FT: UAE's imperial push into Africa UAE is now a bigger investor in Africa than China,UK,France,US! UAE's dark king MBZ is supporting/extracting from african actors (particularly in north africa) with investments in logistics, gold, copper, arms, farming www.ft.com/content/a4c6...

the thing is how it's just mentioned in passing that these rich petrostates are going hard to guarantee their post-oil economic security; like it's hardly worth elaborating upon and yet it's very significant in the context of more, er, 'frontier' petrostates, or indeed oil demand

Kate Mackenzie@katemac.bsky.social · 23h ago

“the small desert state has spread investment, influence and military hardware across Africa with dizzying speed in a bid to harness trade and resources for its post-oil future.”

“the small desert state has spread investment, influence and military hardware across Africa with dizzying speed in a bid to harness trade and resources for its post-oil future.”

Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social · yesterday

FT: UAE's imperial push into Africa UAE is now a bigger investor in Africa than China,UK,France,US! UAE's dark king MBZ is supporting/extracting from african actors (particularly in north africa) with investments in logistics, gold, copper, arms, farming www.ft.com/content/a4c6...

what's the best understanding of where people are actually getting/reading opinion these days? I realize I'm asking this on the niche microblog site when microblogging itself is niche, but apart from the domination of short-form video I don't have a real sense of what gets eyeballs on ideas.

One of the themes we explored in our most recent essay for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social is that a new politics of adaptation is emerging, which is distinct from the politics of climate mitigation thepolycrisis.org/scorched-ear...

Scorched earth

Adaptation politics on a boiling planet

thepolycrisis.org

I'm not sure folks have realized just how crazy the second half of 2026 and 2027 will be for global temperatures – on the back of a record-smashing El Niño event. Here is my latest estimate of where both years will end up compared to global temperatures since 1850.

Agreed. There seems to be a particular spate in South Asia: Bangladesh, Nepal, India. Interesting to see if it evolves in the rest of the region.

Genuinely don't think we're hearing nearly enough about the effective youth/GenZ protest movements in middle and lower-middle income countries in the past couple of years foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/30/c...

How Gen Z ‘Cockroaches’ Beat Modi at His Own Game

India’s prime minister is famous for his savvy use of social media. Now he’s getting a wake-up call.

foreignpolicy.com

Funny how no one calls this "overcapacity" @katemac.bsky.social @aldasky.bsky.social @edwardongwesojr.com US Data Center capex boom of many trillions over a decade + global dominance at about 80% of global AI investments is analagous to China's enormous Green boom + 70-80% global dominance.

How close are we to the “oh fuck” part of that timeline

James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · 3d ago

In fairness it starts and closes by making clear that economic and food security is under grave threat. But then provides next to no insight about what we should do about it beyond worrying about the cost of decarbonisation and undertaking some ill defined form of adaptation.

Great piece from Nathan!

Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 6d ago

NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: In this piece I critique a recent piece from @edzitron.com comparing the AI(LLM) boom to the "Subprime" Mortgage Crisis (and implicitly the GFC of 2007-2009). The ? is:"How big of a macrofinancial threat is the AI(LLM) Boom?" www.crisesnotes.com/sigh-no-ed-z...

the non-pervert use cases for pervert glasses are just so *lame*. These things will literally never happen with pervert glasses, which are aimed pretty squarely, as we know, at perverts. www.meta.com/en-gb/blog/m...

The problem facing the Rhine River isn’t war or geopolitical upheaval, but lack of rain. That has European industry watching the sky

Another Critical Oil Waterway Is About to Close

With apologies to Oscar Wilde, to lose one critical waterway may be regarded as misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness. Of course, we’re long past carelessness and are now barreling toward disaster, with three already lost (the Strait of Hormuz, the Black Sea ports and the Red Sea’s Bab el-Mandeb) and a fourth poised to join their ranks: the mighty Rhine.

bloom.bg

the ideal academic life is being an eccentric Victorian lord. Invent a stamp licking machine at 22. Get elected to the Royal Academy for counting the beetles on your estate. Die in an arsenic explosion. The perfect life.

I was not really confident in anything before having them and it turns out I was correct

Zach Weinersmith@zachweinersmith.bsky.social · last wk.

Hey parents of bsky: What are some theories of parenting you were very confident in right up until you had your own kids?

Emerging markets stare at inflation risks as powerful El Niño looms reut.rs/44RfVaN

Emerging markets stare at inflation risks as powerful El Niño looms

Emerging economies already strained by the Middle East conflict face a new threat: a potentially powerful El Niño that could push up food prices and slow growth.

reut.rs

The main theme that @70sbachchan.bsky.social and I have been writing about for the last few months, and made a podcast about, is the FT splash just now

This would be the most important local finance reform since Elizabeth I. Finally introducing local revenue sources that aren't property taxes will ensure places really benefit from local growth - more jobs and/or higher wages in a place will translate into more investment and services:

Brian Groom@groomb.bsky.social · 2w ago

Burnham plans to give England's 14 regional and metro mayors a share of income tax revenue to spend on their cities. Unclear whether this will need legislation, or whether 'equalisation measures' will be needed to prevent poorer regions from losing out.

And in Spain, yesterday, they declared a national emergency.

We are now at entire continents worth of people inhaling forest ash/ BBQ smoke part of the summer. US last week. Europe this week. @katemac.bsky.social "France and Spain evacuate 150,000 as ‘unprecedented’ wildfires spread" www.ft.com/content/6e1d... bsky.app/profile/adam...

France and Spain evacuate 150,000 as ‘unprecedented’ wildfires spread

Extreme heat and high winds fuel fast-moving blazes as authorities in both countries battle to contain them

ft.com

Adam Schwarz@adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 2w ago

When the story of why humanity didn't stop climate change is written, it will feature front pages like this. Even as the skies blacken with climate change-induced wildfires, right wing media continue their relentless crusade against measures to tackle it.

But mostly, a journey that should take half an hour ends up taking 10 years. Traffic.

Bluesky knew the strait of Hormuz, Graham Platner, and AIPAC democrats were all cooked months before the experts did. Meanwhile Twitter was convinced Spencer Pratt would win and the Odyssey would bomb. Which site is the not-real-life echo chamber again?

Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · 2w ago

extremely funny to me that analysts whose entire job is to think about these possibilities are only now catching up to Bluesky Consensus

Bahaha, China Shock AI edition

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 2w ago

OpenAI and Anthropic executives are sounding the alarm about the rise of cheap AI, particularly powerful new models produced in China, suggesting they will lead to a “dystopian” AI future and present unacceptable security risks without regulation.

“Alpine ski resorts in New South Wales and Victoria saw climate records shattered at the weekend with maximum temperatures up to 12C above average.” www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Australian ski resorts smash July climate records with temperatures 12C above average

Resorts in New South Wales and Victoria face a warm and dry start to the season with only sporadic falls of natural snow in many alpine areas

theguardian.com

The robots cost more to replace.

This is Maya. She couldn't decide between taking a swim and taking a nap, so she chose to do both. 13/10 (TT: tinychihuahuacedric)

What to even do with this.... Trump Media to sell high-speed access to president’s social media posts www.ft.com/content/32db...

Trump Media to sell high-speed access to president’s social media posts

Family company hopes large trading firms will pay for market-moving social media posts milliseconds early

ft.com

lol how do you say Streisand effect in Chinese? Chinese govt outburst against Peterson institute's 'China Squeeze' paper is going to make more people read it! @katemac.bsky.social & I wrote about it thepolycrisis.org/the-beijing-...