Why fly to COP28 when you can pedal for 700 km to it? Sticking to his environmental guns, German-Egyptian businessman Yusef Ahmed initiated the Tour de COP to usher in the COP Conferences, where influential figures track nations’ progress on The Paris Agreement.

By cycling from Cairo to Dubai, the group of riders aim to raise awareness for the environment, cut down on plane fuel emissions, and support the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN.

The 20 cyclists are expected to cover 60 to 100 km per day, passing through Saudi Arabia on their way to the UAE.

The gang: The group of cyclists include Ambassador Mohamed Elewa, UAE-based German cyclist Wolfgang Hohmann, Dr. Ralf Witzler from Frankfurt Main Finance, and Egyptian triathlete Ibrahim Hafez.

The journey doesn’t end in Dubai for Ahmed, though. He made headlines last year for cycling 655 km, but this year he plans to extend his trip to 2.8k km by cycling back to Sharm El Sheikh after the conference alongside a smaller team.

The tour will kick off tomorrow, and the cyclists are expected to arrive at their destination between 26 and 28 November. The conferences are scheduled to take place on 30 November.

It has not been Musk’s week: Hismost powerful rocket ever built failed to launch, again.SpaceX’s Starship took off yesterday from Texas and failed minutes after lift off. This was the second attempt following an explosion in April just four minutes after launch.

How did it happen? After the hot-stage separation (where the second engine is fired up while the initial ones are still burning) the Super Heavy “… booster experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly,” Elon Musk’s SpaceX said.

Despite the explosion the Starship itself made it to space before it was completely lost, according to The New York Times …

… but it did not complete its planned mission of 90 minutes to space and back, according to Reuters. The plan was for the rocket to come close to orbit, then fall back through Earth’s atmosphere for a water landing off Hawaii’s coast.

Fueled by competition with China,NASA has a large stake (an estimatedUSD 4 bn investment) in the success of Starship, which it is counting on to help land humans on the moon under its human spaceflight program, Artemis, Reuters says.

Adding more onto Musk’s plate is his feud with media watchdog, Media Matters and other critics of his social media platform, X. Musk and his company have been under scrutiny all week for the rise of antisemitic and racist content on the platform since his purchase, as we noted this morning.

Media Matters claims ads for large companies, such as IBM, were posted alongside pro-Nazi content. Musk himself came under fire on Wednesday for endorsing an antisemitic post. In light of these events, numerous companies have suspended ads (IBM, Disney, Warner Bros, etc.) and Musk threatened legal action against Media Matters.

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