Via the Lowy Institute, a look at North Korea’s recent economic growth which – while real – is built on Russian cash, Chinese trade and illicit activity: A June 2026 Wall Street Journal article described North Korea(Opens in new window) as “the world’s most surprising economic success story” – a claim many would instinctively dismiss, yet one that warrants […]
Via Ethan Chorin’s substack, commentary on how the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor’s vulnerabilities are the very reasons it is worth building: The status of IMEC, or India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, may be the best indicator of who’s winning the current war in the Middle East, and how prepared the region is for worse crises ahead. The […]
Via The Africa Report, a look at Bishoftu Airport, Ethiopia’s $12.7bn giant airport hub that – once it is complete – will overtake Atlanta in passenger numbers – a goal linked to the expansion of the continent’s leading airline: Bishoftu International Airport (BIA) is a colossal project, one that matches Ethiopian Airlines’ ambitions. It is finally […]
Via the New York Times, a look at a pilot program is building solar panels over irrigation canals to generate electricity. As a bonus, the shade prevents water from evaporating. In California, a sprawling 4,000-mile network of canals winds through citrus orchards and fields of tree nuts, delivering irrigation and drinking water to homes and farms […]
Courtesy of The Diplomat, a look at how Uzbekistan is betting on nuclear power to secure its energy future – but it is doing so in one of the most water-stressed regions in the world The Uzbek government’s plan to build a nuclear power plant (NPP) in the Jizzakh region, alongside the creation of a centralized […]
Via UPenn’s Kleinman Center, a report on the water/energy nexus: Power generation in cities like El Paso, TX is unsustainably consuming local water resources. Fixing this will require retrofitting cooling towers at power plants. What images come to mind when you think of environmental pollution? Likely one of them is a power plant cooling tower. […]
Via Volts, commentary on how dynamic, time- and location-specific retail prices, communicated directly to consumer devices, would be a better way of coordinating the behavior of thousands of distributed energy resources by cutting out the middleman and leave more value with customers: David Roberts Hello everyone, this is Volts for May 8, 2026: “The case […]
Via The Hill, a look at how a Colorado River ‘water market’ could bring security to farmers, fish and families: Applying a market-based approach to Colorado River management could ensure more robust and reliable supplies for farmers, communities and the environment, a new study has found. Without considerable cutbacks in basin-wide water consumption, fish populations […]
Via Clean Technica, a look at an innovative distributed VPP power plant: As California prepares for yet another summer marked by extreme heat, wildfire risks, and rising electricity demand, Sunrun is significantly scaling up its innovative CalReady distributed power plant. The project now links together 75,000 home solar batteries — four times larger than last year’s […]
Via Phenomenal World, a look at corporate concentration and the far right in South America: Early this year, in the Brazilian Amazon, a coalition of 14 indigenous groups rose upagainst a government decree that planned to privatize the waterway between Itaituba and Santarém—two towns in the state of Pará—as well as a public project to […]
Via New Lines Magazine, a look at how – as Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz – the Gulf state’s strategic investments across Africa face a reality check: Deep in the heart of the Sahara Desert, an industrial complex of greenhouses rises above the dunes. Running underneath the sand is a 35-mile-long pipeline transporting water […]
Via Monthly Review Online, a look at how the UAE and most of the other oil-rich Arab Gulf states are involved in a ‘new scramble for Africa’, inserting themselves in the continent’s politics, buying up land, purchasing port concessions, and entrenching themselves as major trade partners with African countries: Conflict has torn Sudan apart. Recent […]
Via the Wall Street Journal, a report on Electronic Arts’ use of new tech to scan photos for its videogame after securing players’ likeness rights for the first time A character artist works on the new ‘EA Sports College Football 25.’ PHOTO: EA SPORTS It has been over a decade since Electronic Arts released a college football videogame. To […]
Via MIT’s Technology Review, a report on how how AI-powered NPCs that don’t need a script could make games—and other worlds—deeply immersiv First, a confession. I only got into playing video games a little over a year ago (I know, I know). A Christmas gift of an Xbox Series S “for the kids” dragged me—pretty easily, […]
Via Sports Business Journal, a look at how Gym Class VR is building on its popularity with the addition of NBA logos and venues: The mid-range jumper may be a lost art in the NBA game, but I sank one from just inside the free-throw line at the TD Garden, as the PA announcer called out the basket. […]
Via Anthropocene Magazine, a report on how – in a laboratory-scale study - green roof mockups kept 97.5 percent of microplastic particles out of runoff: Green roofs can capture nearly all the microplastic particles that contaminate rainwater in modern cities, according to a new study. The findings add to the list of benefits of green roofs, […]
Via Floodlight News, a look at how – as cities heat up – reflective roofs could lower energy bills and help the climate, but dark roofing manufacturers are waging a quiet campaign to block new rules: It began with a lobbyist’s pitch. Tennessee Rep. Rusty Grills says a lobbyist proposed a simple idea: repeal the state’s […]
Via New Scientist, a report that scientists have found a way of using rainfall to create renewable electricity: Water droplets falling through a tube have generated enough electricity to power 12 LED lights. Such an approach could one day be used in roof-based systems to harvest lots of clean power from rain. “Rain falls on Earth every […]
Via Forbes, a look at how Markel’s Chief executive Thomas Gayner has quietly turned insurer Markel into a mini-conglomerate. Meet Richmond’s answer to the Oracle of Omaha: Thomas Gayner gets a kick out of telling the story. It was 1983. He had just graduated from the University of Virginia with a plan to return home to Salem, […]
Via The Economist, a look at a firm which many consider as technology’s Berkshire Hathaway: For older startups these are tough times. The weak recent stockmarket debuts of Arm, a British chipmaker, Instacart, a grocery-delivery group, and Klaviyo, a software firm, have dampened enthusiasm for initial public offerings. Venture capital (vc) has dried up. Data […]
Via Bloomberg, interesting commentary on how many – such as crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried couldn’t survive the comparison – but others who actually invest somewhat like the Berkshire Hathaway chairman fare better: A couple of months ago, crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried was peering out from the cover of Fortune magazine above the words “The Next Warren Buffett?” Now he’s at […]
Courtesy of the New York Times, a look at how innovative systems to keep ships from hitting North Atlantic right whales are coming into use. The Trump administration is weighing whether they can replace a bedrock protection. Trackers that ping satellites every time a whale surfaces for air. Thermal cameras that can detect the animals […]
Via BBC, a look at how we can now track animal panic from space and why it matters: After decades of development, wildlife surveillance has finally come of age. The new Icarus satellite is tracking signals hidden in animal behaviour – which could save the lives of cheetahs, rhinos and elephants. On a blustery morning […]
Via Anthropocene, an interesting look at how sensors strapped to 19 sharks off America’s east coast cut errors in a leading climate model by as much as 43%: The vast ocean dwarfs our efforts to understand it. Sensor-laden buoys, high-flying satellites and sophisticated computer models can only do so much to plumb the depths of the waters […]