With the awful WaPo layoffs and the state of journalism more broadly, if it's useful for any writers and reporters considering going indy, @molly.wiki, @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social of Aftermath, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social of 404 Media, @edzitron.com and me will do a little workshop next week.

🚨JUST IN: Experts share their concern about the no-rules, no-inspections period that opens when New START expires on Thursday. They also see an opportunity to adapt arms control to a multipolar world. My round-up👇 - 1/n (More will be added over the next few days.) #NewSTART #armscontrol #nukesky

New @thebulletin.org: Why Patagonia burns every summer: climate change, shifting fire regimes, and policy failures. More than 45,000 hectares (111,197 acres) have already burned. In just a month, the fires scorched an area greater than the total area burned last summer.

it can’t all just be substack, it simply cannot

WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington Post says one-third of its staff across all departments, not just the newsroom, is being laid off.

🚨 JUST IN: Greenland's geographical location provides no added benefit to a space-based architecture of interceptors and sensors for US missile defense, Igor Moric of @princeton.edu writes in @thebulletin.org. #Greenland #GoldenDome #Trump #NATO #nuclearrisk #nukesky

Although dehumanization shapes support for drones, the public favors human oversight of strikes. When strikes are conducted by “killer robots,” which use AI to identify, track, and target, the public begins to question the merits of operations, the authors of a new @thebulletin.org piece explain.

"Is there a formula for being a good writer, you might ask? Yes, and it’s simple: Writing is 40 percent talent, 70 percent luck, and 50 percent determination. To become a writer, you do not need to be good at math."

Anthropic execs in 2024: '“Project Panama is our effort to destructively scan all the books in the world,” an internal planning document unsealed in legal filings last week said. “We don’t want it to be known that we are working on this.”' wapo.st/4rjXAMQ

@jimmykimmel.com had a DOOMSDAY UPDATE for us last night.

Today, the Science and Security Board set @thebulletin.org's Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds, the closest it's ever been to midnight.

🚨 It is now 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT on the #DoomsdayClock, the closest it has ever been to midnight. Learn why here: thebulletin.org/doomsday-clo...

New must-read @tullis.bsky.social feature @thebulletin.org: Mycorrhizal fungi networks supply plants with essential nutrients and water and help sequester carbon, but they're facing many threats. Why scientists are racing to understand—and protect—the biodiversity under our feet.

Iran’s internet shutdown tells a bigger story about the global rise of digital repression. New piece out @thebulletin.org @saragoud.bsky.social thebulletin.org/2026/01/iran...

Iran, in its 14th day of a digital blackout, isn't the only country to use this tactic to control its citizens. In 2025, an estimated 212 shutdowns occurred across 28 countries, affecting 798.12 million people, write @stevenfeldstein.bsky.social & Shreya Joshi for @thebulletin.org

In a new data visualization piece for @thebulletin.org, Katie Peek uses a database indexing stories of AI harms to show how experts can spot patterns and identify the tech's weaknesses to avoid repeating failures.

Great job opportunity at @thebulletin.org — please RT

Come work with us!

Discover the seven stories Kim Stanley Robinson selected as the winners of the Bulletin's Write Before Midnight contest in our January magazine issue. Start reading: buff.ly/mNO6mTQ

The EPA deleted information about the human causes of climate change from its website in December, capping off a year long assault by the Trump administration on climate data and the American information ecosystem. @rsanta.bsky.social for @thebulletin.org

Thanks to @saragoud.bsky.social for including my AI bubble aftermath story in the @thebulletin.org roundup on Big Tech's 2025 impacts. Other pieces look at AI and surveillance capitalism, Silicon Valley vs aviation safety, and the economic risks from DOGE's meddling. thebulletin.org/2025/12/a-ye...

🚨 JUST IN: In a region already bristling with all types of nuclear weapons, bestowing latent nuclear-weapon-state status upon South Korea is needlessly destabilizing, writes Sharon Squassoni in @thebulletin.org. #SouthKorea #TrumpAdministration #submarines #nuclearweapons #nukesky

Looking back at the stories the Bulletin covered in Disruptive Tech in 2025, the pattern of how large tech companies with enormous power have permeated nearly every bit of contemporary life can be seen in clear ink. Here are five pieces that explore this phenomenon. thebulletin.org/2025/12/a-ye...

wow. Nvidia to acquire Groq per investor www.cnbc.com/2025/12/24/n...

In November, the UN General Assembly’s First Committee adopted a resolution examining the risks of integrating AI into nuclear weapons. In this piece for @thebulletin.org, Alice Saltini looks at some key takeaways: thebulletin.org/2025/12/less...

For Popular Mechanics, I went behind the scenes to meet the people behind the @thebulletin.org’s Doomsday Clock. I asked—what does it mean to anticipate apocalypse as your job? www.popularmechanics.com/science/a695...

are we still on about em dashes and ai. imo human writers should just use the em dashes even harder. we should be out here pummeling out those em dashes like we're emily dickinson

NEW: Four sources tell @mzeff.bsky.social that OpenAI has become reluctant to publish research on the negative economic impacts of AI, including job displacement. At least two members of OpenAI's economic research team have recently quit over that perceived pullback.

The world has a chance to deal with Syria's perhaps substantial store of leftover chemical weapons. @gregkoblentz.bsky.social @thebulletin.org thebulletin.org/2025/12/curi...

“What I see as a labor economist is we have starved everything to feed one mouth,” says Ron Hetrick, Principal Economist at Lightcast. “These are now three years that we have foregone development in so many industries as we shove food into a mouth that’s already so full.”

Violence over water has reached record levels, continuing the increase in such events over the past 20 yrs. The number of incidents reported in 2024 was nearly 20% higher than 2023 & nearly 80% higher than 2022. @petergleick.bsky.social on the updated Water Conflict Chronology in @thebulletin.org:

Silicon Valley has placed a trillion-dollar bet that gen AI can transform the global economy and pave the way for AGI. But warning signs show the marketing hype has vastly overrated what current AI tech can achieve, creating a bubble with growing costs when it pops, writes @jeremyhsu.bsky.social.

AI has buoyed the stock market and a struggling US economy. However, warning signs indicate a bubble that everyone will pay for when it bursts. Read the new piece by @jeremyhsu.bsky.social below. ⬇️

Breaking News: A federal vaccine committee voted to end the decades-long recommendation that all newborns be immunized at birth against hepatitis B, a highly infectious virus that leads to chronic liver disease in most infected children.

🚨 JUST IN: If the United States deploys advanced short-range ballistic missile systems to Norway’s Finnmark or Finland’s Lapland regions, and Russia detects them, a crisis similar to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis will ensue, writes Vladimir Marakhonov in @thebulletin.org. #nuclearweapons #nukesky

My latest @thebulletin.org piece tries to reckon with the economic costs that would accompany the bursting of the AI bubble - and also highlights some of the societal costs we are already paying.

Silicon Valley has placed a trillion-dollar bet that gen AI can transform the global economy and pave the way for AGI. But warning signs show the marketing hype has vastly overrated what current AI tech can achieve, creating a bubble with growing costs when it pops, writes @jeremyhsu.bsky.social.

"A ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity as an internet search without AI. And because supercomputers run hot, they typically need intensive water-cooling systems."

"In maps of global projections of climate change impacts on precipitation, the region over and around the Mediterranean basin stands out because of the magnitude and significance of its precipitation decline." Detailed explanation of the climate changes behind Tehran's water crisis @thebulletin.org

Round out your end-of-the-year book recommendations with 43 new books our staff loved in 2025.

30 years ago, the IPCC stated—for the first time—that: “The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” Honored to have edited this essay by Benjamin Santer, the lead author of the chapter that made that crucial determination, for @thebulletin.org:

New NY State law on "AI Companions" 👀 www.governor.ny.gov/news/governo...

Japanese giant SoftBank said Tuesday it has sold its entire stake in tech giant Nvidia for $5.83 billion. Click here to read more: https://cnb.cx/49LCIs8

Hi writers! I’m looking to assign a couple of features for Slate before the end of the year. If you have anything in mind that you think would be a fit please send me a pitch! Jenée.Desmond- [email protected] or dm me. RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!

"The decision by the United States not to send high-level representatives to COP30 illustrates the uneven global commitment to climate diplomacy and the persistent challenges in mobilizing support for developing nations." #COP30

Two of the world’s biggest data center developers have projects in Nvidia's hometown that may sit empty for years because the local utility isn’t ready to supply electricity. We called the developers and utility in question to find out why: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

GIVEAWAY! 🎁 Win a free print copy (U.S. only) of Brian Platzer's highly anticipated novel, THE OPTIMISTS (Pub Feb 24, 2026)! It's a big-hearted story about a teacher and his controversial student. Get your entry in on Goodreads now! 👇 #Giveaway #Goodreads #TheOptimists #BrianPlatzer #BookSky

Australia has so much electricity from solar power that it is going to start offering free electricity to everyone for at least three hours during the day as the wholesale price of power goes negative electrek.co/2025/11/04/a...

Assuming that the missile in 'A House of Dynamite' carried a several-hundred-kiloton nuclear warhead and detonated directly above Chicago's Loop, what would follow? @patriciajaworek.bsky.social and Isabelle Williams of @nti.org explain. ⬇️

"You can’t reboot the planet if you crash it" | My commentary on Bill Gates' flawed new climate missive for @thebulletin.org: thebulletin.org/2025/10/you-...