Wind and solar power produced more electricity than fossil fuels in the EU for the first time last year, data published on Thursday showed, indicating the bloc's continued shift towards low-carbon energy despite resistance from some governments. www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

In our conservative estimate, 41 percent of Grok’s images — or 1.8 million — were sexualized depictions of women. Separately, CCDH analyzed how many were sexualized images across genders and ages. Their findings: an estimated 3 million images, including more than 23,000 of children.

EURUSD basically range-bound and USDJPY trending sharply higher thanks to their domestic politics/bond market, but there is a lot of dollar weakness to be found elsewhere.

Worth noting that no document has been formulated, made public or signed

I came to Minneapolis to report on what's going on, and one of the main questions I showed up with is "just what is the scale of the resistance?" After all, we're all used to the news calling Portland a "war zone" or whatever when it's just some protests in one part of town.

As someone who had the lowest possible expectations for Democratic leadership and electeds, watching Democrats in Congress see my neighbors brutalized by a government hellbent on causing us harm and then clumsily change the topic is… radicalizing

His name is Liam Ramos, and he is 5. He was abducted from Minneapolis and trafficked to a detention camp in Texas.

“The old order is not coming back. We should not mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy.” As a piece of prose and geopolitical analysis Carney’s Davos speech feels history-making. paulwells.substack.com/p/the-carney...

This is true. It is also true that Canada ALMOST has a functional veto over US military actions against Greenland. It is very difficult for the US to conduct military actions against GL without using CA airspace, NORAD assets, and/or CA allowing EU naval forces to use CA ports. A short thread.

The US is reliant on Canada and Finland for ice breaker tech right now Ironic

We now have confirmation that US troops specialised in Arctic warfare are being mobilised for repression of domestic dissent in Minnesota rather than betrayal of allies in Greenland

The hubrisric sabotage that Trump inflicted on America's alliance with Europe builds on cultural tropes and contemptuous rhetoric about Europeans that already suffused US policy circles under Bush and Obama. Dem and Bush-era GOP elites opened the door for MAGA anti-Europeanism

I just want to wake up tomorrow morning and not read that Trump has threatened or attacked something else again!

1/4 Aggregate financing in China, the most widely-used proxy for total debt, ended 2025 at RMB 442.12 trillion, an 8.3% increase over last year's outstanding amount. This is a relatively small increase in total debt compared to earlier years. english.news.cn/20260115/3e5...

Distance of various countries from the USA (at their closest points): Canada: 0 miles Mexico: 0 miles Russia: ~2.4 miles Bahamas: ~50 miles Cuba: ~94 miles Belize: ~821 miles Guatemala: ~898 miles Greenland: ~1,405 miles

Careful to distinguish rise of the far right with the collapse of the centre right. Economic inequality drives political volatility fuels the far right. But it was the policies of the center right that created economic inequality. Further lowering taxes & cutting regulation is more fuel on the fire.

Helpful explainer from an ex-Bundeswehr officer

I don't think people outside the Twin Cities realize how the surge is hitting the local economy. I lost count of the number of restaurants that have closed b/c staff are too afraid of being illegally detained. DoorDash is sort of no longer available. Businesses have their doors locked all day.

Chunky falls in 10 year gilt yields going a bit under the radar given all else going on. Good news for fiscal headroom. Would be different if move had been in the other direction; accusations would be levelled (mostly unfairly) at Reeves. Gilt market moves are mostly not driven by fiscal policy.

2025 was an exceptional year for the Earth's climate ⬆️ Warmest ocean heat content ⬆️ Tied as second warmest surface temps ⬆️ Second warmest troposphere ⬆️ Record high sea level and GHGs ⬇️ Record low winter Arctic ice New State of the Climate over at Carbon Brief: www.carbonbrief.org/...

Chinese goods trade surpluses hit a record in 2025, with $1.189trn more exports than imports. That works out to slightly more than 1% of global GDP. But notably, it's *not* primarily because of exports growth. Exports/World GDP are stable, imports/world GDP are falling steadily.

Just reading The Future of Geography. If Trump turns away from its allies in the Artemis group, does this push those allies towards greater cooperation with Chinese space missions. Do Trump and Musk hand space leadership to China? Does anyone care?!

In parallel to this the government should also invest in community spaces for under 16s, unless you want kids on Roblox all day instead.

An absolutely key first principle when using AI is that you, the human, are responsible for its outputs, and that you must *check* everything it churns out. Blaming Copilot doesn't wash.

How will the Middle East and specifically Saudi Arabia adapt to a world with low oil prices? With substantial budgets subsidising the population under pressure, will we see increased migration and conflict in the region? EVs/renewables eating into marginal oil demand but EVs only 4-5% of all cars!

Musk's Grok dropping clothes off women seems to both offend liberal progressives and conservatives. It only really caters to the dominance of a specific in group. No surprise that conservative countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. It's like the Twitter board isn't thinking this through.

Why Minnesota? It's not merely the most horrific kind of ill-luck that delivered another caught on video state mandated murder. Minnesota represents a direct assault on the white nationalist narrative & thus claim to power. 🧵

Kids, learn to c̶o̶d̶e̶ talk to people. www.ft.com/content/5e25...

I can't imagine that ICE's presence in a city does anything for Trump's popularity in that city.

The situations in Palestine and Sudan haven't stopped being horrible, just because the news cycle pivoted to Venezuela and Iran. The genocides and other atrocities are still happening, it's important to not lose sight of them...

Putin doesn’t want peace, Russia’s reply to diplomacy is more missiles and destruction. This deadly pattern of recurring major Russian strikes will repeat itself until we help Ukraine break it. (1/3)

US construction job growth has ground to a practical halt over the last year, with the country losing jobs in homebuilding as the number of units under construction declines, while nonresidential job growth slowed significantly

In Damascus today with @eucopresident.consilium.europa.eu. After decades of fear and silence, Syrians began a long journey toward hope and renewal. Europe will do everything it can to support Syria’s recovery and reconstruction.

Spain's Youth and Children's Minister has asked the Public Prosecutor (DPP rough equivalent) to investigate X for peddling child pornography

I get the feeling that AI usage is going to become synonymous with doing things on the cheap. If you get caught using this for product marketing, the brand will be tainted as cheap. This could be beneficial if you are a dollar store.

Trump's calculation is that Europe will sacrifice Greenland because Europeans cannot defend themselves without America. Europe's dependence on US security guarantees is absolute. 1/

What I find particularly remarkable is how so much American debate seems oblivious to how much the foundations of US global power is dependent on access to infrastructure, bases and depots in Europe and Canada

Joint Statement of major EU/NATO countries on Greenland, together with Denmark:

With the actions and words of the current US admin: I wonder how this will impact the decisions to buy US products and services - especially larger purchases like Boeing aircraft and defence procurement. Does this further strain the US deficit and put downward pressure on USD throughout 2026?

Trump administration announces US decline to regional power status

I’d like to see a minister answer on-air “how many more child sexual abuse images does Grok have to produce before the government will consider action?”

The male #refugees coming to Germany in 2015 had an employment ratio of 76% in 2024 (compared with 72% of the male population as a whole). HT @johanneseber.bsky.social www.wirtschaftsdienst.eu/inhalt/jahr/...

If you think of what all this chaos means for EU/UK industry: for derisking means make sure you have alternatives to what comes from the US and China. Because if the US annexes Greenland all economic bets should be off.

talked to the owner of a denim company that produces jeans in the US. he said that he's seen declining sales abroad in EU and Canada. stores tell him that customers don't want to buy MiUSA products bc Trump makes dumb, pointless threats like "taking over Canada or Greenland"

Although I am interested in the European response to the Caracas bombings, I am more interested in the response from Central and South America. Response from India and China also important.

AI cannot take accountability. AI cannot be “sorry.” You have no control over the outputs of AI if you did not make it yourself, train it on very specific data sets, and create extremely rigorous control methods. Even then the safeguards are limited. The creators must be held accountable

It's New Year, so time to look back and forward. These are 10 things I think we need to recognise in 2026. It’s a response to what I think are profoundly damaging mistaken assumptions I’ve heard and read from practitioners, journalists, and analysts in 2025. Warning: very long🧵

9. Western states are rightly focused on both conventional military and ‘grey zone’ threats from Russia, but they need to start taking political interference much more seriously than some of them have done to date.