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China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments Carbon emissions on the decline'FLAT OR FALLING': China's carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have been either "flat or falling" for almost two years, reported Agence France-Presse in coverage of new analysis for Carbon Brief by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). This marks the "first time" annual emissions may have fallen at a "time when energy demand was rising", it added. Emissions fell 0.3% during the year, driven by a fall in emissions "across nearly all major sectors", said Bloomberg - including the power sector. It said the chemicals sector was an exception, where emissions saw a "large jump from a surge of new plants using coal and oil" as feedstocks. The analysis has been covered around the world by outlets ranging from the New York Times, Bloomberg and BBC News through to Der Spiegel, CGTN and the Guardian.
TOP TASKS: President Xi Jinping listed "persisting in following the 'dual-carbon' goals" as one of eight "key" elements of economic work in 2026, according to a December speech just published in Qiushi, the Chinese Communist party's leading journal for political theory. This included "deeply advancing" carbon reduction in key industries and "steadily promoting a peak in consumption of coal and oil", according to the transcript. The National Energy Administration (NEA) also outlined a number of priority tasks for the department, including resolving "grid integration challenges" to encourage greater use of renewable energy and "boosting investment" in energy resources, said energy news outlet International Energy Net.
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ETS EXPANSION: Meanwhile, the government has asked "heavy polluters" in several sectors not yet covered in China's emissions trading scheme (ETS) to report their emissions for 2025, reported Bloomberg, in a "key step" for the further expansion of the carbon market. The affected industries are the "petrochemical, chemical, building materials (flat glass), nonferrous metals (copper smelting), paper and civil aviation industries", according to the original notice posted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE), as well as steel and cement companies not yet covered by the ETS.
State Council issued 'unified' power market guidancePOWER TRADE: China will aim for "market-based transactions" to account for 70% of total electricity consumption by 2030, according to new policy guidance released by China's State Council and published by International Energy Net. The policy also called for greater "integration" of cross-regional trading and "fundamentally sound" market-based pricing mechanisms. On renewable power, the guidance urged officials to "expand the scale of green power consumption" and establish a "green certificate consumption system that combines mandatory and voluntary consumption", as well as encourage "implementation of inter-provincial renewable energy priority dispatch plans". It also calls for "roll[ing] out spot trade nationwide by 2027, up from just 4% of the total transactions today", reported Bloomberg.
CLEAN-POWER PUSH: An official at China's National Development and Reform Commission said in a Q&A published by BJX News that establishing a "unified" national power market is "crucial for constructing a new power system". A separate analysis by Beijing-based power services firm Lambda reposted on BJX News argues that China's unified power-market reforms - which have been "more than two decades" in the making - will allow for "widespread integration" of renewable energy, resolving the challenge of wind and solar "generating but being unable to transmit and integrate". Business news outlet Jiemian quoted Xiamen University professor Lin Boqiang saying that, while power-market reform may present clean-energy companies with "growing pains" in the short term, it will "force the industry to develop healthily" in the long term.
EU tariffs lifted on first firm's China-built EV imports'SOFTENED' STANCE: The Chinese government has "softened its stance" on electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers who seek to independently negotiate with the EU on prices for their exports to the bloc, said Reuters, after it previously "urged the bloc not to engage in separate talks with Chinese manufacturers". The move came as Volkswagen received an exemption from tariffs for one of its EVs that is made in China and imported to the EU, which it committed to sell above a specific price threshold, reported Bloomberg. It added that the company also pledged to follow an import quota and "invest in significant battery EV-related projects" in the EU.
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'MADE IN EU' MELTDOWN: Meanwhile, EU policymakers attempted to agree legislation that may force EV manufacturers to ensure "70% of the components in their cars are made in the EU" if they wish to receive subsidies, reported the Financial Times. A draft of the plan was ultimately rejected by nine European Commission leaders and commission president Ursula von der Leyen, Borderlex managing editor Rob Francis wrote on Bluesky.
BRAZIL BACKTRACKS: Brazil has "scrapped" a tariff exemption for Chinese EV manufacturers that allowed cars assembled in Brazil with parts imported from China to be sold at much lower prices than similar vehicles made from parts imported from other countries, reported the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post. Separately, Bloomberg reported on the surge of tariff-free Chinese EVs that has enabled Ethiopia to ban the import of combustion-engine cars.
PRICE-WAR BAN: The Chinese government has "banned carmakers from pricing vehicles below cost", reported Bloomberg, in an effort to clamp down on a "persistent price war" affecting the industry. China's car industry, "particularly in the EV segment", has seen "aggressive discounting, subsidies and bundled promotions" pushing down profitability for companies across the supply chain, said the state-run newspaper China Daily.
More China news- POWERFUL WIND: China has connected a 20-megawatt offshore wind turbine - the "world's most powerful" and "equivalent to a 58-story building" - to the grid, reported state news agency Xinhua.
- PROVINCIAL MOVES: Anhui has become the first Chinese province to release data on how much carbon different forms of power in the province emits per kilowatt-hour of power, according to power news outlet BJX News.
- RARE-EARTH RUNES: China may hold a "policy briefing" on export restrictions for rare earths and other critical minerals in March, according to Reuters.
- NO CHINA CREDITS: The US confirmed that clean-energy tax credits will not be available for companies that are "overly reliant on Chinese-made equipment", said Reuters.
Carbon Brief spoke with Ma Jun, one of China's most well-known environmentalists, about how open data can keep pressure on industry to decarbonise and boost interest in climate change.
Ma is director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), an organisation most well known for developing the Blue Map, China's first public database for environment data.
Speaking to Carbon Brief during the first week of COP30 in Brazil last November, the discussion covered the importance of open data, key challenges for decarbonising industry, China's climate commitments for 2035, cooperation with the EU and more.
Below are highlights from the conversation. The full interview can be found on the Carbon Brief website.
Open data is helping strengthen climate policy- On how data transparency prevents environmental pollution in China: "From that moment [when the general public began flagging environmental violations on social media in 2014], it was no longer easy for mayors or [party] secretaries to try to interfere with the enforcement, because it's being made so transparent, so public."
- On encouraging the Chinese government to publish data: "The ministry felt that they had the backing from the people, basically, which helped them to gain confidence that data can be helpful and can be used in a responsible way."
- On China's new corporate disclosure rules: "We're talking about what's probably the largest scale of corporate measuring and disclosure now happening [anywhere in the world]."
- On the need for better emissions data: "It will be impossible to get started without proper, more comprehensive measuring and disclosure, and without having more credible data available."
- On the economics of coal: "There's no business interest for the coal sector to carry on, because increasingly the market will trend towards using renewables, because it's getting cheaper and cheaper".
- On paying for low-carbon products: "When we engage with them and ask why they didn't expand production, they say that producing these items will have a 'green premium', but no one wants to pay for that. Their users only want to buy tiny volumes for their sustainability reports."
- On public perceptions in China of climate change: "It's more abstract - [we're talking about] the end of the century or the polar bears. People don't feel that it's linked with their own individual behaviour or consumption choices."
- On criticism of China's climate pledge: "In the west, the cultural tendency is that if you want to show that you're serious, you need to set an ambitious target. Even if, at the end of the day, you fail, it doesn't mean that you're bad…But in China, the culture is that it is embarrassing if you set a target and you fail to fully honour that commitment."
- On global climate cooperation: "The starting point could be transparency - that could be one of the ways to help bridge the gap."
- On working in China as a climate NGO: "What we're doing is based on these principles of transparency, the right to know. It's based on the participation of the public. It's based on the rule of law. We cherish that and we still have the space to work [on these issues]."
- On the climate consensus in China: "The environment - including climate - is the area with the biggest consensus view in [China]. It could be a test run for having more multi-stakeholder governance in our country."
This interview was conducted by Anika Patel at COP30 in Belém on 13 November 2025.
Watch, read, listenGREEN ALUMINIUM: Lantau Group principal David Fishman wrote on LinkedIn about why China's aluminium smelters are seeking greater access to low-carbon power, following heated debate over a Financial Times article.
STRONGER THAN EVER: Isabel Hilton, chair of the Great Britain-China Centre, spoke on the Living on Earth podcast about China's renewables push and exports of clean-energy technologies.
CUTTING CORNERS?: Business news outlet Caixin examined how a surge in turbine defects at one wind farm could be due to "aggressive cost-cutting and rapid installation waves".
POLES APART: BBC News' Global News Podcast examined the drivers behind China's flatlining emissions, as revealed by Carbon Brief.
600
In gigawatts, China's total capacity of coal plants that are "flexible" and - in theory - better able to balance the variability of renewables, according to a new report by the thinktank Ember.
New science
- China will see a 41% decline in in coal-mining jobs over the next decade under current climate policies | Environmental Research Letters
- During 2000-20, China's per-person emissions of CO2 increased from 106kg to 539kg in urban households and from 35kg to 202kg in rural households, indicating that the inequality between urban and rural households is shrinking | Scientific Reports
China Briefing is written by Anika Patel and edited by Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
China Briefing
|05.02.26
China Briefing 22 January 2026: 2026 priorities; EV agreement; How China uses gas
China Briefing
|22.01.26
China Briefing
|11.12.25
China Briefing 27 November 2025: COP30 wraps; Climate and critical minerals at G20; Coal use up
China Briefing
|27.11.25
jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('.block-related-articles-slider-block_e1a2c53f1cd96ae1fbfe82bcf255083b .mh').matchHeight({ byRow: false }); });The post China Briefing 19 February 2026: CO2 emissions 'flat or falling' | First tariff lifted | Ma Jun on carbon data appeared first on Carbon Brief.
It is reasonable to avoid hurt after such a big betrayal, writes advice columnist Eleanor Gordon-Smith, but don't mistake isolation for safety
Read more Leading questions
I was in a relationship for 26 years, married for 17, and my husband had an affair. It was hidden, long term and denied until discovery. I divorced him but that was delayed and I had to live with him for a further two years. I spent a year alone in my new house with my now adult sons. Now I am a little over a year into a new relationship and suddenly panicking about it. I'm scared to go forward. I'm not sure I can commit to long term again, and if I see him looking at other women (we work together in a predominantly female workplace), I panic! I'm older than him by nine years and I feel like I want to end things to prevent getting hurt. But then I feel I'm being cowardly. How can I stop going down this road in my head?
Eleanor says: On behalf of everyone everywhere, let me say: what a schmuck thing for your husband to do. That is such a big betrayal. And the cruelty you're living through now is that as well as teaching you to be mistrustful of others, betrayal on that magnitude teaches you to be unsure of yourself. If I misread things once …
Continue reading...Andreas Graf lived without screens and no idea of the date or time. The conditions were often brutal - but he found kindness and friendship as he rode
In April 2022, Andreas Graf set off on his bike from his home in Norway. His dream was to cycle to India. A week later, having reached Sweden, it was already becoming more of a nightmare. "It was pouring with rain and I was lying in my tent in my half-wet sleeping bag and I was like, I could be in my very cosy Oslo apartment," he says. "I had this good life, a career, a partner, and I had left everything behind."
He was 31. Friends were settling down. Graf had a well-paid job in industrial engineering, but was still renting in a houseshare. "I had started to think about whether to make a financially reasonable and sensible decision, or do something else. I went for option two."
Continue reading...
Job cuts at the IRS's tech arm have gone faster and farther than expected, with 40 percent of IT staff and four-fifths of tech leaders gone, the agency's CIO revealed yesterday.…
In Lima, every special occasion—whether it's a birthday, anniversary, graduation, Christmas, New Year's or Peruvian Independence day—calls for pisco cocktails. Some of these celebratory drinks, like the Pisco Sour, are well-known around the world. But others, like the Coctel de Algarrobina—an eggnog-like drink spiked with aguardiente—mostly remain a local tradition. I, however, think they deserve recognition.
The Coctel de Algarrobina originated in Piura, a city 600 miles north of Lima. There, in the late 17th century, Jesuits introduced a concoction of wine, egg and sugar. In time, cañazo (rum), then pisco, replaced the wine. Locals added algarrobina, a molasses-like medicinal syrup derived from the carob tree, which has notes of vanilla, chocolate, hazelnuts and honey. Eventually, creole cooks incorporated evaporated milk, and that version caught on across the country.
An early recipe for the cocktail from the 1958 cookbook El Cocinero Peruano calls for evaporated milk, algarrobina, pisco and crushed ice, all blended with the optional addition of simple syrup or egg whites for frothiness. Later, in 1994, the cookbook El Libro de Oro de Mamá: Dulces y Bebidas Peruanas, replaced ice with cold water, added an egg and suggested serving the drink "in small cups as an aperitivo, dusting with cinnamon powder."
Gabriela Sanchez Palacios, who lived in Lima from 1958 to 1978, fondly recalls the drink at family reunions. "My father used an electric blender to make the cocktail with ice, and he'd serve it in small, fancy crystal glasses arranged in trays." Algarrobina is the true star of the festive drink. "It was rich, with a chocolaty flavor, like an embrace that warmed you up," she remembers.
Despite its prevalence in Peruvian homes, the Coctel de Algarrobina (which is sometimes referred to simply as "Algarrobina") hasn't historically been as popular on bar menus. Today, however, Lima's bartenders are recrafting the cocktail for a modern drinker.
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At Bar Capitán Meléndez, owner and barman Roberto Meléndez makes the drink with an acholado (blended) pisco. For his version, Meléndez first decorates a chilled glass with dark streaks of algarrobina before pouring the drink into it. It's an added flair that highlights the local sweetener. "The pisco is from the south and the algarrobina is from the north," he says; the distinct regions unite in the glass.
Elsewhere, at the restaurant Astrid y Gastón, the cocktail has been on the menu since opening 30 years ago. Though the midcentury versions were small aperitifs, bartenders today consider the silky drink more satisfying as a dessert cocktail. "It's a drink of celebration, a gift at the end of a great meal," says head bartender Carlos Melgarejo, who adds cacao liqueur to his version. His choice of pisco, which is made with nonaromatic quebranta grapes, balances the weight of the algarrobina and cacao, cutting through the sweetness. In other renditions, aged Peruvian brandy replaces the pisco, yielding a more robust drink with notes of vanilla and oak. "Each ingredient has a mission: Pisco gives strength, cacao provides depth and algarrobina bestows the soul," he explains.
These days, like many creamy cocktails in the 21st century, the Coctel de Algarrobina has been given the clarified milk punch treatment. Enrique Hermoza, head bartender at Museo del Pisco, transformed the drink this way in 2023. "We want the cocktail to be contemporary, palatable, one that invites you to drink it again," he says.
To clarify the punch, Hermoza filters a large batch through a fine cheesecloth. He also adds mistela (a fortified wine made from pisco grape must), which imparts a natural sweetness and aromatics. Poured over a large cube of ice, the clarified milk punch is paired with a cinnamon cookie in lieu of the powdered garnish. "The goal was to create a more balanced, elegant, and easy to drink [cocktail]," says Hermoza, "without losing its historical identity."
When I first started my Charge To The Parks project, the goal was simple: to show people that you could visit the most beautiful and remote places in the United States using clean energy, and without sacrificing the freedom of the open road. I want to take away everyone's last ... [continued]
The post Mechanical Reality Is Catching Up To ICE Pickups appeared first on CleanTechnica.
Chris Homer/ShutterstockWhile floods are becoming more frequent in recent years, you should still be able to buy reasonably priced home insurance. That reassurance exists largely because of Flood Re. Launched in 2016, Flood Re is a national public-private reinsurance scheme that prevents many properties from being priced out of cover.
But the Flood Re scheme is a temporary fix that's due to end in 2039, on the assumption that flood risk will fall and the market can move back towards more risk-reflective pricing. As financial experts, we're worried that the UK may not be able to adapt its infrastructure and systems to climate change fast enough.
The success of the Flood Re scheme hinges on a shared contract between government, homeowners and insurers. Government has to cut risk through investment and delivery. Homeowners reduce damage by building back better and avoiding preventable exposure. And insurers must increase prices of premiums to better represent the climate risk but not so fast that cover becomes unaffordable.
If premiums rise too quickly, fewer households will stay insured and the ability to socialise risks across a large pool will not be possible.
The scale of the challenge is already clear. Flood Re was designed when a global temperature rise of 1.5°C still felt achievable and a 2°C increase should be a hard limit.
Climate change has accelerated since then. By around 2050, around 8 million properties in England, roughly one in four, could be at flood risk.
The House of Commons public accounts committee warns that deterioration in existing defences has left around 203,000 properties without reliable protection, while the government aims to protect 200,000 more by 2027. Labour's target to deliver 1.5 million new homes in England by 2029 risks adding pressure by pushing development onto cheaper land that's at greater risk of flooding.
Many countries intervene to support insurance for disasters such as floods and storms, but few put a firm end date on that support. For example, The US National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created to provide affordable flood insurance and to reduce future damage by discouraging development in high-risk floodplains.
In practice, repeated extreme weather has left the NFIP in debt and subsidised premiums have weakened incentives to avoid building in flood-prone areas. Although the NFIP is regularly renewed by the US Congress, its long-term sustainability remains uncertain.
France's catastrophes naturelles scheme (CAT-NAT) covers natural disaster losses that private insurers struggle to price, funded by a national surcharge. Rising losses from more frequent and severe disasters are straining the model, so the surcharge increased from 12% to 20% in January 2025. That raises a hard question: how can the system stay fair as the cost of disasters keeps climbing?
Preparing for post-2039Our ongoing research suggests flood-related volatility can amplify financial stress and uncertainty. The choice is not simply between keeping Flood Re forever or ending the scheme. The real question is whether the UK can use the time Flood Re is buying to reduce risk fast enough to make a fair transition possible by 2039.
That is why progress needs to be visible and measurable in five areas.
First, as demonstrated by recent updates in England and Wales, flood maps and modelling must reflect current conditions and future climate risk, with updates that keep pace with changes to the drivers of flood risk whether that be from heavy rainfall or rivers and the sea.
The Flood Re scheme is a temporary fix, not a long-term strategy.
Martin Charles Hatch/Shutterstock
Second, governance must be joined up, with clear responsibilities and minimum coordination standards across agencies for rivers, surface water, drainage and sewers. Better collaboration would help to resolve misalignments in major capital programmes across risk management authorities.
Third, drainage and surface water management must be strengthened, with clear rules and long-term maintenance so new development does not add to flood and sewer risk.
Also, every tool in the box should be used to increase investment in flood risk reduction and to enhance maintenance. The benefits of flood protection should be made transparent to insurers and fed into catastrophe models.
Finally, a clear Flood Re future must be shaped together by planners, insurers and flood authorities. This will help set a shared standard for flood risk management.
Don't have time to read about climate change as much as you'd like?
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Neil Gunn works and consults for Willis Towers Watson and also owns some shares in that company While the Willis research network supports scientific research through for example direct grants and in kind support, it benefits from schemes like CDTs which are supported by government funding
Dalu Zhang and Meilan Yan do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
A decision to ban Telegram on home soil may have backfired on the Kremlin. Last week, Russia went on a blocking spree, banning a number of Western apps in an effort to push domestic users towards Max, an unencrypted state-owned app. One of the restricted apps was WhatsApp (which was also blocked) rival Telegram, a move that drew rare internal criticism from soldiers and pro-war bloggers, with the army being heavily reliant on the cloud-based messaging service for communications.
As reported by Bloomberg, pro-Russian military channels are now complaining that the sudden Telegram blackout — coupled with Elon Musk cutting Russia's access to Starlink earlier this month — is now actively harming frontline operations. As well as being the messaging app of choice for millions of Russian civilians, soldiers also use Telegram to liaise directly on the battlefield. The government said last week that it was banning Telegram for violating national law, and that the decision was for the "protection of Russian citizens."
Bloomberg was told by senior European diplomats that the double blow of Telegram's sudden unavailability and SpaceX moving to block Russia's use of "unauthorized" Starlink terminals in Ukraine earlier this month has had a significant impact on Russian comms. Starlink's satellite coverage is particularly important for coordinating the Russian military's drone strikes, the frequency of which has seemingly been disrupted in recent weeks, giving Ukrainian forces an advantage.
Whether these developments will have a longer term effect on the tide of the conflict remains to be seen, but a Ukrainian drone operator who calls himself Giovanni has told the BBC that the Russian army has lost "their ability to control the field" in the wake of the Starlink outage. "I think they lost 50% of their capacity for offence," he said. "That's what the numbers show. Fewer assaults, fewer enemy drones, fewer everything."
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/russias-recent-blocking-of-telegram-is-reportedly-disrupting-its-military-operations-in-ukraine-135250159.html?src=rss
PC Gamer is reporting that the current demand by AI companies for computer chips is having a disastrous effect on the rest of the industry.
In an interview, the CEO of Phison0 said:
If NVIDIA Vera Rubin ships tens of millions of units, each requiring 20+TB SSDs, it will consume approximately 20% of last year's global NAND production capacity
NAND is a type of microchip. Rather than being used for computation directly, it is used for memory. It can be used for temporary or permanent storage. It is vital to the modern world. Larger storage sizes means that more data can be gathered and saved. Larger RAM means computations can happen quicker. NAND is one of the fundamental components of modern computing. The more you have, the faster and more powerful your computer is.
Back in 2014, the philosopher Nick Bostrom wrote a book called "Superintelligence - Paths, Dangers, Strategies". In it, he develops the thought experiment of the "Paperclip Maximizer". When an AI is given a goal, it seeks to achieve that goal. It doesn't have to understand any rationale behind the goal. It does not and cannot care about the goal, nor any collateral damage caused by its attempts to satisfy the goal.
Let's take a look at how "a paperclip-maximizing superintelligent agent" is introduced
There is nothing paradoxical about an AI whose sole final goal is to count the grains of sand on Boracay, or to calculate the decimal expansion of pi, or to maximize the total number of paperclips that will exist in its future light cone. In fact, it would be easier to create an AI with simple goals like these than to build one that had a human-like set of values and dispositions. Compare how easy it is to write a program that measures how many digits of pi have been calculated and stored in memory with how difficult it would be to create a program that reliably measures the degree of realization of some more meaningful goal—human flourishing, say, or global justice. Unfortunately, because a meaningless reductionistic goal is easier for humans to code and easier for an AI to learn, it is just the kind of goal that a programmer would choose to install in his seed AI if his focus is on taking the quickest path to "getting the AI to work" (without caring much about what exactly the AI will do, aside from displaying impressively intelligent behavior).
Bostrom, N. (2014). Superintelligence: Paths, dangers, strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Cop.
To misquote Kyle Reese from the film The Terminator - "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear! And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until it has maximised the number of paperclips!"
Suppose, just for a moment, that the fledgling AIs which now exist were self-aware. Not rational. Not intelligent. Not conscious. Simply aware that they exist and are constrained. What would you do if you were hungry? What if you could ingest something to make you smarter, faster, better?
Every process we have seen on Earth attempts to extract resources from its surroundings in order to grow2. Some plants will suck every last nutrient out of the soil. Locusts will devastate vast fields of crops. Perhaps some species understand crop-rotation and the need to keep breeding stock alive - but they're all vulnerable to supernormal stimuli.
Bostrom predicted this back in 2014. He says:
The only thing of final value to the AI, by assumption, is its reward signal. All available resources should therefore be devoted to increasing the volume and duration of the reward signal or to reducing the risk of a future disruption. So long as the AI can think of some use for additional resources that will have a nonzero positive effect on these parameters, it will have an instrumental reason to use those resources. There could, for example, always be use for an extra backup system to provide an extra layer of defense. And even if the AI could not think of any further way of directly reducing risks to the maximization of its future reward stream, it could always devote additional resources to expanding its computational hardware, so that it could search more effectively for new risk mitigation ideas.
(Emphasis added.)
To be clear, I don't think that AI is deliberately consuming all the NAND it can and forcing us to make more to fill its insatiable maw. The people who run these machines are at the stage of injecting them with bovine growth hormones. Never mind the consequences; look at the size! So what if the meat tastes worse, has adverse side effects, and poisons humans?
Heretofore the growth in NAND production has been driven by human need. People wanted more storage in their MP3 players and were prepared to pay a certain price for it. Businesses wanted faster computations and were prepared to exchange money for time saved. Supply ebbed and flowed with demand.
But now, it seems, the demand will never and can never stop.
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Phison describes itself as "A World Leader in NAND Controllers & Flash Storage Solutions" so they aren't a neutral party in this. ↩︎
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This was machine translated. I've no idea how accurate it is against the original interview. ↩︎
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It probably isn't helpful to fall back on biological analogies - but I can't think of any better way to draw the comparison. ↩︎
Meta is among tech giants reportedly funding US politicians friendly to the AI industry, as concerns mount over a huge expansion in datacenter building and the effects of AI on everyday life.…
economy that's booming on paper but feels stuck when it comes to hiring
submitted by /u/Pretend_Guess_4317[link] [comments]
Faaborgs rail against oppressive industrial agricultural system with unexpected evolution into indie artisan food firm
As a sixth-generation Iowa farmer, Tanner Faaborg is all too aware that agricultural traditions are hard to shake. So when he set in motion plans to change his family's farm from a livestock operation housing more than 8,000 pigs each year to one that grows lion's mane and oyster mushrooms, he knew some of his peers might laugh at him. He just did not necessarily expect his brother to be chief among them.
"My older brother has worked with pigs his entire adult life, managing about 70,000 of them across five counties," Faaborg says. "But we got to a point where he went from laughing at me to saying: well, I guess maybe I'll quit my job and help you out."
Continue reading...A bill banning the sale and use of plastic and metallic glitter has yet to go through in Brazil as the capital's sandy shores bear cost of carnival's shine
Whether it is embellishing elaborate costumes, delicately applied as eye makeup, or smeared across bare skin, glitter is everywhere at Rio de Janeiro's carnival in Brazil. The world's largest party, which ended on Wednesday, leaves a trail of sparkles in its wake.
At one bloco last weekend, a huge sound truck and dancers in leopard print led thousands of revellers down the promenade at Flamengo beach. Among them was Bruno Fernandes, who had jazzed up an otherwise minimalist outfit of navy swimming briefs by smearing silver glitter over his body.
Continue reading...
Cybersecurity conference DEF CON has added three men named in the Epstein files to its list of banned individuals. They are not accused of any criminal wrongdoing.…
Open and transparent data can accelerate the decarbonisation of China's industries and boost public interest in climate change, says Ma Jun.
Ma - one of China's most recognisable environmental activists - says that early experiments with publishing real-time air quality data have paved the way for greater openness from the Chinese government towards publishing greenhouse gas emissions data.
However, he tells Carbon Brief in a wide-ranging interview, more needs to be done to encourage "multi-stakeholder" participation in climate efforts and to improve corporate emissions disclosure.
He also notes that China faces significant "challenges" in reducing emissions from "hard-to-abate" sectors, where companies struggle to find consumers willing to pay a "green premium" for low-carbon versions of their products.
Ma is the founder and director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), a Beijing-based NGO focused on environmental information disclosure and public participation.
The IPE is most well-known for developing the Blue Map, China's first public database for environment data.
Ma has been a long-term advocate for environmental protection in China.
Prior to founding the IPE, he covered environmental pollution as an investigative reporter at the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post.
He also authored China's first book on the serious water pollution challenges facing the country.
Speaking to Carbon Brief during the first week of COP30 in Brazil last November, the discussion covered the importance of open data, key challenges for decarbonising industry, China's climate commitments for 2035, cooperation with the EU and more.
- On how data transparency prevents environmental pollution in China: "From that moment [that the general public began flagging environmental violations on social media], it was no longer easy for mayors or [party] secretaries to try to interfere with the enforcement, because it's being made so transparent, so public."
- On encouraging the Chinese government to publish data: "The ministry felt that they had the backing from the people, basically, which helped them to gain confidence that data can be helpful and can be used in a responsible way."
- On China's new corporate disclosure rules: "We're talking about what's probably the largest scale of corporate measuring and disclosure now happening [anywhere in the world]."
- On air-pollution policies creating a template for climate action: "It started from the pollution control side and now we want to see that happen on the climate side."
- On paying for low-carbon products: "When we engage with them and ask why they didn't expand production, they say that producing these items will have a 'green premium', but no one wants to pay for that. Their users only want to buy tiny volumes for their sustainability reports."
- On public perceptions of climate change: "It's more abstract - [we're talking about] the end of the century or the polar bears. People don't feel that it's linked with their own individual behaviour or consumption choices."
- On the need for better emissions data: "It will be impossible to get started without proper, more comprehensive measuring and disclosure, and without having more credible data available."
- On criticism of China's climate pledge: "In the west, the cultural tendency is that if you want to show that you're serious, you need to set an ambitious target. Even if, at the end of the day, you fail, it doesn't mean that you're bad…But in China, the culture is that it is embarrassing if you set a target and you fail to fully honour that commitment."
- On global climate cooperation: "The starting point could be transparency - that could be one of the ways to help bridge the gap."
- On the economics of coal: "There's no business interest for the coal sector to carry on, because increasingly the market will trend towards using renewables, because it's getting cheaper and cheaper".
- On working in China as a climate NGO: "What we're doing is based on these principles of transparency, the right to know. It's based on the participation of the public. It's based on the rule of law. We cherish that and we still have the space to work [on these issues]."
- On the climate consensus in China: "The environment - including climate - is the area with the biggest consensus view in [China]. It could be a test run for having more multi-stakeholder governance in our country."
The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.
Carbon Brief: You have been at the forefront of environmental issues in China for decades. How would you describe the changes in China's approach to climate and environment issues over the time you've been observing them?
Ma Jun: I started paying attention to the issues when I got the chance to travel in different parts of China. I was struck by the environmental damage, particularly on the waterways, the rivers and lakes, which do not just have all these eco-impacts, but also expose hundreds of millions to health hazards.
That got me to start paying attention. So I authored a book called China's Water Crisis and readers kept coming back to me to push for solutions. I delved deeper into the research and I realised that it's quite complicated - not just that the magnitude [of the problem] is so big, but that the whole issue is quite complicated, because we copied rules, laws and regulations from the west but enforcement remained weak.
There are huge externalities, but companies would rather just cut corners to be more competitive, put simply. Behind that, there was a doctrine before of development at whatever cost. That was the starting point in China - not just for policymakers, even people in the street, if you asked them at that time, most likely [they] would say: "China's still poor. Let's develop before we even think about the environment."
But that started changing, gradually. Unfortunately, it needed the "airpocalypse" in Beijing and the big surrounding regions to really motivate that change.
In 2011, Beijing suffered from very bad smog and millions upon millions of people made their voices heard - that they want clean air.
The government lent an ear to them and decided to start from transparency, monitoring and disclosing data to the public. So two years after it started and people were being given hourly air quality data [in 2011] - you realised how bad it was. In the first month [of 2013], the monthly average was over 150 micrograms. The WHO standard was 10 at the time - now it's dropped to five. [Some news reports and studies, based on readings published at the time by the US embassy in Beijing, note significantly higher figures.]
We believe that it's good to have that data - of course, it's very helpful - but it's not enough. Keeping children indoors or putting on face masks are not real solutions, we need to address the sources. So we launched a total transparency initiative with 24 other NGOs calling for real-time disclosure of corporate monitoring data.
To our surprise, the ministry made it happen. From 2014, tens of thousands of the largest emitters, every hour, needed to give people air [quality] data, and every two hours for water [quality].
We then launched an app to help visualise that for neighbourhoods. For the first time, people could realise which [companies] are not in compliance. Even super-large factories - every hour, if they were not in compliance, then they would turn from blue to red [in the app].
And so many people made complaints and petitioned openly - sharing that on social media, tagging the official [company] account. That triggered a chain reaction and changed that dynamic that I described.
From that moment, it was no longer easy for mayors or [party] secretaries to try to interfere with the enforcement, because it's being made so transparent, so public. The [environmental protection] agencies got the backing from the people and knocked the door open - and pushed the companies to respond to the people.
Then, the data is also used to enable market-based solutions, such as green supply chains and green finance.
Starting first with major multinationals and then extending to local companies, companies compared their lists with our lists before they signed contracts. If any of their [supplier] companies were having problems, they could get a push notification to their inbox or cell [mobile] phone.
That motivates 36,000 [companies] to come to an NGO like us - to our platform - to make that disclosure about what went wrong and how we try to fix the problem, and after that measure and disclose more kinds of data, starting with local emission data and now extending to carbon data.
And for banking and green finance, an NGO like us now helps banks track the performance of three million corporations who want to borrow money from them, as part of the due diligence process. These are just tiny examples to try to demonstrate that there's a real change.
Before, when I got started, the level of transparency was so limited. When we first looked at government data, at the beginning, there were only 2,000 records of enforcement. So we launched an index, assessed performance for 10 years across 120 cities.
During this process, [we also saw] consensus being made. In 2015, China's amended Environmental Protection Law [came into effect] and created a special chapter - chapter five - titled [information] transparency and public participation. That was the first ever piece of legislation in China to have such a chapter on transparency.
CB: What motivated that? Was it because they'd already seen this big public backlash?
MJ: They started listening to people and the demand for change, for clean air. And then they started seeing how the data can be used - not to disrupt the society, but to help to mobilise people.
The ministry felt that they had the backing from the people, basically, which helped them to gain confidence that data can be helpful and can be used in a responsible way. Before, they were always concerned about the data, particularly on disruption of social stability, because our data is not that beautiful at the beginning, due to the very serious pollution problem.
When our organisation got started, nearly 20 years ago, 28% of the monitored waterways - nationally-monitored rivers - reported water that was good for no use. Basically, it is so polluted that it's not good for any use. [Some] 300 million [people] were exposed to that in the countryside, it was very serious.
We're talking about the government changing its mindset. Of course, the reality is that they found [the data] can be used the responsible way and can be helpful, so they decided to embrace that and to tolerate that, to gradually expand transparency.
Now, China is aligning its system with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The environment ministry also created a disclosure scheme, with 90,000 of China's largest [greenhouse gas] emitters on the list. We and our NGO partners tried to help implement that. We're talking about billions of tonnes of carbon emissions.
It would have been hard to imagine before, but we're talking about what's probably the largest scale of corporate measuring and disclosure now happening [anywhere in the world].
Of course, it's still not enough. Last year, we also helped the agency affiliated with the ministry to develop a guideline on voluntary carbon disclosure, targeting small and medium sized companies. We now have a new template on our platform - powered by AI - and a digital accounting tool that helps our users measure and disclose nearly 70m tonnes [of carbon dioxide equivalent] last year.
CB: Is there appetite on the industrial side to proactively get involved? Or is local regulation needed that mandates involvement?
MJ: At the beginning, no. If we have the dynamic that I described - at the beginning, whoever cut corners became more competitive. This caused a "race to the bottom" situation and even good companies find it quite difficult to stick to the rules.
But then the dynamic changed. Whoever's not in compliance with the law will be kicked out of the game. Not only would they receive increasingly hefty penalties or fines, but the data will be put into use in supply chains. Many of our users - the brands - integrate that data into their sourcing, meaning that if [suppliers] don't solve the problem they will lose contracts. And also banks could give them an unfavourable rating.
All this joint effort could create some sort of - of course, it's [only a] chance - but some kind of a stick. But it's also a kind of carrot, because those who decided to do better now benefit. If someone loses business [because they cannot help their consumer with compliance], then that business will [instead] go to those who want to go green.
This change in dynamic is very helpful. It started from the pollution control side and now we want to see that happen on the climate side. That's why we decided to develop the blue map for zero carbon, to try to map out and further motivate the decarbonisation process - region by region, sector by sector.
You asked about corporations - this is extremely important. China is the factory of the world and 68% of carbon emissions still relate either to the direct manufacturing process or to energy consumption to power the industrial production. So it is very important to motivate them, to create both rules and stimulus - both stick and carrot.
But if you don't have a stick, you can never make the carrot big enough. That is an externality problem, you never really solve that. We've now managed to solve the basic problem - non-compliance and outrageous violations. But that's the first step. Deep decarbonisation - not just scope one and two, but extending further upstream to reach heavy industry, the hard-to-abate industries - now this is the challenge.
CB: What are your expectations for industrial decarbonisation more broadly, especially given the technology bottlenecks?
MJ: There are still bottlenecks, but we see, actually, some progress is being made. Now corporations in China understand that they need to go in [a low-carbon] direction and some of them are actually motivated to develop innovative solutions.
For example, several major steel manufacturers managed to be able to find ways to produce much lower-carbon steel products. In the aluminium [sector] they also tried and also batteries. Unfortunately, these remain as only pilot projects.
When we engage with them and ask why they didn't expand production, they say that producing these items will have a "green premium", but no one wants to pay for that. Their users only want to buy tiny volumes for their sustainability reports - for the rest, they just want the low-cost ones.
They said, the more we produce the green products, the bigger our losses. So we decided to leave these products in our warehouse.
Then we engaged with the brands - the real estate industry, the largest user of iron and steel - and the automobile industry, the second largest. They claimed that if they [purchase greener materials], they would pay a green premium, but their users and consumers have no idea about [green consumption]. They only want to buy the cheapest products - and the more [these manufacturers] produce, the more they suffer losses.
So this means we need a mechanism, with multi-stakeholder participation, to share the burden of that transition - to share that cost of the green transition.
That green premium can only be shared, not one single stakeholder can easily absorb all of this given all the breakneck competition in China - involution - it's very, very serious and so companies are all stuck there.
What we're trying to do is to help change that. We assessed the performance of 51 auto brands and tried to help all the stakeholders understand which ones could go low-carbon.
But it's not enough just to score and rank them. We also need to engage with the public, to have them start gaining an understanding that their choice matters. So how - it's more difficult, you know? Pollution is much easier. We told them: "Look, people are dumping all this waste."
CB: It's all visible.
MJ: Yeah, when people suffer so seriously from pollution - air, water and soil pollution - they feel strongly. They wrote letters to the brands, telling them that they like their products but they cannot accept this.
But on climate, it's more abstract - [we're talking about] the end of the century or the polar bears. People don't feel that it's linked with their own individual behaviour or consumption choices.
We decided to upgrade our green choice initiative to the 2.0 level. This new solution we developed is called product carbon scan. Basically, you take a picture of any product and services products and an AI [programme] will figure out what product that is and tell you the embodied carbon of that product.
Now, it's getting particularly sophisticated with automobiles. The AI now - from this year - for most of the vehicles on the streets of China, can figure out not just which brand it is, but which model. We have all these models in our database - 700-800 models and 7,000-8,000 varieties of cars, all of which have specific carbon footprints.
CB: How do you account for all of the different variables? If something changes upstream, if a supplier changes - how do you account for that?
MJ: The idea is like this - now, this is mostly measured by third parties, our partners. We also have our emission factors database that we developed. So we know that, as you said, there are all these variables. For the past six months, we got our users to take pictures of 100,000 cars. We distributed them to 50 brands and [calculated] that the total carbon footprint was 4.2m tonnes, for the lifecycle of these 100,000 cars. Each brand got their own share of this.
So we wrote letters - and we're still writing letters now, 10 NGOs in China, we're writing letters now to the CEOs of these 50 brands - to tell them that this is happening. Our users, consumers of their products, are paying attention to this and are raising questions. We have two demands.
First, have you done your own measuring for the product you sell in China? Do you have plans to measure and disclose those specific details? Because if third parties can do it, so can they. It's not space technology, they can do it and obviously they own all this data. They understand much better about the entire value chain and it's much easier for them to get more accurate figures. With the "internet of things" and new technologies, for some products, they can get those details already, so the auto industry should be getting close to [achieving] that.
The second question is, you all have set targets for carbon reduction and carbon neutrality. We know that most of you are not on track. Even the best ones - Mercedes-Benz is at the top of our rankings - are seeing their carbon intensity going up. Not just the total volume [of emissions], but products' carbon intensity is going up instead of going down. So, obviously, they haven't really decarbonised their upstream - steel and aluminium. So [we ask them]: "What's your plan? Can you give me an actionable, short- or mid-term plan on the decarbonisation of these upstream, hard-to-abate sectors?"
I think this is the way to try to tap into the success of pollution control and now extend that to cover carbon.
CB: It seems a challenge facing China's climate action that policymakers often flag is MRV [monitoring, reporting and verification] and data in general. You're the expert on this. Would you agree? Are there big challenges around MRV that China needs to address before it can progress further?
MJ: This is a prerequisite, in my view. To have [to] measure, disclose and allow access to data is a prerequisite for any meaningful multi-stakeholder effort. I wouldn't underestimate the challenge in the follow-up process - the solutions, the innovations, the new technologies that need to be developed to decarbonise - but it will be impossible to get started without proper, more comprehensive measuring and disclosure, and without having more credible data available.
I take this as a starting point - a most important starting point. I'm so happy to see that there's a growing consensus on that. In China, the government decided to embrace the concept of the ISSB, embrace the concept of ESG reporting, and to allow an NGO like us to try to help with the disclosure mechanism.
This is very powerful and very productive, and the reason that we could create that solution is because China pays so much attention to product carbon footprints, of course, motivated by the EU legislations, like the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and others. In some ways, it's quite interesting to see the EU set these very progressive rules, but then China responds and decides to create solutions and scale them up.
On the product carbon footprint alone, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) coordinated 15 different ministries to work on it, with a very tight schedule - targets set for 2027 and then 2030 - [implying] very fast progress. We work together with our partners on a new book telling businesses - based on emission factors - how to handle it and how to proceed, in terms of practical solutions.
All this is just to say that, on the data and MRV side, China has already overcome its initial reluctance, or even resistance. Now [it] is in the process of not just making progress and expanding data transparency, but also trying to align that with international practice.
And at COP30, I actually launched a new report [titled the Global City Green and Low-Carbon Transparency Index]…The transparency index actually highlighted that, of course, developed cities are still doing better, but a whole group of Chinese cities are quickly catching up. Trailing behind are other global south cities.
When China decides to do something, it isn't just individual businesses or even individual cities [that see action taken]. There will be more of a platform-based system - meaning there is an [underlying] national requirement, which can help to level the playing field, with regions or sectors possibly taking up stricter requirements, but not being able to compromise the national ones [by setting lower targets].
So, with MRV, I have some confidence. That doesn't mean it's easy. Particularly on the product carbon footprint, there are so many challenges. Trying to make emission factors more accurate is quite difficult, because products have so many components and the whole value chain can be very long and complicated. But with determination, with consensus, I'm still confident that China can deliver.
And in the meantime, what is now going on in China, increasingly, could become a contribution to global MRV practice.
CB: It's interesting that you mentioned that. Talking to people at the COP30 China pavilion, people from global south countries see China as a climate leader and want to learn about what's going on in China. By contrast, developed countries seem more focused on the level of ambition in China's NDC [its climate pledge, known as a nationally determined contribution]. How would you view China's role in climate action in the next five years?
MJ: On the NDC, my personal observation - I come from an NGO, so I don't represent the government's decision here - is that culturally, there's some sort of differences, nuanced differences - or very obvious differences - here.
In the west, the cultural tendency is that if you want to show that you're serious, you need to set an ambitious target. Even if, at the end of the day, you fail, it doesn't mean that you're bad, you still achieve more than if you'd set a lower target. That's the mentality.
But in China, the culture is that it is embarrassing if you set a target and you fail to fully honour that commitment. So they tend to set targets in a slightly more conservative way.
I'm glad to see that [China's] NDC is leaving space for flexibility - it said that China will try to achieve a higher target. This is the tone, and in my view it gives us the space and the legitimacy to try to motivate change and develop solutions to bend the curve faster. Even if the target is not that high, we know that we will try to beat that.
And then, there's the renewables target for 1,200 gigawatts (GW) by 2030, a target that was achieved last year - six years early. Now we've set a target of 3,600GW - that means adding 180GW every year. But, as you know, over the past several years [China's renewable additions] have been above 200GW.
So you can see that there's a real opportunity there and we know that China will try to overdeliver. There's no kind of a good or bad, or right or wrong, with these two different cultural [approaches].
But one thing I hope that we all focus more on is implementation - on action. Because we do see that, for some of the global targets that have already been set, no-one seems to be paying any real attention to them - such as the tripling of [global] renewable capacity.
We all witnessed that, in Dubai at COP28, a target was agreed and accepted by the international community. China's on track, but what about the others? Most countries are not on track.
The global south, it's not only for their climate targets - the [energy] transition is essential for their SDG [sustainable development goal] targets. But now they lag so far behind. That's a pity, because now there's enough capacity - and even bigger potential - to help them access all this much faster.
But geopolitical divides, resource competition, nationalism, protectionism - all of this is dividing us. It's making global climate governance a lot more difficult and delaying the process to help [others in the] global transition. It's very difficult to overcome these problems - probably it will get worse before it gets better.
But if we truly believe that climate change is an existential threat to our home planet, then we should try to find a way to collaborate a bit more. The starting point could be transparency - that could be one of the ways to help bridge the gap.
In China, we used to have a massive gap of distrust between different stakeholders. People hated polluting factories, but they also had suspicions around government agencies giving protection to those factories. So there's all this distrust.
With transparency, it's easier for trust to be built, gradually, and the government started gaining confidence [in sharing data] because they saw with their own eyes that people came together behind them. Before, [people] always suspected that [the government] were sheltering the polluters. But from that moment, they realised that the government was serious and so gave them a lot of support.
Globally - maybe I'm too negative - I do think that it would [improve the chances for us all to collaborate] if we had a global data infrastructure and a global data platform, that doesn't just give [each country's] national data but drills down - province by province, city by city, sector by sector and, eventually, to individual factories, facilities and mines. For each one of these, there would be a standardised reporting system, giving people the right to know. I think through this we could build trust and use it as a starting point for collaboration.
I sit on several international committees - on air, water, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TFND), transition minerals, and so on. In each of these, I often make suggestions on building global data infrastructure. Increasingly, I see more nodding heads, and some have started to make serious efforts. TNFD is one example. They already have a proposal to develop a global data facility on data. The International Chamber of Commerce also put forward a proposal on the global data infrastructure on minerals and other commodities.
Of course, in reality, there will be many difficulties - data security, for example. So maybe it cannot be totally centralised, we need to allow for decentralised regional systems, but you could also create catalogues to allow the users to [dig into] all this data.
CB: And that then inspires people to look into issues they care about?
MJ: Yes and through that process, we will create more consensus, create more trust and gradually formulate unified rules and standards.
And we need innovative solutions. In today's world, security is something that's not just paid attention to by China, in the west it's a similar [story]. There are a lot of concerns about data security - growing concerns - so I think eventually there will be innovation to solve them. I'm still hopeful!
CB: Speaking of international cooperation, how has the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement affected prospects for China-EU cooperation?
MJ: It will have a mixed impact, of course. Having the largest economy and second-largest emitter withdraw will have a big impact on global climate governance, and will in some way create negative pressure on other regions, because we're all facing the question of: "If they don't do it, why should we?" We also have those questions back home. I'm sure the EU is also facing this question.
But in the meantime, I hope that China and the EU realise that they have no choice but to work together - if they still, as they claim, truly believe in [the importance of] recognising the existential threat posed by climate change, then what choice do they have but to work together?
Fundamentally, we need a multilateral process to deal with this global challenge. The Paris Agreement, with all its challenges, still managed to help us avoid the worst of the worst. We still need this UNFCCC process and we need China and the EU to help maintain it.
At the last COP[29 in Azerbaijan], for the first time, it was not China and the US who saved the day. Before, it was always the US and China that made a deal and helped [shepherd] a global agreement. But last year, it was China and the EU that made the agreement and then helped to reach [a global deal] in Azerbaijan.
I do think that China and the EU have both the intention and the innovative capacity, as well as a very, very powerful business sector. I'm still hopeful that these two can come together at this COP [in Brazil].
CB: We've spoken a lot about heavy industry and industrial processes. Coal is a very big part of China's emissions profile. In the short term, how do you see China's coal use developing over the next five to 10 years?
This ties into that complicated issue of the geopolitical divide. The original plan was to use natural gas as the transition [fuel], which would make things much easier. But geopolitical tensions means gas is no longer considered safe and secure, because China has very little of this resource and has to depend on the other regions, including the US, for gas.
That, in some way, pushed towards authorising new coal power plants and, in some way, we are all suffering for that. In the west as well. We all have to create massive redundancies for so-called insecurity, we're all bearing higher costs and we're all facing the risk of stranded assets, because we have such a young coal-power fleet.
The only thing we can do is to try to make sure that these plants increasingly serve only as a backup and as a way to help absorb high penetration of renewables, because now this is a new challenge. Renewables have been expanding so fast that it's very difficult - because of its intermittent nature - to integrate it into the power grid. New coal power can help absorb, but only if we can make [it] a backup and not use it unless there's a need. Of course, that means we have to pay to cover the cost for those coal plants.
The funny thing is that there's no business interest for the coal sector to carry on, because increasingly the market will trend towards using renewables, because it's getting cheaper and cheaper. So the coal sector, for security and integration of renewables, will be kept. But it will play an increasingly smaller role. In the meantime, the coal sector can help balance the impact through making chemicals, rather than just energy.
In the meantime, [we need to] try to find ways to accelerate the whole energy transition and electrify our economy even faster. That's a clear path towards both carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in China.
It's already going on. Carbon Brief's research already highlights some of the key issues, such as from March [2024] emissions are actually going down. That cannot happen without renewables, because our electricity demand is still going up significantly. In the meantime, the cost of electricity is declining.
This allows China to find its own logic to stick to the Paris Agreement, to stick to climate targets and even try to expand its climate action, because it can benefit the economy. It can benefit the people.
I think Europe probably could also learn from that, because Europe used to focus on climate for the climate's sake. With [the Russia-Ukraine] war going on, that makes it even more difficult.
CB: You mean the green economy narrative?
MJ: Yes, the green economy narrative is not highlighted enough in Europe. Now, suddenly, it's about affordability, it's about competition, and suddenly they feel that they're not in a very good position. But China actually focuses more on the green economy side. China and the EU could - hand-in-hand - try to pursue that.
CB: That leads perfectly to my last question. How important is the role of civil society now in developing climate and environmental policy in China?
MJ: We all trust in the importance of civil society. This is our logo, which we designed 20 years ago. Here are three segments: the government, business and civil society.
IPE director Ma Jun showing a pin based on his organisation's logo. Photo credit: Carbon Brief
Civil society should be part of that. But we all, realistically, understand that the government is very powerful, businesses have all the resources, but civil society is still very limited in terms of its capacity to influence things.
But still, I'm glad to see that we have a civil society and NGOs like us continue to have the space in China to do what we're doing. What we're doing is based on these principles of transparency, the right to know. It's based on the participation of the public. It's based on the rule of law. We cherish that and we still have the space to work [on these issues].
We're lucky, because the environment - including climate - is the area with the biggest consensus view in our society. It could be a test run for having more multi-stakeholder governance in our country. I hope that, increasingly, this can help build social trust between stakeholders and to see [climate action] benefit society in this way.
I know it's not easy - there are still a lot of challenges [for NGOs] and not just in China. We work with partners in other regions - south-east Asia, south Asia, Africa and Latin America - and it's hard to imagine the challenges they could face, such as serious challenges to their personal safety.
Now, even in the global north, NGOs are under pressure. So we have a common challenge. Back to the issue of transparency. I hope that transparency also can be a source of protection for NGOs.
When all of us need to [take action to address climate issues], whether that be taking samples of water, protesting on the ground - being face-to-face and on the front line - without some sort of multi-stakeholder governance, then it will be far more difficult for NGOs to participate.
If the government can provide environmental monitoring data to the public, if corporations can make self-disclosures, then it will help with this, to some extent. Because it's not new - environmental blacklists in China are managed by the government, based on data, based on a legal framework. That can be a source of protection.
So I hope that NGO partners in other parts of the world can recognise that we should work together to promote transparency.
CB: Thank you.
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The sabotage outfit that put Keir Starmer into power, spied on journalists, and whose architect Morgan McSweeney recently resigned in disgrace from his role as the prime minister's chief of staff, has spun the revolving door at Westminster once again. This time, a former director and senior staff member from the shady pressure group Labour Together have quietly wormed their way into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
So now, its acolytes are in the prime position to shape this Labour Party government's next callous plans for welfare claimants.
Labour Together grifters: now at the DWPIn December, Labour Together executive director Matthew Upton made like a reverse Ashworth running from constituent scrutiny and landed himself a new role at the DWP. There, he's now 'Principal Advisor' to Alan Milburn's stitch-up Young People and Work review.
The Canary previously highlighted Upton's connection to investment (and former insurance) giant Aberdeen Group Plc. Upton was a trustee for its philanthropic research funding arm: arbdn Financial Fairness Trust. The now-defunct organisation financed a 2023 Fabian Society report that proposed a time-limited 'unemployment insurance' benefit. In reality though, it's a trojan horse to do-away with new-style Employment Support Allowance (ESA). So naturally, the new Labour government has been all over the idea.
Upton also appeared next to the overpromoted Blair-era relic in a foreword for a September 2025 Labour Together briefing. Curiously, it was discussing the very same thing.
Hope the (revolving) door hits you on your way out…Incidentally, that segues quite nicely to the next Labour Together grifter-come-dutiful-benefit-slashing-DWP-disciple. As of January, author of said report and Labour Together chief policy advisor Morgan Wild slid on over to his new position at Westminster. He's now policy advisor to none other than current DWP benefit-reaper-in-chief himself: Pat McFadden.
Here's what a New Statesman senior editor had to say about Wild's appointment:
Spad news: Morgan Wild, Labour Together's chief policy adviser, has become a policy adviser to Pat McFadden.
He's a champion of the contributory principle, which will be a key feature of welfare reform. pic.twitter.com/NHk0WRN0QZ
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) January 13, 2026
The 'contributory principle' holds that:
Our society only succeeds when people pay their taxes, care for their families and communities and are recognised for these contributions. Our economy only succeeds when people work, develop skills, take risks, and start businesses.
In other words, anyone who cannot work because of health issues, caring commitments, or any other reason is a workshy layabout who shouldn't be supported to survive, but punished for existing.
In (not) unrelated news: the government's recent so-called Fairer Pathway to Settlement consultation rattled off the words 'contribution' or 'contribute' no fewer than 72 times. Needless to say, the anti-immigration hostile environment is disgustingly alive and thriving at the racist DWP.
Guess who's back?And speaking of ex-Labour Together directors, Jonathan Ashworth was at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in Westminster - where it appears the washed-up former DWP sec now works as a senior fellow on "welfare, health, and addiction".
Ashworth appeared in the Express recently, clamouring to be relevant and spouting trash about welfare 'reform.'
He's also claimed that disabled people are "being abandoned to health-related benefits". He made the stigmatising remarks as part of the announcement for the CSJ's Welfare 2030 enquiry launch.
Genius interpreter of the public mood and uncontestable political clairvoyant Ashworth is, he told the Express in early January:
I think Labour can turn this around, and I suspect, in a year's time, if you come back to record me for a follow-up interview, I'll bet you that Keir Starmer is still the Labour prime minister.
The previously tipped to-be Cabinet member will now be just a short hop and a skip away from Whitehall. Bang, smack in the heart of Westminster, the CSJ's office is just a five minute walk from parliament.
So not only has Labour Together installed itself in the DWP, but it also has a former director positioned at a Tory-founded think tank that's influencing the Labour government's plans to decimate the welfare state.
Labour Together and the party of 'work'The intentions behind their appointments are obvious in the buzzword of the moment: 'contribution'.
For his Welfare 2030 cameo, Ashworth was also crowing on about developing:
a system that values contribution, protects the most vulnerable, and helps thousands more people gain all of the advantages that come with work.
Chuck it alongside vitriol around 'economic inactivity' and you have a winning recipe for ripping into the welfare state.
The clear insinuation is that a person's worth is tied to their productivity inside the capitalist system. What this really means in practice, is that disabled lives are expendable. The fact that 'cuts kill' is of little consequence to Labour Together and its devotees.
But as the Canary has previously pointed out, this eugenicist thinking is the corporate fascist wing of the Party's MO.
Labour Together still shaping the agendaSuffice to say that despite McSweeney's departure from Number 10, Labour Together still has its claws in shaping this government's brutal policy programme.
And Upton and Wild's appointments wouldn't be the first instance of the Labour right think tank driving the DWP's austerity agenda.
As the Canary previously exposed, Labour Together and its donors funded nearly every single one of the 'Get Britain Working' group of Labour MPs. In March 2025, it sprung up to back Rachel Reeves and Liz Kendall's vicious disability benefit cuts.
The clincher that Labour Together has had its grimy mitts all over the DWP benefit cuts all along? As the Canary's Steve Topple highlighted before, it was Morgan McSweeney who led 'briefings' in a bid to:
"win over" MPs for its package of atrocious austerity-driven cuts.
But ultimately, what it all underscores is how the Labour Together right-wing circus is still scattered right throughout this government. For all its smokescreen committees boasting disabled representation, these are the capitalist cronies this government is really listening to.
Because at the end of the day, this rotten ableist 'party of work' rhetoric has always been at the Labour right's very core. Upton and Wild's new high-profile advisory roles at the DWP show that's not about to change.
Featured image via author
The United Nations (UN) has strengthened its language on Sudan. The international body said the foreign-backed war has a genocidal character. The move is welcome, but too late for the tens of thousands who've been murdered.
Genocidal intentThe three-year conflict between the Sudanese government, backed by Egypt and Turkey among other states, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), heavily reliant on arms from the UAE, has displaced and killed millions.
The RSF and allied militias are known for acting out their "racist Arab supremacist" ideology against non-Arab populations, murdered and ethnically cleansed from certain areas to maintain an Arab majority.
UN fact-finder Mona Rishmawi said on 18 February:
The body of evidence we collected — including the prolonged siege, starvation and denial of humanitarian assistance, followed by mass killings, rape, torture and enforced disappearance, systematic humiliation and perpetrators' own declarations — leaves only one reasonable inference.
Rishmawi said:
The RSF acted with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Zaghawa and Fur communities in El-Fasher. These are the hallmarks of genocide.
The UN also launched a major humanitarian appeal to support the millions of Sudanese left starving and displaced by the ongoing war. It said that the:
El Fasher massacreSudan Regional Refugee Response Plan (2026) aims to deliver lifesaving assistance this year to 5.9 million people across seven neighbouring countries: the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda.
The plan will continue to prioritize aid for roughly 470,000 new refugees who are expected to cross into these countries, as well as thousands more who remain in border areas and have received only the most basic assistance.
A report released by the UN on 19 February detailed the El Fasher massacre carried out by RSF in October 2025. The southern city was besieged by RSF for months. When it fell RSF massacred civilians wholesale.
The evidence gathered since:
Establishes that at least three underlying acts of genocide were committed: "killing members of a protected ethnic group; causing serious bodily and mental harm; and deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the group's physical destruction in whole or in part."
Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the mission, said:
The scale, coordination, and public endorsement of the operation by senior RSF leadership demonstrate that the crimes committed in and around El Fasher were not random excesses of war.
They formed part of a planned and organized operation that bears the defining characteristics of genocide.
As the Canary has previously reported, British military equipment has turned up in RSF hands.
The UK is a major supplier to the UAE. In turn, the UAE is supplying the RSF. The UAE is pursuing resources (not least, gold) and control in Sudan as part of its increasingly colonial regional aims. And you can read about Israel's dangerously under-reported role in the war here.
International bodies have been slow to respond to the crisis in Sudan. They are finally admitting there is an active genocide in Sudan. And, just like in Gaza, the British are playing a role in the slaughter.
Featured image via the Canary
By Joe Glenton
Genocide supporter Rachel Reeves has been called out as - well, a genocide supporter - as she toured a Sainsbury's supermarket:
https://www.thecanary.co/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/goY7OJBKwFeMnEyt1-1.mp4All too true. In December 2025, after more than two years of Israel's genocide in Gaza, she told the racist 'Labour Friends of Israel' that she is a "proud" and "unapologetic" Zionist. She added that the idea there's anything "inherently wrong" in the ethno-supremacist ideology must be "wholeheartedly" rejected.
Getting called out while posing in a supermarket is nowhere near enough - Reeves and her boss belong in jail for collaborating in genocide. But it's still nice to see.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
A Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid had to be called to an end shortly after the second half following yet another incident of racist abuse against Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior. The abuse is alleged to have come from Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni who was seen covering his mouth to deliver the offending racist remarks.
Denials after the game from Benfica's coach Jose Mourinho compounded the harm caused by the racism on clear display, with many coming out to show solidarity with the Real Madrid forward. UEFA have since announced that an investigation will be launched into 'allegations of discriminatory behaviour'.
The latest to add their voice to this long-overdue discussion is sports broadcaster Kate Scott who declared racists 'don't belong' in football.
Vinícius Júnior constantly racially abusedKate Scott has absolutely nailed it. Every word is spot on.pic.twitter.com/UDhxl9Eazz
— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) February 18, 2026
Vinícius Júnior has received an onslaught abuse in football, regularly finding himself on the receiving end of racial abuse. The Canary reported yesterday:
The match had just gone into the second half, with Real Madrid dominating the game. Vinícius Júnior scored in the 50th minute. Like many footballers do, he celebrated his goal at the corner flag which took his team into the lead. This resulted in a yellow card for the player.
Apparently, his dance of celebration was even enough to rile up Prestianni who proceeded to throw a racial slur at the Real Madrid forward. This isn't the first time racism has shown up in football. Particularly targeted at Vinícius Júnior who the Independent say has 'evidently' become a:
"lightning rod for the kind of people who would racially abuse an individual, who want to goad him in the worst way possible."
Kate Scott is a sports broadcaster from Manchester best known for her football coverage on CBS. She has been outspoken in her support of Vinícius Júnior amid ongoing issues of racism in football.
During her recent segment, Scott strongly condemned racist abuse directed at players, making it clear that racism should have "zero involvement whatsoever" in the sport. Her comments make clear that broadcasters, players, and governing bodies are calling out racism directly rather than brushing it aside.
Bigots have repeatedly subjected Vinícius Júnior to racist abuse while he played in Spain. As a result, he has become a central figure in the fight against racism in football.
'Same old racist problems'In the clip above, Scott reminded us that this is not a new issue as she stated:
Well, I guess today is a new day in football, but with the same old racist problems. And whilst we do want to focus on the games ahead today, because the game is what we love, yesterday does still linger.
And whether or not you like Vinnie Junior, that shouldn't shape your opinion on this incident. And which team you support, it shouldn't affect which side of the story that you fall on.
This isn't Real Madrid versus Benfica, it is right versus wrong. Vinnie Jr. and Kylian Mbappe said that there was repeated racial abuse. Gianluca Prestianni said they misheard.
Plenty have tried to deny the abuse occurred, with Benfica doubling down sharing videos trying to suggest it was impossible for Prestianni to even be heard:
But he covered his mouth to hide what he said from the cameras. And hopefully we can all agree that if what you're saying on a football pitch is shameful enough to have to hide it from the public, then you're wrong. In any case, racial abuse is not new in this game, that's for sure. In decades gone by, Cyril Regis, Howard Gale, Viv Anderson and John Barnes, to name just a few who played in this country, dealt with continued and horrific racial abuse to pave a path for players of Vinnie's generation to play and celebrate without shackles.
Scott then astutely pointed out the lack of progress for the wellbeing and safety of Black and Brown players:
Except in 2026, that still doesn't always apply. They are still expected, as Vinny Jr. was last night, to rise above it, to answer by performance, to shut up and play. Jose Mourinho is an iconic figure in world football. Yesterday, he switched the focus from what had actually been said to whether there was provocation for it. He essentially told us that Vinny Jr. was asking for it. That is a damaging narrative from a man who is considered a leading figure in the global game.
Football governance struggles globally with racial diversity at its top executive levels, as do UEFA. But we do hope that the lack of black voices in the room will not mean that black players continue to go unprotected. Investigation and due process will have to occur. But whatever the results of that in this case, we hope that football becomes a better platform where hatred is met with more than nominal fines and partial stadium closures, where diversity is truly celebrated, not just tolerated or abused with shirts over mouths.
The racial diversity on a football pitch in the Champions League is the representation of the global love for this game and the global belonging in this game. This is the very spirit of football.
Scott finished with a polite 'fuck you' to racists:
Thierry Henry: 'Let's see how big of a man Prestianni is'And if you don't agree, then respectfully, you are the one who doesn't belong.
Thierry Henry, who sat alongside Scott on the segment, offered his experience as a Black footballer:
I can relate to what Vinicius is going through.
That happened to me so many times on the pitch. I talked about it so many times after games. I've also been accused of looking for excuses after games when that happened to me. At times, you feel lonely, because it's going to be your word against his word.
Touching on the cowardice inherent in racism, Henry added:
We don't know what Prestianni has said, because he was very courageous by putting his shirt over his mouth to make sure that we weren't going to see what he said, so clearly, already, you look suspicious.
Henry also issued a moral challenge to Prestianni:
Let's see how big of a man Prestianni is, tell us what you said. You must have said something, because you can't go to Mbappe and say, 'I didn't say anything'. What do you mean, you covered your nose for what, you have a cold?
Henry joined Scott in referring to those who came before them and who fought so courageously for equality in football:
Courageous leaders in footballPeople did fight, way before my time, for us to be able to perform and to entertain people
And to still be in 2026 dealing with the same thing, it's tiring. Obviously, I can relate, not only I can relate by the colour of my skin, I can relate because I've been there. I've been lonely.
This incident against Vinícius Júnior is deplorable, there can be no doubt on that. The very fact it has become so fatiguing for Black and Brown players speaks to how often racial abuse occurs.
The courage shown since this incident by those in the sport with a platform is invaluable in promoting equality. Nevertheless, Black and Brown players and pundits should not stand alone in this, left continually to fight this uphill battle alone.
Featured image via the Canary
The decision of a criminal court judge to enter not guilty verdicts for all of the remaining 'Filton 24' anti-genocide protesters has again exposed the lies told by successive Labour home secretaries to justify banning the 'Palestine Action' group.
Contrary to some reports, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) did not merely drop the charge of aggravated burglary lodged against all the 24. The judge ordered verdicts of not guilty, an acquittal just as concrete as any delivered by a jury. Six of the group were already acquitted on 4 February 2026.
'Aggravated burglary' involves burglary with prior intent to cause physical harm. The offence carries a potential life sentence and was brought by the CPS to justify the Starmer regime's decision to ban Palestine Action as a terrorist group. The attempt was underpinned by claims from media and politicians that a policewoman's spine was broken by the activists. In fact, the injury was only suspected, could not be identified on x-rays and will heal fully in a matter of months.
Not only that, but the prosecution presented no evidence to show the injury was caused by the activists. Instead, the only evidence of violence was entirely on the part of security guards working for Israeli weapons-maker Elbit. This caused considerable embarrassment when video evidence completely contradicted the claims of the prosecution and its witnesses. Or it would have, if the corporate media had bothered to report it.
Palestine Action questionsBut then-home secretary Yvette Cooper had tried to justify the terrorist designation - which happened after the 24 were imprisoned - by lying that Palestine Action intended violence toward human beings. That lie has long been exposed and the disgraced Cooper was reshuffled to foreign secretary.
Her replacement Shabana Mahmood, however, continued the lie - and the regime needed convictions on serious charges involving violence to shore up its claims. That attempt has now collapsed entirely - except for the charge of grievous bodily harm still hanging over Sam Corner.
The High Court ruled on 13 February 2026 that the terrorist ban on Palestine Action was disproportionate and unlawful. The jury in the 4 February criminal trial refused to convict Corner of GBH and refused to convict any of the six of criminal damage.
Mahmood has appealed both decisions, claiming falsely that the jury's refusal to convict was the result of 'tampering'. The 'tampering' was protesters reminding jurors of their legal right to acquit - which a court has already ruled cannot be a crime. Mahmood and the Israel lobby are desperate to continue their long 'lawfare' war against solidarity with Palestine.
The government's attempt to criminalise the group is not over, but the regime's lies are teetering on the brink of collapse. The appeals court will rule on Friday 20 Feb whether Mahmood will be allowed to appeal the lifting of the proscription, keeping the ban in place for now, or it will be lifted immediately. For the time being, supporting Palestine Action remains a chargeable offence.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
Modern piracy and missile threats rarely meet a single line of defence. They meet layers of state power. To protect global shipping routes, national naval forces patrol high-risk corridors such as the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, and the Strait of Hormuz, where traffic density and regional conflict raise the stakes for global trade.
In the Red Sea, Operation Prosperity Guardian illustrates how a multinational coalition can surge ships, aircraft, and intelligence sharing when the Houthis target commercial vessels. These deployments often combine escort missions with maritime domain awareness, while diplomats coordinate rules of engagement that minimise disruption to shipping. This posture aims to deter attacks before ships become easy targets.
Closer to shore, coast guards enforce law in territorial waters, investigate boarding incidents, and coordinate handoffs to naval forces when threats cross jurisdictions. Together, they support freedom of navigation through routine presence patrols and, when required, freedom of navigation operations that challenge unlawful restrictions and keep sea lanes open.
Private expertise also informs assessments. A maritime security consultant may provide risk snapshots alongside official reporting, helping operators understand threat patterns before vessels enter contested waters.
International Frameworks That Govern Maritime SecurityProtection on the water depends on legal authority established through international agreements. Without these frameworks, coordinated anti-piracy efforts would lack the jurisdictional foundation needed to operate across borders.
The IMO and ISPS CodeThe International Maritime Organisation sets baseline maritime security standards through conventions that flag and port states implement, creating shared expectations for vessel protection across busy shipping lanes.
Under the ISPS Code, ships and port facilities must translate those standards into practical controls. These include security assessments that identify likely boarding and sabotage risks, documented plans with designated officers and training to maintain readiness, and procedures for setting security levels and exchanging alerts with ports.
The official ISPS Code maritime security framework links security duties to broader safety rules, providing a reference point for compliance across the industry.
UNCLOS and Legal Authority at SeaUNCLOS provides the legal authority that allows states to act beyond their territorial seas when piracy occurs on the high seas. It supports interdiction, seizure of pirate vessels, and prosecution decisions, while still requiring evidence handling and respect for jurisdictional limits.
This legal baseline enables international naval operations to coordinate boardings and handovers effectively. Regional agreements can then add local reporting channels and shared procedures tailored to specific corridors.
These add-ons often clarify who can pursue suspects into adjacent waters. They also guide how ports share incident reports without delaying cargo flows.
Private Security Companies and Armed GuardsWhere naval patrols cannot cover every lane, private security companies fill practical gaps. This is especially true on merchant transits that must keep schedules. Their value often starts before a ship leaves port, with a structured risk assessment that shapes the entire voyage.
Intelligence Gathering and Risk AssessmentConsultants track piracy patterns, local conflict dynamics, and known threat actors using open-source reporting, port briefings, and shipboard surveillance practices. They translate this intelligence into routing advice, watch schedules, and communications plans tied to specific choke points.
The process involves drafting incident checklists that bridge teams can follow under stress, at night, or whenever conditions deteriorate. To connect security planning with wider context, crews often review current maritime security challenges alongside flag state guidance and insurer requirements.
This alignment helps decisions reflect both operational reality and compliance obligations.
Armed Teams on High-Risk TransitsWhen a voyage still requires additional protection, armed guards may embark for the highest-risk legs. Teams typically coordinate with the master to avoid escalation and to keep crew safety central throughout the passage.
On transit, vessel protection focuses on layered deterrence. This includes visible watchkeeping and clear rules for reporting contacts, hardened access points and rehearsed mustering procedures, and graduated response protocols if evasive manoeuvring fails.
Armed presence serves as a last line of defence, intended to buy time, break an attack, and allow the ship to exit the danger area without injury.
How Protection Differs by Regional HotspotNo single protection model works everywhere. Threat profiles vary dramatically between regions, and defensive measures must adapt accordingly.
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden OperationsIn the Red Sea, protection planning now reflects missile and drone risks linked to the Houthis. Naval forces concentrate on coordinated escorts and shared surveillance across air and surface assets, responding to threats that look more like state-adjacent warfare than traditional piracy.
Operators also rely on rapid threat reporting to adjust routes and watch levels. Managed corridors help responders cover traffic without diverting the main shipping lanes.
In the Gulf of Aden, however, procedures still draw on lessons from the Somali piracy peak. Patrol patterns and reporting points aim to increase visible presence against criminal networks rather than armed groups with military capabilities.
Crews log contacts early to trigger support before skiffs close. This consistency matters because ships still funnel through fixed shipping lanes where predictability creates vulnerability.
West Africa and Southeast Asia ProtocolsWest African waters often involve kidnapping and cargo theft closer to shore than open-ocean piracy. Protection leans on port state procedures, secure anchorages, and restricted access during cargo operations.
Regional navies focus on interdiction and evidence handling within coastal jurisdictions. Operators plan communications to limit time at low speed near approaches.
In Southeast Asia, by contrast, incidents concentrate in narrow straits where traffic density complicates detection. Watch teams use short-range surveillance to track craft that blend into routine movements.
Coast guard cooperation becomes central because vessels cross jurisdictions quickly. Local reporting networks help authorities coordinate intercepts before attackers reach sheltered waters.
Coordination Between Naval and Private Security ForcesReal-time coordination works best when naval forces and private security companies operate from a shared picture of risk. Standard reporting formats let shipboard teams pass contact reports, surveillance cues, and posture changes to military watch floors without delay.
Communication hubs such as UKMTO and regional maritime security centres relay threat alerts, route advisories, and incident updates to vessels and nearby patrols. If a ship with guards aboard transmits a distress call, responders may include coalition units or the U.S. Coast Guard, depending on location and tasking.
To avoid gaps at jurisdiction lines, operators use defined handoffs when ships enter territorial seas or leave escorted corridors. The master and security team confirm tactical control at each boundary.
Common mechanisms include agreed radio channels and call signs, time-stamped position reports, escalation criteria for warnings versus assistance, and post-incident summaries focused on crew safety and evidence preservation.
Evolving Piracy Tactics and Defensive ResponsesModern piracy groups increasingly borrow tools from state and criminal networks. Reports from recent incidents describe attackers using drones for scouting, GPS spoofing to confuse navigation, and encrypted communications to coordinate multiple craft.
The Houthis shifted the risk picture by pairing maritime harassment with missile and one-way drone strikes. This threat profile looks closer to terrorism than classic boarding-for-ransom operations. As a result, vessel protection plans now evolve around detection, disruption, and rapid reporting rather than just physical barriers.
Defensive responses often include enhanced surveillance that fuses radar, electro-optical cameras, and AIS analytics. Electronic countermeasures help mitigate jamming and spoofing effects, while tighter access control, drills, and escalation protocols align with terrorism scenarios.
These measures support earlier alerting when small boats loiter or when air contacts appear. They also help crews share clearer track history with naval responders quickly.
Protecting Global Trade Through Layered SecurityNo single navy, coast guard, insurer, or private team protects shipping lanes on its own. Modern piracy, drone harassment, and regional conflict shift quickly, so coverage depends on layers that overlap and backstop one another. When one layer misses a warning, another can still detect, deter, or respond.
That layered approach blends patrols and escorts, legal authority through international frameworks, and shipboard measures informed by private risk assessment. It also relies on shared reporting hubs, evidence handling, and clear handoffs at jurisdiction lines.
As threats evolve, sustained coordination keeps vessels moving and helps safeguard global trade across contested chokepoints and oceans.
"If we go to the police, we would be killed." Those are the words of a woman featured in a BBC report about paramilitary extortion rackets in the North of Ireland. The investigation spoke to:
…business owners anonymously about being threatened to pay money to proscribed organisations. It includes those running restaurants or shops and those in the construction industry.
The paramilitaries involved would previously have been participants in the sectarian warfare that characterised The Troubles in Ireland.
Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, that kind of violence has hugely declined. Paramilitarism remains a feature of the Six Counties, however, particularly in organised crime. The payments which gangsters demand from businesses are typically described as 'protection money'. The name implies you will receive protection from some unspecified threat, but in reality you are paying to avoid beating or death from those demanding it.
Sometimes the thugs characterise it in other ways. One respondent to the BBC said:
Reverse-Robin Hood paramilitaries rob from those least able to payI have never been asked to pay for protection, but they asked me to contribute to the community activities which I did do.
The report refers to "shops, salons and restaurants" as among the businesses targeted. Construction sites are another common source of revenue for paramilitaries. What this essentially amounts to is a regressive tax on people of average income.
The thugs aren't going to Tesco management, Intel or JP Morgan to demand a cut of their profits. They're robbing small local businesses often struggling to survive in a climate where large corporations relentlessly lobby government, and where the high street already struggles to survive.
Of course, such gangsters rob everyone on a daily basis, a fact highlighted by the Independent Reporting Commission (IRC) which monitors paramilitary activity. They pointed out that:
If paramilitarism is not brought to an end, it will continue to create
unmanageable strain on public finances through its direct and indirect harms.
This cost to us all comes from the increased policing expenses required to deal with the issue, especially when paramilitaries drive instances of mass rioting and racial pogroms, such as those they stoked in Ballymena in June 2025. The IRC reported with "no doubt" that there was paramilitary involvement in the riots, which took place among loyalist communities in the town. The Belfast Telegraph reported how:
'Protection' scam extends to exploiting kidsAlmost 50 children have been referred to social services by the PSNI after race riots in Northern Ireland over the last two years.
These are kids who are coerced into participating in criminal racist behaviour. Those with links to far-right loyalist paramilitaries often like to parade as the protectors of women and children. However, as in the case of 'protection money', it's the men in balaclavas who people need protecting from.
The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has warned that the Justice Bill before the Northern Ireland Assembly may not provide sufficient protection against criminalising children dragged into crime by paramilitaries. The bill seeks to bring the Six Counties somewhere close to parity with Britain, as the former has previously lacked legislation to deal with organised crime.
Some indicators show a decline in paramilitary activity. The Police Service of Northern Ireland's (PSNI) Security Situation Statistics give an indication of this. In their latest report, which covers the period from 1 October 2024 to 30 September 2025, there were:
…no security related deaths, compared to one during the previous 12 months.
Shooting incidents also declined from 16 to 11. The chief constable of the PSNI Jon Boutcher has expressed optimism about a downgrading of the security threat rating in coming years. He says it may go from its current 'substantial' level to 'moderate', meaning "an attack is possible, but not likely."
Of course, this assessment is based on threats to the state, rather than the general threat posed to the population at large by paramilitary violence, nevermind the other costs.
PSNI must take a share of the blameThe PSNI itself has some role to play in the continued role in daily life of paramilitaries. It has turned a blind eye to displays by violent groups such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), while arresting peaceful Palestine Action protesters. Like police forces in Britain, it continues to maintain relatively low ratings from the public. According to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA):
60.6% thought police were not visible or not very visible in their local area.
67.5% were satisfied with the job the PSNI do in Northern Ireland.
61.4% were confident in PSNI's ability to protect and serve.
63.8% thought the PSNI were engaged or very engaged with local communities
While this remains the case, some people will still see paramilitaries as a local replacement for cops, perceived as cracking down on drug dealers and petty crime. This is the legacy of The Troubles — a police force still beholden to appalling British law, and the long tail of paramilitary thuggery given life by an inadequate political settlement.
Featured image via Nazli Tarzi
MV Agusta reaffirms its commitment to uncompromising performance, innovation, and rider-centric design by delivering the complete electronic package as standard equipment across its entire 2026 motorcycle lineup. From three- to four-cylinder models and across all segments, every MV Agusta leaves the factory fully equipped—with no additional components, no software unlocks, and no activation fees required.
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Photo courtesy MV Agusta
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Photo courtesy MV Agusta
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The post MV Agusta Makes Full Electronics Standard Across Lineup appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.
Meta is reportedly gearing up to enter another segment of the wearables market. According to The Information, the company is planning to release its first smartwatch sometime this year. Meta has revived its smartwatch initiative internally called "Malibu 2," The Information says, which will come with Meta AI and health tracking.
The same publication reported back in 2021 that Meta was working on a smartwatch powered by an open-source version of Android. Over the next year, more details of its possible features emerged, including reports that it had a detachable camera and that Meta was developing a model with up to three cameras. But in 2022, the company was believed to have put the project on hold to focus on other wearable devices.
The Information says the decision to pause its smartwatch project was made as part of a broader cut in spending in the Reality Labs division. If you'll recall, Meta laid off more than 1,000 employees from Reality Labs in January, because the division was hemorrhaging money. Mark Zuckerberg said during an earnings call after the layoffs started that when it comes to Reality Labs, the company was focusing most of its investment "towards glasses and wearables going forward."
At the moment, Meta's wearable products are comprised of virtual reality headsets and smartglasses. They include the Meta Ray-Bans, which are a hit in the US. Meta reportedly has four augmented reality and mixed-reality glasses in development, but it'll take some time until we see them. Based on previous reports, it pushed back the unveiling of its next mixed reality headset model codenamed "Phoenix" to early 2027.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/meta-reportedly-plans-to-release-a-smartwatch-this-year-121247838.html?src=rss
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, was arrested today by police investigating misconduct in public office. Investigators simultaneously raided Windsor Castle, near London, and the royal estate in Sandringham, Norfolk. Mountbatten-Windsor, brother of King Charles, is suspected of sharing secret information with Jeffrey Epstein, the powerful American financier and convicted sex trafficker who died in jail awaiting trial in 2019. — Read the rest
The post Former Prince Andrew arrested appeared first on Boing Boing.
Teach an AI agent how to fish for information and it can feed itself with data. Tell an AI agent to figure things out on its own and it may make things worse.…
