Brown University has a widget that tracks the cost of the Iran war to American consumers (as contrasted to whatever the Pentagon is spending). Per-household cost now exceeds $600. iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu
Royce Kurmelovs
@roycerk2.bsky.social
Journalist. Author of The Death of Holden (2016) and Slick: Australia's Toxic Relationship with Big Oil (2024). For more me: https://www.roycekurmelovs.com/ Get me on Signal: RoyceK.11
Hormuz is truly a Suez Crisis for the United States, only no one is ready to admit it. I would also like to see—and I am not even joking here—some kind of deep dive on how many in the Trump administration involved in, or adjacent to, decision making on Iran were/are big Hearts of Iron players.
Reuters@reuters.com · yesterdayEXCLUSIVE: US has used 'virtually all' of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war, sources say reut.rs/4gc28C0
for months, ive been trying to map out the ways the right and the left were uniting against data centers and AI both here's my story on my efforts, featuring steve bannon's anti-tech prophet, my girlfriend's high school english class, and the unabomber:
How Data Centers Broke American Politics
What the Unabomber, Steve Bannon’s tech guy, and Bernie Sanders taught me about the great data center backlash of 2026.
wired.com
New record high for electric vehicle sales in Australia over the past quarter. EVs now account for 21% of total sales, or 32% if combined with plug in hybrids. That's 103k EVs which will cut fuel imports by 128m litres per year, or 1.28bn litres over the next decade. That's real fuel security.
Long, but worth your time. Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial www.thenerve.news/p/nigel-fara...
Farage, the money launderer and me: a decade of denial
The Reform leader’s relationship with the UK media has enabled him to operate with impunity for years. This past fortnight, that impunity finally appeared to be coming to an end. Carole Cadwalladr, wh...
thenerve.news
The political right in Australia used the same talking points after the Black Summer Bushfires, with two additions: the fires were the work of arsonists and/or the Greens for curbing forestry activities, and "Australia is a land of extremes, it has always burned. What of it?"
Dr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they)@doctorvive.bsky.social · 3d agoThis (from the @wsj.com Editorial Board) distills every denialist trope there is: It implies climate change isn’t exacerbating extreme weather. It calls solutions “costly … nostrums.” It fosters doomerism. And it suggests we can just adapt to or “manage” climate impacts. How is this journalism?
If BYD succeeds in knocking off Toyota, that will huge. The Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries is the peak industry body for car makers in Australia and has been dominated by Toyota forever—an industry person once joked to me how the FCAI office was Toyota's Canberra outpost.
The Driven@thedriven.io · 3d agoBYD has announced a new driveaway offer on its best-selling EV in Australia as it seeks to chase down Toyota to be the country’s biggest seller of new cars https://thedriven.io/2026/08/02/byd-slashes-price-of-sealion-7-premium-model-as-it-chases-down-toyota-to-be-countrys-best-selling-car-company/
El Niño cycles push warming up above the trend line which could pull a tipping point forward in time. Their effects seem to ride on until the next cycle. I also worry about the oceans’ and forests’ ability to continue absorbing CO2 at the historic rate.
Prof Ray Wills@profraywills.futuresmart.com.au · 3d agoThis year will be the hottest year of your life This year may be the coolest year of the rest of your life Estimate global temperatures for 2026 and 2027 enhanced by record-smashing El Niño event compared to global temperatures since 1850 - graphic @zekehausfather.com
Eyewitness footage showed a destroyed firefighting helicopter on the ground following a collision with another chopper in Greece during operations to combat wildfires. reut.rs/3TAIt63
The hilarious meta aspect of this story about used EV prices in the US rising is how long they take to reach the obvious (but repugnant to The Discourse) conclusion, that people really like the EVs that US carmakers don’t want to sell them www.cnbc.com/2026/07/31/u...
EV prices aren't following the 'law of used cars,' analyst says — what it means for buyers and sellers
The prices for used electric vehicles have risen this year, which is unusual, experts said. Affordability and high gas prices help explain why, they said.
cnbc.com
Interesting warning from Justice Beach to the government in a robodebt ruling published yesterday on what it means in the future re AI. www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/view...
Multiple sources say Australia has not yet succeeded in convincing world leaders and heads of government to attend a high-profile United Nations climate meeting in the Pacific.
Australian climate meeting in Pacific headed for 'disaster', officials warn
Multiple sources say Australia has not yet succeeded in convincing world leaders and heads of government to attend a high-profile United Nations climate meeting in the Pacific.
abc.net.au
As Shell faces a landmark climate lawsuit, "confidential" documents from the 1960s show British scientist James Lovelock warning executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels. See his June 1966 memo published in full for the first time with my latest for @desmog.com
The Lovelock Papers: Shell’s Hidden Climate Knowledge Under Scrutiny as Court Battle Looms
“What seems to be important,” wrote the visionary British scientist, James Lovelock, in June 1966, is “the almost certain fact that the climate is worsening and the probability that the combustion of ...
desmog.com
"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...
AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt
AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.
futurism.com
My own theory: everyone watched governments move quickly to take care of people (social security increases, job guarantee, eviction moratoriums) after years of being told it was impossible. After, it was all immediately yanked away. Worse, politicians have gone back to pretending it's not possible
The Fig Economy@figgityfigs.bsky.social · last wk.One of my Crank Theories of Everything, at least of Everything in the Recent Past, is that we are dealing (badly) with COVID trauma we’d mostly prefer to pretend never happened.
=/
US borrowing costs hit 19-year high as Fed defies inflation fears
Central bank stands pat on rates even as investors worry Trump’s Iran war will ignite jolt of price growth
ft.com
Royce Kurmelovs@roycerk2.bsky.social · last wk.If I understand correctly: AI investment is racking up massive debt but is the only thing keeping US economic numbers looking good right now. Meanwhile, Trump's war on Iran is being financed through US government bonds but has throttled the global oil supply and driven up interest rates. Right as...
Surprised "Abundance" was not in the mix.
Josh Taylor@joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7d agoThe new premier's reading pile from last year, posted without comment.
"The process would take about two years, estimated the company, Holtec International. Four years later, the plant, called Palisades, is not yet generating power."
David Roberts@volts.wtf · last wk.Nuclear proving to be more difficult in practice than its glib cheerleaders predicted?!?! This has never happened before I simply don't know what to make of it.
Nuclear proving to be more difficult in practice than its glib cheerleaders predicted?!?! This has never happened before I simply don't know what to make of it.
Why Restarting a Nuclear Power Plant Can Be Much Harder Than Expected
The first U.S. attempt at reopening a shuttered reactor has been held back by run-down equipment and a lack of planning.
nytimes.com
France had also intervened after Trump administration had opposed the reappointment of UN human rights chief
US diplomats stage UN walkout after France criticizes human rights record under Trump
theguardian.com
Exclusive: Political connections between Pauline Hanson and Gina Rinehart go back to at least 2010, when Rinehart hired a former One Nation adviser for her staff. Karen Barlow reports. trib.al/KyR4KGX
Exclusive: Tracing Gina Rinehart’s relationship with One Nation
Gina Rinehart’s friendship with Pauline Hanson is relatively new – possibly connected to luxury homes outside Noosa – but her links to One Nation go back at least a decade.
trib.al
If I understand correctly: AI investment is racking up massive debt but is the only thing keeping US economic numbers looking good right now. Meanwhile, Trump's war on Iran is being financed through US government bonds but has throttled the global oil supply and driven up interest rates. Right as...
Royce Kurmelovs@roycerk2.bsky.social · last wk."Wall Street banks have demanded more collateral from hedge funds in recent weeks as a rout in AI stocks accelerates and triggers heavy losses across several popular strategies."
"Wall Street banks have demanded more collateral from hedge funds in recent weeks as a rout in AI stocks accelerates and triggers heavy losses across several popular strategies."
Hedge funds face demands to stump up collateral as AI stocks tumble
Scale of losses in recent weeks sparks growing risk aversion on Wall Street
ft.com
Israel is giving Trump's former campaign manager millions of dollars to fill the internet with pro-Israel articles written by AI, not so that anyone will actually read them, but so that *LLMs will train on them* & regurgitate their perspective. This is the future of the information environment.
Israel Is Paying Millions to Train AI Chatbots How to Talk About Gaza. It's Working.
Former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is overseeing an operation posting hundreds of blog posts on behalf of Israel, with the goal of infiltrating artificial intelligence.
dropsitenews.com
FUN FACT: In the last three months of 2025, Australia imported more oil than it ever has in all its history The first quarter of 2026 came third in terms of volume of imported oil www.datawrapper.de/_/3au0M/
Top U.S. oil & gas executives have sold nearly $400 million worth of stock in their own companies since the Iran war triggered a supply crunch that sent energy prices -- & the share prices of their companies' stocks -- soaring.
Fossil Fuel Executives Cash In (Gift Article)
Insiders at leading oil and gas companies have made millions from stocks since the Iran war began.
nytimes.com
Apparently, we're already at the "too big to fail" stage.
FinTwitter@fintwitter.bsky.social · last wk.SINGAPORE WARNS OF ECONOMIC RISKS IF GLOBAL AI BOOM FALTERS