“Russia has brought war back to Europe, and we must be prepared for the scale of war our grandparents or great-grandparents endured.” A stark message from NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Berlin. A must read speech www.nato.int/en/news-and-...

Ukrainian Drones Strike Russian Tanker, Shifting Naval Warfare

“In recent weeks, Russian cargo planes have been seen flying into Venezuela. Nobody is ever quite sure if they are there to bring supplies, or perhaps at some point, to airlift Maduro to an early retirement in Moscow, where al-Assad now resides” www.foxnews.com/opinion/davi...

“The oil, the person said, would be sold by state firm Cubametales to Asian energy brokers”

The India trade deal is nowhere. The Indonesia deal is collapsing. And the Vietnam deal has driven them into the arms of the Chinese. www.reuters.com/business/aut...

AI consumption of valuable water resources is one of the modern problems that worries me most - we absolutely need to insist data centres use recycled and closed loop systems, not water needed for drinking and to support ecosystems. www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...

Underneath all the pretty stories about China's "green" electrification are thermal power plants that burn tons and tons of coal to pump out electricity. As of October 2025, 70% of China's electricity generation came from thermal power plants (blue)... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/chinas-ele...

2025 is on course to be joint-second warmest year. The #C3S Climate Bulletin reports that November was 1.54°C above pre-industrial levels, making it the third-warmest November on record. The 2023–2025 average is likely to be the first three-year average exceeding 1.5°C. Find more info ⬇️

“Germany, however, remains Atlantic in orientation. That attitude contrasts with the French dream of European strategic autonomy, something which has always endeared it among Chinese officials and thinkers dreaming of a separate European pole”

ai coming for your job but not in the way you think

US SouthCom a few tweets way from using a Sonnenrad patch in their imagery.

Lots of people are going on about cheap electricity in China and how this will allow it to win the AI race with the US. Here's the thing about that electricity: it's from burning fossil fuels like coal with huge CO2 emissions. There is no "green" China... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/chinas-ele...

Beijing's bots want you to think that China won the tariff war. That's nonsense. The way China kept its exports going in the face of US tariffs is by cutting the prices on the goods it exports. That's bad for exporters and a deflationary shock for China... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/how-us-tar...

🌊 Serendipity often drives science forward. A “lost” Argo float drifted under Antarctica’s ice shelves and resurfaced with a warning: warm water is creeping under major glaciers like Denman and Totten. What’s at risk? Up to 5 m of global sea-level rise. theconversation.com/what-our-mis...

“The Silk Road Ark, a massive Chinese Navy vessel with 300 hospital beds and some 100 doctors and support staff, is a potent symbol of Beijing’s outreach to the Caribbean region, one of the last bastions of diplomatic support for its rival Taiwan”

“Totally Renewable Yakandanah (TRY) is a 100% volunteer run community group with “the lofty goal of powering this small Victorian town with 100% renewable energy, giving resilience, savings, lower emissions and showing that it can be done”. climate360.substack.com/p/local-heros

“But, De Wever claimed, it was “a fairytale, a complete illusion” to “imagine that Russia will lose this war in Ukraine”. Moscow had “let us know that if the assets are seized, Belgium, and me personally, will feel the effects for eternity”.

“A region unused to tropical cyclones has had three in a week. The world needs to ask why this happened” The Indian Ocean disaster is a climate tragedy — and needs more attention www.nature.com/articles/d41...

“If they can’t talk about LNG growth to their investors, there is no growth to talk about other than their plans to make more plastic, which also aren’t going as well as they expected”

It is remarkable how all of these things seem to have gone mostly unremarked, or if not unremarked, then sort of shrugged off as irrelevant To me, it's the spectacle of a predatory industry feasting on infrastructure that was meant to be used to eliminate fossil fuels, and killing climate progress

“On addressing climate change, 36% (up one) thought Australia was not doing enough, 30% (down four) doing enough and 20% (up one) doing too much, a record high for this poll. By 45–39, respondents did not think the world would be able to prevent dangerous levels” theconversation.com/trumps-ratin...

😳 “The demand for use in cooling in Sydney alone is expected to exceed the volume of Canberra’s total drinking water within the next decade”

“Every state has agency, even small ones such as mine, Finland. The key is to try to maximize influence and, with the tools available, push for solutions. For me, this means doing everything I can to preserve the liberal world order, even if that system is not in vogue right now”

New today from @gallup.com: "Americans' economic confidence has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, accompanied by a historic drop in planned holiday spending."

This is what happens when you let Belgian bankers decide a grave global security matter.

“The “reparations loan” would leverage up to €210bn of Russian assets immobilised by EU sanctions to fund Kyiv, which would not have to repay the loan until Russia pays reparations”

Our annual deep dive on China’s climate transition is out! China’s CO₂ emissions are set to remain flat for a second year in 2025. Record additions of solar and wind, accelerating electrification, and declining construction-material demand are the main drivers.

Trump on policy proposals he's looking at to raise the birthrate: "There's a certain Australian plan that people are liking and they're talking about. You know what I mean? There's a plan where, not for children necessarily, but it's for people. Working people. And we are looking at other things."

US intelligence agencies have supplied the White House with coordinates of suspected drug-trafficking sites in Venezuela and Colombia, the NYT reports. Which suggests any attack won’t be limited to Venezuela.

Powerful message on national security from Lt Gen Richard Nugee "We are not yet acting as if peace and tackling climate change are two sides of the same coin. Cascading risks mean we face instability at home, the potential of an ungovernable state, the very breakdown of the norms of society."

“The phaseout coalition is now bigger and stronger than ever, with an important summit planned for April 2026.”

EU - China “Multiple observers told Carbon Brief that early negotiations featured a rancorous back-and-forth between the two on the ambitiousness of their respective 2035 emissions reduction targets”

“accountability should rest with the companies that build, release, and profit from AI systems”

"public outcry mounts over the government’s response to a crisis that has hit about 2M people &left an entire southern city under water... SE Asia is increasingly prone to floods...leading to disasters that are costing billions of dollars more each year in damage to roads, bridges, homes &farmland"

India is different. It is actually carbonising! CO2/Energy is increasing! It is possible to show this is due to two opposing factors: A negative component due to declining fossil share (increasing renewables) & more carbon intensive fossil system (perhaps since bioenergy has zero emissions). 4/

Worth remembering: Grok2 vs. Grok3's answer to the question "is climate change an urgent threat?" suggests manipulation by Musk bsky.app/profile/andr...

“Trade emerged as one of the hottest issues at these climate talks, surfacing in presidency consultations and spilling into other negotiation areas. The flashpoint was so-called unilateral trade measures, which include border carbon adjustments and deforestation-related import regulations”

Ok this is big. Sen. Rounds iterates that, per Rubio, Thursday is a deadline to begin negotiations — not a deadline for Ukraine to accept the deal. There is no threat of revoking intelligence sharing or ending arms shipments from the administration, he says.

I’m really surprised this isn’t bigger news. Just under 10 million people live in Tehran. Where can they go? Where else in Iran will have enough water? This will undoubtedly strain the country’s and the region’s politics, finances and governance capacity.

We have a shortage of geologists - yet another department bites the dust. Bums on seats is a really dumb way to fund universities #HigherEducation #Geology #Mining #AusPol www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

20% of research staff in the Environment Research Unit (water, climate, biodiversity, oceans, waste, etc) to go! “The environment unit, which has more than 700 full-time equivalent roles, will be reduced by 130 to 150"

This weekend the #G20 meets in Johannesburg: Our new report shows if governments, by 2030 (and beyond) act on three COP28 Energy & Methane goals, it will make a big difference to end of century warming. But the heavy lifting needs to come from the G20. 🔗 climateactiontracker.org/publications...

Signed by Germany, France, UK and Australia p.dw.com/p/541ZD

“you hear in the negotiating rooms people opposing the science, saying: “Oh, there is other science besides the IPCC,” that the IPCC is not “the best available science””

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has been asked to give evidence about Australia’s laws to a US congressional committee after having been described as a “noted zealot for global takedowns” who “threatens speech of American citizens”. www.itnews.com.au/news/us-cong...

Huge churn in markets right now with many divergent themes. The S&P 500 (red) is falling as markets tire of the AI bubble, but what's really getting clobbered is bitcoin (orange), which is down almost 25% since Jackson Hole, which sparked the gold rally (black) and should have been good for bitcoin.

#Cop30: dozens of countries threaten to block deal unless it contains roadmap to fossil fuel phase-out - Brazil had been planning to drop the roadmap amid opposition from petro states Scoop by Fiona Harvey www.theguardian.com/environment/...

“He understands the climate crisis is a machine that worsens poverty and inequality.”

We used to spend about 2.25% of our GDP on R&D; this includes business, government, universities and philanthropy, but now we have gone down to 1.63%. …the OECD average of R&D investment is 2.7%. We are in the bottom half of the OECD countries in terms of our R&D investment”