vocabulary is the concept of Me2B Relationships, which are the relationships people (Me’s) have with purveyors of products or services (B’s), and the concept of Me2B Deals, which are exchanges of value between a person (Me’s) and a business (“B”).

The devastating heatwave that struck the Northwest US and southwest Canada in June was "the most extreme summer heatwave" ever recorded in North America, according to a new analysis from nonprofit research group Berkeley Earth.

The iPhone’s incoming mobile ID feature will use selfie biometrics for identity verification, suggests code uncovered by 9to5Mac. The news indicates that Apple will be even more directly in competition with other major pioneers of mobile ID solutions.

The mobile ID feature was first announced by Apple during its Worldwide Developer Conference in June of this year, when the company revealed that it planned to let iPhone users add virtual versions of their driver’s licenses to the Apple Wallet app after the iOS 15 operating system is launched. The company also indicated that it’s working with the Transportation Security Administration to get the virtual ID approved for use as an official identity document at airports.