"But what about China?" has been a throwaway comment made many times to justify inaction on climate change or criticise decarbonisation policies. Well China is now by far the world's largest manufacturer, installer, and user of clean energy technologies.

Pet take that counter-UAV rather than a now saturated drone sector is the next big investment opportunity in the European defence industry

Makes one wonder why it took until 2026 to adress the Russian Starlink usr.

Also very interesting: after years of avoiding the activation of the Anti-Circumvention Tool, which has remained untouched since June 2023 (!!!), Brussels is finally ready to pull the trigger.

I knew and learned about it when reading the excellent book "Death and the Penguin" by Andrey Kurkov.

I suppose this is good news as the long-delayed meeting of Turkish and Greek leaders is set to 11 February in Ankara. There's quite a bit on their agenda, such as the territorial waters, Cyprus, EU's defence programs, minorities, territorial waters, militarisation, and the territorial waters.

Imho, we should treat reservists similar to volunteer firefighters. Nobody wants their house to burn down and even more so, they don't want to be unprepared to it. People have their day jobs, but but staying trained and up to date with your equipment is both important and possible.

The CIA just stopped publishing their World Factbook and took every page, including the archived copies of previous versions! This sucks. It was public domain, so I recovered the 2020 edition (the last one published as a zip file) and shared it to GitHub simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/5/t...

NEW: @telliotter.bsky.social got an inside look at an online forum where ICE and CBP agents often post about how the agencies have changed for the worse. “[T]his agency has managed to turn a righteous mission into a complete clown show,” one longtime user wrote. Scoop: www.wired.com/story/inside...

Trump sees trade as a weapon that can be used to coerce other countries. The EU sees trade as a way to promote peace and cooperation. www.dr.dk/nyheder/udla...

I interviewed an expert on what's happening with connectivity in Iran: The longest blackout in Iran's history. Thousands dead. Documentation of war crimes dependent on Starlink. A regime that uses AI's ubiquity to undermine the credibility of evidence. www.theverge.com/policy/87184...

When I heard Mario Draghi say, “what began in fear must continue in hope,” I realized that we Europeans are in desperate need of a common purpose. EU has always been a construction driven more by reason than by passion, born out of the need for peace and economic prosperity after two world wars.1/5

Windbag loses to wind, again. 🎁🔗

A Liberia flagged freighter turned up in Denmark to pick up a new anchor. The weeks before she was driving back and forth over an area of Baltic Sea particularly dense with comm cables and pipelines with a pit stop in Ust-Luga, Russia. Hope someone, eg a cop, found out where the old one is.

💥Viktor Orbán had what no one else before: a lasting supermajority in parliament and—thanks to EU funds—more money to develop Hungary than at any time in a century. The result after 16 years: a failing economy and disastrous public services. 🎬 Direkt36's new documentary, The Trap, is out soon!

A noteworthy takeaway from tonight's Texas result is that the Republicans spent a metric truckload of money on this race. They spent millions more than the Democrats. The loss itself aside, this is a gigantic, flashing warning sign for the GOP's finances.

Let's do this. www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtQ9...

My latest. youtu.be/0fHUtTcLJMM

This article is a very useful reframing of the tired “Europe falling behind in tech” whinge. Europe has actually build the foundations for socially useful tech, for decades. What it has not done is attempt to create Empires by extracting cash from that work. ploum.net/2026-01-22-w...

me, emotionally writing an essay on the use of force by federal agents: ok but what if i packaged this in the most insane way possible www.theverge.com/policy/86857...

The "3-day special military operation" has now lasted longer for Russia than the Great Patriotic War (WW2) and yet the old tactic of bad faith negotiations still works thanks to Trump. Europe is doing a lot better than at the start, but not yet good enough to also cover for the US.

Head of MI6 signals change from data collection to war-time active measures against Russia. What Russia does to the West MI6 will do back. And in the next breath mention WWII era SOE, whose mission was violent operations including sabotage and assassinations behind German lines. archive.is/kbx9b

Living in interesting times sure makes you appreciate boring bureaucrats, doesn't it?

A continent divided into many states with different languages, histories & religions - overcoming their differences and uniting into one federation. A pipe dream for Europe? No. It's the modern reality of India. And it shows it can be done. My piece on 🇪🇺🇮🇳:

Missed this yesterday, but the agreement between European governments to advance offshore wind development was immediately followed by plans for Europe's first interconnector linking offshore wind projects to two countries. www.businessgreen.com/news/4524783...

The ocean freighting industry is woke now (the containers spell Renee, for Renee Good). www.reddit.com/r/Tacoma/com...

Timely reminder that NATO allies formally pledged to aim to move towards spending 2% of their GDPs on defense on their 2014 Wales Summit, two years BEFORE the beginning of Trump's first term. It's Russia's invasion of Ukraine what compelled Europe's countries to boost their defense budgets.

New guide to Chinese Navy (PLAN) mine sweepers. China has the largest mine warfare fleet of any navy. Often overlooked, if you don't know much about mine countermeasures this might be of interest. Here -> www.hisutton.com/China-PLAN-m...

To delete your TikTok account without agreeing to the new TOS: 1) put your phone in airplane mode 2) open TikTok and go to your profile 3) go to settings and scroll down to delete account 4) turn airplane mode off 5) delete your account Credit to @ kimsaira on instagram for this

Good to see a contingent representing the European Union, led by Colonel Spruijt acting on behalf of the EU Military Staff, at the #RepublicDay parade.

The UK and nine other European countries have agreed to build an offshore wind power grid in the North Sea in a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a “clean energy reservoir”. Providing 100GW of wind power, enough electricity to power 143m homes. 👍 www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Important to note that this isn't "roll over and die" gloomy but very much a demand for politicians to act and do better as indicated i.e. by people wanting more "spending on defense and security."

🚨🚨Gritty and excellent report by @nikamelkozerova.bsky.social on her experiences in #Kyiv as a shivering but resilient city under relentless #Russian assault. 🧵 www.politico.eu/article/ukra...

Perun-o-clock: The War in Ukraine in 2026 - Economics, Endurance & Risks as the War Continues www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8n1...

It is possible to honour the efforts of brave Americans doing their best to defend democracy while at the same time having a realistic appreciation of what the drift to instability and authoritarianism in America that necessitates these efforts means for the American state's global reliability

We are not on our own. Many countries in the world are joining our side now. Chief among them Canada, Indonesia and Japan, but there's 94 more nations that have called Brussels in the last few months...

With 20k dead in Iran i think its fair to say the Clerical regime has effectively ended in January 2026. Now the Sepahis think and act in the exact same way the Arab officer regimes have since Colonel Nasser triggered the Apocalypse

Solar & battery systems are being built every where I went in Brazil—within auto factories & farms & ports. BYD’s are everywhere: as uber’s & in posh districts. Everyday life,farming & industry is being transformed in a developing country much faster than I had ever imagined bsky.app/profile/did:...

Ukraine needs enough backing from Europe so Russia and the US can't force them to accept these terms. If the take away lesson from this conflict is teritorial gains as reward for agression then more aggression is what the world will see.

I was able to speak briefly to a friend who runs a small business in Iran. Police patrols and checkpoints remain visible, including in commercial areas. They’re still under threat and are forced to stay open and provide services. Everyone’s anxiously waiting for the second wind.

From Germany, to Greece to all of the EU 🇪🇺 ⚡️ Full 2025 electricity generation data for Europe is now live in our @ember-energy.org Electricity Data Explorer! Free, easily accessible, for everyone! ember-energy.org/data/electri...

China's vast offshore wind farms show up beautifully in this SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite image produced by Sentinel 1 satelite of the European Space Agency (ESA)

Outside of costs, speed to market is why renewables will win. It can take 36-60 months to build a new gas plant whereas solar can go live up to 85% faster.

My new article at @inved.bsky.social We see it at university campuses, rallies, and on fringe influencer channels: Pro russian, pro Chinese, pro Iranian regime, sometimes even pro North Korea... Western Anti-Westernism - The Road to Self-Destruction inved.eu/insight/west...

This is overall a fantastic and very encouraging thread; already reposted some highlights but it’s well worth several reposts altogether. The good people of the United States are mobilizing. And the fascists are already reeling. The future remains unwritten. Thank you already, everyone!

I know he'll be back, but can European and other leaders now please spend the spare minutes to ramp up support for Ukraine, increase the pressure to stop Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza, and strengthen efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Anyway I do hope this can now wind down into nothing of substance and we can focus on the fact that Ukraine's cities are routinely without heat and power during a freezing winter

This time, Europe’s leaders played the EU-US trade game well. From the Franco-German tough line to Meloni’s off-ramps, backed by a credible €93bn retaliation threat, they made escalation for Trump costly, and de-escalation easy. Markets and US politics did the rest — Rutte scoring on the assist.

The market had assumed that Trump wdn’t go through with threat and/or that Europe wd not respond. But last few weeks have changed Brussels’ approach to US administration. The feeling is that the President’s words cannot be fully trusted & that all responses must now be seriously considered.

#GeorgiaProtests Day 420